The question that actually leaps to my mind first is why are airport police armed with sub machine guns? That seems a little much. And secondly, did it ever occur to them to ask her what was up with her shirt before they went all SWAT on her and surrounded her with said sub-machine guns aimed and at the ready? Are we really living in that paranoid a world?

I'm sure no one bothered her as she rode on mass transit all the way to the airport. It would be way worse if something happened there than some single airplane. Besides, who would strap something to their chest and not cover it with something?

And it all comes down to the power mad minimum wage contractors now running airport security and airline counters. Just because they are dumb and think the world is flat and easily manipulated by fear doesn't mean we all should suffer from it.

O noes!

Nice story they appear to be making up. Does anyone see any putty there? And why are they calling it a fake bomb when it clearly is not?

And how about that abc news video player that says "Go Big"

where the hell did this putty / playdough thingy come from? Do they just lie to make up cartoonish images of tom & jerry style TNT with a clock and wires?

WTF?! So, (a) let's say she had dirty hands and handled clay or modelers clay or even playdough. Could the security even tell this from a distance? How could they tell "stuff" on dirty hands was clay-like?

So clearly they might have found dirty hands after they arrested her and tried to make up reasons for pointing assault weapons at someone wearing their science project. Ironic again that they hand these same things out free at bars promoting whatever.

I'm willing to bet the airport might even have waitstaff that are wearing flair that was flashing leds. Blinking even is more bomb=like than just LED hooked to battery.

HOLD THE PHONE!!!... there are female MIT students?! and they understand solderless breadboard technology?! wow, the 21st century is wild indeed.

hold the phone again... are they saying she had the board and everything on the outside of her sweater? ... good lord

One can have alllll kindsa great fun at the airport, trying to board a plane with marzipan wrapped in aluminum foil as well.....(stick some wires innit for the full effect)...oh, it can escalate further, inna heart beat....start drooling when they ask you questions, and fidget a bunch....then point at other people, and start to turn around....(you don't have a ticket anyhow, yer just filming Chasers, at terminal C) Go Aussies!!!

so raven....Haven't you been hearin' all this terrrism talk on the TV box???....we really need to be paranoid....the Germans ain't got shit on them sand-dwellers..

Have you people all taken a giant leap from your senses? All I have done is watch the video that was linked and read the comments here, and it seems to me that you folks are taking even bigger leaps than the report. The video did not say that the police stopped her because they saw putty, nor even that they saw it prior to arresting her. She walked into Logan Airport with a blinking breadboard on her chest. Unless she has been living in the Australian outback for the last 8 years, that sounds like about the stupidest thing one could do. Let me ask you - would you walk into Harlem with a white hood on your head on Halloween pretending to be a ghost so you could "stand out from the crowd"?

I have no idea how she was handled after apprehension, and if she was not basically immediately released upon realization that she was simply stupid, then yeah, the cops went to far. Why are airport security walking around with sub machine guns??? Are you for real? In Logan Airport? Do I think it's right? Of course not, but it's certainly understandable if not legally defensible. And where the hell were sub-machine guns mentioned anyway. Furthermore - a sub-machine gun is essentially nothing more than a pistol that shoots really fast and has a bigger clip. It's not even close to something like an M-16A4, which I have seen carried by several agents in several airports (and scares the living shit out of me).

Back to the playdoh - it was probably used to the tie the electronics down without soldering. I was a computer engineering student for 3 years before switching to neuroscience, and while given the right parts and a big enough board, I could likely work out a 4 stage pipeline, I have never once successfully soldered a circuit together. Soldering if for technicians.

Don't make mountains out of mole hills - this country has enough real injustice to deal with as it is.

or you could just remember they shot a brazilian guy in london for the reason that he came out of the same BLOCK OF FLATS as a suspected terrorist, had slightly dark skin, and decided to get on a subway train.

this shit is serious. the "security" guys have a very very difficult job and have to make very very serious decisions. the fact that they do shit like this shows they are completely paranoid, and the fact that london and madrid were bombed anyway shows that this "security" isn't even effective.

Heck i tried to take PEANUT BUTTER on a plane and they treated it like semtex and confiscated it. I mean really, Al Quaeda must be in awe of our mighty powers of protection. They'll probably concede defeat any time now.

MINK, I agree with you - the security apparatus in the west is so trigger happy right now that it's disgusting. That is a real issue. But someone who would either intentionally or stupidly antagonize them deserves no sympathy. There is no way this girl could not have understood the potential consequences of her actions. This isn't even close to the moonites debacle - that was a public display of a pop culture icon which had been performed in several other cities prior to Boston. This was a random person walking into an airport with a blinking breadboard on her chest. She's lucky she wasn't carried out in a body bag. If anything, it demonstrates at least a minimal level of restraint on the part of certain security officers. And given the wrong place and the wrong time, the right officer would not have been there, as in London.

Its appalling that the linked news article says that this turned out to be a hoax. It was no hoax!

johny,

You really need to check out google news, it has like articles and stuff.

The video did not say that the police stopped her because they saw putty, nor even that they saw it prior to arresting her. She walked into Logan Airport with a blinking breadboard on her chest.

Ok, look at the picture again. Tell me how this thing is "blinking"! I could draw you a schematic, but here's a hint, there is nothing on the back side, and nothing on the front side but hot glue, tape, wires, leds, and resistors. There may be one pnp, but it looks like a shadow to me. Her craftsmanship doesn't scream, "I can make an astable RC oscillator".

At any rate, this is just a little lighted star. You know they SELL BALLCAPS WITH THE SAME LEDs AND EVEN A 9V iN THE BACK. Is wearing an ornamental LED badge really akin to klan robes? Or anything resembling, gee I had better not wear this to MEET SOMEONE AT THE AIRPORT.

She wasn't even going through security. Just standing around the terminal checking the arrival times.

I have no idea how she was handled after apprehension, and if she was not basically immediately released upon realization that she was simply stupid, then yeah, the cops went to far.

She was arrested and held in jail overnight until she appeared before a judge. She was charged with disturbing the peace and possessing a hoax device. At the airport the counter person asked her what it was and she said it was art. The MSP then ascended upon her and if you make one false move they shoot you.

Why are airport security walking around with sub machine guns??? Are you for real? In Logan Airport? Do I think it's right? Of course not, but it's certainly understandable if not legally defensible. And where the hell were sub-machine guns mentioned anyway. Furthermore - a sub-machine gun is essentially nothing more than a pistol that shoots really fast and has a bigger clip. It's not even close to something like an M-16A4, which I have seen carried by several agents in several airports (and scares the living shit out of me).

They carry submachine guns (not fully auto pistols) since the Mossa.d has helpfully revamped and retooled airport security.

<A HREF="http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/nation/ny-usbomb0922,0,6326257.story?coll=ny_home_rail_headlines">"If she had shown any</A> indication of not responding, the probability of her being shot was very high," said Rafi Ron, an Israeli security expert who helped Logan overhaul its procedures after two of the 9/11 hijackers flew through that airport. ...

Ron cited the fatal shooting of a mentally ill male passenger at Miami International Airport in December, 2005, by two federal air marshals, which he described as an "unavoidable tragedy." The man, who wore a backpack across his chest, threatened to detonate a bomb.

In another recent case, in Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, he said a man wearing an overcoat with wires coming out of it on a summer day narrowly avoided being shot."

If you have any wires hanging off of you in the airport, you are near death. (What about headphones??)

and while given the right parts and a big enough board, I could likely work out a 4 stage pipeline, I have never once successfully soldered a circuit together. Soldering if for technicians.

Ok.. technicians and plumbers. Just so you know, soldering is pretty easy: apply heat, apply solder, remove heat.

As to the playdoh, the only person who has made this claim was the State police at a press conference. Maybe they just made it up because they realized they were caught with another moonite moran episode, or maybe it was in her pocket, or maybe she doesn't smoke and passes time waiting by making little playdough dudes. My vote is that they made it up completely. FYI, she also made the star for the day before this was a career fair and it's actually a pretty good gimmick and conversation starter. (As long as the attendees don't have machine guns)

Marzipan is sweeter than Playdough™-
I have a good bud who worked at a Tile distributor, in the whse...pak and ship. One day as a joke, he gave a box to the UPS man, that was beeping, enclosed, a business card, one that had an LED light and a cell-phone ringing sound when the bi-fold card was opened.....

they both had a laugh as the driver left, and the next day, the driver came back in shock, and grimaced at D., because the harmless package, when heard by one of the loaders the day before at UPS, caused the PNW hub in Portland to shut down completely....this, pre 9/11.

The MIT chick, was a total dumb-ass, and her so-called "art", may have gotten her non-linear ass, killed. The times are paranoid, however unsubstantiated that fear may be, because that type of paranoia fomented by the brokers, is a valuable tool for control.

I not skeert. I not stupid, either.....

You really need to check out google news, it has like articles and stuff.

You should look at a clock every once in a while - it might have informed you that I wrote that first comment late on friday night. Excuse me for being so out of the ordinary that I was out drinking last night. I responded only to what I saw, admittedly hastily and without all the facts. And, I think I wrote something about that at the very beginning of my comment.

But none of that matters. This is an MIT student right? Supposedly pretty smart? And she walks into one of the busiest and most heavily guarded airports in the world with cheap electronics on her chest (blinking or not) without a ticket or boarding pass, wandering around looking for someone. Are you seriously defending that action? Do you seriously believe that I think it's ok to have heavily armed personnel in such an area?

You're talking about some foolish kid that spent a night in jail. Do you not think there are more important things going on in this country? How about a series of increasingly violent incidents in rural Louisiana that led to a 16 y.o. kid nearly being charged with attempted murder as an adult after beating another random kid to a pulp? Or maybe hanging nooses from a tree as a form of intimidation isn't that important to you, but some rich little white girl peeing her panties is.

If I have not made my point clear - there is no fucking way she could not have understood the potential consequences of her actions.

One last thing - do you think you could recognize the difference between art and a bomb at 100 meters in time to make the decision? Would you be willing to take the risk if your own and the lives of hundreds of others might be on the line?

(yeah - I'm still pretty lit up.)

"there is no fucking way she could not have understood the potential consequences of her actions."

dude, do you think she planned to nearly die? if i was shot for hesitating when asked what my peanut butter was for, would you say i planned that?

dude, do you think she planned to nearly die? if i was shot for hesitating when asked what my peanut butter was for, would you say i planned that?

Absolutely not, but would you say that a guy who volunteered to go to Iraq and came home in an urn planned on it? No, but he certainly understood what he was getting into.

I heard she's in league with the Mooninites... <.< >.> <.<

point being MINK and made jonny, is the girl either did or did not, imagine all possible scenarios her act could have ignited or not, she should be familiar with the territory she inhabits....Who cares what is allowed or not in to the airports of the world?...You want to fly anymore, expect it to be a bogus experience, unless you fly first class or privately-I want more guns in airports....wish I could carry mine onnna plane...or not. Solution? Not commercialy, but definitely , on board my own...

One last thing - do you think you could recognize the difference between art and a bomb at 100 meters in time to make the decision? Would you be willing to take the risk if your own and the lives of hundreds of others might be on the line?

Yes I could at 100ft. One has lights and is on the outside of a hoodie. The other is hidden in a laptop, or in luggage or other wise HIDDEN FROM MOTHERFUCKING VIEW.

Did people run SCREAMING from her on the trip over in the Metro? Did anyone in the dorms call the cops when she walked through the hallway with a "faux bomb" strapped to her chest.

She wore this SAME MOTHERFUCKING outfit the day before on a public University campus?! How is it ok to have fake bombs walking around MIT? But somehow this was more threatening at an airport.

And she walks into one of the busiest and most heavily guarded airports in the world with cheap electronics on her chest (blinking or not) without a ticket or boarding pass, wandering around looking for someone. Are you seriously defending that action?

Yes, I am SERIOUSLY DEFENDING the concept of going to an airport to MEET YOUR MOTHERFUCKING boyfriend. People often, in fact, go to the airport and wander around looking for someone. WTF. I have no problem if the cops want to ask her what she is wearing and inspect it. Go ahead, but is the airport some holy land that is more sacred, than say the subway? The Ted=-William-or-whatever-it-is-called Tunnel?

She passed by cops and security when she entered the Concourse and even on the shuttle bus that circles Logan. No one was concerned there. This happened because one idiot employee wasn't satisfied with a dorky white girl saying she was wearing an art project.

And the cops are making up hoax charges because they are too stupid and shoot mooninite signs because we must all live in FEAR. What about oddly lumpy fat people? What about people wearing overcoats? What about some guy pushing a stroller? All of them should be met with guns in the face if you are such a fan of our police state.

>If you have any wires hanging off of you in the airport, you are near death. (What about headphones??)

Krupo thinks about his most recent flights, where he often had his headphones sitting in his shirt pocket.

Good thing they weren't dangling out, I suppose.

And that I'm living in Canada and am not flying to Boston. Them security people be crazy, well said joedirt.

JD - I should not have been so antagonistic in my comments. It seems to have blinded you to the point I was making. I agree with you that the situation is completely fubar and that people should not have to face possible death for something like that. But the fact remains that that is the situation, and there's no way you'll convince me she couldn't have understood that. MIT campus is not Logan Airport - hell the Media Lab has an entire section devoted to wearable computers.

All I'm saying is, she should have known better.

She's dumb enough to wear this ghetto looking device into an airport? Was she TRYING to get into trouble?

I say it was the girl's fault, not the security.

I got my own agenda against airport security and all, but i believe MIT doesn't teach common sense.

You know hindsight is 20/20. Smart people make dumb choices all the time. She exercised poor judgment, but she is only 19 for crying out loud and not a native Bostonian. What would have happened if it was a 10 year old white boy instead? Are we that scared?

And it is not MIT's job to teach common sense. After you've determined she wasn't a threat, there was no bomb and she did not do anything intentionally, the reasonable thing to do would have been to release her and not hold her and charge her with crimes. Calling this a hoax device and describing it to the news media as a fake bomb makes it sound to me that the cops are scared shit less and want to get everybody else as frothy as they are. Makes it look like they are doing something about the boogie man.

Mooninite ties aside, pressing charges against her isn't right. She may have lacked foresight, but she didn't intend harm. I bet less "peace" would have been disturbed if the popos would have just ignored it or quietly told her she's an idiot and to take the thing off. It looked tacky anyway. Art? feh. Even as Geek art goes, feh.

she "wanted to stand out from the crowd" says the abc video well she sure did.