The headlines are wrong. It was NOT a "FAKE BOMB."

[pnwmom]

The little circuit board that was stuck on an MIT student's jacket did not look like a bomb. It looked like a child's toy -- the kind that comes in science kits for 10 year olds: a small circuit board with a 9 volt battery connected to several lights that lit up the shape of a STAR.

The student -- named "STAR Simpson" had been wearing the jacket around the MIT campus for several days, before she made the mistake of wearing it to the airport early one morning to pick up her boyfriend. There, she was arrested, and now she faces 5 years in prison for a bomb hoax.

The authorities at MIT are well aware of the threat to that campus of terrorism, and if she had been wearing anything that remotely looked like a bomb, some one of the hundreds (or maybe thousands) of people she had crossed paths with in the previous days would have reported it. She had even worn it to a Career Day presentation the day before to get attention -- Star Simpson -- wearing a star -- get it? And none of the reps from the high tech companies attending or anyone else got alarmed by it.

She made one of two mistakes. Either she was too tired that morning to notice what she was putting on. OR she knew she was putting it on and she didn't realize how ignorant the rest of us are and didn't realize that anyone would think the thing looked like a bomb.

As an MIT student, if she had wanted to design a "bomb hoax" or a "fake bomb" it would have at least LOOKED like one.

For a picture of the Star's star, look here:

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