This tech blogger completely missed the point of the Ahmed Mohamed story

The story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, whose home made science project ended in his arrest, has absorbed the media in recent days.

Even President Obama invited Ahmed Mohamed to the White House.

Photos of his clock have been released online, and some have chosen to comment upon its appearance.

An article on ArtVoice reverse-engineered Ahmed’s clock. Fair enough, that’s interesting.

What’s less interesting, and frankly astounding, is the way the piece concludes that because the clock wasn’t strictly invented his arrest was justified.

The author writes:

Now, before I go on and get accused of attacking a 14 year old kid who’s already been through enough, let me explain my purpose. I don’t want to just dissect the clock. I want to dissect our reaction as a society to the situation.

And after reverse-engineering the clock, says:

So there you have it folks, Ahmed Mohamad did not invent, nor build a clock. He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. It all seems really fishy to me.

If we accept the story about “inventing” an alarm clock is made up, as I think I’ve made a pretty good case for, it’s fair to wonder what other parts of the story might be made up, not reported factually by the media, or at least, exaggerated.

The author stipulates that because Ahmed Mohamed didn’t actually invent electronic timekeeping, the police were right to lead a child out of school in handcuffs.

He went on to say, that because they are trained to suspect terrorism in schools the media's discussion of the issue of racial profiling is ridiculous.

When the teachers asked what it was, Ahmed said it was a clock. It was a clock. It didn't count down to zero, like in the 80s movies.

But, by the time it was deduced that the thing which looked an awful lot like a modified digital clock was a digital clock, this had already happened:

(H/T Alex Hern)

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