Whenever terrorism becomes a topic of discussion on PPRuNe, a lot is made about ensuring nothing is said that may be useful to would be terrorists - either in terms of technical information or simply "giving them ideas"...
I tend to think that the relatively small number of determined terrorists that are out there will have little trouble researching their "craft" elsewhere, but this incident really makes me wonder how many idiots out there might be tempted to try a similar hoax after seeing this on the news.
The world media seems eager to show high resolution photographs of the "device" while devoting countless hours of airtime to discussing exactly how easy it was to bring the component parts aboard and just how difficult it would be to prevent somebody else from doing exactly the same thing again. Add to this the continuing footage of disrupted passengers and constant reminders of just how many people were affected and how much disruption and cost this represents to the airline and you have a perfect recipe for idiots getting ideas. And let's face it, idiots are far more plentiful in this world than comitted terrorists!
It would be nice if the global media could show a little more restraint (and common sense!) when reporting stories like this but, given the likelihood of that, let's just hope that the punishment is severe when it is handed out and that the media show as much vigour in reporting it.