Kid arrested for building a clock??

When I was 10 or 11 I brought in a mains power supply I made into primary school class (to power the traditional two-transistor "multivibrator", one of the few circuits I knew about).

It was a lash-up in a wooden box. The teacher asked the head teacher. The head asked me "does it have a transformer"? Yes it did, so I was good to go.

In middle school I took in a 12V Step-down and was using it in reverse to f lash a neon light with a "D" cell. The Shop instructor had everyone, boys and girls, stand in a series "ring" and hit the wires with a "D" battery. He turned it into a fun lesson.

Steve

I read someplace (sorry can't find it now) that the kids science teacher looked at it and said it was cool, but don't show it to the other teachers.

Then the English teacher saw it and thats when the trouble started.

Mark

Maybe the English teacher doesn't speak English?

On Thu, 17 Sep 2015 11:34:29 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com Gave us:

My Jr High school "science project" in the 8th grade was a 'shock box' a coil, a DC source, and two wires leading to two "handles" (half inch by four inch rods). I called it "a lie detector".. I proceeded to shock several kids' parents. I asked one "How old are you." He replies "42". I shock him.... then say "The machine says you lie." He say "No, that's the truth." I say "The machine says you lie." It was pretty funny. Couldn't pull that one off these days.

In my electronics class in high school, I lit up neon bulbs with a

Yep, we used to make home brew cannons and all sorts of stuff that would now get us thrown in jail. I used to run around the CA desert with my .22 rifle and no adult supervision. My parents would be under the jail for that now.

Since they are flying the Kid to DC, hopefully they will take him down the Mall to the NSF building. There they can get a picture of Him setting on the Einstein statue's lap.

One can only hope...

Steve

I always feel jealous of yee who started early. I didn't pick up the soldering iron seriously till I was in grad school, in my mid 20's (I took some "time off" during undergrad..)

George H.

Yes, nearly any problem today can be blamed on TV. We never had problems before TV was invented. I'm not sure we even had a word for "problems" back then.

From what I read, the clock's alarm went off in the English class, and the teacher then asked to see it - the kid did not intend to show it to that teacher.

Yes, like the science teacher who had already seen it and could declare... it actually IS a clock. Stupid assholes.

joe

Why would there be any doubt about whether it was a bomb or not? Doesn't a bomb need an explosive element?

The idea that a kid didn't answer the policeman's questions well enough so the cop decided to consider it a "bomb hoax" is just too far out. I expect the kid denied it was a bomb at every turn. If anyone was charged for a bomb hoax, it should have been an authority at the school.

It is always conceivable that the kid was a bit sarcastic, and said "of course it's a bomb" at first - until he realised that the rector and police had no sense of humour. (Obviously that would not justify the treatment the kid got.)

teenage girl was watching the TV and they mentioned the equator. She went up to her Mother and asked what the equator is. Her Mother went down to the school to ask the science teacher how come her daughter did not know what the equator is. So they go to the principal and turns out the principal doe sn't know either.

Then we got Chicago where teachers make seriously good money. I mean seriou sly, almost obscene. Actually it is obscene because they hasd a class publi cation entitled quite unusually -

"This Is Are Story".

Beam me up Scotty.

On Fri, 18 Sep 2015 12:49:26 -0400, rickman Gave us:

I have a friend who's wife takes small blocks of cheese with her in her bag on flights. She ALWAYS gets sent to the secondary inspection zone. Her phone charger is in their too so the "wires" are also provided "for effect".

Small rectangular blocks and wires in one's baggage will always trigger a fear impulse in a lowly TSA "agent".

A friend's sister lived in Mississippi where they were doing missionary work, literally. The sister's kids were in school there. My friend was helping with a homework assignment to find pictures of mammals in magazines. I'll cut the story short by saying the punch line is of the teacher saying... and I quote, "Since when do man be a mammal?"

Last year my wife and I went on a cruise in the south Pacific and decided to do some UV measurements (we live in the frozen north so thought it would be interesting). I had a couple of Arduinos, several kinds of USB cables, breadboards, UV and IR sensors and assorted parts in my backpack. We went to the airport an extra hour early since we expected it would take a while to convince them all the stuff was innocuous.

Put my backpack on the conveyor, picked it up on the other end and nobody said a word.

I know someone who accidentally took a loaded pistol in her handbag from South Africa, through London Heathrow, and on to Edinburgh - no one noticed.

Yes, I often have boards and stuff in my luggage. Sometimes I'll bring an eval board along to play with when I'm bored. The only time I would expect trouble is if I pulled it out *during* a flight and some numbskull got scared. Occasionally they security folks will take an extra look at the carry on but I've not personally run into one that's unreasonable, given the rules they are given.

Personally I don't like it when people drag out religious symbols like a 1 foot tall Jesus or worry beads during take off and landings but whatev..

You're really not allowed to scare people- frightening people, killing people, torturing people, taking their money or other stuff are all State monopolies.

--sp