MIT student's lit-up jacket could have gotten her killed.

[pnwmom]

And she faces 5 years in prison -- for wearing the wrong jacket to the airport. Check out the photo at the link.

http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/09/21/star_simpson/

Star Simpson, a 19-year-old MIT student, was arrested at gunpoint this morning at Boston's Logan Airport when officers suspected that a circuit board and battery she had pinned to her sweatshirt was a bomb. Indeed, every news outlet is now referring to the thing as a "fake bomb," and Simpson has been charged with possessing a "hoax device."

But pictures of the sweatshirt that officials are putting out show something quite less scary -- I have no idea what a real bomb looks like but I don't think it's a plastic board with a 9 volt battery on it. Simpson's explanation is that the jacket was a wearable art project she made so she could stand out at her school's career day (the plastic board lights up). All information now streaming in supports that view, and suggests that the affair could have been a misunderstanding, one that very nearly turned tagic.

This is my speculation only, but it seems quite possible that rather than intending to deliberately walk into Logan with a fake bomb, Simpson might instead have rolled out of bed with an art jacket she often wore around campus and slipped it on in a rush on her way to pick up a friend -- forgetting that she was heading into the all-fear-all-the-time black hole that is United States aviation.

SNIP

A woman from Instructables.com who knows Simpson tells Boing Boing that Simpson's friends at MIT "say she wears the hoodie on a regular basis -- it's just unfortunate that she had it on while trying to pick a friend up at the airport. MIT students don't really do mornings, or worry about what they're wearing, so I can't imagine she'd even think about her clothes before heading out to pick up a friend at the airport before 8 a.m."

Cops are pointing darkly to strange text scrawled on the jacket -- "Socket To Me / COURSE VI." Guess what, "Course VI" is a reference to MIT's electrical engineering course, not an Al Qaeda codename.

SNIP

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. "for wearing the wrong jacket"

It's not like she wore a tweed jacket by mistake. She wore a jacket which a guard had reasonable cause to suspect was a bomb.

You can't just accidently send congress people full of suspicious white powdered sugar as a project for your Home Ec class.

[Shipwack]

7. Huh?

:wtf:

Your two sentences don't relate to one another at all... What does a woman's semi-random choice of attire have to do with a deliberate act to cause panic?

What reasonable cause did the guard have? Did any bomb sniffing dogs or chemical detectors alert on her?

This is not a reasonable reaction... this is how a panicked sheep acts, and that's what this administration (with the help of the media) has done; turned this country into a bunch of panicky sheep. It's the only way the neo-con fascists can hope to remain in power.

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
-- Edward R. Morrow

"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile - and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep."
-- Hunter S Thompson

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

48. Sorry man, but I gotta ask. Do you know what a bomb looks like?

I do. Anyone with a mediocre background in chemistry, electronics, and a search engine can know what one looks like, and every component of it. Lets go down the line:

1. The majority of homemade bombs do not use circuit boards (They're more difficult to work with, and completely superfluous in a suicide bombing. Two pieces of 16 ga wire, a switch and 4 AA batteries is more than enough to get the job done). Those that do are generally for timed explosions, and are more sophisticated, usually done by pyrotechnic/demolition engineers (it CAN happen. Unlikely though. My next point will address this).

2. If a circuit board is already wired to light up, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that one could design a decent timed explosive device around that without it being a large, not to mention that it would require an ungodly amount of work for 0 profit. Making it a simple switch-ignition type mechanism would make a circuit board simply a pain in the ass to work with, and just fuck up a perfectly simple and beautiful design.

3. Looking at the board and jacket, there is nothing there even RESEMBLING a charge. If there was, the amount concealed by the board would be so miniscule, at most it would put a hole in her stomach and give her some third-degree burns. Hell, even SHE probably would have lived. However, lets assume that maybe she has a charge underneath her jacket, and somehow she DID manage to rig the circuit board with a few capacitors and some chips, and then cut a hole into her jacket behind the board. Could it be big enough to do some damage? Yes. Not a terrible amount, but enough to terrify some people, and possibly kill or injure people within about a 5 meter radius (assuming she wasn't covered with it, and didn't have, say, a couple kilos of ball bearings). However, many airports have bomb detectors (In theory they are supposed to detect nitrogen based explosives. I admit I am relatively ignorant on the subject, so can not make a completely informed decision), and 90+% would have gone off. Most of those that wouldn't are incredibly and notoriously unstable and dangerous to work with. There was a good chance that in this case, a ignition system wouldn't be needed to set it off, even with a simple system, let alone a timed one.

4. Unless a terrorist was TRYING to get caught and cause panic, it would be pointless to put your detonation system outside, when if you're charge is hidden inside (Where it would have to be, if there was any charge at all), you could have just as easily put it there, and actually completed whatever stupid mission you had without half the chance of being caught.

So, in conclusion: The board would have been pointless and detrimental to a suicide-type bombing. It would have been difficult to design. Any charge that would be unnoticable would have been the equivalent of a few aerial firework shells, if that. It would have called unwanted attention to any self-respecting terrorist, and been detrimental to his cause and mission. The guard failed miserably, and should be removed from his post immediately, as should any guards that we don't have enough common sense to actually train.

Should they have asked to search her? Meh. They could have. It probably would have been pointless, but I guess it can't hurt. At the very least, it will make all of the dumbasses out there feel a little safer.

The only crime this girl committed was to forget the complete and utter ignorance and douchebaggery of our nation. I applaud her. I hope to whatever God there may be that she made everyone of those stupid people shit themselves.

So while I generally agree with you and find you acceptable, I'm afraid that I must come to a closing point that really is not becoming of either of us. Such a position, to interject my juvenille language, fails. And now I take my leave. Good day, sir.

[treestar]

55. And shoudn't the airport police know all this, too?

That's my question. It seems in the aftermath of terra, terra, terra, and the constant fear, nothing practical is really happening. They are no better at spotting a potential real threat than they were before 911. They just waste a lot of time and effort on things that are harmless.

[ralphmich3]

56. War on Terror comes to MIT.... ironic / tasering

It is interesting how the global war on terror is now creeping its way into college campuses. The U.Florida tasering and another tasering at UCLA have been in the news. Rumsfeld just tried to get a cushy job at STanford University but the students and teachers blocked his appointment...

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

58. Indeed. Hell, common people should know this.

They even portray this ignorance in movies. Anyone who spent an hour on google could disarm 99% of bombs. There are no wire standards, and creating the parallel circuits that would create the possibility of detonation after the clipping of a wire are a serious pain in the ass, not to mention provide a relatively low chance of success.

Ever find you self in front of a bomb? Find any power sources (They're pretty obvious. They're big fucking battery packs, heh). Clip the wires leading from them. Bomb disarmed. Get the fuck out incase they used a sensitive mixture. Problem solved.

[CottonBear]

2. SHe's lucky to be alive. Her MIT college career is over for now. n/t

[goodhue]

18. why would her college career be over?

:shrug:

[murloc]

42. Hard to go to MIT while serving prison time

[goodhue]

47. she will not serve any time in prison

eom

[pnwmom]

23. The administrators at MIT have a sense of humor. She won't be in trouble

with them.

But she is lucky to be alive.

[TwilightGardener]

3. She endangered the public and diverted security needlessly--

a 19-year-old is an adult. She should have known better. She definitely deserves some kind of punishment.

[poverlay]

5. I'm sure your disapproval is punishment enough. -nt

[TwilightGardener]

8. ?????

[pnwmom]

25. Did you look at the thing on her jacket? Does that really look dangerous

to you? A nine volt battery that makes the circuit board light up? It's the kind of thing you can get in a science kit for 10 year olds.

[TwilightGardener]

30. Why wear it into an airport? If you catch of glimpse of somebody

wearing that, and you can't (or are afraid to) go up and examine it, wouldn't you alert security? I would. It was a dumb stunt, and there ARE female suicide bombers--just not a wise idea.

[goodhue]

34. it was not a stunt

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N40/simpson.html

Simpson (a former Tech photographer) was wearing the device, which included green LEDs arranged in the shape of a star, during yesterday’s MIT Career Fair. Her defense attorney said she was at the airport to pick up her boyfriend who arrived at Logan this morning.

Simpson approached an information booth in Logan’s Terminal C this morning wearing the light-up device, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Wayne Margolis said during Simpson’s arraignment today. She “said it was a piece of art,” Margolis said, and “refused to answer any more questions.” Margolis said this caused several Logan employees to flee the building. Margolis also said that Simpson had been wearing the art at least a few days. After asking about an incoming flight, Simpson then walked to the baggage claim area, Margolis said.


http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html

Star was an intern at Squid Labs this summer, and is an all-around awesome geek who loves to build things. FYI, friends at MIT say she wears the hoodie on a regular basis- it's just unfortunate that she had it on while trying to pick a friend up at the airport. MIT students don't really do mornings, or worry about what they're wearing, so I can't imagine she'd even think about her clothes before heading out to pick up a friend at the airport before 8am.

[pnwmom]

35. The other students said she had been wearing it for days.

I think she did it thoughtlessly -- not even thinking about the fact that it was still stuck to her jacket.

Even if she remembered it was there, from her perspective, the thing must have looked so innocuous. Remember, she understands the science behind how real bombs are built -- and so she knew this thing didn't look like anything dangerous. It probably didn't occur to her that anyone could have thought it was anything other than what it was -- a toy with a 9 volt battery that made a star light up.

In other words, she probably couldn't imagine how DUMB some people could be. But if she had wanted to build a hoax bomb device, I'm sure she could have built something that actually looked the part.

[TwilightGardener]

36. Well, call me dumb, then. I have no idea what a real bomb would look like.

But she's not as smart, common-sense-wise, as she might be book-smart-wise. She did something stupid, and could have caused a real panic.

[pnwmom]

37. I think she either forgot she was wearing the thing or

she lacked the common sense to know that, especially at an airport, just about any techie-looking device might make people freak out these days.

But neither situation justifies a 5 year jail term.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

57. I suggest you learn.

I went over a relatively detailed explanation of how this couldn't be mistaken for a bomb (#48).

Knowledge is power. In this case, it seems knowledge is the only way that we can protect ourselves. Without knowledge, we are a dangerous society, both to ourselves and others.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

49. Do see my previous post, #48

[treestar]

50. That thing was no danger to the public

Click on the link and look at it.

It merited no more than the cop possibly asking her about it - and that in a conversational tone.

A real suicide bomber would not look like that.

[ecstatic]

4. I hope they let her go, and I hope she puts her brilliance to good, liberal use

After this episode.

[Critters2]

6. It was perfectaly reasonable for the cops to be alarmed

at this "jacket". It's not like she was just wearing it around the house. Any idiot knows airport security personnel look at everything from a hermeneutic of suspicion. Frankly, I'm glad to know the staff at Logan is on its toes, since that airport has a history of lax security.

[pnwmom]

26. I think it was reasonable for them to be cautious.

But once they understood that the thing was never dangerous, and was never intended to be, I don't think they should have pursued her.

[karlrschneider]

28. That's hilarious. Most security people wouldn't know a hermeneutic from a prophylactic.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the brilliancy or overestimating the paranoia of pubic servants (sic).

[Forkboy]

59. Well that explains my eight kids.

:D

[treestar]

51. I don't. By now they should be trained to recognize what a suicide

bomber might look like and act like. After 6 years of terra, terra, they react like this to an obvious fake?

I have a bad feeling they wouldn't catch someone who is a true danger.

[goodhue]

52. she was not likely anticipating any appraisal of her attire by airport security

she just went to pick her boyfriend up

[softwarevotingtrail]

9. I guess MIT students aren't as smart as everybody thinks!

I mean, how dimwitted do you have to be? No, yelling "fire" in a crowded theater is NOT OK.

[pnwmom]

27. As smart as they are, they have never been known for having

an extra high dose of "common sense."

[uncle ray]

60. this is more like getting a cellphone call while in the theater,

being told on the phone that your house is on fire, and yelling: "my house is on fire!?"

[Horse with no Name]

10. Hmmm

They sell flashing Rudolph's with batteries and a board at Christmas-time.
I suppose folks will be subjected to rendition for that!
Why couldn't security just ASK what it was before pissing themselves into a frenzy?

[Bonobo]

12. Most Reasonable Post Ever!

"Why couldn't security just ASK what it was before pissing themselves into a frenzy?"

In fact, if what I read was true, she went to an information desk or something and asked for directions. Sounds like a suicide bomber to me.

TO THE NUTTY APOLOGISTS: Is this REALLY the kind of society you want to live in? It IS up to us, you know?

[Horse with no Name]

14. Either that or a Homeland Security induced massacre at the Dollar Store

Asking seems much more reasonable.:shrug:

[goodhue]

11. For a balanced report, see here

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N40/simpson.html

[Swamp Rat]

20. THANK YOU!

[goodhue]

22. For lots of interesting details, see here

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html

[Canuckistanian]

13. Lesson for electronics hobbyists - keep that project NEAT

Use a project box - don't leave wires hanging out.

Use LCD displays - flashing LED's make people nervous.

NO CLOCK DISPLAYS - it looks too much like a 'Die Hard' countdown timer. (on that note, why do movies ALWAYS show countdown displays in their bombs? It's unnecessary engineering for a device that's going to be destroyed anyways.)

And, keep it small and unobtrusive. Nobody likes complicated looking devices.

You may want to market it someday.

[Swamp Rat]

21. LOL!

:rofl:

[goodgd_yall]

15. Here's one person I hope does get just a slap on the wrist n/t

[RogueBandit]

16. Only stupid people fly anymore

It is just ridiculous. Where do you have to go that you are willing to subject yourself to certain searches and the risk of extended exposure to ruffians who don't protect anyone but their own ass and their own boss?

Our airports are a shame. The people who fly are a shame. Stand up....sit down....stand here....bend over....ohhhhh that's nice...thank you and have a good flight!

I remember what flying used to be like, you were respected and honored. Now you are treated like the stupid piece you are if you allow yourself to be treated like that.

Fear. Works well. Share it!

[goodhue]

17. she wasn't at the airport to fly

eom

[RogueBandit]

24. I know, ranting

I was just ranting. I don't really think only stupid people fly, some people need to for very legitimate purposes.

I think she's a hero. Next time I have to fly I'm going to wear nice new pajamas and slippers and carry a small blanket. That will probably get me searched but at least I won't have any underwear on to distract them from their primary purpose (sorry I just can't seem to stop ranting about this).

[Jed Dilligan]

19. I hope she sues like crazy

when she's exonerated.

[glowing]

29. Seriously... this is really stupid. I can't believe the woman at the info

desk was really that stupid. She told the woman it was art from a class. She looks like a student to me. If anyone really thinks that the actions took today warranted anything at all, they are ready for their jump suits and number tags. And now to make themselves not look so stupid, they are going to charge her with "possessing a hoax device".

[goodhue]

33. Yes, I agree the reaction was entirely idiotic.

In particular the several Logan employees fleeing to building after Simpson told them device was art.

http://www-tech.mit.edu/V127/N40/simpson.html

Simpson approached an information booth in Logan’s Terminal C this morning wearing the light-up device, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Wayne Margolis said during Simpson’s arraignment today. She “said it was a piece of art,” Margolis said, and “refused to answer any more questions.” Margolis said this caused several Logan employees to flee the building. Margolis also said that Simpson had been wearing the art at least a few days. After asking about an incoming flight, Simpson then walked to the baggage claim area, Margolis said.

Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands when at the information desk, State Police Maj. Scott Pare told the Associated Press in a press conference this morning. Simpson was confronted at a traffic island outside Terminal C by state troopers with submachine guns, and she was arrested at approximately 8 a.m., the AP reported. State police determined that the device was not a bomb after her arrest.

[sandrakae]

31. This is bull fucking shit. Why don't they arrest the criminals in Washington

and leave the damn creative colllege kids alone.

[KG]

32. further proof america is over.

[ShortnFiery]

38. Roger That!

I see misguided centrists who are either Pro-Authoritarian Police State OR paralyzed with fear due to the repeated meme "The World has changed since 9/11." :scared:




May God Have Mercy On Us All? We have lost our humanity and moral center. :(

[Azathoth]

39. The girl deserves what she gets

When I was a kid, long before 9/11, I used to joke with friends about someone doing something like this. It was funny, because walking through an airport with a bunch of wires and circuit boards hanging out of one's shirt would have been so outrageously provocative that only a complete idiot or lunatic would have attempted it. Now years later, after 9/11, it's no longer funny or idiotic; it's suicidal. Talk about a catastrophic lack of common sense...

[pnwmom]

40. How can you say that after looking at the actual picture of what she

was wearing? It was a single small circuit board stuck on her jacket, with a 9 volt battery and some lights that lit up in the shape of a star. Not "a bunch of wires and circuit boards hanging out of" her shirt.

She had been wearing this jacket around campus for several days at MIT. Authorities at MIT are VERY aware of terrorist threats to that institution. If the thing she was wearing -- openly, at Career Day -- looked ANYTHING like a bomb, don't you think one of the hundreds of people who must have seen her in those several days would have done or said something?

[Azathoth]

43. OK, two points

First, it IS a crude circuit board with tape and wires hanging from it. It doesn't look like a commercial gizmo; it looks like something that was soldered together in a basement somewhere (which it was, apparently). Who knows what it's connected to? It was attached to a loose-fitting sweatshirt, which is just what someone would wear if they had something strapped to their chest. Of course no rational terrorist is going to go around with LED's attached to his or her shirt calling attention to the fact that he or she is carrying a bomb. But there are plenty of crazy people out there...

Second, arguing that the shirt's appearance was innocuous because MIT security didn't arrest her is a logical fallacy; it simply does not follow. The MIT cops are accustomed to gadgets and the eccentric nature of MIT students; if they suspected something, they could easily have asked the girl to show her student ID and used that opportunity to ask questions and examine her shirt. The MIT cops are not guarding what most people would consider a "prime" terrorist target. Logan, on the other hand, is the biggest terrorist target in the area. It was a staging ground for 9/11 for God's sake. Who in their right mind would wander around a place like that carrying play-doh in their hands and wearing a conspicuous, homemade electronic device on their shirt that they refuse to answer questions about?

[pnwmom]

45. You are wrong about MIT.

It is considered a prime terrorist target, as are all the major science and engineering universities.

[Azathoth]

46. Last I heard, there were close to 100,000 "top terror targets"

including pretty much every university and more than a few fast-food restaurants (gotta love the Department of Homeland Security). MIT is undoubtedly high profile, but somehow I doubt it's at the top of Al Qaida's list of targets, especially since it's protected by a competent private security force while things like our bridges and nuclear power plants are much easier targets thanks to the incompetency of Dubya's misadministration. I'm not being flippant, I'm just saying that I don't think someone guarding the MIT student commons is going to feel the same kind of urgent paranoia that someone guarding the lobby at Logan Airport feels.

[treestar]

53. If she was wearing it on campus that should have been just as scary

as at the airport. An individual suicide bomber could strike anywhere. It is actually interesting that the authorities saw no threat until she was at the airport. It just goes to show they aren't any better at detecting a real threat than they were before 911.

[murloc]

41. self delete

(im reading now that the device doesnt look at all like a bomb)...I'll delete for now.

[eppur_se_muova]

44. Based on this description, my keychain looks dangerous, as do most cell phones.

Anything with a light source is now "suspicious"?? Ye gods.

Why would anyone build a bomb and put LED's on it? To make it look like a Hollywood scriptwriter's idea of a bomb, where all the clues to disabling the bomb are on gaudy display to taunt the intrepid hero? In real life, wouldn't they build a bomb that doesn't look ANYTHING like a bomb, so they could sneak it in? I thought that was what the whole uproar about the "liquid bomb" was about ...

If it could be a cleverly disguised bomb, like a tube of toothpaste or a bottle of juice, better not let in on the plane. If it looks like an obvious bomb, better not let it on board. We'll be reduced to absolutely no luggage, and wearing hospital gowns, before much longer.

[treestar]

54. I won't be going to Boston

for any reason, until they calm down.

Wasn't that where the lite brites caused all that havoc?



They are paranoid. It must be that the two jets took off from Logan airport on 911 and they feel guilty they didn't recognize anything. Probably they have been blamed a lot, which isn't right, but might be the reason.

[eppur_se_muova]

62. LiteBrite ... couldn't remember the name ... this was a HOME-MADE LiteBrite, that's all. nt

[BlackVelvet04]

61. Land of the free and home of the brave......

what a bunch of pansy ass, paranoid, over the edge, bat shit nuts the people of this country have turned into.