Star Simpson, everybody's favorite LED-bedecked MIT student, got pre-trial probation today after Suffolk County prosecutors acknowledged they didn't have enough evidence to actually charge her with a felony.

UPDATE: Judge continued case to May 23; see comments below.

An East Boston District Court judge is expected to rule today on a request by Star Simpson to dismiss those Logan bomb-scare charges, the Suffolk County DA's office advises.

Somehow, there would have been some poetic justice if Star Simpson's latest court appearance were yesterday. But maybe the lawyers and the judge were mindful of that when they set today as the date for arguing some pre-trial motions in East Boston District Court.

Suddenly, the outside world cares a lot about it because of Star Simpson.

Chris Csikszentmihalyi, who directs the Computing Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab, discusses that culture, how Star Simpson fits in and what, exactly, that circuit-boardish thing she was wearing is (it wasn't a circuit board, to start). He also photographs some Fox News reporters who were hounding people on the MIT campus Friday.

... Sure, Star was being kind of dumb. Or absentminded. But Norbert Wiener, one of the most famous professors from MIT, used to forget if he'd eaten lunch or not. After speaking to someone in the hallways, he would ask what direction he'd been walking when they'd met, so that he'd know if he was coming from or going to the canteen. I find that pretty dumb - MIT is full of people who are math smart but socially naive. That's why we have a charm school - though not enough students enroll. ...

The Outraged Liberal says it's not loony MIT students but the way the government is now tracking even the books American travelers carry with them:

... Maybe George Orwell's only mistake was not naming his book 2007?

Speaking of Star Simpson (what, haven't heard enough of her already?), Dan Kennedy wonders just how long Howie Carr spent on his generic stupid-college students column today: Four minutes or five?

So this college student goes up to a counter at Logan with a blinking circuit board strapped to her chest and a blob of unidentifiable material ...

"She claims that it was just art and she was proud of the art and wanted to display it. I am not sure why she had the Play-Doh in her hands. She could not explain that," Pare said.

Channel 4 has more:

Simpson was "extremely lucky she followed the instructions or deadly force would have been used," Pare said. "She's lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue."

Except she wasn't wearing a hoax bomb. Joshua Glenn explains how she was basically wearing a light-up sweatshirt. The DA's office, of course, begs to differ.

Bonus: She's an MIT student who, according to her overloaded Web site (thanks, Google Cache) lets us know:

... I love to build things and I love crazy ideas. ... I lived for a long time in Hawaii, while traveling the world and saving the planet from evil villains with my delivered-just-in-time gadgets.

More on what she likes to build.

Simpson was released on $750 bail this morning after her arraignment in East Boston District Court on a single count of "possession of a hoax device." The Suffolk County District Attorney's office had asked bail be set at $5,000. She's due to return to court Oct. 29 for a pre-trial hearing.

There's got to be more to this story, though, right?