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More Ways to Blow Things Up
pitabutter writes "Since the /. crowd seems to appreciate the exciting combination of amateur chemistry and fearlessness (what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?), Sam Barros' site would be worth a look. Rail guns, high voltage, electromagnetic experiements-all there and with videos to boot. Unable to confirm if Sam still has appendages intact........"
George Goble's home page.
what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?
Lack of it?
Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
Q: what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?
A: they are inversely proportional. just look at the current US administration.
> January 26th:
> PowerLabs was featured on a ZZZ Article;
> traffic triples (now at 4000+ hits/day).
Let's see what he's learned about scalable designs. I guess Slashdot is going to be part of the "+".
I grew up with the Mr Wizard generation. Making bombs from flour, hot air baloons and electricuting weiners. Which looking back could have killed me. In highschool we discovered the proportions to gun powder and made a beaker full
what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?
Oh no, you're wrong. Blowing things up is a univerisal love of all humans. It's just the un-intelligent ones only do it once.
"what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?"
I think that's more of a male thing than an intelligence thing.
All you destructive women out there, feel free to violently disagree. And get it on camera, for fuck's sake.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
This blowing things up reminds me of the Survival Research Labs. Big pseudo-military machines running about and causing destruction and mayhem, like the Pitching Machine? I'd love to see any machine that can huck 2x4's at 120 mph. Anyone been lucky enough to see a show?
Okay, I wear a trench coat, I was just as alienated as the next teenager, but I find this picture a little troubling. Sam Barros lives in Michigan now, and if you saw Bowling for Columbine you know what that means - all the other children are armed too. Teenagers with guns bother me, because my Mom TOOK MY GUN AWAY - I mean, because it's dangerous.
:)
It's not how long you lived, it's HOW you lived...
I felt the same way when I was his age
Seriously; there are physiological changes that occur, alterations in brain chemistry, which, let us face facts, impair the judgement and good sense of young people. That is not to say that there are no teenagers with far better sense than the average adult; but even so, it's a stage in neurological development that does not promote sensible behavior.
It also means that explosions are not nearly as cool as they seem when you're 18. Another fact - chicks do not dig explosions. I learned this the hard way so now I pass it on to the younger generation.
I don't think explosives chemistry is a good starting place for a junior chemist; Sam Barros has obviously done fine, but I'm not sure how this stands as a role model. For one thing, he clearly does have good sense (note the many safety warnings emblazoned all over his web page.)
Chemistry involving dyes, optics, visual effects, material science and metallurgy (electroplating, for example) is no more difficult and much safer. Making stuff like this can't indulge your inner pyromanic like a bomb can. I'm not trying to criticize teenage boys for wanting to cause some damage - I certainly did - but it worries me.
So, I wonder - why does the slashdot story focus on the explosives? His EM devices are cooler anyway.
Ah, the hell with it. I'm only 23 years old! What am I thinking? It's time I put together a web page on how to weaponise biological and chemical agents. Now THAT would earn you some attention at the science fair.
Finally - when blowing up your school, wear ear protection! Regrowing fingers and toes is just around the corner (well, hopefully, I have some friends working on this); regrowing your inner ear may never be possible.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
As noted in the Village Voice:
The innovative savvy of American electrical engineers always astounds. If something terrible can be built in the name of security, they never shirk. Who else would be brilliant enough to come up with a water gun that carries molar-rattling electrical shocks?
The aqueous electrocutor sprays a "high-pressure saline solution with additives" mixed in to maximize range in putting down that troublesome rabble. "[Debilitating] but not lethal shocks" move through the water jet, according to Jaycor's online brochure. The company hints the voltage can be turned up "to deliver potent electrical shocks to equipment as well as individuals."
This stuff is starting to scare me. And the basic idea is simple enough that it could be a do it yourself in your own garage type of project for either the profoundly brilliant or profoundly stupid
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Seriously, security through ignorance is about as futile as security through obscurity. If High Schools want to water down their chemistry classes in a vain attempt to keep people from learning how to make bombs, I pity them. It's not going to stop a kid who wants to blow up the school from doing so, because the information is everywhere and the materials are common household products. They should just go ahead and teach the kids some cool chemistry with cool demonstrations like methane bubbles, nitrocellulose, thermite, Sugar+KNO3, Zinc+NH4NO3+NH4Cl+H20, etc., all of which I got to do in my AP chem class. :)
Plus you can save a lot of money on fireworks around the 4th by making your own ;). Go grab a 20-lb bag of ammonium nitrate, some zinc powder, and then some colorings:
NaCl (table salt) - orange KCl (salt substitute, road salt) - purple CaCl2 (road salt) - orange Copper - blue
plus paints are a good source of exotic transition metals, if you can figure out what exactly they contain.
Repeal the DMCA!
I think out of the hundred meter per second or whatever that the projectile leaves the breech, about 90+% of the speed is due to the gas injector he uses to avoid spot welding.
The problem is that the pulse of current happens way too early in the gun, and he skids off a lot of his power in arcing.
He used to run a forum on his website (it seems to be still there, although it doesn't work right now). There was a lot of people, more or less as knowledgeable as him on his forum really interested in trying to help him design it; but he ran roughshod over the lot of them. And they told him about the pulse length issue. So basically they all got majorly pissed off and went off elsewhere in a huff, and they laughed when it didn't go supersonic; well it was Sam Barros's rail gun, but they were trying to help, and he ignored them, and he suffered. Sam had spent too much time going for 'oxygen free copper' to try to improve the current flow, but it didn't help, because but didn't get the fundamentals right.
But that wasn't the reason they left; it was just the proverbial straw; the problem is that Sam has a few ego problems, atleast online, he may well be more personable in the flesh; but he enjoyed telling people how stupid they were online. Mostly they were too, but few people came back to the site after that kind of treatment; and sometimes Sam was wrong, so he treated them unjustly for no reason.
So, basically, the powerlabs forum has basically died, all the contributors went elsewhere.
His basic technical skills are exceptional, although nothing he has done is actually original, so it remains to be seen whether he can achieve his potential, and as anyone can see from the site- he is good.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"