[Baron von Kriterium]

From the NY Times:

When Ahmed Mohamed, 14, brought the clock to MacArthur High School in Irving, Tex., on Monday, an engineering teacher suggested that he not show the invention to other teachers. But it beeped during an English class, prompting Ahmed to show his English teacher what it was, according to an account in The Dallas Morning News.

The fact that the kid first showed his engineering teacher what he made tells me had no ulterior motives (such as a hoax bomb). You can build Class D amplifiers in those little boxes now. Hell, I've seen them in Altoids tins. So, part of the challenge is to create something different, using not your typical enclosures.

Basically, stuff that I used to do routinely as a kid and that got me started on my career in engineering will now get your ass slapped in cuffs, get your prints and photos on record to go into who-knows-what database for-e-ver, and basically will scar you for life from ever wanting to interact with teachers or police...

So what’s the lesson here learned by Ahmed? That inventiveness and eccentricity are not only unappreciated in the United States, but that exhibiting such traits is dangerous.