They never claimed they thought it was a bomb. They KNEW it wasnt a bomb. They claim to have thought that he was trying to pass it off as a bomb to scare people. (which is even more assinine)
On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 5:57 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote: > The Ahmed Mohamed case has swept the Internet. I hope the kid gets a > normal life back. Anyway, I would like to point out something about this > that clicked in my mind regarding cold fusion. > > This is a technical high school, specializing in engineering. The first > teacher he showed it to saw it was a clock. I expect there are dozens of > other teachers there who would instantly recognize it is a clock. So, when > suspicion arose, and the kid and his clock were sent the principal's > office, the principal should have called in one of the engineering teachers > and asked "what is this?" The misunderstanding would have been cleared up > instantly. Instead, the principal called the police. As you see from the > news accounts the police knew nothing about electronics or bombs. > > Decades ago, when a technical questions arose, technical experts were > called in, and the public accepted their judgement. There were laws that > all children have to be inoculated against infectious disease. No one > questioned these laws. An "anti-vaxer" movement in the 1950s, when the > polio vaccine had just been developed, would have been unthinkable. All > adults back then understood how dangerous polio is. > > Perhaps respect for authority and for expertise was too high back then. > There were cases of that. But I think the pendulum has swung too far the > other way. The tragedy of cold fusion is not that experts were wrong, but > rather that experts were ignored. Decision makers ignored the scientific > literature and did not listen to experts who had actually performed > experiments. They turned instead to science journalists, then to ordinary > journalists, to scientists who had no knowledge of the subject and who had > read nothing, and finally, to anonymous people at Wikipedia who name > themselves after comic book characters. > > - - - - - - - - - - - > > The story includes one of the most stupid quotes from a police department > spokesperson I have ever read: > > “We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb,” McLellan said. “He > kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.” > > > Asked what broader explanation the boy could have given, the spokesman > explained: > > > “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or > under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him > into custody?” > > > Broad?!? Call it broad or narrow, *the gadget was a clock*, and that was > the one and only explanation, for crying out loud. > > - Jed > >
