September 21, 2008 marks exactly one year since the day on which 19-year-old MIT engineering student Star Simpson walked into Boston’s Logan International Airport wearing a home-made light-up sweatshirt, and asked an airport worker for information about a friend’s arriving flight.
Boston is the city from which two terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks departed in 2001. They boarded planes at Logan and flew them into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York, destroying the buildings and killing nearly 3,000 people.
In January 2007, a false terrorism scare happened in Boston when a guerrilla marketing team working to promote Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force show placed LED signs around the city. Authorities mistook the colorfully lit boards for bombs.
Just eight months later, in a persisting environment of anxiety over terrorism, a Boston Logan Airport worker mistook Star Simpson’s LED-adorned wearable tech garment for a suicide bomb. That airport worker phoned Boston police. A small misunderstanding over a hoodie quickly became a surreal debacle during which police said they came close to killing Ms. Simpson.
Last Friday, we aired an interview with Star Simpson — her first public comments on the incident since that day — in a ten-minute video feature on Boing Boing tv (here’s the direct MP4 link).
Some viewers asked if we could publish a transcript of our entire 45-minute Skype video chat, and here it is. One year, countless court dates, and much media uproar later, Star’s wry advice to other would-be wearable electronics makers? “Hide the batteries.” Snip from the transcript:
XENI JARDIN: So what exactly happened? What was the moment that changed from you going to pick up your friend with this shirt and another device which you’ll show us in a moment… when did everything switch.
STAR SIMPSON: The woman who made the call surprised me. I was asking an information woman for, ‘has the flight come in, can you tell me which baggage claim to be at…’ and she looked at my jacket and glazed over completely in fear. And I was very surprised by that, I didn’t know what to say. That was how everything started. I tried my best to explain everything to her, and I turned the lights off the jacket. Nothing calmed her down. No words could convey anything calming to her. I thought maybe I could at least get out of her sphere of terror, whatever was causing her such anxiety, by maybe going somewhere else and trying to find my friend on my own. Then, I didn’t expect that things would go so badly from there. After that I was trying to leave the airport, I was catching the shuttle bus to go home because I realized that I’d missed my friend and the next best thing I could to was find a phone. I was waiting on the traffic island for the next shuttle bus to get on the subway when all of a sudden my hands were grabbed from behind me.
XENI: Who was grabbing your hands?
STAR: It turned out to be the state police. They have this magic trick where 40 of them can appear all at once out of nowhere. I didn’t see them coming ever. Just, all of a sudden my hands were wrenched up over my head and my stuff was thrown on the ground, and they’re everywhere, and some of them were holding really big devices that I realized were machine guns, later. I was — I couldn’t identify them at the time, I thought maybe they were camera tripods. I had no idea what was going on.
Full text of the interview follows after the jump.
XENI JARDIN: Welcome to Boing Boing tv, I’m Xeni Jardin and today we’re going to speak with Star Simpson. I’m holding a stack of paper here, about 300 comments to a BB post dated September 21 2007. The title of that post is MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with “fake bomb”. And the short version is that it turned out not to be a fake bomb at all. It was a wearable tech jacket, a t-shirt with a breadboard and LED lights that light up, which led to a huge misunderstanding that changed this woman’s life and changed a lot of how many of us feel about “maker culture” and airports, where those two things meet. Star, welcome to Boing Boing tv, and thanks very much for joining us today.
STAR SIMPSON: Thank you.
XENI: Star, what happened, tell me about that day, that incident — what were you thinking when you wore that to the airport and when you crafted that. Did it ever occur to you that what happened could happen?
STAR: No not in the least, that did not ever occur to me. I made it thinking that I lived with some of the coolest, brightest circuit hackers in the world, and that wearable electronics were this cool thing I’d heard about since I was a kid, something that was part of the future and awesome. I wanted to make something where a bunch of people could collaborate on a cool circuit and I wanted to make clothes that involved electronics, because that’s what I love. But that could change and evolve over time. Because sewing is tedious, and if you put a bunch of conductive thread on your clothes and you end up with something you don’t like in a month… with a breadboard, though, you could just change it. I wore it to the airport because I was going to meet my friend Tim, who’s taught me a whole lot about electronics. The thought that crossed my mind was “Oh, maybe Tim will like my project, it’s kind of nerdy and cute, and that’s the extent of what I thought. I wore the jacket mainly because it was a cold, grey day like this one, as you can see behind me. It was damp and cold outside that day in Boston. I had no idea what was going on when they arrested me. Pure terror.
XENI: So what exactly happened? What was the moment that changed from you going to pick up your friend with this shirt and another device which you’ll show us in a moment… when did everything switch.
STAR: The woman who made the call surprised me. I was asking an information woman for, ‘has the flight come in, can you tell me which baggage claim to be at…’ and she looked at my jacket and glazed over completely in fear. And I was very surprised by that, I didn’t know what to say. That was how everything started. I tried my best to explain everything to her, and I turned the lights off the jacket. Nothing calmed her down. No words could convey anything calming to her. I thought maybe I could at least get out of her sphere of terror, whatever was causing her such anxiety, by maybe going somewhere else and trying to find my friend on my own. Then, I didn’t expect that things would go so badly from there. After that I was trying to leave the airport, I was catching the shuttle bus to go home because I realized that I’d missed my friend and the next best thing I could to was find a phone. I was waiting on the traffic island for the next shuttle bus to get on the subway when all of a sudden my hands were grabbed from behind me.
XENI: Who was grabbing your hands?
STAR: It turned out to be the state police. They have this magic trick where 40 of them can appear all at once out of nowhere. I didn’t see them coming ever. Just, all of a sudden my hands were wrenched up over my head and my stuff was thrown on the ground, and they’re everywhere, and some of them were holding really big devices that I realized were machine guns, later. I was — I couldn’t identify them at the time, I thought maybe they were camera tripods. I had no idea what was going on.
XENI: What happened then?
STAR: A lot. I had a bike lock clipped to my bag, and one of them asked me, ‘Why would you bring a bike lock to the airport?’ And they asked me about everything I had on me, my keys, anything, they asked each other if I had a lighter on me, I don’t really understand why a lighter would be — anybody’s allowed to have a lighter on you, but not then, it would have helped with the argument that I had explosives on my person.
XENI: So you’re being asked about things that were mundane parts of the stuff you carry around with you in your daily life in Boston, and what’s going through your head now? You’re realizing there are 40 armed guys, and the situation has taken on a different life, what’s going through your head at that moment?
STAR: The sense that everything is going completely wrong. Trying to understand what is going on. Getting patted down and searched, take off your clothes, they asked me to take off the sweatshirt so they could look it over, looking through everything on me…
XENI: Were you wearing clothing underneath?
STAR: I was, I had a shirt on underneath.
XENI: You were also, if I remember from these reports, you were carrying around a piece of play-doh and playing with it, and people thought maybe it was C4 or some kind of explosive — what was that?
STAR: Sure. That was this little hand-sculpted flower I brought to give my friend at the airport. (holds it up to camera, it’s a bright pink rose, hardened clay)
XENI: Well did it look like that, or did it look like a wad of C4?
STAR: This is exactly what it was. It wasn’t strapped to my chest, it was in my hand looking very much like a flower. It’s hard (taps it against desk and against fingernails). It’s not play-doh. (taps, audible) It’s baked, hard. And this is exactly how it looked on that day, it hasn’t changed shape or lost color or anything. They took it from me and kept it from me at the time. It’s been about a year since I had this in my possession. But I chose not to show it to people until now.
XENI: Does it have a little inscription on there?
STAR: Yes, it says “For Tim” on the bottom. (holds up to camera, inscription visible). Tim is the name of my friend at the airport. I found out later that the Boston State Police use play-doh to train for recognizing [the explosive material] Semtex. It would have been very convenient had it been play-doh, but this is not play-doh, this is a flower.
XENI: So, Star, what happened there. You are taken in to custody. Are you able to contact your friend, your family, an attorney?
STAR: Things dived further into this spiral of surreality. We were probably on the airport island for what felt like a half an hour, 45 minutes. Once they had gone through all my stuff they took me to the Boston State airport police office, questioned me, took my fingerprint and mugshots, and then had me on a couch in some officer’s office questioning me. At that point things were already blowing up outside. The phones were ringing off the hook in the police office. Somehow every news agency was all over it. The Secretary of Homeland Security called in wanting to know about the Boston Logan Suicide Bomber —
XENI: And that would be you.
STAR: Yeah, that would have been me. I wasn’t anything like that, but within one hour, I still don’t know what is going on, rumors are flying all the way to Washington DC, at least, how can — I didn’t know that was possible.
XENI: And Star, the first thing I might have done in that situation is called somebody on my cellphone, you didn’t have a cellphone with you?
STAR: No, I didn’t have a cellphone at that time. It ended up that reporters started calling my family and they called the police to try and contact me that way.
XENI: What happened then? You’re realizing you’ve been mistaken for a suicide bomber.
STAR: I thought maybe I could explain, I don’t know, the wheels had started rolling and no explanation made anything better, as you can tell. The next thing after that, they took me directly to court for a hearing.
XENI: Without being able to go home or speak to anyone, just directly from custody to court? Were you speaking to an attorney, to anybody?
STAR: No, nobody.
XENI: Did you ask to speak to an attorney?
STAR: When we were in court we started talking to attorneys. I’ve seen a lot of videos, like, from the ACLU, explaining how to properly talk to police, since then. I definitely wish I’d seen them beforehand.
XENI: What were some of the things you said to the police?
STAR: They asked things like — so, my friend had a switch. He’s converting his car to veggie oil. I had a switch that I was supposed to give back to him in my bag. And they held it up in front of my face and said WHAT IS THIS! WHAT IS THIS! Just, shouting and yelling, and being very confusing. I answered, “it’s a switch…” what else, what else happened… they asked me, what was on my shirt. As soon as I could hand it to them, I did, the bomb squad guy was scrutinizing it and determined that it was a bunch of lights leading to a battery. They knew exactly what everything was before I was taken to the station.
XENI: Why do you think you were taken there and treated in such an aggressive manner, when some of the experts who were examining your things, if what you’re saying is accurate, understood that these were not bombs. Why do you think that kind of approach persisted?
STAR: It’s unfathomable to me. I’ve been completely bewildered by how far something like this can go. Boston appears to have some point to make. Some — I don’t know. It’s like there’s not a huge improvement in actual security, but there’s a large step up in the amount of acting, and theater, happening. My understanding is that it’s part of that.
XENI: So, you’re taken to court, and this is the first time you speak to an attorney.
STAR: Actually, on the way to court, in the police car — it was an unmarked car. The officers were discussing how it should be an unmarked car because they didn’t want to bias the public, which was ridiculous, given the words they used later. Then in the police car, someone was listening to a talk show, and the talk show came on, and they were describing where I lived in the car, while I was on the way to court, already the radio is telling everybody where I live.
XENI: You’re hearing this on the radio?
STAR: Yeah, I didn’t even know exactly what was going on. And I’m hearing the facts that I’m supposed to believe about myself on the radio on the way to court.
XENI: By this time, have you spoken to anybody, your parents, friends, anyone?
STAR: Just Tim, the friend at the airport, who said, where can I meet you, tell me how to help.
XENI: So you arrive at court, what happens.
STAR: At court, this was another surreal thing — I was taken to the back and was put in jail. They shackled my hands and ankles, and waited until the hearing with the judge, I was in the jail in the back for an hour.
XENI: So by this time how much time has passed since you first asked the airport information lady your question.
STAR: About 4 or 5 hours. Definitely enough time to start to make some better judgements.
XENI: So you’re shackled, you’re in jail, what happens then.
STAR: I’m in the court then, after that, with a court-appointed lawyer, making some basic statements, based on whatever information is available. That’s — at the time, that’s when the media mob was all around me. There were a million cameras there. We tried to leave, they were chasing us through the courthouse, hounding the car…
XENI: I remember seeing video or snapshots on blogs of you and your friend Tim leaving the courthouse at some point.
STAR: More like fleeing the courthouse.
XENI: Where did you go? At what point did you stop being a shackled detainee, and return to being someone who could leave of her own free will?
STAR: At that point, we’d called a bunch of lawyers, the advice was to not talk to anybody. We left and I tried to figure out what had happened that day. I spent some time trying to get my mind around what had happened, is this really possible? Where do I live? What is this? What do I do? How big is this? I didn’t realize my name and face were already being published internationally. No sense of the grandness of the media blowup.
XENI: I’m looking at a printout of the original Boing Boing post, September 21, 7:43AM. I was personally following this story all day. I think I made like, nine? Fifteen updates throughout the day. But we watched this story as it unfolded, I remember being on the other side of the monitor, as it were, thinking — our hunch, sort of knowing who you probably were by 6 or less degrees of separation through the internet, maker culture and whatnot, we on Boing Boing kind of got it that unless we’d really misjudged you, you were not a suicidal terrorist. Our presumption that was a horrible misunderstanding had taken place here. You blacked out after that, vanished, we heard nothing from you. What happened then?
STAR: That day — so, 7:43am for Boing Boing would have been noonish for me. I was just getting out of court. I tried contacting different lawyers. The lawyers for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guys gave us advice. I think it was he who said don’t talk to the press. That’s why you didn’t hear anything from me until now. I was in the middle of a pretty hectic term at MIT, my goal was to get a deep breath, figure out what had gone on, and put everything I could into — okay, that was something that happened, and my focus was to finish MIT and I didn’t believe that this court thing… because it was so clear to me, why I made this, I never expected that this case would last for an entire year. I didn’t expect the postponements, delays, we can’t dismiss this now because the media is paying too much attention. That just seemed totally, totally backwards, right? That should not be the focus of the justice system.
XENI: So eventually though, this did come to trial. That’s September of last year, your first court hearing was months later?
STAR: There were many dates, they were mostly dates to postpone the hearing. Finally I had court date in June, 2008. My fourth D.A., the judge was retiring. My lawyers recommended that I make a deal with the D.A. and end the case, and after an entire year I was definitely very tired and also wanted to end everything also. So the deal made with the D.A. was to perform 50 hours of community service, to not be arrested in Massachusetts, for an entire year, and that I had to issue a public apology to Boston.
XENI: What were you accused of, and what was it decided that you’d done? Were you convicted of a crime?
STAR: I was not. The other part of the deal was that MA dropped the “hoax device” charge, finally, after a year.
XENI: Can you explain what that was?
STAR: A “hoax device” is defined as an “infernal machine,” any device intended to cause anxiety or fear. I think I read a case where the last person charged with this actually had explosives and was using them to clear land on his own private property and didn’t have anything to ignite the explosives. But I didn’t have anything like that. Another key part of the charge is that you have to intend to cause fear, anxiety, and I did not have that intention. So after the many months, MA finally dropped the “hoax device” charge. They claimed I’d been a disorderly person instead, because you don’t have to intend to be a disorderly person. You can charge anyone with that. And if I don’t complete the community service, I would be charged with that. It’s a totally fascinating thing. If you watch the press report on that day, Major Scott Pare says it’s lucky I cooperated with the police because otherwise I would have ended up in the morgue instead of a cell.
XENI: Star, how do you feel when you hear that quote?
STAR: Terrified. Completely terrified. I was almost killed on that day. The police could kill me, and I would never have been able to ask what was going on. It’s hard to believe they mean me.
XENI: Was the judgement fair? Are you angry about how things turned out?
STAR: It doesn’t make any sense to me. I happened to wear the wrong shirt on the wrong day to the wrong place and all of a sudden, here’s two years of dealing with this, and I should make an apology for the over-reaction of a bunch of other people who heard that I was doing something wrong and didn’t make their decisions based on facts. Now I’m being punished for something they’ve admitted was not a charge they could pursue.
XENI: How have you been punished? How has the reaction to this incident changed your life?
STAR: I’ve become very turned off to living in Boston. I’m taking time off to travel, because that seems like a much better plan than continuing to live in that state. The reaction of people in Boston has been — based on news reports containing any number of lies by the police, and little embellishments by writers, people have — any number of reactions towards me. While biking one day, some complete stranger spit on me, spit on my bicycle, and shouted that I should have done time. I know he doesn’t know anything about what actually happened.
XENI: Does that happen often, hostile reactions from people on the street?
STAR: Yeah. Every time I’d go out, I’d meet some person who had something to say, and had formed strong opinions and decided to take that opportunity to take them out on me.
XENI: So are you still an MIT student?
STAR: Yes, and I’ll be returning at some point.
XENI: When?
STAR: I’m not sure. Maybe a year, maybe more.
XENI: I remember reading something you said, that you felt like MIT disowned you, is that correct?
STAR: Yeah, so not only did the Boston Herald and other papers slander me on the day, but MIT made a press statement on that same day, before even I know on, and when they definitely did not know what was going on — doing the same thing. Making a public statement about what had happened. There were no facts available and they were making statements about what had happened, my own school.
XENI: What did they say, Star?
STAR: That my actions were reckless and cause for concern.
XENI: How did that make you feel?
STAR: I didn’t know where to go, who to talk to. What I should do. I needed advice from someone. I’m trying to do well in school, here’s my school telling the entire world what they think of me without any basis.
XENI: Who did you go to for advice and support?
STAR: Mostly the people I live with. The same creative people and engineers who’d inspired me to build the shirt in the first place. I ended up hiding from anywhere I used to go, for that first week after it happened. Any time I showed up at the machine shop I used to hang out at, there would be reporters outside. I didn’t want any of that. I just wanted to be able to go to a place and figure everything out. I couldn’t go back to my house that much. I did call my family — they lived in Hawaii, so finding everything out was time-delayed. They provided support. Tim provided support. My friends provided support.
XENI: Did one of your friends give you the plans, the design for that shirt?
STAR: I designed everything myself.
XENI: What were the reactions of your friends and roommates?
STAR: When I first started working on it, it was like, oh you could put this on it, you could put that on it… then, when I got arrested, people didn’t believe it. Didn’t believe it was me. Everyone was completely shocked and didn’t know what to say, do, or believe.
XENI: Star, how old are you now?
STAR: 20.
XENI: Do you feel like what happened with this incident has caused you to grow up faster?
STAR: The main thing I can say is that I believed that police were nice, friendly folks before last September. And my opinion has changed drastically in that respect.
XENI: Can you understand how maybe that first person who fingered you, the woman who was terrified by your shirt, can you feel empathy toward how that person might have been scared? How do you feel about that person’s reaction?
STAR: It inspires me to try and help explain electronics even more. I can see how a common picture of electronics could lead to an unreasonable reaction that is very strong. Yes, I can understand why she was gripped with fear and called the police. The only thing I can think to do is continue to study electronics, and try to help other people to learn, and understand.
XENI: Star, we asked Boing Boing tv viewers and people who read our blog for comments. I’ll ask Dana Devonshire, our series producer, if she’d read some of those out. Would you mind?
STAR: Sure, go ahead.
DANA: Twitter user “ehanesrn” asks Star, “How long did it take the ‘U gotta be kidding’ feeling to wear off after arrest?’ Seriously.”
STAR: I’m not sure that it has. It still seems surreal.
XENI: Was there a morning when you finally woke up — I mean, I remember when 9/11 happened, I woke up the next day and I thought, that was a dream, but then something snapped and I realize, no, that was real. When did that happen for you after this?
STAR: Maybe after 5 or 6 court dates.
XENI: So basically, last week, huh.
STAR: The fact I can say it’s over has a lot to do with saying it’s a real thing that did happen and is over. While it was going on it just kept growing into something more nightmarish each time.
DANA: Here’s another question. This is from @scott_so. He says, “Yeah, the TSA is ridiculous, but why instigate them?”
STAR: I never talked to the TSA. I was in baggage claim. I didn’t pass any security checkpoints. One of my friends pointed out that if you are exercising your right to bear arms, you can have 11 pounds of ammunition on you at that point. I didn’t meet any TSA people that day.
XENI: I’ll paraphrase some of the 250-odd comments on that original Boing Boing post, too — many people asked, “Cmon, what were you thinking? Who would wear something like that to the airport? I know what it was, but I’m not dumb.” I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times. What do you say to those people?
STAR: I was thinking it was a cold day. It was a sweatshirt. If I’d seen my work through their eyes, no, it wouldn’t have made any sense to wear it. But I didn’t see it that way.
DANA: @witz wants to know if you still wear electrically powered clothing with lights after the Logan incident?
STAR: I have a lot more trepidation. I haven’t worn that sweatshirt since, even though I got it back in June. Hasn’t really been cold enough yet. I still like the idea. I still want to wear clothing that anybody can edit, and has cool circuits in it. I want to be a walking radio, I want to wear clothing with cool decorations.
DANA: Here’s another question from Twitter. @biovert wants to know if your notoriety post-LED t-shirt has resulted in any job offers.
STAR: No.
XENI: Reality TV show offers?
STAR: No. A lot of my friends had offers to be on various talk shows, but I thank them for all being sane enough to know better.
DANA: @RobboMills asks, “Do you think they would have reacted differently if it had been a hat?”
STAR: Hm. That’s a good idea. Maybe so. There actions seem pretty irrational to me, I can’t make good guesses.
XENI: I’m going to throw out another question from the blog. One anonymous commenter says [http://boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html#comment-23001],
“What she created is a crude version of a promotional products T-Shirt used by companies to advertise their products. These have been around for years. I have one with the Heineken logo on it which lights up, rotates the lights in different areas and plays different music depending on the settings. Inside the T-shirt is the battery compartment and all the wiring.”
This is not the first time someone has worn clothing with electronics in it. There are blogs, conferences, books devoted to this subject. The fact that all of the wiring and the homemade-ness was evident seems to me like what caused the reaction here. What do you think?
STAR: It’s true these things exist. I did my best and I did it quickly. I hadn’t scrutinized the placement of the battery pack in other wearables. That probably does make some difference but I don’t see why it should.
XENI: Context came up in many of these comments, people said, I don’t see anything wrong with making devices like this but I would have considered the context and the security hysteria…. what is your response?
STAR: I didn’t know until after I got arrested that Logan was quite so hyper about security. I learned afterwards. It makes sense to be considerate.
DANA: I just want to ask you, Star, do you regret having chosen to wear this sweatshirt that day? You chose to do this innocently enough, but do you regret this?
STAR: It’s pushed me, fueled me to explore other projects. [Boing Boing tv] interviewed me about Fuzzy Logic, which came directly out of the fact that people view electronics as scary, and they could be presented differently. I don’t think I would have not chosen to wear the sweatshirt. It’s like Groundhog Day. Every single day I would have woken up and picked out this sweatshirt. It’s that day, played over and over again.
XENI: How do you feel most misunderstood by the world? If there was one thing you could say to set your own story straight, what would that be?
STAR: The biggest misunderstanding was that I was trying to create havoc. It was an innocent action in nature. It goes back to the question about why I chose to wear the shirt that day. In light of having been arrested, it appears maybe I put a whole lot of thought into this, and where I was going, and how it would appear in that situation. But in my mind, I was going to pick up a friend, and I put on whatever shirt. It wasn’t an action at all. There wasn’t a ton of weight in consideration.
XENI: You’re a year older and wiser. What would you say to someone else, maybe a younger person who’s becoming fascinated by wearable computing and thinking of tinkering around with this?
STAR: Practically? Hide the batteries. Some people commented on how there were “exposed wires.” But actually, before I went to the airport I taped down the wires so they wouldn’t short. I’d encourage someone who is fascinated by wearable electronics to make them. I continue to encourage that.
XENI: Do you feel like that’s tied in to what it is to be an American?
STAR: Yes. You have to learn by making. To be able to make your own stuff is — I mean, since you ask me about being an American, my perception is that a lot of the country is built on the ability to make things. It’s important. You can’t just buy everything.
XENI: Star, is there anything else you’d like to say to our audience?
STAR: I hope in seeing this, they can understand better.
XENI: Star, you mentioned that part of the court decision is that you have to do community service, for 50 hours. And you have to do a public apology. Have you done those?
STAR: I’ve completed half of the community service. You can choose what you’ll do for 25 hours of it, and I finished those. I taught at the South End Technology Center in Boston, where they teach about technology and electronics to just about anybody, mostly underprivileged kids. I did a summer program, and did another bit of it on the BioTour bus which travels the country to teach people about clean energy. The other 25 hours I’m required for some reason to serve community service specifically with veterans. I’m figuring out how to do that. The public apology was written by my lawyers and apologizes, essentially, for Boston’s overreaction on that day.
XENI: Our segment producer Derek Bledsoe has another question — why you chose to talk to Boing Boing, and why now. You haven’t spoken publicly about any of this until today. Why with us?
STAR: I didn’t speak about it at all on advice of my lawyers. It’s been about a year, and I realized it’s important to say my end of things, because that perspective doesn’t exist. I chose Boing Boing because of all of the different news headlines I read, Boing Boing was the least speculative, and appeared to get most everything right, in terms of your guesses as to why I made it, and my not having intended to cause any havoc. Thanks for the good coverage. For the West Coast to get it more right than people locally, was pretty good.
XENI: And you’re publishing the plans for this shirt on Instructables?
STAR: Yes, I’d intended to publish it at the time. I like sharing plans on how to make things, in a collaborative way with other people, so they can learn electronics and instant wearable clothing.
XENI: Star Simpson, thank you for joining us on Boing Boing tv.
STAR: Thank you, Xeni.
Related:
BBtv: Star Simpson’s first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare.
Update: Star Simpson says, “I would like to thank Dwyer & Collora, my lawyers. I wanted to, but forgot to mention it during the interview taping.”