I got exactly what he was saying here.
No, what he was actually saying was "I don't know what any of this shit is." Any kid who got a chance to show off their projects would be talking about what it is that their project does. He clearly has no idea what the stuff he is holding does or is for. His facial expressions betray him.
Are you people that oblivious?
A more accurate term for his hobby is tinkering instead of inventing but that is A-OK because tinkering often leads to invention.
No, you're so missing the point. He doesn't have a hobby revolving around inventing, tinkering, call it what you want.
You have to think how a 14 year old boy would think about inventing things. It's really not that hard to put yourself in his shoes.
No, I don't. I just called my little brother up today, who is 15. He's above average intelligence, but not a genius. He's not into engineering, 'tinkering', building things. I even asked him to make sure, and he said he has no particular interest in those things. He plays football and sings. I asked him if he knew how to use a screwdriver. He told me- very much confused- 'of course.' I asked him when he learned it. He said '7, if not before...' I asked him if he thought he could unscrew the casing of a clock, pull out the insides and put them into a box. He said 'I think so.' Then I asked him if one of his friends did that and showed it to him, what would he think? He said, he'd think it was kind of cool, but he wouldn't be impressed and he wouldn't get the point.
Mostly he was just confused about why I was talking to him like he was moronic.
I'm 23. I was a teen not too long ago. I don't know if it's because people are just too old to remember- but 14 years olds are not retarded. What this kid did with this clock doesn't show any level, I repeat any level of technical interest. I think my 9 year old brother could do something like that stupid suitcase clock. And by the way- I'm no technical genius, I'm probably slightly above average. But I could have done what he did with that clock probably by the age of 6. In fact, I got in trouble plenty of times in elementary school for taking shit apart like he did. Essentially just trashes stuff.
And I'm not disparaging the clock because I think the kid is stupid. It was never meant to be a clock. It was intended to be a fake bomb.
Now think of Ahmed taking apart an old radio and simply realizing that it still works without the external shell and that he can "make" a new clock by changing the shell. His utility that he added is that it can be transported in a cool little case. That's fun as hell for a kid to make and it would definitely qualify as an invention when you're a kid
That's great, but you're being totally condescending without realizing it. He's not TEN. He's fourteen. Teenagers are not children. He KNEW it would look like a bomb. And this wasn't about him discovering for the first time, the wonders of technology! By trying to assert that, you're literally insulting his intelligence. As well as the intelligence of everyone that age. It's like clapping for an 8 year old for knowing how to open a door.
Of course as an adult, there is nothing special about what he made.
It's not special for a teenager either. Source: my brother who is around his same age.
This is not a hoax.
Yes, it is.
That's the epitome of tinkering. What you saw in his lap in the video were old electronics that he salvaged. He didn't make them and we shouldn't assume he did and then call him a hoax because we notice a PlayStation circuit board or something to that effect.
Jesus Christ, do I have to spell it out for you?
Look, his story was that he took this thing to school to impress his science teacher and, OMG, those racists just assumed it was a bomb, and he was totally taken the wrong way and persecuted, boo hoo! He never meant for it to look like a suitcase bomb but the rednecks assumed it was because of his fucking ethnicity!
Just a few things wrong with that narrative.
So he has zero excuses for it being taken the wrong way. And he showed it to his science teacher- supposedly the only reason he took it to school. Except... then he went and showed other teachers. And not just the English teacher, but other teachers BEFORE that. And y'know, he kept showing it to teachers until one of them- English Teacher- took it the wrong way.
Hmm... do you really think that teenagers are that stupid and naive? He obviously kept showing it to teachers because he he wasn't getting the reaction that he REALLY wanted. What was the reaction that he really wanted, you might be asking? Gee, probably the reaction he got. This kid is literally on top of the world right now. Pull your head out of his ass for one moment that this is not some stupid misunderstanding between the school and him. You clearly don't know all the details.
Did you know this wasn't an alarm clock he used? No, he used a countdown clock- that's right, a fucking countdown clock. So what do you think he meant to convey when he set an alarm to go off in his backpack, and pulls out a ticking suitcase with a big digital countdown timer on the front of it? Are you that naive? I promise you, "Ahmed Mohamed" isn't.
And neither is his father the politician. The man who ran for president of Sudan twice. The man who roleplayed attorney for the Taliban. Or his uncle- with his company "Twin Towers Transportation."
You don't think papa and uncle would know what a suitcase bomb looks like? What sort of reactions it would get, especially right around 9/11?
This kid is not some whiz kid, nor is he some tinkerer with a fascination for technology. He showed those electronics in this video because now he has to pretend like he is. He was told that one part was a transformer and he was repeating it, but he obviously has no idea what it's for or what any of the other parts are. People are so gullible.
Do you think that he was going to a new school? If he had a history of experiencing discrimination, don't you think that he (or his father) would have mentioned it? Don't you think it would have been brought up that he was bullied before for being a muslim?
And he's not some disadvantaged minority. One look at his house, he's well off. Plus we know from his family background that he's an advantaged teen. If he actually had any real interest in tinkering, I assure you- he would be working on projects far beyond taking a countdown clock apart and putting it in a suitcase.
Don't buy in to the propaganda.