According to the "hacker ethic," a hack must:
1: be safe
2: not damage anything
3: not damage anyone, either physically, mentally or emotionally
4: be funny, at least to most of the people who experience it

She broke 1 and 4, and maybe 3 as well. Additionally, by getting attention focused on herself, she goes against the tradition of remaining Anonymous.

Conclusion: Not a MIT hack.

For her next stunt, she will show up at a Nation of Islam rally wearing a white sheet and carrying a watermelon.

"Don't shoot me, bro" certainly doesn't rise to the comedic level of "Don't taze me, bro".

No Bill O'Reilly bumper sticker slogan moment for her. (sigh)

... and a baseball bat.

You know, because the Japanese play wack-the-watermelon on the beach.

No?

Oh, I see, KKK. Well, then the baseball bat would still fit.

If they had shot her, it would have just been a case of a little chlorine in the gene pool.

That may sound harsh, but she forgot Heinlein's law that stupidity can be a capital crime, and one in which there is no appeal once sentence is passed.

She got lucky.

She's lucky not to have died of lead poisoning.

Thank God it wasn't one of the Tufts moonbats.
-a Tufts Alum

What I DON'T want to have happen is that police hesitate in a future incident that ISN'T a "stunt".

Unfortunately I believe that is exactly what this will lead to.

Since the police passed on their chance to put a third "eye" in the middle of her forehead, she should at least do serious jail time.

Intelligence sometimes is shrouded in social ineptitude.

I disagree Justrand,

It seems she intended no malice, and wasn't aware of her actions and/or their implications.

It would seem that she put on a shirt the style of which (ie... electronics enhanced) she probably wore often. She then had some play-doh in her pocket for whatever reason (maybe she likes it as a midday snack... mmmmmmm play-doh) and was surprised to find her thoughtless actions had such dire unintended results.

I agree, she's lucky she's alive (good for her following security's instructions), but let's not jump the gun and attach malice to her actions.

Now, if she HAD intended malice to cause chaos with her actions, then she should be punished as such. But stiff punishment for her accidental lack of forethought would be a gross miscarriage of justice.

I tend to agree with ExSubNuke, a couple hundred hours of community service will help her and her friends think twice next time.

How many hours of community service should Weller serve
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-weller_22sep22,1,4234592.story

"(good for her following security's instructions)"

Once guns were drawn she started following instructions. Actually, part of the reason she got arrested was that she didn't answer a simple question from an airport worker about what she was wearing on her chest.

nogo

I dunno, maybe as many as Harry Reid.

Jeeebus Nogo, you're like on automatic response to deflect everytime you post.

Seriously, it weakens any argument you believe you have.

nogo,

can we continue our game that the Colorado State students started?

Chicken F**k Obama (for not voting)

Your turn.

a clear-cut case of Fascist Oppression and Iron-Handed Overreaction if ever there was one.

Is anybody claiming that?

Brian,

nogo seems to be gone. Would you play the CSU game of free speech with me?

GRANDMOTHERF*K*R OBAMA

Your turn.

nogo is as big a moron as Star Simpson.

The chick needs to do some time. Letting her go will only encourage copycats.

Her actions could have gotten innocent people killed. That's not "fun" or "fashion" by any stretch of imagination.

ExSubNuke,

It seems she intended no malice, and wasn't aware of her actions and/or their implications.

Oh, horse hockey!

And if in the minuscule chance that you might be right it just proves what I have always said about academia. For all their alleged "intelligence" they have no wisdom and no common sense. In fact most of them are as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to the real world.

I will tell you right now that common sense and wisdom are worth one hell of alot more then any piece of paper she would get from MIT. All that piece of paper means is that she learned how to BS people and spout the party line. It certainly does not mean that she has any knowledge of how the real world works, That is to be expected out of some idiot who has lived her life in the "reality-based community".

>Is anybody claiming that?
Brian,nogo seems to be gone. Would you play the CSU game of free speech with me?

In the absence of an intelligent response, I'll take that as a "no".

Ennis,

I do think she did it completely on accident, and, yeah, I pretty much agree with the rest of your post too.

Jim, she should be punished, but jail time costs us. I think a couple hundred hours picking up Harvard Square is good for the public order and would put a serious crimp on her school life (she would have the equivalent of a real job, sanitary engineer).

"It seems she intended no malice". Intent might mitigate the severity of her sentence, but "accidental lack of forethought"? Puh-leeease! I just happened to bring my two wads of Play-Doh to the airport the day I wore my circuit board sweats?
I'm assuming that "accidental lack of forethought" will be the claim you make for posting that tripe?"

Her first name would indicate the need to live up to something. She had her "fifteen minutes" with this phony expression of "art" and almost got more than she bargained for.

You know alacrityfitzhugh, your comment brings to mind something that happened to my co-worker recently.

I work in the Nuclear Power industry, and must walk through all sorts of detectors every day. Last week, a co-worker of mine was coming through the turnstile, and like always, just threw his flashlight, keys and PDA into the basket to put through the x-ray. After passing through, he was calmly asked to submit his personal items for closer inspection while he was kept under the watchful eye of security.

You see, it just happened that all those items (flashlight, keys and PDA) fell into the basket in such a configuration that it LOOKED like a gun in the X-ray. It also doesn't help that his prefered hairstyle lends itself to making him look ALMOST like a crazy maniac on windy days.

Now, does he need to be escorted off property and lose his job? No. He put exactly zero thought into how he put those items into the basket, it just happened to end up looking very suspicious.

Much the same, this girl put exactly ZERO thought into what she was wearing (wires, batteries, and circuit boards) in conjunction with what she was carrying (play-doh). It just so happens that it LOOKED an awful lot like a bomb. But she didn't think of that. She was probably thinking about making sure she was ontime to pick up her boyfriend. At that point in time, she just had the horrible luck to be standing in an airport with what LOOKED like a bomb.

Reading some of the other items from the local news, her "oops" served to point out to police a gaping hole in airport security (monitoring baggage claim for suspicious activity), and they are addressing it now. You could almost thank her for her "oops".

It's almost like the "Hi Jack!!!" running joke in the movie "Airplane".

Maybe some serious community service, and definitely a stern talking to about thinking ahead. But jail time would be way over the top for her.

"it just happened that all those items (flashlight, keys and PDA) fell into the basket in such a configuration that it LOOKED like a gun "
So you're comparing an accidental resemblance of inanimate objects, falling at random with her choice of clothing, fashion accessories and frickin' Play-Doh? Which I suppose she could have forgotten about in a purse or backpack...where do you carry your Play-Doh, ESN? But, she's carrying it around in her hands, where she must have, what's the expression?...had the accidental lack of forethought to remember what she was carrying around???
ESN: I was born at night, but it wasn't last night! Apply Occam's razor to this ditz and you don't come up with she was sculpting Gumby to take on the plane with her!

I don't carry play-doh, but I did know someone on the ustafish that carried around some white clayish substance that he used as a stress releiver squeezie.

Same to you. Apply Occam's Razor. What's more likely, she wants to make a political statement/create some chaos and be darned lucky she's not KILLED in the process,

OR

she didn't think about what she was wearing in conjunction with what she was carrying.

"What's more likely, she wants to make a political statement/create some chaos" Yes. Who in the #%*&#%*% carries Play-Doh to the airport?

But, your attempts to normalize her behavior are quite amusing!

Please don't take this as an insult, because it's not.

You obviously haven't spent any time around smart eccentric people. That behavior really isn't all that hard to believe in that context.

She wears electronics as a fashion statement for pete's sake.

You'll recall not so long ago the "ad campaign" with funny little circuit boards that got all the media attention, with similar concerns. Lets see now, what city was that?

There's little doubt that there's ample opportunity for a member of Boston society to KNOW what the ramifications of wearing such stuff on or off campus is. An MIT student has been screened for intelligence just by having been accepted. Judgement, on the other hand, is apparently not as important a quality to screen for at MIT as it is at Logan International.

"You obviously haven't spent any time around smart eccentric people" Apparently, neither have any of your friends!
The question you keep ducking is why the frickin' Play-Doh? And don't give me that "stress releiver (sic) squeezie" BS! She said it was an "art project". Have you forgotten that Boston was also the scene recently of a mistaken bomb scare where flashing lights for some cartoon advertisement got the city in an uproar? Do you think all this was done in a vacuum?
In all your "accidental" scenarios, you have a shipmate known to you and an employee known to the guard. Was she known to anyone out at the airport? Excuse the pun, but was she terminally stupid?

Maybe I could even buy the "Gee this is my favorite sweatshirt, all my friends are wearing it, I don't think anything about it, this is my fashion statement" line.
Except I don't know of anyone who carries around Play-Doh while coincidentally wearing their circuit board sweats as a fashion statement! Especially not into an airport!

BTW: "You obviously haven't spent any time around smart eccentric people" I like the way you make that ass umption based on absolutely no facts whatsoever!
Keep up the hermeneutic, ESN! The whole lack of facts thing can get in the way of a good narrative!

Side note: Since she is from Hawaii, there is a possibility that she can never go home. She certainly placed herself on the TSA's no-fly list. That list probably covers cruise ships, too.

Word of warning. I was reading last week an account by a embedded systems programmer. It seems that he was detained at the airport because the TSA didn't like the looks of his equipment. He had built his own microchip programmer, and he was detained because they wouldn't let him on the plane with any home-brew electronics, even though they verified that he was telling the truth about the device. He was forced to pay for a commercial device that came in a nice package before he could fly to his customer site.

Alright, here's a major reason why I don't think she did it on purpose.

I could honestly see myself doing something like that if I used play-doh as a stress squeezie and liked wearing electronics as a fashion statement. I've actually done more eccentric things in my past.

Don't ask.

Insult and deride as you see fit, but neither I, nor you know why she was carrying Play-doh. Unless you can peek into her head to know why she did it, you make an ass-umption as well. And I'd rather presume her innocent until proven guilty.

"neither I, nor you know why she was carrying Play-doh." Hence, the use of Occam's razor, not fairytales and wishful thinking!
"I'd rather presume her innocent". Fine! I'd rather let the facts speak for themselves!

ExSub, alacrity, if I may:

I think I can settle your disagreement.

Here are a few things I think we can all agree upon:

1) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

2) There is often an inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense.

3) This factor is often amplified and increased exponentially by the addition of youth and inexperience.

While I wouldn't put alacrity's theory completely out of bounds, in this case I'm willing to give the student the benefit of the doubt (the "presumption of innocence") and say that it is more than plausible she was simply a twit, and not an asshat.

Of course, if it turns out she's a DU poster or a MoveOn.org member or some other species of moonbat, I'll take it all back.

And at that point, I'll change the category of this piece from "Dumbasses" to "Asshats" or "Attention Whores."

J.

"I could honestly see myself doing something like that if I used play-doh as a stress squeezie [not even your shipmate used Play-Doh...evidence = 0) and liked wearing electronics as a fashion statement." Honestly? To an airport?? Post 9/11??? Your mind would never trip to the fact that a clay-like substance in your hands and some foreign looking electronics might excite someone in airport security? No situational awareness at all?
Since we're playing "if", if it turns out that one of her wires was stuck in one of her pieces of Play-Doh, that would put the kibosh on your "stress reliever" theory!

Here's another theory for you: She was chewing the Play-Doh to take her mind off her Cheetos addiction! It was an honest snacking mistake! (If I can come up with any other scenarios that make as much sense as yours, I'll pass them along,too!)