MIT Student Arrested For Wearing Circuit Fashion

Stupid and irritating... or maybe simply naive or publicity seeking.

She could easily disrupted and endangered the live of the travelling public.

I'm not known for having authoritarian views ...but in this case...throw the book at her and preferably deny her the oxygen of publicity...

'oooh look I'm cute' ..no you're just stupid

Mind what do you expect from someone called 'star' ?

Slaps furry forehead with paw and exits stage left!

If the reporting is correct, that's about as stupid as stupid gets. In many places she would have been shot, even in the back. There's no such thing as a 'safe' shot to disable a suspect. The failure to tackle her immediately sends out the wrong message. How are security to know she is not trying to get nearer a target and explode a device. It will be interesting to see if a reasoned explanation for all this emerges.

Read the newspaper! Sheesh! Star Simpson was stopped at gunpoint outside the airport terminal, where police determined she was wearing a harmless toy. All the publicity has come about because the police then arrested her and held a news conference to crow about it. Had the police not been seeking publicity, they would have sent her away with a warning.

Two words: Over. Reaction.

Read the newspaper!

???

Oh sorry I'm not in the USA or 'News centre of the universe'... So it wasn't in the papers here...

I only read the report as posted on the blog.

Nor was it in Chicken Coop, Nevada.

Two words: Over. Reaction.

Better than 'under reaction' ???? I think not.

What about that chap who was fiddling with his shoe on the 'plane.... ? over reaction?

(You can't base suspicion on the prettiness of the suspect)

What about that chap who was fiddling with his shoe on the 'plane.... ? over reaction?

Lets not bring up that guy. Thanks to him we all have to take our shoes off when we visit merry old england. Now I am not a violent person (I wouldn't harm a fly), but I know what I would have done if I was sitting next to him in the plane and he tried to pull that stunt.

Regarding the main issue, it was very irresponsible of her to try and walk into an airport wearing a fake bomb (she was fairly lucky, in the right circumstances she could very well have been killed). You just cannot do this in this day and age, especially since the media have made such a big deal stirring up public attention to the possible and imminent threat of terrorist acts.

You just cannot do this in this day and age, especially since the media have made such a big deal stirring up public attention to the possible and imminent threat of terrorist acts.

What bothers me is that we mearly sit back and complain about this type of antic by students that are meant to be tomorrow'sengineering future. The actions of this person reflect poorly on all engineers and scientists and particularly those from MIT which I thought was a 1st class engineering school. First class engineering schools don't admit (or at least dont allow) such a student to contimue to drag their name in the mud!!!

"If the reporting is correct.."

Read the post, duh. If you provide information to back up what you say it might be helpful. Using a name might give you some credibility as well.

I have two words for you, but I won't post them.

Yeah it was an over reaction. People are way too jumpy over the wrong things. It's what people cannot see that they should be afraid of. You think anyone wishing to perform an authentic terror plot is going to use a small bread board with some LEDs?

If any future tragic event is going to be prevented, people must think more strategically. What do athletes do in a game? They create a diversion to sneak the ball to the goal. The logical reaction to Star Simpson would be to think, is she a diversion to something bigger? After all the law enforcement are swarming her, the big plot could be unfolding someplace else. People need to wake up and think bigger, or else something bad will happen.

"You think anyone wishing to perform an authentic terror plot is going to use a small bread board with some LEDs?"

Possible, specutively speaking she could be a part of a larger group to assembly one.

One thing that twit can be proud that was learned, is that an actual terrorists now knows what not to do or how to get around it as you put it.

"After all the law enforcement are swarming her, the big plot could be unfolding someplace else. People need to wake up and think bigger, or else something bad will happen."

She could have stop when asked and avoided creating this issue.

Agree 100%.

In Isreal (and also at Heathrow, I suspect, given the level of tension in Britain these days), I guess she would've been told to stand still and if she hadn't, she would've been shot (probably a head shot, to try to prevent suicide terrorists from detonating themselves).

She may be 'bright' in her field, but *totally* STUPID and unaware of the (sad & unfortunate) state of the world we live in, esp. at airports.

RFG

Yup. Perhaps she could have viewed the possible outcome as performance art. Her links to MIT are completely irrelevant to her stupidity.

Comes to mind a saying of "being book smart and practically stupid" apply's here

"Her links to MIT are completely irrelevant to her stupidity."

Not quite, with out ruining her life or future career, with MIT brought into the picture, do they not have a strengent enrollment policy or being enrolled as a student at MIT?

not sure?

I don't know about MIT's enrolment criteria. It's still hard to find much info on her (her own web page etc is off-line). The main theme I found seemed to be MIT students protesting at her harsh treatment by MIT authorities, ie that the authorities should not criticize her actions ! Perhaps her fellow student supporters are just the vocal minority, and the majority wish to play down the MIT connection by saying nothing. I couldn't find anything further on the charges made against her either.

For a number of reasons I can understand the student objections, may due that the environment around them, Such as feeling they are singled out, reateric on freedom of speak, or shes may just be good looking.

I agree about playng down the MIT connections, it is an embrassment. May be waiting tell the whole thing blows over due to a thoughtless act.

When I first read this story I googled around trying to find a bit more. You know how news reports etc often get distorted. I still can't find much of substance. In the UK this would be all over the media, so I just don't get the full picture here. My gut reaction is 'what an idiot naive young girl', but given that I don't know the way thing work Stateside etc, I'm still waiting to see. I can think of many mitigating situations and general explanations, but until the police have progressed whatever charges were made against her, I don't see any way of making constructive comment. Unfortunately it's a matter that should concern all of us, not just because of her civil rights and MIT's reputation, but the general manner of countering potential terrorist threat. Willingly or not, she's put herself centre -stage. Analyzing the reasons etc has big implications for us all. A similar situation in the UK would have resulted in her being shot, excluded from higher education, or a major review of security procedures.

I can assure anybody reading that if they pranked with the security system here in the UK in the manner that seems to be reported, they would very likely end up dead. Student ptranks of this natue should not be countenanced.

Hate to bring up 9/11; but after that disaster most people were knowledgable of the fact that even saying the wrong words while qued up to enter an airport or going through security were a big NO-NO. She's smart if she's going to MIT. I'm sure she had some thoughts as to wether it was a good idea or not.

Why walk away after being asked about her shirt unless she was looking for her 15 minutes of fame and attention.

I have another good example. About 2 years before 9/11 my boss and a colleague from another company were traveling thru (it was either USA or england, I forget which) airport and were in line waiting to book their luggage onto the plane.
Anyway, your standard waiting line is in a zig-zag format which doubles back on itself numerous times before you finally get to the check-in counter. Well, the colleague's bag was getting heavy half way thru the line so he pushed it thru the side of the line so he could just collect it when the line doubled back on itself. 3-4 seconds is all it took for him to be surrounded by armed men pointing sub-machine guards at him. The man in charge was not very happy and spent a great deal of time screaming at him.

Don't forget, MIT has more than just Engineering and theoretical studies programs.

OK, here is a little more information for you on what ACTUALLY happened.

1) She did manage to get into the airport terminal wearing the device and was noticed when she asked a staffer manning the information booth inside the terminal about an incoming flight. She then walked out of the terminal and was challenged by armed security and arrested (thankfully she did as she was told).

2) She apparently is quite bright and has received a Congressional citation for her work in robotics.

3) She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it to stand out on career day.

So, very poor lack of judgment and understanding of the "real world".

Actually, regarding Career Day, what does this actually involve for a US University student? (it is obviously different to what is involved here). Some sort of display of technical work to impress potential employers perhaps? It appears that she may have been doing a major of electrical engineering and computer science (although this is only implied in the articles), in which case I don't understand which potential employer is possibly going to be impressed by a simple LED flasher circuit! We have them here (they are my first electronics projects for 8 year olds).

Here is the picture of the device. I could see where already nervous authorities would be hesitant not too see this as a potential threat to the public. Remeber where the planes took off from on 9/11.