Home Made Star Wars Movie Injury

SaleNowOn writes "Rather than use expensive cgi techniques to make the light sabres glow for their home movie. This couple instead used fluorescent tubes filled with petrol. Which they then set alight. If they don't survive they must be Future Darwin Award winners. It makes me proud to be British." And me embarassed to be a Star Wars geek.

Comments

Glow Sticks

[Rolyat69]

Why oh why didn't they just use Glow Sticks? Here is a nice article on how they work. Crack them, cut them open, and dump into some sort of clear plastic tubing and seal. From what I understand, Glow Sticks are nontoxic and come in nifty colors! I guess the force just isn't that strong with them. :)

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[tehshen]

I guess the force just isn't that strong with them. :)

Of course it isn't. That's why you have to crack 'em.

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[AndroidCat]

Why not just pack the tubes with radioactive material and heavy water? Or Radium and Zinc Sulfide for that retro-look Undark glow? (Risk doesn't seem to be a problem for them.)

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[Anonymous Coward]

AKA Snap-Light / Break-Light

Since it requires agitation of the chemicals and then shaking to mix for faster rasterisation1

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[c0bw3b]

yeah, I've even seen lightsaber sized glowsticks.. Don't even have to open the things!

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[AKAImBatman]

More seriously, Tritum + Phosphor would do nicely without posing much of a health risk. The only catch is that Tritium cost $$$ for very small quantities. For something the size of a lightsaber, it's likely that the cost of the Tritium would be too high.

The original poster had the best idea. Filling clear plastic tubes with a phosphorescent solution would have given them all the effect they wanted, but without the inherent danger. Of course, Adobe After Effects would have been even cheaper and safer, but these guys were obviously amatuers.

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[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, I've even seen lightsaber sized glowsticks..

Ye gods! That must have been one hell of a concert!

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[javamann]

Last year on the 4th of July we were driving back from the fireworks. My son was chewing on a glow stick in the car. I warned him that they could break but being a kid he didn't listen. As soon as we stop at home I hear this 'eeewwwww' from the back and when he got out both his mouth and shirt were glowing. That was a Kodak moment.

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[dr_dank]

As soon as we stop at home I hear this 'eeewwwww' from the back and when he got out both his mouth and shirt were glowing. That was a Kodak moment.

Does your son now grow 10 times his size and smashes shit when he gets angry?

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[Anonymous Coward]

First sign of a lazy parent: blame the kid

Second sign of a lazy parent: substitute talk for action

Third sign of a lazy parent: poor expectations in assuming that the previous signs are going to be effective parenting skills.

Moral of this particular story: actually physically stop your kid from chewing on a glowstick. There's glass in many of them--the part that goes "crunch" when they are broken to start the glowing.

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[dgatwood]

Heck, just get yourself a power cord and an upstep transformer and put a few hundred thousand volt charge on one end of the bulb. IIRC, it should then glow through simply leaking electrical charge into the air. Wear nonconductive gloves.

Yes, I've seen this done, but I don't remember the details.... It may have involved a Vandegraaff generator....

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[cavtroop]

LOL - I did this myself - I was in the Army at the time, and I was hanging glow sticks on a tree to setup a trail for the tanks to follow. I was nailing one to a tree, and had another in my mouth, managed to chomp down just a bit too hard. I was spitting red glowing goop for about 20 minutes. Lets just say I was the butt of many jokes that evening.

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[hey!]

This works amazingly well.

I have a friend who is machinist who made a number of beautiful plastic broadswords that were designed to be filled with something like twenty glow stiks worth of juice. The effect was spectacular, even in moderate lighting. They were exquisitely beautiful creations with several different colored plastic, finely shaped, finished and furnished. His best one he took to an Boskone years ago, where Larry Niven, who was staggering drunk at the time, asked to see it. Naturally Niven waved it around and smashed it against an elevator door, putting an ugly chimp and spiderweb cracks in it. My friend was pissed -- it took forever to make one that nice.

Personally I would have got a Sharpie and had Niven autograph the sword for me. Something like this: "To Dave -- Sorry about the sword, but I was being a drunk asshole at the time. All the best, Larry"

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[e_slarti]

First sign of why you should ignore an overly-judgemental poster: "Anonymous Coward".

Second sign of why you should ignore an overly-judgemental poster: Underwear is too tight to permit blood flow to the brain.

Third sign of why you should ignore an overly-judgemental poster: Making a big deal out of a really small incident.

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[Rei]

You need tight field lines to get coronal discharge - and if you use them, you'll probably see lightning coming from it in the dark. Tight field lines generally require fine wires. Also, the glow will be unicolor unless you outgas different gasses from your saber.

Not that I'd recommend using fluorescent light tubes filled with anything - that's a shatter risk. And while tritium isn't dangerous in most situations, that much tritium in a fragile container is asking for trouble - getting that much on your skin (where some may soak in) and in the air (which you'll breathe), you'll probably get a couple years to a couple decades of background radiation equivalent (based on the fact that drinking an entire tritium rifle sight is a two years dose).

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[javamann]

Dude, either you don't have children, or you are one of those parents whose children do no wrong. You know the type, no matter what the child does, it's not their fault. These are the kids that grow up, start a war, and then never admit they screwed up.

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[dgatwood]

Well, in that case... it already contains phosphorus. It wouldn't take a very thick layer of radium at all to emit enough alpha particle radiation to light the tube. Find somebody who still sells radium paint, paint the outside of the tube with a thin layer. Wear lead gloves. :-D

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[AndroidCat]

"Tritium requires a $40,000 dollar license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with secure facilities and weekly medical exams because of its radioactivity. Don't even think about trying to get Tritium. It is dangerous and illegal." (And this from people doing home-built fusion reactors!)

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[Anonymous Coward]

Fireworks on July 4? What ever for?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Have you ever seen a kid whose gotten their mouth cut from biting a glowstick? It's not pretty and the sad part is that it is completely preventable.

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[WoBIX]

If only they had done this in the US.

They'd already be counting their settlement money from George Lucas.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure they're quite toxic. Phenol is poisonous, and is produced as a byproduct inside the glowsticks.

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[e_slarti]

Just calm down. It may be preventable, but you have NO idea what the circumstances are. You don't know if his "kid" is 3 or 18.

And calling him a lazy parent because of one incident is incredibly short-sighted at best, and most likely hypocritical because I have yet to come across any perfect person or parentin my long struggles against personal entropy.

My point is, chill. You're over-reacting. Let the force flow within you. Let go...

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[javamann]

for about 22 minutes I think

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[ClickNMix]

Glow Sticks are nontoxic
Some aren't so safe to crack open, having a glowing mess on your hands while entertaining to friends, can be fairly uncomfortable as it burns your flesh.

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[oddaddresstrap]

The only catch is that Tritium cost $$$ for very small quantities.

I always buy it in bulk. It's way cheaper.

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[Kartik3]

Why not just use these wonderful Master Replicas lightsabers. These lightsabers glow, make sound FX and they are made of a durable plastic that allows for play-combat. I've seen them in person and the replica lightsabers are pretty cool. Although I'd be wary of too many battles with them as I have heard of them breaking from time to time. But it's still a hell of a lot cheaper and better than treatment at the burn unit.

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[Bigman]

Well, as a student we just went to a field with a power pylon, and they just glow of their own accord.. due to the field strength.

Not a good idea in the rain, mind.

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[Opie812]

Fireworks on July 4? What ever for?

...it's the British Thanksgiving.

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[Sebadude]

Actually, In the US they could sue the manufactuer for selling flammable petrol.

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[Mr Z]

They couldn't wait until November? ;-)

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[spike hay]

You need tight field lines to get coronal discharge - and if you use them, you'll probably see lightning coming from it in the dark. Tight field lines generally require fine wires. Also, the glow will be unicolor unless you outgas different gasses from your saber.

Not that I'd recommend using fluorescent light tubes filled with anything - that's a shatter risk. And while tritium isn't dangerous in most situations, that much tritium in a fragile container is asking for trouble - getting that much on your skin (where some may soak in) and in the air (which you'll breathe), you'll probably get a couple years to a couple decades of background radiation equivalent (based on the fact that drinking an entire tritium rifle sight is a two years dose).

If you are outdoors, you would probably be just fine. Tritium, after all, is hydrogen. It will rapidly ascend through the atmosphere. If it is inhaled, it is not metabolized by the body or taken into the bloodstream in significant quantities, so no huge problem there. The main with radioactivity is when you inhale a solid dust, and the material sits in your lungs, irradiating them for years on end. Tritium does not do this.

Also, the radiation can't penetrate the epidermis, which is a plus.

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[LurkerXXX]

Funny, I work with tritium all the time in a biology lab. No weekly medical exams needed. Maybe you should do more research on the subject before spouting all that stuff.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Actually seltzer water and UV light is the cheapest and safest way to get something to glow. It's been used in films.

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[gcatullus]

I may be out on a limb here, but the post in question sure sounded tongue in cheek. Especially since it is almost impossible to cut yourself with the plastic from consumer type glow sticks. The post to me sounded like a parody, like "It's all fun until someone loses an eye", or "Remember only you can prevent forest fires ... herpes ... insert any other calamity here."

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[Random_Goblin]

In the US they could sue the manufactuer for selling flammable petrol.
especially when they specifically ordered inflammable petrol and he gave them flammable stuff instead.

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[Rei]

Tritium is hydrogen, but you don't buy it or store it that way; it would be just plain silly (why make it more reactive and less dense than necessary?). Tritium is stored as heavy water.

The heavy water passes through your system relatively quickly (I've read that about half of it is gone within three days), but even still, that's a significant exposure to something whose half life is only a little over 12 years, even with its weak beta. As I mentioned, ingesting 100% of the contents of a laser sight is estimated to be about two years of background radiation equivalent (I can dig up the paper again if you would like).

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[gcatullus]

Consumer glow sticks are just glowing and sticky when you crack them open, never burned me. I was a boy scout when cylume light sticks started getting popular and we used to crack them open and paint our hands with them at summer camp. Less skin irritation than sun burns and bug repellent.

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[JDevers]

Your campus or facility has a site license. I've never heard of the medical exams, but the license is real and you will have to take certification courses in order to use the material as well as use appropriate safety devices.

If your institution DOESN'T follow these procedures (and is in the US...), let us all know so we can call your RSO and your state health department and get you shutdown for making the rest of us look bad.

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[Y2]

Tritium, after all, is hydrogen. It will rapidly ascend through the atmosphere.

By that logic, all the oxygen would have settled down here and the nitrogen would be up at 20,000 ft.

It ain't like that.

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[AndroidCat]

I quoted someone and gave the link. *shrug* I imagine that the rules are different between using minute amounts as a biological tracer, and wanting to turn batches into helium* and neutrons in a "Farnsworth Fusor". (* or whatever the tritium result would be.)

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[Anonymous Coward]

I decided to do something stupid as a kid (Imagine that, huh?)

I cracked open a couple of sticks and spread the inside all over my face and arms - so I would glow in the dark

It looked cool... but damn did it sting when it got in my eyes ;

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[LurkerXXX]

I never said we don't have a license or weren't trained to work with radiation. I called bullocks on needing weekly medical exams when using tritium.

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[Desco]

Florescent tape on a fencing sabre and some black lights makes a nice glowing effect on COMBAT READY weapons. (Be sure ya got proper head and groin protection.) Sure you need to fight around a few black lights, but most groups that do live fencing/swordfighting have some sort of restricted area they fight in. Yeah, it doesn't look QUITE right, but it DOESN'T EXPLODE! Plus on video, it does look pretty convincing.

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[Anonymous Coward]

cuz theres no better way to celibrate american independance then by blowing a piece of your country up.

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[fitten]

Yes, they are... Some of the early ones contained various chemicals such as methyl alcohol as well. I would *not* recommend anyone cutting open those things.

How I know this: Someone I know (wasn't me) decided for Halloween to cut some of those open and smear the glowy stuff on their face to make their face glow. Well, shortly after doing that, he became very ill and we took him to the emergency room where they told us not to do that anymore and why. I was there and witnessed this first-hand, this isn't an urban legend.

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[rollerbob]

They also could have used the electromagnetic field generated by overhead electricity cables to light up their flourescent tubes - Electromagnetic Emission Art.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Larry Niven was just jealous and did it on purpose... that old prick.

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[Anonymous Coward]

I think he gave up alcohol a while ago, but still needs watching.

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[Ash-Fox]

699 USD... defintely cheaper than a phosphorescent solution. But wait... that doesn't sound right.. you can get a phosphorescent solution for hell of a lot less.

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[AKAImBatman]

699 USD

What is $699? Tritium? Yes, it's not exhorbantly priced, but getting enough for a light saber is going to be.

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[Tamugin]

Here we get to see some of the silliness of hte English language. Inflammable and flammable both mean that it can be ignited. I think you're looking for the word "non-flammable". Definitions from dictionary.com follow:

inflammable - Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; flammable. Middle English, liable to inflammation, from Medieval Latin nflammbilis, from Latin nflammre, to inflame. See inflame.

flammable - Easily ignited and capable of burning rapidly; inflammable. From Latin flammre, to set fire to, from flamma, flame.

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[Idarubicin]

Funny, I work with tritium all the time in a biology lab. No weekly medical exams needed. Maybe you should do more research on the subject before spouting all that stuff.

Yes, but how much do you use in your lab? Most biochemistry protocols I know of use amounts measured in microcuries or even less. The University of New Hampshire requires routine urinalysis for tritium exposure for workers who handle more than 100 microcuries.

An emergency exit sign with six-inch lettering contains about 10 curies. In order to handle those quantities (or the substantially greater amount required to make a bright light saber) I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were fairly strict licensing and medical monitoring requirements.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Oo, I remember working with radioactive materials in college. Whether or not you had to take the course depended on how much radioactivity you were working with. I had to take a low-level course, which consisted of getting a book and listening to some audio tapes. I had to wear a lead apron, and a ring which had film in it for determining hand exposure. Been a long long time!

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[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty Fawke-ing interesting...

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[Ash-Fox]

Adobe after effects - standard edition

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[fnord_uk]

So, you're actually pointing out the silliness of the Latin language, not the English language.

The best thing about the English language was dropping the daft notion of gender in inanimate objects.

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[Anonymous Coward]

So by your logic, when you let the helium out of a ballon it just mixes with the air and doesn't rise?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Naturally Niven waved it around and smashed it against an elevator door, putting an ugly chimp and spiderweb cracks in it.

So Jerry Pournelle was with him?

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[AKAImBatman]

Adobe after effects - standard edition

Ah, ok. Now I follow. Yes, it isn't cheap. But the cost of the software is offset by the fact that it produces far better effects than phosphorescent solutions. Plus, there are competing products that cost quite a bit less. Or you could find a friend who has AAE to do some of the post-production for you. Or you could try to get a student discount. Or they could have pirated it. (Not ethical, but better than killing yourself.)

One way or another, they had far more and better options than filling a florescent lamp with gasoline.

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[coopex]

I call BS.

How Glowsticks WorkThe dangerous chemicals in glowsticks are h2o2 and phenol. 30% h2o2, the concentration in glowsticks, will scorch dirt, so even diluted after breaking the capsule it's utterly retarded to be smearing the stuff on your hands, and the phenol produced in the rxn is a nasty acid, not as bad a sulfuric, but definately something to quickly wash off your skin.

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[SmokeSerpent]

Are they still making those with a glass capsule inside? Other than that, I believe most glow sticks are "non-toxic".

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[javamann]

No, have you. If you have why didn't you prevent it? The only way to 'completely' prevent your kid from harm is to prevent them from doing anything at all. Lock'em in a rubber room until they are 18. My son bites his nails. Nothing I said or did could make him stop. He now has a nasty infection on a finger which hurts like hell. I am pretty sure he will think twice before biting his nails again.

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[spike hay]

Less dense materials rise in a fluid. Didn't you read anything about buoyancy in 2nd grade?

Hydrogen and helium compose a good chunk of the upper atmosphere. Because they are lighter. They also leak out into space. Again, because they are lighter than oxygen or nitrogen.

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[CohibaVancouver]

Yes, I've seen this done, but I don't remember the details.... It may have involved a Vandegraaff generator....

We used to do this with the Tesla coil we built for our grade eight science fair. It would light up fluorescent tubes that were in its vicinity. Trick was to never actually strike them together...

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[siriuskase]

Why not just grab a couple of light tubes and dance around next to an FM broadcast antenna? That's what we did back in '77.

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[JDevers]

After re-reading your previous post, I see that emphasis now...my bad...

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[LurkerXXX]

It depends on how anal the place is. Here it's only required if you work with 10 millicuries. We use 10 millicuries a shot of P32 all the time, but most experiments I've ever run that require tritium, call for far less.

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[LurkerXXX]

Oh, and no bioassays are needed for 10 millicuries of P32. I've avoided the 1 millicurie iodine limit as well.

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[PakProtector]

Sorry to disappoint you, but about sixty percent of the English language comes directly from latin. That's why someone who can speak latin can very easily grasp english word meanings.

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[flynns]

I called bullocks on needing weekly medical exams when using tritium.

...Sandra, is that you?

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[Anonymous Coward]

whoa asshole...

Parenting involves educating kids on the possible consequences of an action/inaction and then LETTING THEM LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES.

If the kid was chewing on a lightsaber I might agree with you. In this case the likelihood of serious harmful consequences was minimal so let the kid learn.

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[fnord_uk]

Me? I'm not disappointed. I'm English. I just think we should stay out of Europe until they can agree what gender a table is.

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[dvdeug]

It ain't like that.

Really? It's funny; considering that hydrogen is the most common gas in the universe, why isn't the Earth's atmosphere mostly hydrogen? Is it not possible that it's light enough to rise to the top of the atmosphere and escape into space?

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[W1BMW]

EffectsLab does a fantastic job on light-sabers if you're among the value-driven (or just a cheap bastard like me).

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[51mon]

10 millicuries for an "Exit" sign!?!

Oh and I like the "the supplier will dispose of it in 10 years time" comment on the website, like anyone will remember in ten years time, no one will rip it off and dump it in a skip, or take it home and stick it in their kids bedroom as a nightlight.

What started as a nice conversation on what stupid people do, is now reminding me why I went from pro-nuclear, to thinking the entire nuclear industry is scary.

We should teach nuclear dosing know-how to school kids, as they are going to need to know their curies, from their rads.

Okay I'm adding geiger counter to the birthday list.

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[thatguywhoiam]

Dude, either you don't have children, or you are one of those parents whose children do no wrong. You know the type, no matter what the child does, it's not their fault. These are the kids that grow up, start a war, and then never admit they screwed up.

Funniest Bush troll ever.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Why not just get fluid from http://www.wildfirefx.com/?

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[Y2]

Less dense materials rise in a fluid. Didn't you read anything about buoyancy in 2nd grade?

The mixed state of the gases has a lower free energy than a strictly stratified state. Didn't you read anything about thermodynamics during your Ph.D studies in physics?

As a proportion of all gas, sure there's a bit more hydrogen at a higher altitude than a lower one. But it doesn't all rise above the oxygen and nitrogen -- any more than the nitrogen all rises above the oxygen. Up to 100km or so, there's very little variation in the proportions. Beyond 100km, all gas densities fall off at different exponential rates.

Exercise for you: why doesn't the salt in the ocean sink to the bottom? Perhaps it didn't read anything about bouyance in second grade.

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[Y2]

It ain't like that.

Really? It's funny; considering that hydrogen is the most common gas in the universe, why isn't the Earth's atmosphere mostly hydrogen? Is it not possible that it's light enough to rise to the top of the atmosphere and escape into space?

Yes, hydrogen is the most common thing, aside from stupidity.

If escaping by its lighter mass is the reason the atmosphere isn't hydrogen-dominated, why hasn't the hydrogen escaped from the sun and Jupiter, leaving behind the 25% helium they are composed of?

Why doesn't the water vapor all rise to the top - it's lighter than oxygen or even nitrogen?

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[Anonymous Coward]

I am the author of the Fusor website. I mentioned medical exams because that is what the original Farnsworth team was forced to submit to when they used Tritium. For a sense of scale, they were using on the order of 10 Curies of Tritium at any given time.

I have changed my website to make note of this fact

Brian McDermott

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[eeg3]

You were pwnt in your attempt to pwn that guy, chuck.

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[hey!]

No, I've been writing a field bioinformatics proposal and have zoology on the brain.

Nice one though.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Wow! Good job! You got the joke ALL BY YOURSELF!

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[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a real simple test: Does it have a penis?

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[Idarubicin]

10 millicuries for an "Exit" sign!?!

Er, actually that's ten curies, not ten millicuries. I'm sure that makes you feel better.

It's actually not all that bad. If the sign is broken, the tritium gas just goes straight up. Even if you're indoors, it sits at the ceiling where you're not going to inhale it, and the tiny molecules easily escape from just about any building. Tritium outside the body is pretty much harmless--the low-energy beta rays won't penetrate skin. Even when inhaled very little of it will partition into the body.

Remember, they used to use radium for self-illuminating signs and whatnot. I'm much happier with tritium.

Okay I'm adding geiger counter to the birthday list.

Tritium isn't detected by Geiger counters, because its beta emissions are too wimpy to get through the counter's window. Sorry. :)

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[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention that they actualy *look* exactly
like light sabres (at least with my $150 JVC
camcorder). Filling florecent tubes with petrol?!
How the hell did they get that idea?

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[Anonymous Coward]

Tritium, after all, is hydrogen. It will rapidly ascend through the atmosphere. If it is inhaled, it is not metabolized by the body or taken into the bloodstream in significant quantities, so no huge problem there. The main with radioactivity is when you inhale a solid dust, and the material sits in your lungs, irradiating them for years on end. Tritium does not do this.

This is mostly incorrect. It's not really a health hazard, but not for the reasons you list. As pointed out by another poster, tritium is stored as heavy water. Chemically, heavy water is identical to ordinary water - and whatever happens to the hydrogen in water, can happen to the tritium in heavy water.

If you drink it, it will be absorbed into your body. It's water, so bioavailability is (more or less) 100%. Various processes that uses water - hydrolysis of protein, for example - will integrate the tritium atoms into the products of that reaction. Therefore, you can have tritium in your body, for a while ... though the biological half-life of tritium is about 10 days (the same as the biological half-life of ordinary water).

Since its radiological half-life is so long, the vast majority of any ingested tritium will be excreted before it decays.

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[mikiN]

drinking an entire tritium rifle sight is a two years dose

Who in his/her right mind would do such a thing? Even if it happened by accident it seems to me a far try.
If you're desperate for a drink and not caring much about your health, you could just as well gulp down the contents of your car's radiator. If the antifreeze is anything like ethylene glycol, you might at least get a nice buzz out of that.

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[DaveCar]

Hmmm. Somone should tell these guys: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/07/glowring_r eturns/

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[Anonymous Coward]

Funniest Bush troll ever.

No no you've got it all wrong.

Funniest Saddam troll ever.

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[AndroidCat]

Intellectually, I know that the beta Tritium gives off is harmless because anything will stop it. But I doubt I'd tuck it my pants pocket, just the same.

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[gnu-sucks]

I gotta ask - I've seen this quote a million times, but I just don't get it. What does it mean?

Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.

Thanks!

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[dvdeug]

If escaping by its lighter mass is the reason the atmosphere isn't hydrogen-dominated, why hasn't the hydrogen escaped from the sun and Jupiter, leaving behind the 25% helium they are composed of?

Because Jupiter and the sun have a lot more gravity than the Earth does. Notice that the Moon's gravity doesn't hold oxygen or nitrogen, but does hold a little bit of sodium vapors.

Why doesn't the water vapor all rise to the top - it's lighter than oxygen or even nitrogen?

It does, doesn't it? Then it gets cold enough that it starts to change phase back into water and rains back to earth. If it didn't rise, how would we get clouds?

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[mr100percent]

There was this old joke "I saw a guy on the street who hadn't had a bite for days. So I bit him." This .sig is merely a humorous retelling of it, with a twist.

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[MrMadnutz]

Ummm...
"now let's go break open this glowstick and pour it into Homestarrunner's mountain dew...
I hear they have to pump your stomach when you drink that stuff..."

'nuff said.

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[EspressoMachine]

Where'd you come up with the 60% figure? English is a Germanic language. When I studied Latin, we memorized the Romance Languages (id est, languages descended from Latin) using the acronym FRIPS, for:
French
Romanian
Italian
Portugese and
Spanish.

While it's true we do get a lot of words from the Latin language (and French, etc...), English is, in fact, a Germanic language.

Re:Glow Sticks

[PakProtector]

Loanwords. Also, the history of English is a history of bastardisation from conquerors. And then don't forget the large period where the King's english was French.

Re:Glow Sticks

[LuckyPhil]

I called bullocks on needing weekly medical exams when using tritium

Sandra is welcome to give _me_ a medical exam when ever she wants!

Re:Glow Sticks

[F34nor]

I swear to god the third person had to have had a camera in his hand at the time! Oh Internet where art thou mirrors? Or does this mean its in an evidence room somewhere?

Can we make a special filmed Darwin Award?

You! Out of the gene pool.

Re:Glow Sticks

[tehshen]

Type JOKE in the Mac version of Sim City 2000, you get that message. It's not particularly funny, just weird; maybe the joke is on us.

Re:Glow Sticks

[mr100percent]

I think it's funny. The punch-line is so unexpected, which is why I find it amusing.

Re:Glow Sticks

[Kuad]

The underlying grammatical structure of English is Germanic, but nearly 60% of the vocabulary comes from Latin (by way of French). It's easy to talk about farmyard happenings using only Germanic words, but it gets difficult from there. It's just how the language evolved after the Norman conquest.

English vocabulary is (roughly) 30% Germanic, 10% Norse (Viking influence), and 60% French/Latin.

Re:Glow Sticks

[opqdonut]

Actually reminds me of the novels of Daniil Harms, a russian avantgardist writer.

Re:Glow Sticks

[Y2]

It does, doesn't it? Then it gets cold enough that it starts to change phase back into water and rains back to earth. If it didn't rise, how would we get clouds?

If it does rise, how do we get humid weather? Or dew?

I despair for the future of science.

Re:Glow Sticks

[Y2]

So by your logic, when you let the helium out of a ballon it just mixes with the air and doesn't rise?

Huzzah! At least one person here can learn.

Yes, exactly. Mind you, in mixing with the air, the helium spreads in every direction, including up as well as down and sideways, so some does rise. And since there's usually more air above the balloon than below, you can even say that most will rise.

Here's a thought experiment that may help the stragglers: consider a helium balloon in the center of an airtight room full of air. Burst the balloon. Ten minutes later - or ten days, if you prefer - where will you find the helium? In a thin layer at the ceiling, or everywhere?

Even if there are no breezes or air currents in the room, the helium will be spread very nearly uniformly in the room. Very nearly. In an ordinary room-sized room the only ay to get a significant non-uniformity in the distribution of gases is to chill the room so cold that the heavier ones become liquid.

Re:Glow Sticks

[Maserati]

Right. My take on it is that the English language is the result of French speaking soldiers trying to pick up on German speaking barmaids. it's light on details but gets the point across to a layman very quickly.

Re:Glow Sticks

[51mon]

"It's actually not all that bad. If the sign is broken, the tritium gas just goes straight up."

Lets hope it doesn't burn or otherwise react to form something that doesn't just float away. Like urm water.

Yes sorry I meant "curies" I had read it right. Usually discussing radio-iodine doses, and the muscle memory must have kicked in.

Obviously Iodine concentrates in the thyroid, but 10 millicuries is a typical dose for destroying the thyroid, and kills a small but measurable number of the patients who have it through increased incidence of cancer (~1%).

As such 10 curies for just lighting a sign, when presumably most of the benefit could be achieved with a capacitor/battery or other simple electronics.... Just seems like madness to me.

Re:Glow Sticks

[dvdeug]

I despair for the future of science.

Which should be, what, listening to your edicts? Science is anti-authoritarian in nature; if you want to convince us, show us some evidence or at least make a logical argument.

I'm far from convinced you're right. For instance, it's obviously true that carbon dioxide doesn't immediately sink to the lowest places at Earth. On the other hand, several times CO2 has been dislodged from a volcanic lake or something similar, and has flowed downhill and displaced the lighter air, smothering a village or two of people. So it's clear that while there is a large degree of mixing, that the lighter gases do float on top of the heavier ones.

Re:Glow Sticks

[Y2]

I'm far from convinced you're right. For instance, it's obviously true that carbon dioxide doesn't immediately sink to the lowest places at Earth. On the other hand, several times CO2 has been dislodged from a volcanic lake or something similar, and has flowed downhill and displaced the lighter air, smothering a village or two of people. So it's clear that while there is a large degree of mixing, that the lighter gases do float on top of the heavier ones.

Good, we're almost there. The gases do mix, but if you have separate volumes of as-yet unmixed gas in contact, the mixing can only proceed at the surface. The rate at which it occurs depends on the mean free path of the molecules and the physical size of the unmixed volume, and so on.

Recall that the original bogosity in this thread was a statement (by neither of us) that gaseous tritium was not very dangerous because, as a form of hydrogen, it would "rapidly ascend through the atmosphere." I think we've reached a point of agreeing that that was misleading and incorrect.

(Actually, there was another bogon in that post: the assumption that the tritium was gaseous and not in a compound with some other elements.)

Re:Glow Sticks

[Anonymous Coward]

It reminds me of the story of the group of 20-something-year-old men who gathered at a friends house for 4th of July. One of the men arrived late, but with a large amount of fireworks. He went to the kitchen to set the 'works down, but every counter was filled (beer, chips, etc). Wanting to keep the material dry, he opened the oven door, removed all of the racks, and stuffed the oven with the fireworks. Over time, beer and laughter caused his concerns to evaporate. The beer created pizza-hunger a few hours later, and the normal thing was to pre-heat the oven for 20 minutes. 15 minutes later, the oven, kitchen, and half the house celebrated the 4'th. Fortunately the lawn-chaired beer-swillers were on the lawn on the other side of the house. Whoops!

can it be

[Anonymous Coward]

nothing to see here - move along

/me force chokes /.

Re:can it be

[froghermit]

I thought there was a video!

Yay, validation! :P

[coupland]

>If they don't survive they must be Future Darwin Award winners.

Oh that would be so cool. Finally, the Star Wars fandom community recognized by a mainstream award!

*crosses fingers*

Re:Yay, validation! :P

[Anonymous Coward]

How likely were they to breed in the first place?

Re:Yay, validation! :P

[jo42]

Alas, more likely than someone with higher intelligence [than they]...

Re:Yay, validation! :P

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't they only get the award if they would probably have bred beforehand?

I mean, just by virtue of being a Star Wars geek, one might well qualify for the award...

Better link on BBC

[IainMH]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/beds/bu cks/herts/4575291.stm

Re:Better link on BBC

[Anonymous Coward]

dammit....that article says a video exists...anybody know if it's online?????

Re:Better link on BBC

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah right, the police store all their evidence videos on Gnutella.

Re:Better link on BBC

[CdBee]

If there's a prosecution (criminal stupidity?) it'll be released as evidence. But I doubt it

Re:Better link on BBC

[part_of_you]

A third person present at the incident had been questioned, police said.

A videotape was found nearby by police called to the scene on Sunday.

She added: "At this stage we are unable to confirm the exact circumstances, but glass tubes and traces of accelerant (flammable substance) were found at the scene."

...She then added, "Cyaan sumwun heolp mee wiff my bukle, my pyants arr fwall'n owff aginn."

Re:Better link on BBC

[cosmo7]

In England I would expect that, should they not survive, a coroner would deliver a verdict of 'misadventure'. If they survive then unless they had maliciously endangered someone else they probably won't be prosecuted.

For all its faults, the UK does allow - and even encourage - a far greater degree of eccentricity than most other countries.

Re:Better link on BBC

[Altus]

if it were american and they survived they would likely sue both the manufacture of the tubes (for not warning you not to fill them with gasoline and light them) and george lucas for inspiring the event.

given that one is underage (17) the parents would probably be preparing a lawsuit regardless...

By now obligatory

[jaymzter]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

someone had to do it.

Re:By now obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a bad feeling about this...

Re:By now obligatory

[fallen1]

I thought the obligatory quote would have been the BBC (or other news) reporting that the third person at the scene muttered "I have a bad feeling about this..." right before the petrol-fueled saber exploded. ;-)

Re:By now obligatory

[Koiu Lpoi]

This is not the meme you're looking for.

Re:By now obligatory

[ArcherB]

I see someone else recognized Calculon's cameo appearance.

Calculon

Re:By now obligatory

[M.C. Hampster]

Frankenstein mad!!!

Re:By now obligatory

[holy_robot]

It must be a... wait it's Tuesday... crap.

Re:By now obligatory

[da3dAlus]

Arrg! Vader SMASH!!!

Re:By now obligatory

[identity0]

A more likely quote from the scene:
"A light-saber. More elegant than a clumsy blaster, a weapon from a more civilized e- OH SHIT IT'S ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT AAAAGGH I'M ON FIRE AAAAAHHHHH!!!!"

Yeah...

[Kaisum]

The force was strong with that petrol.

Re:Yeah...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup, high midi-octane!

Re:Yeah...

[joshdick]

That petrol doesn't need hokey religions and ancient weapons.

The petrol shot first.

Re:Yeah...

[Urania]

Sure you don't mean the farce?

Are people really this stupid?

[yotto]

I feel bad for these guys and their injuries, but do people NOT know that you don't light glass tubes of gasoline on fire?

How did these guys make it this far into life?

And, lastly, where's the video?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[AKAImBatman]

And, lastly, where's the video?

It's likely the device blew up prior to the start of the filming. Otherwise they would have had a complete record of the explosion.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Hoi Polloi]

"...but do people NOT know that you don't light glass tubes of gasoline on fire?"

I think these two answered that question already.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[caino59]

Never understimate the power of stupidity.

The other day I was talking to someone that couldn't tell me whether the end on what ended up being his ethernet cord was metal or plastic.

Even after he told me he could see the wires inside - He still thought it looked like a metal end to him.

The guy was in his 30's. I have NO idea how people like this make it through an average day.

I was wondering as well - where's the video?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Loconut1389]

There are some ethernet cables with plastic ends and a metal shielding covering over most of the plastic... not that the guy shouldn't have been able to recognize the inside as plasic..

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

he could see the wires inside...since when do they make translucent metal?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[WankersRevenge]

Why do you want to see two teenagers being almost burned to death?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[AndroidCat]

I was wondering as well - where's the video?

It's pretty short. The dialog goes like: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine... *BOOM*!"

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[ManUMan]

I think they should have invited the star wars kid to participate. That might have been a merciful end for him after being mocked for so long. Or perhaps he was the "third party" giving technical advice.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Erm, since August last year:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/2 3/1141217&tid=14

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps he was thinking of the old-fashioned coaxial ethernet cables?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[BasilBrush]

I've got an ethernet cable here with more of the plug being metal than plastic, and the metal shielding goes all the way to the end. Perhaps you just haven't seen the kind of ethernet plug that he was trying to describe to you.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

> And, lastly, where's the video?

Reminds me of an online movie where a couple of kids show a little science experiment of mixing chemicals into a plastic bottle then shaking really hard.

The movie ends with a bang.. (Wish I could remember the link).

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[digidave]

I used to work in a party supply store and had a lady who was looking at our plates, which are available in plastic or paper. She asked me if we had any clear paper plates just like the clear plastic ones.

I told her we were all out of them, not being mean, but knowing that if I said there is no such thing as clear paper plates I would have had to argue with her about it.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Harassed]

Personally I think it's disgusting that the manufacturer of the fluorescent tubes didn't provide explicit warnings that filling their tubes with fuel was likely to cause injury. In fact, if I was a) in the US and b) one of the injured parties then I would seriously consider sueing. Maybe enough other people have also been injured in that way that they could start a class action suit.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[NanoGator]

"The guy was in his 30's. I have NO idea how people like this make it through an average day."

How old are you and why haven't you seen an ethernet cable with a metal tip yet?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Blkdeath]

Personally I think it's disgusting that the manufacturer of the fluorescent tubes didn't provide explicit warnings that filling their tubes with fuel was likely to cause injury.

Should that be a blanket warning on anything with a fillable orifice?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[richy freeway]

Shits n giggles?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[ickoonite]

IIRC, Britain has not yet been blessed with the facility to enable class action lawsuits. And I, for one, pray that it stays that way.

iqu :|

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[javamann]

"How did these guys make it this far into life?"

That has been one of my main complaints with modern life. There is no more natural selection. Ten thousand years ago these people would have been eaten by lions while going "here kitty". We can no longer depend on the stupid killing themselves off anymore.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[alc6379]

Or perhaps he was the "third party" giving technical advice.

I can see it now!

Make a noise like this now! ZEWWEEWWEWWWEWW

Now, you do like this: SCCHHHHHHH! PSSSH!

...and then I'll come in like, "CHAAAA ISSSSSH, SSSSHAAAAHHH ISSSSSHHH!"

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever since the Scotty gave the formula to the company so they could take the wales to the future! Duuuh!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because "death by stupidity" is freakin hilarious.

You have the issue pegged at seeing two teenagers being burned, not so. If that was the case, there are thousands of pictures on the web depicting Iraqi teenagers in horrible states of disfigurment. Their cases are truely sad, as they were innocents.

Now, these two British rim jobs, are another story. They chose to be Jedi geeks, they chose to square off in a molotov cocktail fight, and got burned due to their own stupidity. That is FUNNY.

Besides, when the gene pool is producing offspring this stupid, it is time for a little chlorine.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Loconut1389]

ever seen one of these connectors? the whole thing isnt covered, just the top of the rectangular section, not the bottom where the pins are and it doesnt extend the whole length of the connector either, so you can still see the wires where there isnt metal.

troll elsewhere

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Loconut1389]

this doesnt show the bottom, and isnt the best example, but you can still see the plastic parts

http://216.59.138.2/assets/product_images/KA01cnnw 0001-170.jpg

it really is actually a connector picture, i'll stake my karma on it.

otherwise google images for shielded rj-45

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

They do warn against filling it with hot coffee and lightsabre dueling in the car.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[saskboy]

Why bother with the lawsuits? After they get on AFV, with their video, they'll be $10,000 richer.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Loconut1389]

http://www.videkonline.co.uk/pictures/cThumbs/1390 S.jpg
http://www.erusa.com/images/products/TE220.jpg

better pics.. last post i promise.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think everyone should be tatooed on the ass at birth with the following warning: "Do not use a lit match to draw wayward hamsters from this orifice."

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

there are thousands of pictures on the web depicting Iraqi teenagers in horrible states of disfigurment

link?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[dgatwood]

I thought it would be... what was the line right before Luke loses his hand?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[hey!]

Never understimate the power of stupidity.

The other day I was talking to someone that couldn't tell me whether the end on what ended up being his ethernet cord was metal or plastic.


That's not stupidity, that's him not understanding the information that you needed. Not knowing an RJ45 from an RJ11 would cripple you or me. Some people would be crippled if they couldn't remember the difference between TIA-568A and TIA-568B. This guy probably almost never has to plug a cable in, so it doesn't matter to him, nor should it.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fluorescent tubes should be banned. Imagine what might happen if terrorists were able to obtain these tubes and fill them with gasoline.

Please think of the children!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

This alumina glass is just as much a "metal" as sapphire is, with few to none of the useful properties of aluminum. YHEY!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[polle404]

obligatory Dark Helmet quote:

"Now you know that Evil will always triumph, bacause good is dumb!"

Yes, unfortunately people are THAT stupid.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[hey!]

Well, as a geek, can you tell me that you've never played with something dangerous, particularly explosives?

Film making (even amateur film making) is its own form of madness. Getting the shot seems to justify all kinds of stupid risks. Of course, a real Geek would just CG the glow in, but there is an undeniable attraction to having the fire right there in your hands.

For a real hacker, however, half the fun, no more than half the fun is taking elaborate safety precautions. Particular pride is taken in the prevention of property damage. The rush, you see isn't the fire, it's the technological mastery of fire. It's capturing lightning in a bottle and taming it.

But danger is undeniably part of the attraction. You just don't want to be stupid about it.

How did these guys make it this far into life?

TFA is a bit thin, but I wouldn't be surprised if alcohol didn't play a part in these hijinks. There's nothing like a few drinks to prep someone for Darwin Award immortality; if you read the site alcohol plays a part in an astonishing number of the featured incidents. It's actually a bit depressing. If so, the answer to your question would be that they survived by being too young to get their hands on beer.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Surye]

Maybe she wanted them made of this stuff?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Dun Malg]

Some people would be crippled if they couldn't remember the difference between TIA-568A and TIA-568B

Indeed. I nearly crippled a coworker who punched down an entire office full of CAT5 jacks (about 80 of 'em) to TIA-568A when we were terminating the cables on a TIA-568B patch panel (as we always do; we have NEVER used '568A). I spent a good 2 hours on a friday night after work switching oranges and greens at the panel.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

But more than that. I would sue Fox/Lucas/Star Wars. After all, if it wasn't for the movies they wouldn't have done that. (Always go for the biggest cash cow.)

ltrs

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

Homer Simpson: See kids, thanks to me, now they have a Warning!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[hey!]

Kind of like an organic chemist mixing up an L and R enantiomers of a molecule.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[sharkey]

Should that be a blanket warning on anything with a fillable orifice?

This should be a wake up call to the makers of Real Doll.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[The One and Only]

I would have taken Scotland, but perhaps Captain Kirk had a special fondness for the Welsh.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[kianu7]

What about the guy who decided to jump out of a moving car (60mph) to retrieve a cigarette that blew out of the car window? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7964860/ Maybe those folks in the tinfoil house know something we don't know...

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

My girlfriend is gonna be *pissed* when I put that label on her...

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[flyingsquid]

I feel bad for these guys and their injuries, but do people NOT know that you don't light glass tubes of gasoline on fire?

Well, not unless you're the freakin' Red Army and trying to take out a Panzer, you don't.

Too bad for the guy though. I mean, I heard he'll get prosthetic limbs and be breathing through a respirator the rest of his life. He's more machine now than man.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[spiffturk]

I find your lack of faith disturbing...

(sorry)

--
Will

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

this is not a matter of type of cable

it's a matter of clear plastic that he said he could see through and still saying he thought it was metal.

pretty cut and dry.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Should that be a blanket warning on anything with a fillable orifice?

Yes.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Never understimate the power of stupidity.

You do not know the *POWER* of the stupidity side.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

What does it matter whether it's metal or plastic? Maybe you're not cut out to do your job. I felt pretty good after accomplishing something through the eyes and hands of an ordinary person over the phone. It's a mistake to assume that you always know exactly what you're talking about. I have a lot of the ethernet cables with metal shielding on the connectors. The connector is where most of the line interference comes in, so metal shielded cables are better. The more metal, the better. Now maybe you'll give ordinary people more cred.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[computechnica]

Maybe it was one of those new ruggedized Transparent Aluminum connectors. After all Transparent Aluminum was invented in the 1980s.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny how IT jobs are being taken away by morons.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[warpSpeed]

They do warn against filling it with hot coffee and lightsabre dueling in the car.

...while holding it with your crotch.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

can you see through the metal sheilding?

apparently this guy can.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey asshat,

The conversation wasn't "There's no such thing as metal ethernet connectors".

The conversation was that the one the idiot (no, not you, the other idiot) was holding in his hand wasn't metal.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Spunk]

The paper plates at my favorite pizza place are clear. After the pizza's been sitting on them, anyway.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[petermgreen]

iirc wiring one end to TIA-568A and the other end to TIA-568B gives you a crossover cable

so if your switches are half decent it shouldn't make any difference the switches will just detect it and connect fine.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not a tattoo I would want to get. And where would you put it? Close to every orifice, or just around the really big ones?

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[carlos_benj]

If not for this quick rescue there would have been much whaling and gnashing of teeth.....

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[blane.bramble]

If so, the answer to your question would be that they survived by being too young to get their hands on beer.

They are 17 and 20, and British. "too young to get their hands on beer" over here means about 11.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Thud457]

"Hey Yoda! Watch this!"

Or not, my recollection may be in error, since I was drunk at the time...

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Spudnik]

Why were you asking if the if the rj45 connector was made of metal or plastic?
You sound like a Best Buy tech,which are a joke. You really need to learn some listening skills, when talking to an end user, so what if they are stupid, thats why they are talking to you.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Dun Malg]

iirc wiring one end to TIA-568A and the other end to TIA-568B gives you a crossover cable so if your switches are half decent it shouldn't make any difference the switches will just detect it and connect fine.

This is true, but we can't assume anything. Not only can't we assume that their switch gear is halfway decent (you'd be amazed how many cheapskate people are still running old crap 10baseT hubs), we can't even assume that they'll be using it for ethernet connections! One customer used a dozen of their CAT5 runs to extend serial connections from an ancient crawling horror of an insurance quote server to some VT100 terminals. Subsequently, we pretty much have to just do things correctly, as we are paid to do.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[caino59]

Nope, not a Best Buy tech.

I am a very good listener, very good at explaining things, not to mention very patient.

You don't need to be very computer savvy to determine whether the end of the cable you are holding in your hand is made of metal or plastic - or whether it looks like a wide telephone cord, a telephone cord on steroids, or something that is metal and squared that looks like it has 2 corners chopped off.

Maybe the customer needs to develop his listening and perception skills.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[SlowMovingTarget]

Actually that quote should be "You underestimate the power of the dork side."

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[gardyloo]

What about the guy who decided to jump out of a moving car (60mph) to retrieve a cigarette that blew out of the car window?

Oh, good. And I was wondering if that Smokey Bear message was really getting to people.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[ear1grey]

And, lastly, where's the video?

Dantooine. It's on Dantooine.
(Actually, it says here that the police have it.)

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[hey!]

Not really. Nothing is ever cut and dry when you are trying to talk to somebody who doesn't understnd what you're talking about.

Remember communication theory? Communication requires both a shared set of symbols, and a common framework in which to interpret them. It's the latter that matters in this case. Confuse the context and you've confused the message.

This guy, of course, perceives the plug is indeed almost entirely plastic. However, he also happens to have in his skull a brain, the product of millions of years of evolution, embodying a huge number of strategies that have tended to ensure survival in a hostile environment, but not much built-in when it comes to Ethernet. Completely different routines in the brain rapidly dredge up all the data it has on materials and sockets. The results are limited by his experience of course, so the one thing it dredges up under "Sockets + Materials" is this: if you stick a piece of metal (other than a power plug) in a power socket, bad things happen.

So if we peeked in on the internal monologue it might have gone like this:

Guy: well, this thingy has a plastic doohickey on the end. This is probably what he wants me to plug into that socket.

Brain: better check if for metal.

Guy: Uh, I think there are some little gold thingies in there, but they're really small.

Brain: Dude, those thingies are metal. That plastic shit doesn't matter, you could get hurt. You could get killed. Focus on the metal.

Guy: But it's mostly plastic. I think that's what he means. I'll just tell him it's plastic and he'll know what it is.

Brain: is it a power plug?

Guy: Um, doesn't look like one, I mean I've never seen one like this.

Brain: Overruled. I'm calling Code Red. Repeat Code Red. This is not a drill. Release the adrenaline. Divert brain blood supply from from cortext to limbic system. All systems prepare for fight or flight.

Guy: But I really think he means the plastic part.

Brain: Hey buddy, I've got my finger on the bladder release, don't make me use it.

Guy: Wait! Let me check. (to tech support) Uh, it looks like there's some, uh metal bits in there. Is that right?

Tech Suport Guy's Brain: Obviously you you have a low status because the best thing they can find for you to do is talk to idiots. You're screwing our chance of entering the gene pool. Kill somebody. Now.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

We can no longer depend on the stupid killing themselves off anymore.

Oh, they still do it. But the problem is that with modern technology, they're a) more likely to take other people with them (cars, explosives, etc), and b) more likely to survive their actions thanks to better medical care.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[shutdown -p now]

Oh, but TFA proves otherwise! Don't you worry, they'll always find the way.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[ignorant_coward]

Pizza passes the Dr. Nick diet test!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Anonymous Coward]

North Carolina is the best state in the USA. No, that is not an opinion!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[Loconut1389]

thus in my original reply, i said something like 'not that he shouldn't have been able to tell that the inside was plastic'

but some other asshat made it about metal connectors, was just trying to give an example.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[The Creator]

Should that be a blanket warning on anything with a fillable orifice?

Dammit, stop reminding me of goatse!

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[dodobh]

That... will teach them... not to mess with the force.

Re:Are people really this stupid?

[mink]

Something like

Luke: "R2 hold my space-beer."
Luke: "Hey Yoda! Watch This!"
R2: "beep-beep-chirp-boop" (you are doing it)
Yoda: "Doing it, you are."

Related to this?

[guyfromindia]

http://www.waxy.org/archive/2003/05/13/finding_.sh tml :)))

Re:Related to this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone know if the Star Wars kid got his cameo?

A lesson to be learned for jedis and fans alike:

[Borg453b]

Mess with the force, and you're bound to get burned.

The mercury poisoning addled their brains first

[G4from128k]

I bet the mercury vapors in the fluorescent tubes scrambled their brains enough to convince them this was a good idea.

The whole tiny acticle ...

[Anonymous Coward]

LIGHT-SABRE DUEL PUTS TWO IN HOSPITAL TWO Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after duelling with lightsabres made by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol. The pair - a man aged 20 and a girl of 17 - are believed to have been filming a mock fight when one of the devices exploded in woodland on Sunday. They were rushed to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex. Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned.

Talk about doing it the hard way!

[BandwidthHog]

The bitch of it is that in my high school electronics class, when we covered Tesla Coils and Van de Graff Generators, our teacher showed us how to have a light saber fight by holding a flourescent tube in one hand and the center tap of a Tesla Coil in the other. Sure, you've gotta be careful not to break the thin glass tube, but at least the results aren't quite so nasty if you do. Probably looks more convincing as well.

And if you work it right, it also gives you the ability to do the ever popular Jedi trick of throwing someone across the room with the open palm of your hand.

High voltage beats high temperature any day of the week.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[CoffeeJedi]

we did this in college, holding the tubes with a tesla coil between us, as long as the light was within 3 feet or so of the coil, it lit up

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[Vilim]

My teacher did this, he used a cattle prod but it is the same thing.

The funny part was that he got stuck, he wasn't sure he could turn the thing off without grounding himself. Since he was holding the end of the cattle prod in one hand, and the tube in the other hand he really didn't have any free hands. He solved it by getting another teacher to come and help him.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[Anonymous Coward]

Not trying to be flippant or anything, but couldn't he have just let go of the prod?

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[WormholeFiend]

I cant wait to read the news about how Star Wars fanboys killed themselves with a Tesla Coil, trying to re-enact Palpatine's lightning bolts shooting from his hands.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[Malc]

Don't flourescent tubes contain mercury? At least they used to. I worked as a garbageman/dustbinman during student holidays and I can remember the rest of the crew giving me a hard time over health and safety issues when I broke one.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[BandwidthHog]

I used to carry a Volkswagon ignition coil and a couple of lantern batteries in my backpack with a wire run down each sleeve. You couldn't get the visible blue arcs or the range, but you could get damn near the same effect if you were careful about it.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[Anonymous Coward]

What I find most disturbing is the lack of common sence in the story. A flammable substance will go BOOM if lit within a confined space (like the tubes, and this applies especially to liquids that emit fumes). The girl was 17 and the guy was 20, though I seem to have understood the concept at a much younger age while I made fireworks with this very principle in mind as a kid. The avarage /.'er should know this tind kind of stuff but the real question is - does Joe Sixpack? Has it really gotten so bad that Joe avarage lacks enough basic knowledge about chemistry/physics to figure this one out? I'm not a science geek but I do know the two most fundamental priciples of bomb-making, and they are:

1) The speed at which the substance (explosives) burns and it's consumption of oxygen in the immediately surrounding atmosphere. This is actually what causes what we experience as an explosion - the contraction/expansion of air as the explosives burns and consumes it at an extreme speed.

2) Pressure (e.g. a casing)

Think of a candle, it burns down in maybe an hour? Now, if you accelerated that speed a couple of thousand times, you'd have a bomb because if a substance burns fast enough you can get an explosion even without casing (think high-explosives like tnt). Stuff like black-powder used in fireworks, on the other hand, actually burns pretty slow and thus needs to be packed tightand cased in to explode. It seems to me that those lightsabers they made couldn't do anything but explode.

I feel really sorry for what happened to them, it must have been very painful and a horrible sight to see, but I can't help but to think that they should've known better and been able to predict it.

Re:Talk about doing it the hard way!

[ColaMan]

RF does the trick too.
A 5-watt transmitter lights a 40 watt tube up with a pretty nice effect.

At a mine I used to work at, a couple of electricians taped a few fluorescent tubes around their 4wd transmitter aerial (in a triangle shape looking from the end of the tube, with the radiating element in the middle). They spent a pleasant evening freaking out all the operators by sneaking around in the middle distance with their lights off and calling up people (with said radio) saying, "Hey! didja see that over there? UFO!?"

Positive Side-Effect

[catdevnull]

Now they won't need make-up for Anakin's "Burn" scene.

[-4 Poor Taste]

Re:Positive Side-Effect

[dr_dank]

Another positive side effect is that they won't have to crib any of Lucas' dialogue.

OH ANAKIN, SET ME ON FIRE JUST LIKE YOU DID BY THAT LAKE ON NABOO.

Re:Positive Side-Effect

[catdevnull]

they don't have to rip off any of William's music either...

Que Music:
"Burn, Baby, Burn!" (Disco Inferno)

Questioning Third person

[bitswapper]

"Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned."

Who found the cops' lack of faith disturbing...

Re:Questioning Third person

[Ruprecht the Monkeyb]

He probably just waved his hand and said 'I'm not the third-party you're looking for.'

Re:Questioning Third person

[bitswapper]

Actually, it probably wasen't a sith. A true sith would have used the force to insure a darwin award entry:

"These aren't the burn victims you're looking for"

Re:Questioning Third person

[janestarz]

"You don't need to see our papers."
Cop: "I don't need to see your papers."
"Move along."
Cop: "Move along, move along!"

Re:Questioning Third person

[AusG4]

"insure"? As in, have it covered financially in the event of fire or theft?

"Yes, State Farm - I'd like to file a claim. My Darwin Award was stolen..."

Re:Questioning Third person

[Anonymous Coward]

You probably mean:

'not I'm the third-party looking for you are.'

Re:Questioning Third person

[TyfStar]

"Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned."

Who found the cops' lack of faith disturbing...

And said though his mask, in a really deep james-earl-jones voice, "you know, the dark side isn't for everyone..."

No worse than....

[BigBadBus]

queuing for the new Star Wars film at a theatre you know won't be showing it. Spastics.

Re:No worse than....

[KillerDeathRobot]

No worse?

Lining up for Star Wars at the wrong theater = pretty dumb.

Lighting flourescent tubes filled with gasoline on fire to stage a light-saber fight = very, very dangerously stupid.

This is much, much worse.

Re:No worse than....

[bman08]

It becomes close to equal if the theater is being fumigated or... I guess... napalmed.

Re:No worse than....

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, yeah, I'm thinking that napalming yourself is JUST A LITTLE BIT WORSE.

Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[CokeBear]

Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned.

No doubt he was an elderly English gentleman, who had been encouraging our friends to try out their little experiment.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[chromaphobic]

These are not the glass tubes you're looking for...

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[CoffeeJedi]

Darwin? hmm, i know he's an elderly gentleman, but, since when did Darwin wear a hooded black robe and cackle maniacally from a huge black chair?

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[ggvaidya]

haha - brilliant! :)

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[mshmgi]

No. Actually, he was they guy they turned to and said: "Dude, hold our beers and watch this ..."

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[Blackneto]

I bet his name was really Leland Gaunt.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[Fear the Clam]

+1 interesting

Leland Gaunt is the fellow who stirs things up in Stephen King's *Needful Things*.

(And yes, it's very sad that Stephen King died in his Florida home.)

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[NoTheory]

Sorry, is that some sort of inside joke/reference i'm missing? Last time i checked Stephen King is still alive. Although he keeps claiming he'll never get the Dark Tower series done before he kicks the bucket.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[Anonymous Coward]

For that matter, I wasn't even aware he had a florida home. Maine I know about at least.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[stanmann]

You don't read at 0 or -1 do you?

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, is that some sort of inside joke/reference i'm missing?

Just like "I like pie" or "my shoes are brown" have become stapple thread hijacks on many nuke based webBBs, the "Stephen King found dead today..." was a very popular Slashdot prank/hijack for a while. You still see em occasionally at -1, the days of them being modded up are long gone.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[Thwomp]

Lord Daftwager? ::ducks::

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[AndroidCat]

He sounds English, but they're not sure if Mr. Palpatine was encouraging them or not.

Re:Darwin Himself was there to witness it?

[johnwroach]

And he finished the Dark Tower series. Hmm...

Slightly more information

[gowen]

From The Currant Bun and The BBC.

NB : Before you make any cheap cracks, the people involved are seriously injured.

Re:Slightly more information

[tomstdenis]

"NB : Before you make any cheap cracks, the people involved are seriously injured."

That only makes it funnier. Stupid ADULT people deserve to die off because they are stupid and not likely to contribute anything meaningful.

This would be different if it was two 4 yr olds who really don't know better... but two ADULTs ought to know that gas == flamable and flimsy "sabre" == death contraption.

Tom

Re:Slightly more information

[Alan Shutko]

That should justify cheap cracks.

Think of it as evolution in action.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

People should know that someone going to work as a civilian contractor in Iraq runs the risk of kidnap and decapitation by terrorists.

That does not mean that it is funny when it happens.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

I just don't think some dude deserves to die because he's fixing a Gas main or installing a cellular repeater

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody forced them to go to Iraq to install said repeater- he or she went because they were offered a boat load of money to do so- or because they are insane. Somehow these people are able to put a price on their own life- something I do not understand.

Re:Slightly more information

[Skater]

Let's make a list here:

Fire
Gasoline
Flying glass

I think they were going for a Jimi Hendrix version of Star Wars. Were they trying to make the scene as dangerous as possible?

Re:Slightly more information

[BigDogCH]

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre.

I do.

Re:Slightly more information

[mr_z_beeblebrox]

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre

That is where you are wrong.

Re:Slightly more information

[GauteL]

Note, "This is London" is NOT the BBC, but rather the Internet edition of the London tabloid Evening Standard.

Re:Slightly more information

[tomstdenis]

There is a difference between someone pulling the trigger and an inanimate object [that is not stable] causing harm. Those raghead backwards smacktards don't have to pull the trigger. A tube of gasoline exposed to a heat source MUST ignite [well ... WILL ignite].

That's like saying "don't live in LA, there is violence so if you live there you deserve to die". Granted, I wouldn't go there myself because of the violence it doesn't mean they "deserve" it.

These people were doing something that a reasonably intelligent adult human would know isn't safe. They deserve every bit of pain they get from it.

What's more tragic? That they got hurt, or that people like that make it to adulthood to begin with?

Tom

Re:Slightly more information

[ack154]

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre.

And if it's of their own "astonishingly-ill-design"? And incredibly stupid?

Re:Slightly more information

[technomancer68]

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre.

Deserve has nothing to do with it. This is natures way of adding a little chlorine to the gene pool. People should realize anytime that someone says "Hey, this would be awesome!" .. you might want to sit and think about it a little while.

I'm from the southern US, and anytime I hear the words "Hey ya'll watch this!" .. I run!

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Cheap cracks are probably what put them there in the first place. The thing exploded, didn't it?

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
-- John Donne

Re:Slightly more information

[BigDogCH]

I'm from the southern US, and anytime I hear the words "Hey ya'll watch this!" .. I run!

That is the funniest thing I have read on slashdot for a LONG time!!! Most of my family is from the southern US, so I can openly laugh at this.

Is it commonly followed by a splash of chicken feathers, cool-whip, and weed-trimmer parts? Maybe that is just my family.

Re:Slightly more information

[gothzilla]

How completely and utterly pathetic that you can compare two morons using flaming glass tubes to fight with, to people risking their lives to bring some good to this world.
If you think your life is worth so little that you're willing to sacrifice it for a cheap stupid dangerous stunt instead of something as noble as helping out in Iraq then yes I AM GOING TO LAUGH MY ASS OFF AT YOU.

Re:Slightly more information

[Blkdeath]

NB : Before you make any cheap cracks, the people involved are seriously injured.

You're absolutely right. We should set up a foundation for them - donate money to help the victims of this horrible travesty. We should do all in our power to coddle them, make them feel better and be understanding of their plight. In doing so, we should strive to send a message to people everywhere that while there may be consequences to their actions, they will gain sympathy, attention and financial support for their ordeal.

In all seriousness; this is one of those rare opportunities where stupid behaviour affected only those responsible rather than harming innocent by-standers. I'm not sure how we became so left-leaning and bleeding hearted that we can't hold people responsible for their own actions, but the condition of society at large today tells me we're going too far in the wrong direction.

The lesson here? Set something on fire, burn yourself, learn lesson. These people are themselves in a unique position to positively affect others' lives - they can talk to others, perhaps in a school setting, about the consequences of immitating art. Their pain and scars should be enough to scare most kids straight.

Re:Slightly more information

[Maxo-Texas]

I think you meant to say, the people involved are seriously idiots.


The ityiewt was strong with them.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

You're absolutely right. We should set up a foundation for them

And ... STRAWMAN.

This is one of those rare opportunities where stupid behaviour affected only those responsible

Tell that to their families.

Re:Slightly more information

[dishpig]

People should know that someone going to work as a civilian contractor in Iraq runs the risk of kidnap and decapitation by terrorists.

That does not mean that it is funny when it happens.

If they do it willingly? Hilarious.

If you want to use this analogy, you need to find a civilian contractor who thinks it's a good idea to decapitate himself and film it. Because, you know, it couldn't possibly hurt.

Re:Slightly more information

[danigiri]

Serious burn injuries hurt.

I know what I'm talking about... they hurt like nothing you can imagine.

They hurt, and hurt, and hurt, and hurt some more, and then even more. It's just undescribable.

Pray that your superior genes and sheer luck preserve you from such injuries, they destroy your world.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

something as noble as helping out in Iraq

There's nothing noble about being a war profiteer.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

If you want to use this analogy, you need to find a civilian contractor who thinks it's a good idea to decapitate himself and film it

Nope. Pissing about with petrol has well defined, clear and apparent risks. Flying into an incredibly unstable country to profiteer as a representative of a hated army of occupation has well defined, clear and apparent risks.

I question the intelligence of anyone who does either. I don't laugh at either of them.

Re:Slightly more information

[ocelotbob]

You may reply with claptrap about us being involved in an interconnected tangle, I'll just reply by stating that this incident is a bit of muratic acid in the gene pool. Keeps things from getting ugly and smelly; the herd is stronger in the long run when less capable members are culled from time to time.

Re:Slightly more information

[leonardluen]

this merely means that they are evolving to become impervious to fire

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Each time someone does something like that and lives, do you get stupider?

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Their families should have locked them up in a padded room long before this.

-aj

Re:Slightly more information

[Blkdeath]

And ... STRAWMAN.

No, sarcasm. Blatant, obnoxious sarcasm.

Tell that to their families.

If their families are responsible for their lack of sense, it might do some good. Then again, it might fall on deaf ears.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Tell that to their families.

I think Vader's words regarding Admiral Ozzel would be appropriate.

Re:Slightly more information

[Clansman]

Just for accuracy, Thisislondon.co.uk is NOT produced the BBC as the link suggests.

Re:Slightly more information

[JudgeFurious]

What so they get a pass because they're seriously injured? I could see this if they hadn't seriously injured themselves while attempting to do something deeply stupid. Things being as they are I think these two deserve every single cheap crack that Slashdot can come up with.

Just so it's clear that I'm not completely devoid of decency I hope they survive and I hope they are not horribly disfigured for life (though I find it hard to imagine they won't be). I just think that cheap cracks come with this territory.

Re:Slightly more information

[Tlosk]

Pray that your superior genes and sheer luck preserve you from such injuries, they destroy your world.

They have so far. I have yet to set fire to myself using gasoline filled glass swords.

On a more serious note, whether I am sympathetic to their pain and suffering now is immaterial, it will not lessen nor increase the pain they feel in their beds across the pond.

Mocking them for their stupidity and widely distributing knowledge of the consequences of such foolishness however has the small chance of imprinting a bit of restraint and wisdom on other likeminded fools who might be spared a similar fate.

Don't confuse your weak-kneed compassion with wisdom or foresight.

Re:Slightly more information

[Refrag]

Mod parent up! LOL

Re:Slightly more information

[gothzilla]

Oh, silly me. I forgot that EVERY single person in Iraq was there strictly for the money. God I'm so damn stupid.

Re:Slightly more information

[utexaspunk]

And I don't think a dude and a dudette deserve to die because they used an astonishingly-ill-designed fake lightsabre.

Really. Well, call me callous, but I think you deserve to die for using the terms dude and especially dudette. Okay, maybe not die, but a good flogging is certainly in order...

Re:Slightly more information

[radtea]

Oh, silly me. I forgot that EVERY single person in Iraq was there strictly for the money. God I'm so damn stupid

No, they are there because George W. Bush and many others lied and lied and lied and lied.

There is nothing noble about fighting for lies. And yes, everyone from the West who is in Iraq as part of or in support of the U.S. invasion and reconstruction is there because of those lies.

Re:Slightly more information

[swillden]

Let's make a list here: Fire, Gasoline, Flying glass

You forgot the best one: soap.

They mixed the gasoline with soap. The resulting mixture is a sticky, highly flammable sludge often called poor man's napalm. I'm guessing they did it so they could coat the insides of the tubes with a mixture that would stay in place while being swung around. Obviously, gasoline alone would tend to slosh and pour out.

But when the "saber" shattered, and the stuff splashed on them, it stuck to them, just like napalm does. Gasoline alone would have been much less dangerous since except where it soaked into clothes it would have mostly slid off the people and onto the ground. What little actually did stick would have burned away fairly quickly. This stuff, on the other hand, can stick to skin, hair and clothes in thick globs and continue burning for a very long time. Worse, it's very hard to smother effectively. If you drop to the ground to smother it, the lack of oxygen will stop combustion, but the mixture will probably retain enough heat to reignite as soon as you roll over. It also retains enough heat to continue burning you for quite a while if you wrap up in a blanket or something.

Very, very nasty stuff to be playing with. It's no surprise that these two may not survive.

Real napalm, by the way, is also a mixture of gasoline plus other stuff to stabilize it and slow the rate at which it burns.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

kill all niggers

Re:Slightly more information

[youlikemonkeytennis]

the frustrating thing about this is that my taxes pay towards these two idiots new long stay in hospital - we have large waiting lists on the NHS for sick kids and people who deserve treatment and you can guarantee that these two idiots have walked straight to the front of a load of queues for setting themselves on fire - people needing plastic surgery (not cosmetic) now have to wait whilst these two have emergency skin grafts in their place.. I am not saying that they should be denied medical care - it just annoys me...

Re:Slightly more information

[DarkSarin]

I don't know what combination of alcohol and spare time brought that particular combination of things together, but I am certain that there is a story.

Don't share it.

Re:Slightly more information

[@madeus]

Tell that to their families.

Your right, their parents have have some responsibility for this too!

Clearly they failed educate them sufficiently, at least not to the point that they were able to realise that by mixing petrol and washing up liquid in a glass container (then setting it on fire) they had just made a very potent Molotov Cocktail.

I've done plenty of stupid things with fire and illegal imported explosives (even as a child) but the concept of using Molotov Cocktail's as lightsabers - I could never imagine doing that.

Re:Slightly more information

[DarkSarin]

No.

You believe that they are there because of lies. Some of them, presumably, are there because they believe those statements to be true. Some are even there because even though they believe the statements to be of questionable validity, they feel that Iraqis can benefit from reconstruction despite that.

Finally, whether Bush "lied" or not is academic only. The fact now is that the people in that country need help of some sort.

Did Bush lie? I am not certain, and I doubt anyone save himself and a few of his closest advisors will ever have enough of the story to be able to say with a reasonable certainty if there were lies or statements that those individuals believed to be true at the time they were spoken.

Certainly you believe that Bush lied, but that doesn't make it so.

I am NOT saying he is perfect or that he never colored the truth. I am merely saying that the world is much more complicated that you want to paint it with your "lied and lied an lied and lied" comment.

Re:Slightly more information

[P3NIS_CLEAVER]

The difference is the contractor is making a risks vs reward choice. I will not argue that 200k per year is worth the risk but some think so. Risking your neck to play 'star wars' is just plain stupid.

Re:Slightly more information

[gowen]

The smartest reply I've had so far (actually, the only smart reply I've had so far) and it comes from someone called P3NIS_CLEAVER. It's a funny old world.

Re:Slightly more information

[stanmann]

Just remember however that the lies that we went in for were not told by George Bush. George Bush recieved poor/misleading intelligence. Sadaam Hussein lied and claimed both to his own people/government/army that there were still weapons and that they were sufficient to stop the US. Those were the lies that brought the US into Iraq. If Sadaam Hussein had not lied, and had complied with the cease fire(NOT peace) agreement. the US would not have needed to CONTINUE the war.

Re:Slightly more information

[CypherXero]

Haha, I live in Alabama, I see shit like that all the time.

Re:Slightly more information

[scharkalvin]

According to 'steal this book' by A. Hoffman
you can make napalm by disolving sytrofoam cups
in gasoline.

Re:Slightly more information

[JaxWeb]

I think joking about what happens if they die or not, as in the summary, is quite horrible.

The girl was only 17 and the bloke 20. That's pretty young. It'd be terrible if they died. People are allowed to joke around and have a laugh, surely? You don't always have to be serious. Sometimes everyone is stupid. If they weren't, they wouldn't have much fun. So to laugh at them for being stupid, I think is wrong.

It was bad judgment on them, but I really don't think we should laugh about this.

Grah, I can't believe the guy in the summary said: "If they don't survive they must be Future Darwin Award winners," as if he doesn't care if they live or not.

People like him make me ashamed to be British.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

No, they are there because George W. Bush and many others lied and lied and lied and lied.

So if there were WMDs you'd be OK with the invasion and subsequent liberation?

If your answer is yes, then your talk of nobility means squat, since there is nothing noble in letting people continue to live in an oppressive regime had we known there were no weapons. In other words, you come from a selfish and shortsighted point of view where WMDs to you mean the difference between doing the right thing or turning a blind eye to brutality and oppression.

If you answer no, then your argument that Bush lied is meaningless since either way you'd be against the war. Again, there is no nobility in that.

There is nothing noble about fighting for lies.

You seem to confuse objectives with reasons. Our reason for action at the time was in part, the mistaken view that Saddam has weapons. Our objective now is a free and democratic Iraq, and there is plenty of nobility in that. We are there, and rebuilding. That my friend is nobility, but I seriously doubt that someone so hung up on hate for the president will be able to see past the hate.

Re:Slightly more information

[k98sven]

Real napalm, by the way, is also a mixture of gasoline plus other stuff to stabilize it and slow the rate at which it burns.

Real napalm is originally a soap and gasoline.
Sodium (Na) palmitate --> Na-palm, which is a detergent still used today in some soaps.

Although I've heard about aluminum salts being used as well.

Re:Slightly more information

[Doctor_Jest]

I have to ask this:

In Texas (and places South of the Manson-Nixon line), the last thing heard before a stunt like this is:

"Hey y'all, watch this!"

But since this happened in Britain... is it more like:

"Chaps, take a gander at THIS!"

I'm just asking... :)

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

not just 'gas', but napalm. The fricking idiots mixed petrol and washing up liquid and put it in there. My word, I've never heard anything so stupid.

Re:Slightly more information

[ubrgeek]

Oh come on, the url has an anchor tag of "dumbass" and you expect _us_ not to make jokes?!?! *grin*

Re:Slightly more information

[swillden]

Real napalm is originally a soap and gasoline. Sodium (Na) palmitate --> Na-palm, which is a detergent still used today in some soaps.

I said "other stuff" because "real" napalm isn't actually well-defined. There are a variety of chemicals used with gasoline to make napalm, and all of them are called napalm even though they may not contain any palmitate or any napthalene.

What you describe is the original, WWII-era napalm.

Re:Slightly more information

[mangu]

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.

Yes, exactly. That's why people feel no compassion about really stupid accidents like this. We do not feel involved in any way with people who are so extremely dumb as these two. It's like they don't belong in mankind, they must be from some inferior species.

Re:Slightly more information

[aziraphale]

"These people are themselves in a unique position to positively affect others' lives - they can talk to others, perhaps in a school setting, about the consequences of immitating art."

You're right - I expect the motion picture industry to have them on a continual lecture circuit around the schools of England, demonstrating vividly the direct and traumatic consequences of intellectual property theft, just as soon as they're out of intensive care.

Seriously, you think the root cause of this tragic accident was down to two people imitating art??? If only they'd stuck to appreciating the creative act passively, they'd be safe today. You're right, in your own way, of course, but... just very, very weird...

More seriously, I think you'll find there's a middle ground somewhere between openly mocking two very seriously injured, if misguided, people, and fundraising for them. I don't think you have to argue that they need take no responsibility for their actions at all, to suggest that people refrain from making comments saying that people this stupid deserve to suffer through the pain these two must have.

Get some perspective.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

In the same vein:
Northern Fairy Tales: "Once upon a time..." (Or, to keep this barely on topic, A long time ago...)

Southern Fairy Tales: "Y'all ain't gonna belive this sheit..."

And, yes, IAAS(southerner)!

Re:Slightly more information

[Skater]

I completely missed that when I read the article (before posting, even). Thanks.

Re:Slightly more information

[N1KO]

This is funny because it sounds like something out of a cartoon.

The iraq contractor thing isn't funny but it's ridiculous for people to be outraged every time a contractor dies. People die in wars. That's what the bullets are for, killing people.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah you said that in like 5 separate posts in this story already. We get it. Let's move on.

Re:Slightly more information

[dishpig]

Nope. Pissing about with petrol has well defined, clear and apparent risks. Flying into an incredibly unstable country to profiteer as a representative of a hated army of occupation has well defined, clear and apparent risks.

I question the intelligence of anyone who does either. I don't laugh at either of them.

Getting decapitated when going to Iraq is not a foregone conclusion. Getting fried when you let your friend hit you with a napalm-filled glass tube is. Unless you think that you could do it...

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes everyone is stupid? Man, you must be hanging out with a bunch of idiots. Doubtless you'll be lying down in the middle of a freeway soon with your rugby buddies for a "larf". Good luck, moron.

Turns out that the rest of us who have brains understand how NOT to act like idiots day-in-day-out. We'll gladly take over the world after your kind kills itself off.

Re:Slightly more information

[ToastyKen]

According to Webster's napalm is not sodium palmitate, but naphthene palmitate.

Re:Slightly more information

[Deeze]

"I'm from the southern US, and anytime I hear the words "Hey ya'll watch this!" .. I run!"

Ain't that the truth ;).

Re:Slightly more information

[Qrlx]

Don't forget the white phosphorus! They added that because it still burns underwater -- so the gooks couldn't just jump in a rice paddy to put out the flames.

Re:Slightly more information

[cyrax777]

always heard it as hold my beer and watch this.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

No, there's plenty of evidence that shows quite clearly that he lied. Transcripts, meeting notes, etc. The war on Iraq was regarded as a certainty by the DoD months before Bush publically "made his decision." If you're not completely appalled by the actions of the Bush administration, you're clearly not paying enough attention.

Re:Slightly more information

[Qrlx]

Please provide a link to a recent statement by Saddam where he claims to posses WMD.

Re:Slightly more information

[devnull17]

No, "our" objective is no-bid contracts for Halliburton. The amount of federal money that's simply gone missing in Iraq is mindboggling. $69 million in missing oil (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/24/news/oil.p hp). $9 billion unaccounted for (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/ira q.audit/). Go on believing that we're there to bring the light of democracy to these poor heathens. Meanwhile, Bush, Cheney and the rest of the ol' boy gang will go on shoveling money out of the Treasury.

Maybe someday, you'll wake up and realize that you and your conservative friends are little more than tools in furthering the selfish agenda of the most corrupt administration in U.S. history. Unless the Rapture comes first.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, silly me. I forgot that EVERY single person in Iraq was there strictly for the money. God I'm so damn stupid.

No, these are just the slave chimps of US and the Iraqi folks. The ones making the money are very, very, very far away.

Re:Slightly more information

[glesga_kiss]

Our objective now is a free and democratic Iraq, and there is plenty of nobility in that. We are there, and rebuilding.

You are one of the most moronic people I have ever had the misfortune to reply to. Iraq has nothing to do with democracy. Go read some South American history and see how many democracies the US has replaced with dictators. Most of whom were worse than Saddam, e.g. Gen Pinoche. There are numerous states worse than Saddam's Iraq, who are ACTIVELY commiting the crimes Saddam is accused of doing 10 years ago. Right now, as you read this, US allies are boiling people alive as a form of torture. I kid you not, this is happening right now. Sudan is also fucked right up due to ethnic cleansing and power struggles.

If you think Iraq is being done for "noble" reasons, then I'm glad that it makes you sleep soundly at night. The US now has a strategic foothold in the Middle East. A state with the second largest oil reserves when the rest of the planet is about see large rises in gas prices due to availablity (peak oil). It also allows them to withdraw their troops from Saudi Arabia, which incidentally is Osama's biggest beef with the USA as they are the only thing keeping Saudi's non-democratic dictatorship alive

Oh, and Bush DELIBERATELY MISLED people to get them behind the war. Go get some transcripts from the speaches he made. See how often Iraq is used in the same sentance as terrorist. See how often Saddam is mentioned alongside Al Qaida. Of this there is no doubt. It was a propaganda war, and you seem to be the loser. When 50% of Americans responded in a poll that they believed Saddam was behind 9/11 it was NO accident. It was a concerted effort to place the smoking gun in Iraq, irregardless of truth and justice. That seems to be the American Way now.

Planning for the Iraq invasion PREDATES 9/11. The Project For A New Amercian Century took advantage of 9/11 to get the public on side. This is a documented fact.

EVERYTHING that has happened in Iraq was completely predicatable. With some of your politians having Vietnam experience (from both sides), you'd think they'd know a little better. NO ONE wants their country invaded, regardless of the reasons. Especially by a nation that isn't all that popular in the region to begin with. It's your quagmire and 100,000 people are dead because of YOU. And I mean you personally, as you are for their death it would seem. 25,000 of these are double-verified lists of civilans. You can take your 9/11 3,000 deaths and stick them up your arse as far as I'm concerned. Fuck you, and the horse you rode on.

Re:Slightly more information

[Idarubicin]

...says the guy whose sig line reads,

Many Bothans died to bring you this information

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. Adult stupidity deserves the death penalty.

Find the video we must, for all our amusement depends.

Re:Slightly more information

[radtea]

You believe that they are there because of lies. Some of them, presumably, are there because they believe those statements to be true. Some are even there because even though they believe the statements to be of questionable validity, they feel that Iraqis can benefit from reconstruction despite that.

Ergo, they are all there because of Bush et al's statements. Every single one of them. If Bush et al had not repeatedly and forcefully made those statements, and thereby garnered sufficient political support for the invasion, which made the subsequent reconstruction necessary, none of the people who are in Iraq due to the invasion and reconstruction would be there.

Were those statements lies?

Perhaps not. Perhaps they were even more venial--the result of putting ideology before facts in such a way that the whole institution of the American government was twisted by that distorting influence.

There were no WMDs. Iraq did not support al Quaeda. There was no clear and present danger to the U.S. or any of its allies from the Hussein government. There was no attempt to acquire yellow-cake. The aluminum tubes were not suitable for gas centrifuges. American and British intelligence had more than sufficient information to be acceptably sure of all these things. Bush and many other senior administration officials, as well as foreign leaders and their senior people, had or should have had sufficient access to that information to know that.

So were they criminally incompetent, or just criminal? Those are the only two choices available.

Nor is this purely academic. Aside from the congressional elections next year and in the years that follow, there are war crimes tribunals, and in the fullness of time they will reach even to the highest places.

Re:Slightly more information

[k98sven]

According to Webster's napalm is not sodium palmitate, but naphthene palmitate.

So, I stand corrected.
But on the other hand, "naphthene palmitate" isn't a compound, "Naphtene" is just a group term for unsaturated polycarbons, those present in naphtha, which in turn is an older word for gasoline.

So "naphthene palmitate" probably means here "gasoline mixed with some palmitate salt", which makes sense chemically since there shouldn't be any significant difference whether you use sodium palmitate or potassium palmitate or any other palmitate salt, as long as it still retains its detergent effect.

Re:Slightly more information

[Altus]

"Many Bothans died to bring you this information"

and the bell tolled for every single one of them... all Bothans were properly diminished...

Re:Slightly more information

[m50d]

Means are important as well as ends. Supporting the invasion doesn't mean you have to support lying to get support for it.

Re:Slightly more information

[m50d]

Wait...there's a female involved? What hospital was this?

Re:Slightly more information

[DarkSarin]

I don't have the time to refute or research your statements as a whole, but keep this in mind:

there are plenty of intelligent and informed individuals who would disagree with your analysis. And probably just as many who are equally informed and intelligent who would whole heartedly agree.

I am not(!) saying that Bush is completely justified in what he did, just that it is NOW done, and the reconstruction is arguably necessary.

I will not argue that Bush is not responsible in a good measure for what is now happening. I am simply stating that there are other takes on the situation--and not just by ignorant folks who can't be bothered to research the issue.

I am someone, personally, who does not have the time, energy or resources to do the two things I think are necessary to make a truly informed decision: first to find as much information as possible, and second to evaluate the source of that information regarding reliablity and motivation for dissemination of the information. It sounds easy, but it is very time-consuming, and I don't have the time it takes (I'm not sure that ANYONE has the time to examine ALL the information, which is why there is so much debate about what it all means).

If you do have that time, great--write a book, publish it on the net or whatever, and list your sources.

But if all someone is wanting to do is paint a black and white world where Bush is responsible for all the evils that they face, then I have to take exception to that. Just like I would if it were some Republican bashing Kerry or Clinton for all their problems.

Re:Slightly more information

[crabpeople]

Finally, whether Bush "lied" or not is academic only. The fact now is that the people in that country need help of some sort.

so if i cut someone in half with a machine gun and then hand them a band-aid im a hero? ill have to remember that.

if no one went to fight there would be no wars.

Re:Slightly more information

[ProudClod]

Just a quick pedant note: thisislondon are nothing to do with the BBC.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Most of whom were worse than Saddam, e.g. Gen Pinoche.

Actually, the more reliable accepted figure for Pinochet is 10,000-20,000 civilian deaths, including the coup(http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat6.htm) . How does that even remotely approaches Saddam's attrocities which number into the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even million for all that we know? You lauch nice ad-homenims, but at the same time you seem to lack any sense of moral perspective.

Just for the record, I did grow up in central America and I am very well informed of the policies of the US government in the rest of the countinent.

While I am not excusing Pinochet and the move the US made at the time, the fact that you bring it up and attempt it to make it comparable to Hussein speaks to the desperation which you have in attempting to prove that the US is wrong right now. How are policies of a quarter centry ago more relevant to the present than the very actions and current sacrifice of the soldiers? Last time I checked, my calendar read "2005", not "1973".

There are numerous states worse than Saddam's Iraq, who are ACTIVELY commiting the crimes Saddam is accused of doing 10 years ago.

I agree with that. But you know how it is with the US. It's damn if you do, damn if you don't. Remember Somalia? We withdrew and while we were still mourning our dead the next ethnic cleansing crisis hit in Rwanda. We didn't do anything and let the rest of the "free" world hadle it for once. Remember how the rest of the world just chickened out, let the slaughter happen and then complained that the US didn't do anything?

Planning for the Iraq invasion PREDATES 9/11.

So, what does that have to do with anything? Last I checked Bill Clinton himself had a "get rid of Saddam" policy that didn't get implemented. It was commonly accepted by the world that Saddam was a growing threat before 9/11. I wholeheartedly agree with your factoid, but let's stick to the subject, shall we?

NO ONE wants their country invaded, regardless of the reasons.

Are you sure about that, or did you just pull that assertion out of the ether? I'm sure that the French would have disagreed with you during the Normany invasion. Ditto for the Afghanis in more modern times.

It's your quagmire and 100,000 people are dead because of YOU

I'm sorry, but it's hard to keep on taking you seriously if you are going to quote a figure that has been discredited by everyone and their grandma. The real death toll accepted by anyone with an ounce of sanity is around 15,000. It's funny how you attack me personally yet your position reflects points that are either grossly exaggerated (Pinochet and South America), or just plain propaganda that only extemists would spout (100,000? Please!). Next time that you reply to someone, please don't assume that you are better informed that they are because you end-up looking like the moron that you assume your oponent is. I suggest that you challenge your own assumptions, bud. That's how you stop being a sheep.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

No, "our" objective is no-bid contracts for Halliburton.

So? Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that it was. Once again I ask: Does that make the liberation ignoble? If we didn't pay out any money to Hallibuton and the whole reconstruction was done by magial elves that could be paid in kibble, would you then be OK with the whole thing? Or would you rather we just pull out now and leave the Iraqis when they are at their most needy? Given the current situation, you seem to want to save money at the cost of human lives. That's a very compassionate and noble thought. I'm sure that Karl Marx would be proud.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Means are important as well as ends. Supporting the invasion doesn't mean you have to support lying to get support for it.

Thank you for an excellent point. I would mod you up but I've already posted comments on this story. It's not often that I want to mod up someone that replies to my post in disagreement.

You can certainly believe that Bush lied and hate him for it. Personally, I tend not to question motives because there's very seldom any conclusive evidence to know what anyone's motives actually were. I focus on judging actions and so far Bush has done a passable job on his actions. I don't think Bush lied, at least not on purpose. If you think he did, there is probably nothing I can do or say to convince you otherwise. However, despite your position on the "means" you seem to imply that you believe there is still some nobility in this Iraq business. It's great to hear that.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact it was mainly White Phosphorous, simply because its a lot more unpleasant than just petrol. White phosphor and petroleum jelly was the german mixture in ww2

Re:Slightly more information

[node 3]

Nice theory you've got there to justify your being an asshole.

>NB : Before you make any cheap cracks, the people involved are seriously injured.

You're absolutely right. We should set up a foundation for them - donate money to help the victims of this horrible travesty.

Gowan *is* absolutely right, we should remember the people were seriously injured. He said nothing about giving them money and saying how smart, unique and unfortunate they are, or anything like that.

In doing so, we should strive to send a message to people everywhere that while there may be consequences to their actions, they will gain sympathy, attention and financial support for their ordeal.

WTF? Asking people to keep in mind that the people involved are seriously injured is going to lead to great masses of people voluntarily severely burning themselves in order that they too might be the ones who we are asked to keep in mind are severely injured? Do you realize how severely flawed your theory of the world must be to be so extraordinarily out-of-touch with reality?

In all seriousness; this is one of those rare opportunities where stupid behaviour affected only those responsible rather than harming innocent by-standers.

Stage one for your theory: pretend it's an unavoidable, natural law. In spite of your set-up, being stupid should not, in and of itself, be enough to warrant life-threatening, not to mention extremely agonizing, burns. Especially at 17 and 20 years old.

I'm not sure how we became so left-leaning and bleeding hearted that we can't hold people responsible for their own actions

Stage two: pretend that "bleeding heart liberals" are in violation of that "law of nature". No one said the two shouldn't be responsible for their actions.

The lesson here? Set something on fire, burn yourself, learn lesson.

If that's the lesson you learned, you learned it wrong. In general, it's rare to get burned when setting something on fire. I *does* happen, though, and the risks should be known and properly respected.

In your asshole conservative world, people should learn on their own about the pitfalls of being human. Don't teach people about sex, guns, fire, etc. Let them figure it out on their own--let their scars (if they survive) be their teacher, right?

The liberal view is to actually go out of our way, as a society, to teach people things we think it might be good for them to know, and to ameliorate, if reasonable to do so, some of the more extreme calamities people might find themselves in. None of which violates causality, responsibility, or any other excuse assholes such as yourself like to use.

Their pain and scars should be enough to scare most kids straight.

*Most* kids? "Scared straight"? What kind of notion is that? *Most* kids will already never try to play Jedi with petrol+soap burning in light tubes. And aside from the stupidity and resulting calamity of the act, this isn't some strange, non-normal behavior, so it's not exactly 'straight' to not do it.

Re:Slightly more information

[glesga_kiss]

How does that even remotely approaches Saddam's attrocities which number into the hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even million for all that we know?

Hey, it was just ONE example, and I don't claim to be an expert. However, you were claiming that the war in Iraq was justified because "he's the baddie" and my point was he's not the only one, and others are bad right now. He's the only one with OIL though.

Saddams attrocites did not reach a million. War, yes it's an attrocity, but not in the terms you are using. Plus it was US weapons doing a lot of the damage. You are a bunch of hypocrytes. Also, you list Pinoches civilan deaths, then use total war death in regard to Saddam. Apples and Oranges. Being someone who knows people serving in Iraq at the moment, I see a soldiers death as bad as well you know.

to the desperation which you have in attempting to prove that the US is wrong right now.

They are, regardless of my "desperation". You attacked a country for your own strategic gain, then tried to justify it, in fact you take pride in it it seems. My references to other problem regimes is meerly to point out that morality has fuck all to do with the Iraqi invasion. It's abhorent that you can be so clueless. The war is based on lies and is unjustified. It's about money, nothing more.

complained that the US didn't do anything?

Can I just point out that the rest of the world does not think about that. Anything you hear on US news involves the USA. You get a naturally biased view of everything, we all do. You didn't hear the stories saying "why didn't WE do anything". You are not the centre of the universe, only your country men see it that way. The nation of France does not wake up every morning and think "how can we piss off America today?". You are the only people that see the USA as saviours, trust me on that.

Are you sure about that, or did you just pull that assertion out of the ether? I'm sure that the French would have disagreed with you during the Normany invasion.

Wasn't an invasion, it was a liberation from an pre-existing invasion. HUGE difference. I'm in the UK, the British Empire was based on invading countries and trying to "keep the piece". A large number of the worlds problems derive from this, especially in the Middle East.

I'm sorry, but it's hard to keep on taking you seriously if you are going to quote a figure that has been discredited by everyone and their grandma. The real death toll accepted by anyone with an ounce of sanity is around 15,000.

Wrong, big time. Iraq body count lists a conservative number of 21795 double-verified civilian deaths. Everyone agrees that the number is higher because many don't get reported.

But I feel you are missing the point. I'm not just considering civilian deaths. Anyone who is dead as a result of this war has their blood on your hands. Even the insurgents, who are only defending their country from a dominering country with a history of fucking over "people of colour", must be counted. There is no doubt that AT LEAST 100,000 people are dead that would not be dead if the USA had not invaded. If you invaded my country, I'd do the same thing and I'm sure you'd do the same if you were defending Washington from a foreign force.

Drop the moral high-ground buddy, it's not there. Either you are a callous bastard profiteering from this, or you are a sheep yourself.

Re:Slightly more information

[fnord_uk]

1) Lie
2) Invade
3) Profit

Re:Slightly more information

[fnord_uk]

Well, if he didn't lie, then he must be stupid.
Oh, wait...

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Given the current situation, you seem to want to save money at the cost of human lives.

Did you ever even consider that it would be possible to save human lives and NOT lose $9 billion?

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Hey, it was just ONE example, and I don't claim to be an expert.

Then why bring it up? Why throw around wild accusations if you don't know what you are talking about? You are accusing me of being a moron?

However, you were claiming that the war in Iraq was justified because "he's the baddie" and my point was he's not the only one, and others are bad right now.

Well, that's quite an oversimplification of my point, but I'll let is slide. If he is a baddie, what is wrong with fixing one of the many problems in the world? Because there are others we shouldn't do anything? That's a pretty hopeless position, don't you think? Last I heard that's how WW II got started.

Also, you list Pinoches civilan deaths, then use total war death in regard to Saddam. Apples and Oranges.

Most deaths were civilian. Did you bother to look at the URL? It listed all death tolls for all conflicts up to modern times.

Wasn't an invasion, it was a liberation from an pre-existing invasion. HUGE difference.

And this was liberation from tyranny. Enemies and oppressors to a peoples are either foreign or domestic. Either way, they are enemies and oppressors. Were the Taliban foreign occupators?

"You didn't hear the stories saying "why didn't WE do anything".

You either have a short memory, or you weren't paying attention ( http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/rwarev.htm http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040412/ 12spotlight.htm).

There is no doubt that AT LEAST 100,000 people are dead that would not be dead if the USA had not invaded.

You jump from 21,795 to 100,000 just like that without any evidence whatsoever. That does wonders for your credibility.

Drop the moral high-ground buddy, it's not there. Either you are a callous bastard profiteering from this, or you are a sheep yourself

Ok, let's talk about moral high-ground. You claim that we shouldn't be there so Saddam could keep on killing another million. I'm sure that's the moral high ground. So, do you want the US troops to leave? Should we abandon all efforts at establishing a democracy? If Halliburton left today, would you be happy? If money is your preoccupation (your profit criticsm) is all of the money that Halliburton going to make worth more than all of the lives that Saddam could've taken up to now? You advocate inaction rather than going in for the wrong reasons. Yet inaction is exactly what Saddam wanted, so he could keep terrorizing his people. I don't care to excuse the orginal reasons for the war (that's a different discussion). I'm pointing out that at the present, I do have the moral high ground because I want the Iraqi people to succeed and live in a decent country. You do not want that?

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Did you ever even consider that it would be possible to save human lives and NOT lose $9 billion?

Yeah, so? Did you ever consider that it may cost money to save lives? I'm not excusing the loss of $9 billion and I hope that those responsible are brought to justice. I'm more concerned by those who say that money should be a more important subject in this war than lives saved, freedom, and a future. That is where nobility resides, not in money.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

This stuff, on the other hand, can stick to skin, hair and clothes in thick globs and continue burning for a very long time

Look, Madge -- I soaked in it!

Re:Slightly more information

[jargoone]

You can, I've done it. The coolest part of it for me: It's incredible how little matter styrofoam actually consists of. I had the styrofoam from my NES box (this was almost 20 years ago), which was probably 18" x 12" x 6", or there about. There was room in the middle for the console and controllers and stuff, but it was still a good bit of styrofoam. It only took about half a coffee can of gasoline, maybe a pint or so, to dissolve the whole damn thing. The resulting mixture was the consistency of molasses, maybe a little thicker.

It was entertaining for an hour or so. We certainly didn't fill up glass tubes with it. We were much safer when we played with explosive liquids.

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

"Nice theory you've got there to justify your being an asshole."

Good job proving the same of yourself.

"Gowan *is* absolutely right, we should remember the people were seriously injured. He said nothing about giving them money and saying how smart, unique and unfortunate they are, or anything like that."

Holy shit! He may be an asshole, but you're retarded! Don't you recognize satire when you see it??!!?

"WTF? Asking people to keep in mind that the people involved are seriously injured is going to lead to great masses of people voluntarily severely burning themselves in order that they too might be the ones who we are asked to keep in mind are severely injured? Do you realize how severely flawed your theory of the world must be to be so extraordinarily out-of-touch with reality?"

Subconscious message, dumbass. Stupid people will be subtly encouraged to behave like monkeys. But go ahead and cry for the stupid. Go buy them flowers and give them each a hug. Console them. Tell them they'll be ok. Pray for them. Retard.

Re:Slightly more information

[node 3]

>"Nice theory you've got there to justify your being an asshole."

Good job proving the same of yourself.

Being a dick to people who suffer tragedy--especially kids who've been burned so severely they might not even live--is being an asshole. Calling someone an asshole isn't.

Holy shit! He may be an asshole, but you're retarded! Don't you recognize satire when you see it??!!?

So, wait. *I'm* an asshole for calling some sociopath one, but *you're* going to call me retarded? The guy wasn't being satirical--he was making a point. His world-view depends on casting anyone who shows the slightest bit of compassion as a bleeding-heart liberal. It's necessary in order for him to remain self-consistant.

Subconscious message, dumbass. Stupid people will be subtly encouraged to behave like monkeys.

That doesn't support his point. Are you saying that people are going around subconsciously burning themselves to the brink of death via home-made Star Wars/napalm stunts?

But go ahead and cry for the stupid. Go buy them flowers and give them each a hug. Console them. Tell them they'll be ok. Pray for them. Retard.

See above. Where did I say to do any of that? I haven't suggested anyone do anything *for* them. What I *have* suggested is not to be a sociopathic asshole. But anyone who suggests otherwise is an absurd pansy who cries when a butterfly stubs its toe, right?

Pathetic.

Re:Slightly more information

[Xyrus]

For disgusting hypocrisy, one need not look any further than our president.

Recently, he stated he would not "support any legislation that would take a life to preserve a life".

I thought that was damn hysterical coming from someone who started two fucking wars in four years.

Guess wars don't count.

~X~

Re:Slightly more information

[glesga_kiss]

Then why bring it up? Why throw around wild accusations if you don't know what you are talking about? You are accusing me of being a moron?

Because it shows that historically, the US doesn't care about "democracy building". You are willing to topple a democracy to replace a government that you do not approve of. Therefore "democracy building" is not justification for Iraq.

Also, you list Pinoches civilan deaths, then use total war death in regard to Saddam. Apples and Oranges.

Most deaths were civilian. Did you bother to look at the URL? It listed all death tolls for all conflicts up to modern times.

Sigh. You are a moron it seems. You listed CIVILIAN deaths with respect to Pinochet, however with Saddam you could ALL deaths on BOTH sides of a long running war. You cannot compare the two and declare Saddam is worse, simple as that.

Were the Taliban foreign occupators?

Yay to your news filter. In case you didn't know, people are STILL dying over there. If you think it was welcomed with open arms, you are living in a dream world.

You either have a short memory, or you weren't paying attention

It's you who can't pay attention. I stated that in US media, you get news with a US stance. So, you then link to two US media sites that backup what I was saying. NO ONE was saying "why didn't the US do anything. Why can't you get this simple fact through your head? The only ones that think the US is the World Police is American's themselves, brought up on a lifetime of false hollywood propaganda. Go get a fucking history book, might shatter the delusions you have about your country. You ain't the "good guys" anymore.

Also, from your first link: "The United States, which Mr. Carlsson said had provided investigators with scant help and no documents during their six-month study, effectively blocked the Security Council in 1993 and 1994 from authorizing significant action in Rwanda.". That's why you got some "blame" in that case. Not because any expects anything from you.

You jump from 21,795 to 100,000 just like that without any evidence whatsoever.

Try and keep up, will you? One figure is civilan deaths, the other is total deaths. It's a war, and the collalition has frequently stated "we don't do body counts". The 21,000 is the civilan death count, required to be kept under the Geneva Convention. However, the numbers of Iraqi MALES who have died is far larger. Right or wrong, they picked up weapons to defend their country and they are dead because of YOU.

Oh, and the Lancet lists the civilan causualties as over 100,000, and that does not include hotspots like Faluja. I always discuss the most conservative numbers as people like you deny the truth when it hurts.

You claim that we shouldn't be there so Saddam could keep on killing another million.

UN sanctions killed a million Iraqis as well. Saddam did no such thing, you are once again being selective with the facts. I feel I am wasting my time here.

So, do you want the US troops to leave? Should we abandon all efforts at establishing a democracy? If Halliburton left today, would you be happy? If money is your preoccupation (your profit criticsm) is all of the money that Halliburton going to make worth more than all of the lives that Saddam could've taken up to now?

No. That would only speed up the inevitable civil war that will happen if you do ever leave. The US is stuck there for the long term, and the outcome will be more 9.11 type events. When you kill a poor persons family, they can't respond with F-16's like you do. It's your mess and frankly after discussion it with you, I'm beginning to believe you deserve it. Going on the most conservative estimates, it would take seven more 9.11 attacks to claim the lifes of US civilans to "even things out". And what the hell is up with that? Your nation went absolutely apeshit over one event. Guess what? Many Ir

Re:Slightly more information

[ultracool]

I think you fail to understand that the only lives that are worthy in any way are American lives. All those people in Iraq and Afghanistan don't really count, because their lives don't have any real value.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Because it shows that historically, the US doesn't care about "democracy building".

So post-WW II Germany, Japan, and South Korea, Afghanistan, Serbia, etc. don't count? I can give you dozens of countries with US-supported and sometimes US-build democracies, yet you just have Pinochet on your example. It's time that you started backing your assertions with facts (and no, stuff you got off of Michael Moore or your local liberal rag don't count as facts). Frankly, you're so mis-informed it's getting boring.

You listed CIVILIAN deaths with respect to Pinochet, however with Saddam you could ALL deaths on BOTH sides of a long running war.

If you bothered to look at the link, the non-civilian deaths on the Pinochet case added up to 3,000, still nowhere near Saddam's killings.

UN sanctions killed a million Iraqis as well. Saddam did no such thing, you are once again being selective with the facts. I feel I am wasting my time here.

UN Sanctions lined the pockets of Saddam and many UN officials at the expense of the Iraqi people. But let's pretend that your absurd claim is true. Saddam's aggression caused the sanctions. Are you excusing Saddam from the death of a million people? It sure sounds like it. Would you rather the sanctions continue?

Oh, and the Lancet lists the civilan causualties as over 100,000, and that does not include hotspots like Faluja. I always discuss the most conservative numbers as people like you deny the truth when it hurts.

The most concervative numbers? I hope that your knowledge of statistics is better than your knowledge of Pinochet since you keep putting your foot in your mouth (I suggest you take a class or two in statistical analysis, it's very helpful). Do you know what a confidence interval is? Well, it turns out that the Lancet study has been discredited because it had a confidence interval of 95% (a standard confidence interval for a t-distribution) for a range between 8,000 and 194,000 deaths. In other words, the "study" by the Lancet was so broad as to be meaningless. Picking a mid-point of 100,000 in the distribution is even a worse choice since you have no real mathematical basis for doing so. In short, the Lancet "study" was a shot-in-the dark guess and has been debunked by anyone with an ounce of knowledge on statistics. What the Lancet is saying based on its study is that they are 95% certain that the death toll is within the range of 8,000-190,000, but that they have no idea where, so they picked the middle. That is not a conservative method by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it's not a method at all! Further, it turns out that the Lancet's methodolgy for collecting the numbers was also flawed (ignored recording differences, natural causes, wasn't random, used low-ball estimates of natural Iraqi death rates, used a statistically-biased sample, etc), inflating the upper limit of the range to a ridiculous 190,000+. Here's one article: http://slate.msn.com/id/2108887/ However, I suggest that you study statistics and look up a few more resources before claiming your numbers are "conservative".

Stick your bullshit straw man argument up your arse. Because I don't agree with a war that's killing people right now as you read this, this means that I want to see Iraqi people repressed?....

Blah, blah, blah.. Why don't you answer my challenge. If you hold the truth you have nothing to fear, right? Should the occupation end now? Is that ethical? Focus, bud, you are the smart one after all. Try someting radically different and give me some smart arguments supported with actual facts and real statistics.

I hope you believe in God, because you are hell bound for your support of this. Thou shalt not kill.

If you had a chance to kill a mass murderer before he commited more murders, would you? For your enlighement, the word in the orginal Hebrew is "ratsach" which actually translates

Re:Slightly more information

[devnull17]

The money is a big deal, but it's nothing compared to the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians we've killed.

Sure, rebuilding a destroyed country is a noble goal, even if we're the ones who bombed it to rubble in the first place. But in this case, it's just a line being parroted by talking heads on Fox News because they lost their gamble on WMD's.

Now that we're there, we have to stay until the situation is relatively stable. I don't think we have a choice. But our presence there is predicated entirely upon greed and lies. (Do you really think that Bush believed Saddam and al-Qaeda were connected?) We'll be paying for this war for decades--us with our tax dollars, Iraqis with their lives. And for what? Aside from Bush, Cheney, Rummy and people with stock in Big Oil, who wins?

They've looted a fortune from the Treasury and completely ruined what little international credibility we had left. I may be a progressive, but I consider myself a patriotic American. And as a patriotic American, hearing this hypocritical, self-righteous bullshit about spreading the virtues of democracy to these poor, backwards heathens, well, that makes my blood boil.

Sorry about my angry tone; I almost feel like I'm shooting the messenger here. I'm sure that many of the American workers in Iraq really do want to make the place better. It's just that it rings kind of hollow, given the circumstances.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Now that we're there, we have to stay until the situation is relatively stable. I don't think we have a choice. But our presence there is predicated entirely upon greed and lies. (Do you really think that Bush believed Saddam and al-Qaeda were connected?) We'll be paying for this war for decades--us with our tax dollars, Iraqis with their lives. And for what? Aside from Bush, Cheney, Rummy and people with stock in Big Oil, who wins?

How about the Iraqi people? You might thing that everyone involved in the US leadership is a bastard, and you have the right to think that (I would partially disagree, but that's another topic). However, you have to acknowledge that the Iraqis don't have to worry about Saddam anymore, about repression, and about the UN sanctions. That may be something good to come out of this.

The path to freedom is always turbulent and uncertain, but if the rebuilding efforts are successful, then the Iraqi people stands to gain big time. You can think of it as hollow, or as restitution for what you consider your leadership's mistakes, or righteous and noble, or as whatever, but in the end, Iraqis do stand to gain.

Besides Vietnam, there hasn't been a country where the US has been involved in major military operations that hasn't netted a gain in freedom and economic prosperity, despite the expense in resident and in American blood. I don't think and I don't wish that Iraq will end any differently.

Re:Slightly more information

[devnull17]

We shall see. Considering our track record in South and Central America, I'm not optimistic.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

What specifically are you referring to?

Re:Slightly more information

[devnull17]

Since the early 20th century, we've meddled (mostly violently) in the governmental affairs of the following countries: Guatemala, Cuba, Panama, Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Brazil, Chile and Grenada. I'd be hardpressed to explain how any of those countries have benefitted from our involvement.

Re:Slightly more information

[glesga_kiss]

OK, this is going nowhere. I doubt we'll convence either one of us. But I still feel compelled to reply....

So post-WW II Germany, Japan, and South Korea, Afghanistan, Serbia, etc. don't count?

Most of them were multiple nations, but yes, they do count (except Afgan, that was retailiation, not humanitarian). Prior to the 60s, the US has a good history.

I can give you dozens of countries with US-supported and sometimes US-build democracies, yet you just have Pinochet on your example.

You MUST be trolling me. Like a lamb to the slaughter, can't believe I'm wasting time on this. The following are not my words, but I don't have a lot of time here, so plagurism it is:

Fulgencio Batista was a ruthless dictator, but that was all fine and dandy with the US because he was friendly with them. Not so with Cubans, which why Castro et al managed to overthrow him starting off with only 16 people.

And in Chile, Salvadore Allende was democratically elected, yet the US helped to overthrow him because he wasn't right-wing enough for them, and so that bastard Pinochet got run run roughshod over Chile for the next few decades. And that was all okay.

And in the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo ("he may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch") ran a brutal dictatorship all with the help of the US. So why was he okay?

And in Nicaragua, Anastasio Somoza ran a disgraceful dictatorship all nicely sponsored by the US for decades. But once again, somehow that was okay but Sandinistas were not.

And let's not forget that good buddy of the US, Saddam Hussein, who received assloads of military equipment because it suited the interests of the US.

you don't even have to go *that* far back. During the 1st Bush term, we helped stage coups against Aristide in Haiti (sp) and Chavez in Venezuela (both democratically elected). What's so hilarious (in a depressing way) is what happened afterwards. Chavez was brought *back* into power by the people and Aristide simply said in effect "Well, if you Americans claim I left the country voluntarily, then I should be able to go back..."

You could go on and on. The US allies with folk willing to do business with them, and enemies of those who don't. That's the common trend. Not democracy building or any moralistic crusaide. I really don't have a beef with that, every nation does it. It's the glorification and denial that irks me. Hollywood really does have you believing that you are the good guys.

Oh, and I can't stand Michael Moore either, the guy is a lying two faced fraud. His techniques are deliberately misleading. His heart is in the right place I suppose.

Well, it turns out that the Lancet study has been discredited because it had a confidence interval

Where are their counter numbers to dispute the Lancet report? Iraq Body Counts numbers are all cited with multiple sources, which was the "conservative number" I mentioned. And many, if not most, are NOT reported as there is not much point literally picking up the pieces of someone to take to the hospital (and be counted).

The Lancet is the best we have right now, until someone does better. You cannot deny that the deaths are at least 50,000, including combatant deaths. At what point did we cross the line? I don't know, you can't talk about lifes that way.

This actually reminds me of a time I had the misfortune to verbally clash with a neo-nazi type person several years ago. As a WW2 history buff, I was deeply offended by his claims that the numbers from "the Jews" (his words) were exagerated. I'm not comparing you to him of course, but I'm feeling the same futility in the argument. It's sad that we can put the loss of so many lifes into numbers and not feel the impact.

I have studied statistics by the way, but not as a major (as you would say in the US). The Lancet is the best report we have until someone does any better. And as the allies have frequentl

Re:Slightly more information

[Xyrus]

Just like the moderators fail to understand that your post was sarcastic.

~X~

Re:Slightly more information

[ultracool]

Yep.

Re:Slightly more information

[Wizard Drongo]

On the contrary, we SHOULD be laughing at these people. As anyone who has served in the armed forces can tell you, when really tragic things happen, sometimes you have to laugh, or else you'd cry. In this particular case, however, laughing at people this damned stupid is absolutely right and proper. Quite aside from the fact that these were 2 adults, who from all reports have not got any mental illness, and thus deserve the consequences of their actions, these people are providing two much needed services in our society . Firstly, they've done something hilariously stupid, thus giving us all something to laugh at and keep our morale good. As any Jedi can tell you, laughter and happiness are good things, and they're helping the cause by doing what they did. However, more importantly, they're removing their unworthy, pathetic genes from our species, killing two birds with one stone (or in this case, two morons with one petrol-based combustion event); firstly, they're furthering our evolution, and secondly, they're helping slow our massive over-population of our world. Human society was stable at around 10 million for millennia. We're now sitting at around six-and-a-half BILLION. It doesn't take a moron to tell you that the Earth will only support so many people. Which is just as well, since they're probably all buying their florescent tubes, petrol, and lightsaber hilts.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

The Lancet is the best we have right now, until someone does better. You cannot deny that the deaths are at least 50,000, including combatant deaths. At what point did we cross the line? I don't know, you can't talk about lifes that way.

You don't read links, do you? Even the statisticians that worked in the report conceded that the true number could very well be on the very low-end of the 8-190k range.

This actually reminds me of a time I had the misfortune to verbally clash with a neo-nazi type person several years ago.

Your debate technique is really convincing. Since I've been called a neo-nazi by implication, you must be right! I'm sorry, I retract everything I've said up to now. How can I argue against your logic!! (hint: It's sarcasm).

By the way, until 2001 I really admired America, and I thought pretty much along your lines. After the world-changing event I (like many) asked "why?" and did a lot of reading into why someone could do such a thing.

So I guess that the main difference between you and me is that I don't brainwash so easily. That can be the only explanation since you haven't demonstrated having read anything of substance. How may times have you put your foot in your mouth now?

Invading Iraq was about the worst thing you could have done, you don't make new enemies when you are already fighting a multiple front war. Iraq is now a breeding ground of terror. The insurgent attacks will never stop, their will always be this threat to any government, even if it had the support of 99% of the population.

Right, because Saddam was a white lamb before we went in there? Did you forget about his open sponsorship of terrorism policies? About the love and tenderness for his people? For a guy that claims the moral high ground, you seem to have some very callous and rosy perceptions of the true evil in the world. But hell, you've already tried to defend him once, so I'm not surprised at all. We haven't made new enemies, we are just still fighting the old ones, it's just that now more are coming out of the closet. Remember how hated was America during the cold war, especially by Europe? Did you think that so much hatred just dissappeared once we won that war? This Anti-Americanism is way bigger and older than Iraq. Again, I suggest you do your homework.

Personally I'm not religious,

Believe me, that shows.

I just made a stab in the dark...

No way! Seriously?

I just made a stab in the dark that you were (based on your opinions) and going by your comment you clearly are...I'm not disputing divine origins, but as it stands the bible cannot be trusted. It's got more edits than a Star Wars original triology flick.

OK, since you are the genius and I'm the Idiot, I'm sure that you can point out a fact that I pulled out of my rear end the way that you have. And by the way, the bible is not "full of edits" because we still have texts in the original Hebrew and Greek. Whenever a new translation is made, it's made from the oldest texts possible. My decades-old copy of the bible reads "murder". It's the King James version that was mis-translated way back in the middle ages. You're right. You don't know squat about religion, either.

Do my a favor and stop embarrasing yourself. Go read something besides propaganda and maybe you will be able to do more than parrot someone else's misconceptions.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Guatemala's was the US's "covert" war worse mistake. No, not mistake, crime of the highest order. You'll get no argment from me there.

Cuba on the other hand is headed by a repressive and murderous dictator that took the country by force. So I don't have much sympathy for it's government. It's people however, could certainly benefit from a lift of US sanctions.

I partially disagree with you on Panama. "Pineapple face" Noriega was pretty much hated by his own people as a corrupt and brutal leader.

As far as Mexico, the US involvement that you speak of has to do with Mexico's war of revolution, and the US hunt of Francisco Villa, a revolutionary leader, for the murder and the "seizing of assets" from US Nationals. I am Mexican myself, and I see this intervention as unfortunate since Villa is a hero of mine, but I also see the intervention as unavoidable.

As far as Honduras, you'll get no argument from me. The "banana" fiasco was a dark chapter in US foreign policy. Those most directly responsible should've been executed by the US's own justice system.

As far as Haiti, the US role in the latest "coup" is still unclear, so I can't provide much in the way of commentary.

As far as El Salvador, the US was in the side of the established government. Though the US's tactics were horrible, elections since have confirmed that the US, in principle, took the right side: The Sadinistas lost by a landslide in the first post-war elections and are still the runner-up to this day.

The Dominican Republic's US harassment really began in earnest just before WW II, when German intelligence was eyeing the country as a way to extend its sphere of influence. After the war, we focused on that country for way too long, but the whole issue was mostly naval in nature.

In Brazil we supported the coup with weapons that weren't actually delivered, but little else since the coup was successful on its own.

Chile was a US fuck-up, no question. We were fighting the spread of communism at the time, but what we did there is just unjustifiable.

I am unfamiliar with Grenada so I can't comment.

So what does your list tell us? That the US has had innocent blood in it's hands, just like most other countries that look after their own selfish interests abroad (including pretty much all of Western Europe). Overall, the US's interventions in South America have had to do with either capitalistic imperialism, or with the cold war. The cold war is over, and "free-trade" zones are making the old capitalistic imperialism stand irrelevant.

However, a democracy in Iraq will serve the US's interests better than anything else. That's why I think we'll succeed over there.

More often than not, democracy and capitalism around the world have served the US's interest best. The US, by and large is not a philanthropist country though there are times that it has been. In this case, the US's interests as well as the "right thing to do" for Iraq, coincide.

Re:Slightly more information

[Nopal]

Forgive me for posting a second reply to your post. I am aware that is bad etiquette, but despite our disagreement, you seem to have a good head on your shoulders and I just had to ask a question that may shed some light into the point of view that I'm coming from:

Despite the US's stains of dishonor in its international relations record, do you know of any other country that has pushed the course of democracy and self-determination as much as the US, or that has rebuilt a single country the way that the US has, or that has given even a single-digit percentage of the US's amount of aid to impoverished or war-torn nations?

Re:Slightly more information

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like you two made each other cum pretty good. Want a towel?

Yeah right

[Washizu]

"The pair - a man aged 20 and a girl of 17 - are believed to have been filming a mock fight when one of the devices exploded in woodland on Sunday."

(emphasis mine)

The story would be more believable if it had been between two actual Jedi knights.

Re:Yeah right

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait... this is GB after all, they could be Jedi Knights ...

Saberology

[Stibidor]

They obviously haven't heard of saberology. Silly sots. :)

Re:Saberology

[scribblej]

This, combined with our patented duel resistant system, allows the user to do amazing things that have been only dreamed about before.

What good is a duel-resistant light saber? Sheesh!

hmm

[Tebriel]

the dumb is strong in these two...

Re:hmm

[turgid]

the dumb is strong in these two...

The farce, surely?

Re:hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the JAR JAR is strong in these two.

Re:hmm

[swestcott]

burnt they be

Re:hmm

[elgatozorbas]

I felt a great disturbance in the force. As if millions (well, two) of voices suddenly cried out 'aw aw aw...'

Re:hmm

[Christianfreak]

Hehe, I suppose I should link to my friend's rendition of the farse

(sorry, shameless plug I know)

Ever in a slashdot post.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. That has to be. The worst English.

stupid stupid stupid

[tomstdenis]

In other news, dumb people do stupid things...

Like seriously... those tubes aren't exactly "sturdy" to even mock fight with...

Takes some sort of special stupid todo this. Specially when you realize that in reality they fight with tubes which are DIGITALLY changed to look like they are glowing.

I had friends [into AV stuff] doing nice looking sabres in film class in HIGH SCHOOL nearly 6-7 years ago using nothing more than the G3 MAC lab we had.

Tom

Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Shadow Wrought]

But I remember hearing awhile back that Lucas was going to give the Star Wars Kid a part in Episode III (I think that's the name- the overweight kid thrashing around his garage with a homebrew lightsaber). I've seen it, but didn't recognize anyone meeting the rather vague memory I have of him. Was there any follow-up? Any SW fans know what happened?

As for the petrol swingers; sounds like they crossed the streams. Which is bad.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Formosus]

Yeah, the kid declined (which may be putting it gently). The petition to get him in got nowhere anyway.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Anonymous Coward]

As for the petrol swingers; sounds like they crossed the streams. Which is bad.

mixed metaphor... moving from star-wars to darwin-awards to ghost busters.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[JPelorat]

So we could say that Ghyslain struck Lucas down with all his hate, and his journey to the Dumb Side is now complete.

Seriously. The damage was done. The tape was out. May as well do something fun, get something positive out of the whole embarrassing thing. Be a part of movie history. But no, he has to go and screw that up too.

There's dumb and then there's Star Wars Kid. Amazing.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Dogtanian]

Or perhaps the kid (who is probably quite a bit older and wiser now) was sick of Star Wars and wanted to put the whole damn thing behind him?

Or would he want to appear in a film series he had possibly grown to hate, with his name popping up every so often when the film was discussed, when it might have slipped into greater obscurity otherwise?

I'd have been more surprised if he'd accepted.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Shadow Wrought]

Mixed metaphors are just spilled milk under the bridge.

Re:Slightly Offtopic Question...

[Artifakt]

Slightly Offtopic Answer (with save at the end):
Lucas and his daughter supposedly appear in the background in Episode 3, in a scene involving a staircase. If this guy is in there, it's probably in the same scene. Reminds me of the fans that had kept Star Trek alive during the lean years - Paramount got a number of them together, dressed them as crew, and put them in a scene set in the shuttlecraft bay in the first Trek movie.
I messed around with making my own Napalm (styrene-gasoline type), Thermite, and Hydrogen filled weather balloon type stuff a few times when I was a kid. I usually had better sense than these two, even at 12, but I did get the Air Force reserve scrambled once, and all I can say is thank God for the statute of limitations. (Weather balloon, Aluminum foil covered cardboard radar beacon dangling from it, night launch, and it was the 60's, when people still took UFOs seriously. The pilot later told me it went something like this: "Tower, I don't see a damned thing up here." "Cpt Smith, the (bleeping) thing's as big as a football field, and you're right on top of it - Do another (bleeping) fly-by.").

Who won the battle ?

[ggzeama]

I bet on the girl ...

Stupid Star Wars stunt, in the woods...

[blcamp]

...Any chance they are distant ancestors of Jar Jar Binks?

Re:Stupid Star Wars stunt, in the woods...

[nathanmace]

If anything they would be descendants not ancestors. Remember that "Star Wars" happened a "Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away...."?

Re:Stupid Star Wars stunt, in the woods...

[blcamp]

I meant to say that. There was flatulence in the Force. :p

Gene Pool

[1967mustangman]

Hey YOU out of the gene pool NOW!!!!!

The Force is Strong Enough *spoiler alert*

[ultimabaka]

If Anny-kins can survive getting the Monty Python treatment, two nut jobs in England can survive a couple of burns ;)

Hmmm....

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your lack of grammar skills disturbing.

fark

[Anonymous Coward]

I read this story already on fark.com. Ever notice when /. and fark have the same story it's always on fark first?

Re:fark

[eln]

That would explain why fark occasionally posts stories to the main page that point directly to a Slashdot article on the same topic.

Re:fark

[joshsisk]

thats because... duh duh DUN!! slashdot posts stories for paid subscribers first, then everyone else gets to see them.

also, the submission process is different as well - i'm sure it takes longer.

Reply.

[Anonymous Coward]

> [...] And me embarassed to be a Star Wars geek.

You didn't need a fire accident for that.

Simple decision

[j-cloth]

It's a simple decision -- Spend some time in a burn unit knowing that IF you make it out you'll be covered in disfiguring scars. Or admit you lined up to see the steaming pint of piss known as RoTS.

Now where did I put that flourescent tube?

The Grammar Nazi Strikes Back

[Anonymous Coward]

Rather than use expensive cgi techniques to make the light sabres glow for their home movie. This couple instead used fluorescent tubes filled with petrol.

s/. T/, t

C'mon, Slashdot editors, do your job and edit. It looks really stupid when the first "sentence" in the first article posted on the Main page is actually a sentence fragment. Have some pride.

Fluorescent light tubes?!

[TomorrowPlusX]

OK, sure, I've had some fun with pyrotechnics. My father -- being a machinist -- had welding equipment, so he and I would fill balloons with mapp gas and oxygen and would shoot them with burning bolts from a home-made crossbow. Good times. Not to mention my blacksmith uncle who would, on the fourth of july, take a special anvil he'd hollowed out the bottom of and fill the hollow with gunpowder. You can imagine the fun. Again, good times.

But, come on. Fluorescent light tubes?! You would have to be some sort of catastrophically stupid person to not realize how fragile those tubes are. I mean, for christ's sake! Filling a fragile glass tube with a burning liquid and then hitting things with it! Oh my god. If you *have* to do this, and obviously, you do because it's cool and fun, at least put some thought behind the mechanics.

The only thing I can really think about all this is that, somewhere, modern culture isn't teaching people important, basic, rules about material properties.

On a side note, I previously associated this kind of behavior with my fellow Americans. We're a stupid, raucous bunch. I'm glad to open my arms to the UK, I welcome you to our stupid bosom. May you whittle your gene pool alongside us.

Re:Fluorescent light tubes?!

[SaleNowOn]

On a side note, I previously associated this kind of behavior with my fellow Americans. We're a stupid, raucous bunch. I'm glad to open my arms to the UK, I welcome you to our stupid bosom. May you whittle your gene pool alongside us.

You guys (and girls) set the standard and us Brits can only hope to keep up. However I'm sure our next generation will raise the bar still further. 3 Daughters aged 12 14 16 all pregant. mother blames school

We're doomed aren't we ?

Re:Fluorescent light tubes?!

[Stankatz]

"May you whittle your gene pool alongside us."

How do you whittle a pool? Maybe if you'd said "whittle your gene stick"...

Re:Fluorescent light tubes?!

[BluedemonX]

A 38 year old Pakistani impregnates a 14 year old girl?

He lives with his parents. He should be in the custody of the police. That is, of course, if Danila doesn't want to come in here and defend this sort of thing...

Re:Fluorescent light tubes?!

[Anonymous Coward]

I wouldn't have thought they could even be opened without shattering, as thin as the glass is.

Only in England

[mustafap]

Fortunately this would never happen in America, since they cannot get hold of Petrol ( which is unique to the UK ). Gasoline would not have the same effect. Thats why Petrol is so expensive in the UK :o)

Re:Only in England

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't petrol just ordinary automobile gas?

Re:Only in England

[mustafap]

It's automobile gas in liquid form, rather than, er, gas.

Joking aside the differences are probably the octane rating and possibly the lack of lead. We had a wonderful game in the uk a few decades ago called 'convert your car to unleaded.' Caused loads of confusion, not too disimilar to 'Mornington Cresent' played on Radio 4.

Re:Only in England

[SPY_jmr1]

...

american gasoline is a liquid... you thought we kept it in pressurized tanks in the trunk/boot, or what?

in addition, leaded gas was banned in usa on 27 oct, 1978...

Octaine, maybe different... what units are in use in the UK?

Re:Only in England

[StikyPad]

It was a joke..

Hence the next line which reads, "Joking aside.."

Damage your prefrontal lobe lately?

Re:Only in England

[SPY_jmr1]

Well. Yea, I half got that, and half had it blow over my head... I just woke up, see? :p

I still wanted to respond to the leaded part, didn't know if that was joking too.

As to the prefrontal lobe... If something were in front of the front, wouldn't that be the front then? seems a bit like a pre-heated oven... (its either heated, or UNheated!) :D

I laughed

[varmittang]

So I know I'm going to hell.

Copy Cat'ing

[HaydnH]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure one of the chucky movies got banned as a pair of kids we're dangerously copying it - they killed someone by tieing him to a railway line iirc. Does this mean they're going to ban star wars movies?

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

If you ban something for having someone tied to train tracks.. You'd have to ban Dudley Do-Right.

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[sbowles]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure one of the chucky movies got banned as a pair of kids we're dangerously copying it...

Sorry, but I must have missed that penultimate scene in the final duel where Anakin switches his lightsaber for a fluorescent light bulb filled with flaming petrol.

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[DrinkingIllini]

Ah yes, but those were children and thus supposed to not know the difference between real life and a movie. We're dealing with adults in this case, stupid adults, but adults nonetheless, so I don't think they'll be any sort of uproar, unless it is uproarious laughter.

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[NanoGator]

"Does this mean they're going to ban star wars movies?"

That depends on if they liked the movie or not. It's not like those people are consistent.

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[digidave]

That's how he got burned.

Re:Copy Cat'ing

[HaydnH]

It could also depend on 'those people' being lucky/unlucky when rolling their 20 sided dice...

They're from Hemel Hempstead!

[Threni]

More details:
http://www.idler.co.uk/html/frontsection/craptown/ towns/hemelhempstead.html
http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&f ile=print&sid=946

Flourescent Tubes

[bsd4me]

Flourescent tubes will also glow if you hold them while standing under high-tension power lines.

Re:Flourescent Tubes

[bsd4me]

Damn, I am a goodly speller...

Re:Flourescent Tubes

[TobyWong]

So do your testicles.

Re:Flourescent Tubes

[Preston Pfarner]

A friend in middle school did that; they were having fun, sabers flickering from the power lines, and one of them brought his "saber" down in a centered two-handed downstroke above my friend. My friend held his "saber" horizontally to block -- and it would've worked, too, if the descending saber hadn't shattered -- sending a cloud of sharp glass fragments into my friend's face.

He did eventually recover.

Re:Flourescent Tubes

[advocate_one]

Here is a field full of them...

Re:Flourescent Tubes

[flynns]

You can also hold said lights near an Antenna radiating a couple hundred watts, and while it definitely blows away the FCC's field strength safety regs, it WILL glow.

That would be awesome ...

[KnightTristan]

... i've they had made a movie of it!

Re:That would be awesome ...

[gothzilla]

RTFA. The police found the video.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/hert s/4575291.stm

Re:That would be awesome ...

[0kComputer]

They did, i'm sure we'll be seeing it on ogrish sometime soon.

Why petrol?

[General Alcazar]

I don't understand why they would put petrol in there. It makes no sense.

Darwin Award winners?

[lheal]

Hall of fame inductees!

This is worse than powering a powering a go-cart with a chainsaw (not a chainsaw engine, a chainsaw). Or any attempt to juggle objects meant to fell trees.

No, this couple gets a waiver straight into the Hall.

They deserve their own wing.

Re:Darwin Award winners?

[Marko DeBeeste]

Shouldn't that be "Hall of Flame"?

Re:Darwin Award winners?

[Stavr0]

If they

1. Lose their gamete-producing organs to third degree burns
2. Become functionnaly unable to reproduce
3. Become scarred to the point of being unable to find a mate

then they're a shoe-in.

Great

[LSD-OBS]

Now they can sue Lucasfilm for influencing our children in such terrible, rotten ways. I mean, surely the link here is more tangible than with those idiotic lawsuits against companies which create violent games, right?

Re:Great

[Thud457]

I am all for anything that prevents G. Lucas from making any further shitty Star Wars movies. It's a shame someone had to immolate themselves to make that happen.

BBC Story

[FF3451]

The BBC story is better than the one linked to from the article.

Definately some fine contenders for a Darwin award, depending on the outcome. Being a Firefighter I've seen people do some stupid things with Petrol, but even this one's new to me!

Reminds me...

[Anita Coney]

I had a friend, who at the age of 16, decided to build his own flame thrower. Unfortunately for him, it worked. It worked SO well he burned about 80% of his body.

He was one of those guys who was incredibly intelligent with absolutely NO common sense. Or maybe better put as, smart enough to be dangerous.

Re:Reminds me...

[zoney_ie]

I think the phrase is, so sharp they'd cut themselves.

Re:Reminds me...

[Anonymous Coward]

Flamethrowers that work well tend to throw flame away from the user. Use in enclosed spaces is still not recommended.

What sort of intelligence does it take to build a flamethrower? It's really a simple device. Formulating the fuel is probably the trickiest part.

Re:Reminds me...

[Anita Coney]

"throw flame away from the user"

His much younger brother got a hold of it.

Re:Reminds me...

[m50d]

Two of my friends have built flamethrowers. It was awesome. I think they've grown out of it.

Seriously, this is the sort of thing teenagers do all the time. I don't think it shows exceptional stupidity, exceptional lack of common sense, or anything really. Just teenagers taking stupid risks like they always do.

Short Simple Sweet

[cyberlotnet]

Stupid people shouldn't Breed!

Doesn't Matter

[Greyfox]

But it is vitally important that they give him a vasectomy and tie her tubes while they're still in the hospital, to insure that under no circumstances these two are able to reproduce. Although it sounds like they're well on the way to killing themselves or being so unattractive to the opposite sex that there's no way they'll ever get laid, we can't leave things like this to chance!

Can't wait

[Alarash]

I can't wait to see somebody claiming that this is a good illustration of how dangerous Star Wars is. Not to mention Star Wars games.

"I was so disturbed after seing the movie/playing Jedi Knight IX that I thought the mediclorians made me do it, you honnor! I swear I'm not responsible!"

Gotta be said...

[StuffJustHappens]

Use the Extinguisher Luke...

Re:Gotta be said...

[Lovesquid]

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of stupidity.

am i breaking the law

[P3NIS_CLEAVER]

In anywhere BUT soviet russia, petrol-filled lightsabers burn YOU!

two people are seriously injured

[Anonymous Coward]

...so let's all joke about it? niiiiice.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[ocelotbob]

Yes. They injured themselves in a spectacularly idiotic way. Fuck, any 6 year old knows not to play with explosive substances like this. They showed that they are of low intellect and/or common sense. Thus, they are quite warrented in being ridiculed.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[Slashcrap]

No, not quite. Two absolute fucking retards are seriously injured.

Let's examine the possible benefits :

1. Assuming that they are both seriously mutilated, the chances of them ever reproducing are massively decreased. This means that their retard genes will not be passed on to their offspring. Let's face it, if they have children they'll end up doing something similar in years to come. So their removal from the gene pool will actually decrease the chances of more injury, pain and horrific deaths in the future. Are you saying that would be a bad thing?

2. If they can do this to themselves, you can bet they'd do something equally horrific to innocent bystanders in the future, if given the chance. How would you like it if these fucktards ran over a member of your family while driving at 150mph on crack?

The fact is that natural selection is no longer allowed to act on the human race to it's proper extent. We're looking at a future of gradual deterioration - devolution if you will.

We should celebrate events like this.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[Tony Hoyle]

I suspect they were probably drunk, stoned or both.

I know I would be if I had to live in Hemel Hempstead...

Re:two people are seriously injured

[ajlitt]

Naw, must have been they did enough brain damage breathing in the sweet mercury vapor filling of the tubes that this seemed like an even better idea than it did on the outset.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[NanoGator]

"We should celebrate events like this."

Only if I feel like an elitist asshole who thinks his shit doesn't stink.

I've never fought with flaming flourescent tubes, but I have done stuff that by all rights should have earned me a maming. I seriously doubt you should be casting any stones.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[Concerned Onlooker]

"...any 6 year old knows not to play with explosive substances like this."

You're obviously not a true Slashdotter. I doubt there is a single person here who hasn't done something stupid involving explosives, chemicals, cars, alcohol or a combination of all of the above at some point in their lives. It's just that most of us are lucky enough to have survived our less intelligent moments.

OK, it was a bad idea and it's either going to cost them permanent disfigurement or death. They weren't out to intentionally harm anyone or do anything illegal while in the process, so show a little empathy. Does it make you feel better to jump on the bandwagon of ridicule? Try adding a little empathy to your life.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[Slashcrap]

Only if I feel like an elitist asshole who thinks his shit doesn't stink.

Yeah, you're right. Elitism is bad mmkay?

Let's encourage the stupid and mediocre and help to build a dull new tomorrow.

I've never fought with flaming flourescent tubes, but I have done stuff that by all rights should have earned me a maming.

So you've done things that would, with absolute inevitability, lead to your injury or death? At an age when you should know better? And involved other people?

If you did get mamed doing them, would you expect sympathy? If the answer is yes, I suggest that you keep on doing them.

Re:two people are seriously injured

[NanoGator]

"Let's encourage the stupid and mediocre and help to build a dull new tomorrow."

You would not be around today if you had your way.

download link

[lucas teh geek]

ok, so where's the link to this home movie of theirs? :P

It's in the Mirror...

[David Horn]

That means it must be true...

Re:It's in the Mirror...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's in the BBC as well.

Safer Idea

[Nytewynd]

I had a much safer idea for my video.

To save money on storm trooper outfits, I made them out of broken glass and used syringes. Even I am not crazy enough to petrol-fire-rods though.

OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[Caspian]

Why does everyone insist upon writing "Mac" as if it were an acronym? It isn't. It's short for "Macintosh". It's "Mac", not "MAC".

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[tomstdenis]

Fuck you zealot. I'll call it whatever I want. Given that I'm a linux/gnu/amd64 user I don't care what ***MAC*** users call themselves ;-)

Tom

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people don't care what gay Linux users call themselves either

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[Caspian]

I'm not a "zealot" for wondering why everyone consistently miscapitalizes a very simple three-letter word in the same way.

You, however, are perilously close to zealotry for swearing at me unprovoked.

For the record, I run GNU/Linux-based systems (mostly Debian) on all of my systems except three (one iBook running Mac OS X, one UltraSPARC system running OpenBSD/SPARC64, and one Windoze box for gaming). So I'm not the Stupid Mac Zealot you probably assumed I am :)

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[tomstdenis]

... note the smiley in my reply ...

But in reality I really don't care what they call themselves. I wrote MAC probably since I write PC all uppercase...

Tom

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the heterosexual Linux users? Or the Linux users who just aren't all that happy?

Re:OT: Re:stupid stupid stupid

[Caspian]

"I wrote CHEVROLET probably since I write GM all uppercase..."

From the Sun Online article ...

[Anonymous Coward]

"They filled them with fuel and washing-up liquid ..." If "washing-up liquid" means dishwasher liquid, then these folks made napalm. Good lord.

Obligatory...

[Anonymous Coward]

These are not the light sabers you are looking for.

The lesson should be

[loadquo]

Mess with the force, and bound to be burned, you are

Re:The lesson should be

[Anonymous Coward]

With force you mess, bound to burned be, you are

OK OK i remember...

[Spy der Mann]

my father telling me he lit a freshly-painted van (he thought the paint would just scorch, not burn).

But come on! We're talking people over 17 here! Sheesh...

Re:WHAT????

[BigDogCH]

Are you forgetting that we are talking about 2 idiots who filled a glass tube with gasoline and ignited it? What part about that isn't funny?

I suppose the humor could be deminished if they were forced to do it, or were doing it to save someones life, or because it was how they fed their family, but these people DID IT FOR RECREATION!

If these 2 live, and produce offspring, I will lose all faith in evolution.

Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[Anonymous Coward]

The obsession with "Star Wars" is a good sign for Western society because it indicates our current moral compass. What does this obsession indicate?

We are still committed to moral clarity. We support democracy. We believe in protecting the weak and the downtrodden. These themes appear across the entire "Star Wars" saga.

In other parts of the globe, "Star Wars" is popular for different reasons. For example, in Hong Kong, many people enjoy watching "Star Wars" primarily because the fights in the film are intense. The blood and the gore appeals to the Chinese audience. The theme of compassion is lost among the Hong-Kong supporters of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[VAXcat]

But the down side of the commitment to Star Wars is that we downgrade the power of reason and will, and submit to a non-material religious "Force" to deal with the world. This way lies the dark ages...

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[sickofthisshit]

"Star Wars" is a good sign for Western society....We support democracy.

Star Wars != support democracy, you dweeb. What, did you attend the George W. Bush school of political science? Where democracy = feel good, with no actual considerations for what defines a democratic society?

The whole point of the saga is that democratic institutions are weak, and we need princely heros (who have the blood of Anakin coursing through their veins) to protect us from despotism. Queen, Princess, Knight...those are the heroes. Who voted for Luke Skywalker? Who exercises civilian control over the Jedi?

The Star Wars story *might* correspond to a desire for a constitutional monarchy, respectful of basic human rights, but with a quasi-religious independent military. No democracy there, bub.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[mc_barron]

Yes, because materialism is the way to enlightenment.

Sorry about your penis. Nice SUV, though.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[VAXcat]

You're welcome to the richly spiritual Dark Ages...I (and I suspect almost all Slashdot Readers) vastly do prefer "the Enlightenment", a period in history when the leading thinkers believed that human reason could be used to combat ignorance, superstition, and tyranny and to build a better world. Their principal targets were religion (embodied in the Catholic Church) and the domination of society by a hereditary aristocracy. P.S. you're an idiot.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, yeah... Most of the great minds of the Enlightenment? Church-going Christians who you would loudly call "part of the problem" were they alive today. Sorry to have to tell you, because I know how you want to see humanism as the triumph of empty materialism over an "ignorant" religion... but I'm sure you are happier being told that you were wrong than remaining misinformed.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[VAXcat]

Most of them Church going Christians? Hardly. Many were full on atheists, and most were no worse than Deists. The best were out and out atheists. My favorite was Diderot - my favorite Diderot quote was something to the effect that humankind would not be truly free until the last king was strangeld with the entrails of the last priest...words to live by

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[RyoShin]

[trips]

Whoops, found a </i> tag on the ground. Anyone care to claim?

That fall hurt, might sue the guy who dropped it.

Re:Obsession with All Things "Star Wars"

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, apparently (view source) I included two tags. Sorry.

Let's see if I can sucessfully post this without the whole thing being italic...

Theme Song

[Marko DeBeeste]

Bill Murray singing "Flame Wars, they called them Flame Wars, tra-la-la-la."

Re:WHAT????

[gowen]

What part about that isn't funny?

The fact that two human beings are going to die.

Light Side?

[Milikki]

So which side were they trying to show? Burnt out bulbs for the Dark, or flaming ones for the Light?

RTFA

[weierstrass]

A 20 yr old man and a 17 yr old girl, FYI.

Re:RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah! If they were likely to breed, they would have been playing with these. (Only evil Sith use the double-ended ones.)

... this is why i'm a 2001 / 2010 / 2061 geek :-)

[JMZorko]

... because the only thing I can possibly do to harm my person is endow a machine with the intelligence to make a simple "it's him or me" decision.

Oh, wait ...

Regards,

John

Seed now

[LordSnooty]

I expect to see this video on BitTorrent by tomorrow morning. Forget blockbuster hits, this is what we want!

my home town - finally made famous. Yay!

[CdBee]

Thank god (or the Force), at last something for which people will remember Hemel Hempstead.

No more having to describe it as "about 5 miles north of Watford" in order to get some vague glimmer of recognition !

Re:my home town - finally made famous. Yay!

[cjz0r]

makes me sad to be in Hemel right now :(

Re:my home town - finally made famous. Yay!

[mikerich]

Thank god (or the Force), at last something for which people will remember Hemel Hempstead.

Nonsense - Hemel is already famous for its 'oh my god! oh my god! we're all going to die!' 'magic roundabout'.

But then I live in Milton Keynes - spiritual home of the roundabout - and we're secretly jealous.

Mike.

Re:my home town - finally made famous. Yay!

[CdBee]

That roundabout just works - a normal one wouldn't do as well. it just scares furriners and learner drivers...

Citizen, you have committed thoughtcrime!

[Thud457]

Apparently someone didn't read the talking points sent out in last week's media packet!

Re:Citizen, you have committed thoughtcrime!

[Random832]

eh? jesus is the force AND the force is a tool of satan? wtf

Since it Happened in a Forest...

[Shadow Wrought]

Maybe they saw some Ewoks and went clubbing.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

Tragic thing happens, people make jokes, oh dear lord what is the world coming to?

About the same it's ever been, that's what.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[s20451]

I guess you could argue that having creationism taught in schools leads to swordfights with burning gas-filled glass tubes. But that's not happening in the USA. So what's your excuse?

Changing lightbulbs

[atomic-penguin]

Q. How many Star Wars fans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A. It depends on the number of light bulbs and the amount of gasoline on hand.

No socialized medicine...

[lbmouse]

They were rushed to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex.

They deserve to get a bill.

Got them before they bred

[Anonymous Coward]

At first, being the compassionate human that I am, I was absolutely horrified. I mean, these people were burning alive from gasoline. Not a very pleasant way to go. 40% burns on your body, and your skin and liver and kidneys tend to just shut down and refuse to do business. Absolutely horrible.

And then my logic kicked in. Natural Selection. Here for the past 60 or 70 years, Modern Medicine has been interfering with Natural Selection. There are people who have lived long enough to breed, tainting the pool with their stupidity. These two were taken out about the time they start breeding, which is the way the system is designed to work.

As a compromise, I'd rather they just have been spayed and neutered, rather than suffer petrol burns...

What is causing this idiocy in an English couple?

[Anonymous Coward]

ANSWER: Mad Cow Disease (i.e. variant CJD)

England was ground zero for mad cow disease in human beings. Filling flourescent tubes with petrol is just another symptom of a mind degraded by renegade misshapened proteins.

Pity the fools. Don't laugh at them.

It explains English cars

[Anonymous Coward]

Based on my experience in England petrol doesn't work as well. Do they use petrol in France? The cars were pretty bad there as well? Apparently it ruins the engine because if you import a British car to this country they still run bad.

Mod parent down

[Anonymous Coward]

for being a complete tool

Re:Mod Parent Down

[AndroidCat]

You're buying a small sealed quality that's perfectly safe inside its container. (I believe the beta from tritium is stopped by a sheet of paper or your dead skin layer.) Larger amounts that could be released are different.

Besides .. "[makes hand gesture] I don't need a medical exam." "[watching glock] You don't need a medical exam..."

Typical slashdot response...

[Anonymous Coward]

...immediately condemn, something really, really cool, just because it's "dangerous."

Safety concerns aside, does this make a good light saber? I think our collective curiosity is piqued.

People are so concerned with safety that they ignore stuff that could bring fame or fortune.

Tools. :-)

ST4 - The search for a whale

[Anonymous Coward]

he could see the wires inside...since when do they make translucent metal?

Since Scotty told them how back in the Eighties, goddamn stupid starwars fans.

OT: Bloom County

[Embedded Geek]

Reminds me of the old Bloom County stip where the kids decide to make their own home movie version of ET. They send Opus the Penguin off frame to do a "special effect," which is followed by a big explosion. When he comes back in frame he is scorched and makes a comment to the effect:

I don't think Steven Speilberg used a frisbee covered in gasoline soaked sparklers for his version of the crashing spaceship effect.

Ah, memories...

Fire!Fire!FIRE!

[Thud457]

"Faces of Death LXII : Special Star Wars Edition"

Probably on rotten.com.

(Doesn't the Darwin Award presuppose that one was in the gene pool in the first place?)

Damned Fools

[Anonymous Coward]

"I have something here for you. Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damned-fool idealistic crusade like your father did."

Obviously, they weren't old enough...

I'll second that

[01000011011101000111]

Flaming Death we need to see, yeahs!

When there is glass and burning petrol

[Analogy Man]

A fool and his eyebrows are soon parted.

expensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Rather than use expensive cgi techniques to make the light sabres glow

Expensive in 1976 maybe, and it wasn't even CGI, it was a FILM technique. You can do the same thing with a five year old PC now.

Re:WHAT????

[gowen]

Jokes are an excellent way of dealing with -- and making sense of -- a shared tragedy, whether it's Aberfan, the Challenger Disaster, or 9/11.

This, however, isn't a shared tragedy. You're not making jokes about it because it's how we deal with communal grief. You're making jokes about because you're a dick.

Gas Prices

[britneys 9th husband]

Given the high gas prices lately, they probably didn't save any money compared to the "expensive" CGI techniques anyway.

More proof

[hikerhat]

More proof that violent movies cause violent behaviour! How many more lives need to be ruined by exploding glass tubes full of gas before we ban these movies forever?

call the lawyers

[wes33]

I hope Lucas is ready to pay out the huge award the jury will provide since he is *obviously* responsible for putting this idea into impressionable young minds.

Well ... at least if they can launch the suit in America.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[failure-man]

Hey, do we have to throw nationalism into this? To be properly cynical one must realize something: a huge number of people, wherever they're from, are idiots.

(Where national generalizations come into place is what the rest do with the idiots. Yes, we in the USA, make them our leaders.)

Napalm?

[YrWrstNtmr]

According to an article in The Sun about this,
"They filled them with fuel and washing-up liquid to act out a Jedi Knight fight scene from new movie Revenge Of The Sith. "

Gas + soap may make a crude napalm

Re:Napalm?

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL, that's exactly what I was thinking when I read this... Sounds like sound reasoning for making the Anarchist Cookbook required reading in jr. high school to me...

Re:Napalm?

[Delilah Jones]

It was my understanding that gasoline and styrofoam do, indeed, make a nice homemade napalm.

Evidently it'll burn through just about anything.

Re:Napalm?

[Anonymous Coward]

mod this down. repetitive already said before. stupid moron.

Re:Napalm?

[TiggsPanther]

I always thought that it had to be soap-powder, as it makes it stickier. Granted there are usually always more than one way of doing things.

Re:Napalm?

[YrWrstNtmr]

More than one way to fry a fool. google for gas+soap+napalm

These two don't seem the brightest bulbs in the box, so I don't think they were concerned with the optimal formula.

the solution is obvious

[tont0r]

clearly, starwars is a danger to society. because this movie that is jam packed with violence (not to mention showing children being killed) these, im sure, brilliant people were set astray by this movie and now they are almost dead (har). so the only solution is to remove this movie from theaters, burn it, and act like it was never there to begin with. if its true to video games causing dumb people to do even worse things, it should be true for movies. im waiting for MASW (mothers against star wars) to surface.

Re:WHAT????

[TexVex]

If these 2 live, and produce offspring, I will lose all faith in evolution.

First off, it's spelled "two".

Secondly, there is a bit of irony to be found in your statement about evolution. Irony, aside from the bit about having faith in a scientific theory.

The theory of evolution is that what doesn't kill the species only makes it stronger. Human beings are evolved to be risk-takers. As amazingly stupid as it was to set glass tubes filled with gasoline on fire and then swing them around, mankind never would have gotten anywhere at all if nobody ever did anything stupid and risky. It's also possible here that something in the genetic makeup of these petrol-sabre duelists makes them resistant to immolation, and so having them breed would both reinforce humankind's propensity for risk taking and also help make future generations more resistant to fire.

I know that what I've said here is a tad on the absurd side. I just wanted to point out that evolution doesn't breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria without bacteria being exposed to antibiotics.

Good Question!

[El_Smack]

I wonder what will take longer to hit the net: a DVD quality torrent of ROTS (no editing numbers), or a torrent of this home movie?

I'm betting on ROTS.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

We're making jokes because it's funny.

Just because you don't have any sense of humour doesn't mean everyone else has to act like a downer to make you happy.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[Anonymous Coward]

creationism taught in schools leads to swordfights with burning gas-filled glass tubes

I'm sure you have good reason to claim this, although personally I don't see how you arrived at that conclusion.

Master Replica

[The employee can cho]

When I went to see the movie, a guy in the audience brought his Master Replica lightsaber. I had never seen one of these before. In a dark theater, the glow was convincing and impressive.

This would be a realistic and safe alternative to playing with gas.

(Whenever he would hold up the lightsaber the crowd would fall silent, waiting to hear the ignition sound - each time followed by a round of applause.)

Re:Master Replica

[The employee can cho]

Only $120

Re:Master Replica

[QuantumLeaper]

Master Replica ones are nice but I perfer one from http://www.parksabers.com/

Re:Master Replica

[RealityMogul]

Only $7.99

Re:Master Replica

[Kenshin]

(Whenever he would hold up the lightsaber the crowd would fall silent, waiting to hear the ignition sound - each time followed by a round of applause.)

Wow. Words cannot express how pathetic, and utterly Pavlovian, that is...

/not trolling

Couldn't they...

[blkros]

have just bought a couple of the light saber "replicas" that everyone and their brother's selling?
Heck they even make sounds.

thin glass tubes full of... napalm?

[argent]

They filled them with fuel and washing-up liquid to act out a Jedi Knight fight scene from new movie Revenge Of The Sith.

Now I'm not really up on the latest Anarchist's Cookbook documents, but I'm pretty sure I remember mixing gasoline and soap being at least part of the process of making napalm...

Re:thin glass tubes full of... napalm?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here ... Relive your youth!

Boy against girl...

[logik3x]

The fight was between a boy and a girl... for shure someone was going to get injured... isn't inivitable... girls are so weak :P MAN > women

Re:WHAT????

[JPelorat]

First off, we have these things called 'numbers', that can be used to represent a quantity. '2' is one of these 'numbers', and was used correctly, if informally. Generally, when using small numbers in text communication, one should write out the English word, but it's not mandatory.

Second, there's a difference between antibiotic-resistant bacteria and 2 fucktards swinging Stupidtov cocktails at each other.

Disgust

[arashiakari]

You people are just SICK.

Two people get burned and injured doing something stupid, and all of Slashdot apparently sits back and LAUGHS? Talked about DARWIN awards? "OoooOOOOoooOOOhhh... HAR HAR HAR... If these people FECKING DIE then it will teh R0x0rz!!! J00z der force!"

Reading over every comment in total disbelief... you people are just SICK.

Re:Disgust

[Anonymous Coward]

We're laughing because they're stupid. This isn't a 6-year-old jumping off a roof trying to fly, an innocent bystander to someone's exploding-car-stunt-gone-wrong, or a mentally handicapped person playing Han Solo with a pistol.
This is a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old filling thin glass tubes with a flammable material, setting them on fire, then dueling with them! Pending further information (perhaps they are mentally handicapped), they deserve all the ridicule they get, and they deserve an honorable mention in this year's Darwin Awards.

Re:Disgust

[dave-tx]

Sorry man, but stupidity is just funny. Especially when taken to such a spectacular extreme.

Add in a Star Wars reference, and you have Slashdot Crack.

Re:Disgust

[thunderbee]

Huh that's kind of the point of the Darwin awards.

Someone does something incredibly stupid and dies. Hopefully before his genes get into the species gene pool.

I can relate to someone being hurt by bad luck, I just look down on those hurt by their own lack of common sense.

Next thing you know, if they survive, they'll sue Lucas for giving them the stupid idea?
Meesa stupid, meesa watch mooovie, meesa hurt. Lucas baaad!

Re:Disgust

[F1_error]

"OoooOOOOoooOOOhhh... HAR HAR HAR... If these people FECKING DIE then it will teh R0x0rz!!! J00z der force!"

Then we'll just have a slighty cleaner gene pool, it's survival of the fittest, and it's the basis of the food chain.

Re:Disgust

[Walkingshark]

So I'm guessing you didn't laugh as hard as I did when Anakin killed the younglings in ROTS? :)

Stupidity is relative

[akepa]

So if aliens from another world ever visit Earth, they will be perfectly justified in killing us all off and taking over, since we will be so hopelessly stupid compared to them and thus unable to contribute anything meaningful to their society. And it will all be so very funny.

Re:Stupidity is relative

[tomstdenis]

Swing and a miss...

THEY ... DID ... IT ... TO .... themselves!!!

What part of that is so hard to understand? If at 21 you don't know gasoline on fire is not a toy ... you're likely to be too stupid todo anything productive. Thus your death is not in vain as you're just making room for others.

Tom

Re:Stupidity is relative

[Anonymous Coward]

What part of that is so hard to understand? If at 21 you don't know gasoline on fire is not a toy

A) Neither person involved with this is 21 or older.
B) Gasoline on fire can very well be a great toy when you take proper precautions.
C) "Making room for others" is the stupidiest thing I've ever heard.

I don't expect anyone to start a fund or poor out emotion for these people. But you are _striving_ for an excuse to make fun of them, so just do us all a favor and shut your damn mouth so you can enjoy your asshole attitude on your own.

Re:Stupidity is relative

[tomstdenis]

So it's not ok to mock them [who did it to themselves] but it's ok to mock me for my comments [which I am making myself]...

Hypocritical or what?

Tom

Re:Stupidity is relative

[bigdumbyak]

Only if they were from Omicron Persei 8.
Then I know I'd laugh.

I'd also eat as many of thier children as possible before the killed me.

Re:Stupidity is relative

[mangu]

if aliens from another world ever visit Earth, they will be perfectly justified in killing us all off and taking over, since we will be so hopelessly stupid compared to them

What is so funny about those two dumbasses who set themselves on fire is that they are so hopelessly stupid compared to people from their own species , not compared to aliens from another world.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

And what's not funny about that?

Strike me down

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm guessing that part didn't work the way they planned
Enough funny things just can't be said about this.

Ban Movies!

[xafan]

This obviously wouldn't have happened if we banned violent movies and movie depicting dangerous situations. Star Wars possessed these young souls and forced them to do this.

This objective is only second to banning violent video games in order to protect the sanctity of Chirstian America!

Re:WHAT????

[gowen]

We're making jokes because it's funny.

If you think young people suffering horrible burn injuries -- even self inflicted ones -- is funny, you're a seriously fucked up individual.
I hope you never have to learn how painful it is for the victim, or their loved ones.

Have you left no sense of decency, sir?

Star Wars ban

[encebollado]

Great, now they're going to ban Star Wars because it "makes" people do dumb things.

Think Positive

[c0ldfusi0n]

They did the lightsaber duel and Vader being burned in the same sequence!

Re:Think Positive

[Bimkins]

Well, come on...
This is a low budget movie. They had to save in filming costs somehow!

Death sticks

[satyap]

Talk about Death Sticks.

(Someone on our chat channel just said "Flaming Igits".)

All I can say is:

[RealAlaskan]

Stop, drop and roll.

Even these guys should have been able to grasp that.

Maybe that should be the next Star Wars catchphrase: ``That $Star_Wars_fan is so dumb, he doesn't know to stop, drop and roll.

Re:All I can say is:

[Artifakt]

Stop, Drop and Roll doesn't work very well with Napalm. It has a strong tendency to reignite on the side you've just smothered as soon as air hits it again. So long as any patches are still burning, they will reignite the rest, and residual heat will also until the hottest spots are somehow cooled to not all that much more than room temperature.

Re:What is causing this idiocy in an English coupl

[wenit]

Mr. T, I didn't know you read slashdot. Then again I show have know since you are not a fool but instead only pity them.

Master Yoda Says...

[the pickle]

"Lead to Darwin Awards, the path of stupidity does."

p

Re:Master Yoda Says...

[Xyrus]

This proves once again that stupidity is the quickest path to the intensive care unit.

~X~

What about his friend

[Darthmalt]

Ah yes the famous lastwords of a redneck. But how many know the last words of his friend?

Around here "hey Yall watch this" Is usually follwed by "aww heck I can do that"

Re:What about his friend

[Anonymous Coward]

True story...down in my wife's little hometown in Texas they had a sherriff they nicknamed "Walking Tall Paul" due to the manner in which he cleaned up the town square remininescent of the old movie. Anyway, I talked to him once and he told me about how, when he was a kid, he and his brother used to make homemade bombs. One day they had an accident resulting in an injury to his brother (lost a foot or something, I don't remember) and so he went running home to tell his mother: "Momma, Bobby done blowed himself up with a bomb."

I just sat their listening to this story with a little smile on my face thinking "How quaint." Obviously, I'm not from Texas.

Re:What about his friend

[flynns]

No, no. You've got it all wrong. As a citizen of the Confederacy, I can report that the TRUE last words of a Southerner are as follows:

"Hold mah beer; watch this!!"

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the sociology lesson Spock.

What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts.

Did you know that New Yorkers are the fastest readers in the world? They can go through 100 stories in 15 seconds.

Sorry, couldn't find any Aberfan jokes but I did find referances that they did exist.

Some joke to deal with tragedy, some don't. Get over yourself.

Which they then set alight?

[Chasuk]

Which they then set alight

And it says this where, exactly?

Does anyone who post links on Slashdot actually fucking read them before doing so?

Re:Which they then set alight?

[slim]

> Which they then set alight

And it says this where, exactly?


Why would you fill a tube with petrol if you weren't intending to set it alight?

Why would you end up in a specialist burns unit if the petrol hadn't got lit?

Re:Which they then set alight?

[xanthines-R-yummy]

It's said here , here, and here, for something like the 3rd time, moron, each of which has been posted several times.

Do YOU read any of the links before posting smart-ass comments?

Re:Which they then set alight?

[Valdrax]

I'm curious to know exactly what other action you think that they took which could've resulted in one of the tubes exploding.

You do realize that petrol is gasoline and not nitroglycerin, right? It's not like shaking it will make it explode. Oh, wait. I know! Maybe you thought that petrol was diesel fuel and thought that they blew into one end really, really hard! Or maybe you thought that they plugged them in or held up a tesla coil in the hopes that petrol would make the tubes glow a different color!

No, seriously, there's no alternative explanation for the short blurb in the link that doesn't involve you looking foolish for getting all agitated about people thinking that they ignited the tubes deliberately. That's clearly the entire purpose of filling them with gas. I just think it's a shame that the short article neglected to mention that they'd mixed it with soap to get napalm first.

Re:Which they then set alight?

[Chasuk]

You do realize that petrol is gasoline and not nitroglycerin, right?

Yes, Dear, I do realise that petrol is gasoline, as I spent approximately half my life living 75 miles north of London (and not London, Ontario).

As far satisfying your curiosity as what other action might have resulted in one of the tubes exploding, do you know much about the construction of fluorescent tubes? Apparently not, but when you learn (assuming that you do), you will know the answer to your question. I don't care enough about your voyage of self-discovery to check back and see whether you have "edjucated" yourself, but perhaps you will remember what you have learned the next time you attempt to stick your tongue up my anus.

Re:Which they then set alight?

[Chasuk]

Yes, Sweetheart, I do. However, you will note that the link included in the Slashdot summary didn't mention that the tube was ignited, and it is the Slashdot summary which was my reference. The incident -- though exceedingly tragic -- wasn't interesting enough to merit research.

Thank you for pointing out the error of my ways. I really appreciate it.

It's about time!

[bunratty]

I've always said that swinging around fragile glass filled with mercury wasn't dangerous enough. I'm glad someone finally agreed with me and added explosive fumes and fire into the mix.

Cost of Glowing CG

[Georules]

My guess is that the cost of flourescent tubes and petrol outweighs that of a $300 computer (which they already bought to edit on) and a free 3D application to make the glow.

And that is assuming they don't have any hospital bills and don't put any value on permanent disfigurement.

Re:Cost of Glowing CG

[cyrax777]

chicks dig scars.

Re:WHAT????

[murphyslawyer]

In that case, I'd have to argue that /. is a total sausage fest.

Not that we didn't already know that...

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[Anonymous Coward]

> To be properly cynical one must realize something: a huge number of people, wherever they're from, are idiots.

Agreed.

> (Where national generalizations come into place is what the rest do with the idiots. Yes, we in the USA, make them our leaders.)

And then our leaders follow yours to the letter. It's a sad world. :-(

Genii

[ifwm]

Plural of genius.

Re:Genii

[Idarubicin]

Genii: Plural of genius.

A popular misconception among doofi.

What's wrong with....

[megarich]

The knock off crappy lightsabers you can buy in any toy store? So they ghetto but "gasp" they glow and unless someone smacks you up silly along side the head. the worse you get is a couple of bumps and bruises.....

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[Anonymous Coward]

creationism taught in schools leads to swordfights with burning gas-filled glass tubes

I'm sure you have good reason to claim this, although personally I don't see how you arrived at that conclusion.

I believe that the original poster was making a point about the two schools of thought involved.

A creationist tends to take the view that "God" has control over everything. Ergo, no act is so stupid as to be life threatening, since "God" will surely save you.

Where as one who studies evolution is continually confronted with the cautionary tale, that nature is just looking for ways to get rid of your weak genes, and stupidity is a great cleanser.

Therefore, the creationist would never be looking at a simple gas filled sword fight as being a reason for death, so long as the participants were "God" fearing folk. Whereas the evolutionist would see it as one of natures little tests, with a potential for calamity.

Of course I could be wrong.

THE REAL QUESTION ISN'T ANSWERED.

[Picass0]

Did it look cool?

Did anyone get pictures?

Re:THE REAL QUESTION ISN'T ANSWERED.

[Hangeron]

I bet they look like Darth Sidious or Darth Vader now.

Re:THE REAL QUESTION ISN'T ANSWERED.

[Redwin]

No, it was really really hot.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled ID

[saskboy]

" I don't see how you arrived at that conclusion."

I think it's fairly obvious. They thought putting gas which would glow when powered into a clear glass tube, was an Intelligent Design. If they'd been taught that the weak and stupid of a species die before procreating, they'd have realized that they were furthering evolution through the use of their unIntelligent Design.

A grave disturbance in the force..

[nevdullc]

All jokes aside ..
we should be careful that the entire star wars sage is not banned by the Christian right, the way they`re trying to ban video games and Ozzy albums, for being a evil influence on our youth.
Damned Sith!
/nev/dull/c

Re:A grave disturbance in the force..

[east coast]

we should be careful that the entire star wars sage is not banned by the Christian right, the way they`re trying to ban video games and Ozzy albums, for being a evil influence on our youth.

Ah yes, because it's only the right trying to censor... How I forgot...

And let's not forget Good old Tipper!

Re:A grave disturbance in the force..

[nevdullc]

no worries ... I was making a lark in jest (archetypically) to get a very generalized point accross..not trying to be historic-political/ly accurate.. but good points anyway. c

Gowen's a maudlin pussy

[Thud457]

"If everybody jumped off a bridge, would you do it?" -- EVERYBODY'S mom on the importance of common fucking sense.

"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." --Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban

I can feel for the pain that these people are going to feel for the rest of their lives. But they brought that upon themselves by their epic, incredible (as in un-fucking-believable) stupidity. Because of their industrial-strength stupidity, these two are probably be on the public dole for the rest of their painful lives. The ONLY thing these two bring to the rich tapestry of the grand history of Mankind is someone to point laugh at as an example of how to not be so goddamned fucking stupid. If John Fucking Donne himself had heard about these fuckwits, he would have rightfully mocked them himself.

"It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others" -- unattributed

Ummm.. Tritium is hazardous to humans...

[Khyber]

My topic says it all.

Re:WHAT????

[BigDogCH]

First off, it's spelled "two".

First off, who cares.

Secondly, it was a joke about evolution, not a serious comment on how evolution works or doesn't.

Thirdly, there is a bit of irony in your statement about evolution. I think you should have your family start dueling with flaming glass shards. Then let me know how flaming-glass-shard resistant they become.

Fourthly, your comments are correct and logical, but you should really try to relieve some stress. May I suggest flaming lightbulbs?

So don't drink it

[AKAImBatman]

It's not a designer drug.

Re:So don't drink it

[Khyber]

Tritium is radioactive. I didn't mean drink it. Didn't you Read the slashdot story about this just a couple weeks ago?

Re:So don't drink it

[AKAImBatman]

Yes. Did you? If you did, then you know that beta radiation doesn't pose an external risk to humans unless it's in sufficient quantities. i.e. Since the radiation is incapable of penetrating the layer of dead skin cells, it can't hurt you. However, given a significant enough source, you can be burned. So:

1. Don't handle $3 million worth of Tritium all at once.

2. Don't drink the Tritium.

Are we clear now?

They should of used these...

[Kickassthegreat]

Force FX LightSabers
My cousin has a pair of these, and my wife and I checked them out about a week ago. He paid about 99$US each at a chain movie store. This would have covered their visuals and their sound effects (at least so much as you would need for a home movie). And, according to the guys at ThinkGeek, they will hold up to some small-scale combat.

200$US has to be less expensive than their medical bills will be...

Re:They should of used these...

[Anonymous Coward]

three words
National
Health
Service

im paying the bill :)

Re:WHAT????

[BewireNomali]

Yup, I'll co-sign on this. 500 years ago, these two would have volunteered to get on ships led by some guy that had a dream saying, "go THAT way."

Risk takers move the species ahead. That said, history has proven that most risk takers are men, as evolution produces enough to withstand the loss of many to the consequences of risk-taking. So it would seem that the girl being hurt in this stunt is uncommon, and a significant tragedy in that regard. That said, I hope both fully recover.

It's a generational thing, I think. Older folks always wanna say, "look at those stupid youngsters!" I'm keen to say... "look at these piss-poor fucking role models." Stupid younger people don't come out of the ether. They had shitty parents and witless teachers. But I digress.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think young people suffering horrible burn injuries -- even self inflicted ones -- is funny, you're a seriously fucked up individual.
I hope you never have to learn how painful it is for the victim, or their loved ones

I've been badly burned myself, and took a little under 2 years until my life got back underway.

But what these guys did was stupid, and I'm laughing at them along with everyone else who has a sense of humor.

Oh man- I can recall almost doing this when drunk

[Anonymous Coward]

Ended up having a 'lightsaber fight' with a friend using scrap fluorescent tubes. We were sufficiently coherent to remember to wear safety goggles and our fencing gloves. It was cool until we smashed them together, and were left holding stubs of glass tube. Then we had to sweep up the junk...

I cannot believe that people who had the smarts to actually drill out the tubes would fill them with flammable liquid

The Dukes of Hazzard syndrome

[swm]

I call it the the Dukes of Hazzard syndrome.

In my area (small town) we lose maybe 1 kid/year in an auto accident (average). The accident reports tend to be sketchy, but if you read between the lines, a common thread is a driver who doesn't have a good feel for how 2000 Kg of metal behaves at 20 m/s.

I blame too many hours spent watching stunt cars on TV,
and not enough time skidding real bicycles on real gravel.

Re:The Dukes of Hazzard syndrome

[SPY_jmr1]

oh lard, 44 mph!

someone tell my car that it should have killed me going around that curve last thursday!

(and when did /. start using kapchas?)

Reminds me of when I...

[Ancient_Hacker]

Reminds me of my young tender years. One of my friends had parents that were at work during the day in the summer. His mother was a nurse. In their garage there were some (old-style) intravenous infusion jars (glass), the jar caps and plastic hoses, a 5-gallon can of gasoline for the lawnmower, and an ancient but still chugging air compressor. Put all these things together, and you have a pressurized glass jar of gasoline with a convenient squirter hose. A poor-kid's flamethrower. I'm amazed we didnt all burn up several times over.

Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Thud457]

He has a "Queen" that is elected for a limited term. Pretty sums up G. Lucas's understanding of political systems. It's a wonder someone that dumb could get one movie to market.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Ithika]

Nothin' wrong with that... Norse communities used to elect (and remove) their kings. Just cos all our royalty are hereditary, doesn't mean everyone else's are.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Neward Rylet]

A lot of countries did the same. This included England, which is how Harold became king over William the Conqueror. This was done by barons, not a general plebicite, and the position normally lasted the monarch's whole life.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Qrlx]

Sorta like how in the US today, judges are selected by the President, approved or disapproved by the Senate, not a general plebiscite, and the position normally lasts the judge's whole life.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[sickofthisshit]

Judges exert judicial power, not executive power. Kings potentially exert both.

Lifetime appointments help relieve the fear that the judge might lose his job if, God forbid, he make some decision that a powerful politician somewhere could disagree with. Thereby allowing legislators to cry about "judicial activism" and "extremist judges" without (hopefully) affecting judges' ability to decide cases without outside influence.

Historically, lifetime appointments to executive power, on the other hand, have led to quite objectionable behaviors.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Anonymous Coward]

As others haved pointed out, the idea of elected royalty is hardly a new one. When you get down to it, what difference does it make what you call your elected ruler? President, queen, king, whatever. The actual movies don't really give all that much detail on the actual political system of Naboo, but the things that we know about Amidala is that she is very young for a high political office, and that she went to a special school apparantly for diplomacy and leadership skills. The next queen along apparantly also went to that school and is also quite young.
This leads me to believe that special schooling may be required to be elected to the role of monarch of Naboo. It does seem pretty clear that they intentionally elect the young to the position, and possibly only females, although the evidence for that isn't as strong. I'm imagining a system where certain children, either because they are of particular descent or because they show promise early on, or quite possibly both, are trained in a very sheltered academic setting intended to instill very firm values about the way things should be. Then the public or possibly some other representative body elects a temporary monarch from that pool. They would intentionally be chosen young based on the idea that it's very hard to corrupt the young. So, the leader and moral compass of the society would be an almost manufactured product of the societies core ideals, intentionally untainted with the kind of corruption and cynical thinking that career politicians eventually end up tainted with.
How well this would really work in practice is a bit hard to say. In the Star Wars universe, I suppose they could be trained by droids who would be able to train them impartially on strict facts of law and founding documents (whatever their equivalent is to a constitution). I'm reminded of the group of senators who ran a number of years back on a joint promise to self-limit their terms. I think every single one of them ran again after their imposed terms were up. Their excuses generally fell along the lines that it was impossible to get anything done as a relatively new senator against the incumbents. The think is, that wasn't a viewpoint they disagreed with when they made their pledge. Their position was that they would encourage others to do the same and simply wear the system down over time. Most likely many of them may have actually earnestly believed this when they started. It's obvious from the outside that if they hadn't caved, they might have stood a chance of their term-limit goal working. The trouble is, politics changes a person. It seems like no politician is capable of thinking of herself/himself as a disposable public servant, bound to uphold certain ideals. That seems to me to be exactly the idea behind Naboo's monarchy. To raise a special class of people who see it specifically as their duty to serve their people, not themselves.
In the meantime, Palpatine is the worst case scenario of the politician. Someone who has been warped by power and will do anything to get it. The ends and the means becoming twisted together.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[Anonymous Coward]

Norse communities used to elect (and remove) their kings

Well, either you're talking about early medieval Iceland (which didn't have kings), or I don't quite know what you're referencing. As far as I know, the best way to become king of a Norse community in the middle ages was to go out and kill a bunch of people and generally kick ass and burn things until enough people said, "Hey guy, you're great. You can be king. So, please stop killing my family."
Then, inevitably, you'd celebrate your great victory by getting hammered and your nephew would come along whilst you're drooling in your stupor and stick is blade in your chest. If you survive, then you still get to be king and your nephew gets torn apart by wild dogs. If not, then the whole process has to start all over again.
So yeah, all in all it was pretty fun.

Re:Ed Wood had better dialog than Lucas!

[mink]

Now judges just need to worry about powerfull politicians saying loudly "Who will rid me of this activist judge". The nutjobs urged on (not oficially) by politicians and talk radio hosts go out and start dealing with the "activist judges" thus the lifetime appointment is much shorter and he can be replaced with someone who goose steps to the party line (whichever party is in power).

Re:WHAT????

[TexVex]

'2' is one of these 'numbers', and was used correctly, if informally. Generally, when using small numbers in text communication, one should write out the English word, but it's not mandatory.

More irony. Of course using the digit instead of spelling it out is valid. It just looks stupid. Admittedly, it's not as stupid as setting yourself on fire in a very clever way. But, both of them diminish you in the eyes of others.

Second, there's a difference between antibiotic-resistant bacteria and 2 fucktards swinging Stupidtov cocktails at each other.

And here you missed my point entirely. As idiotic as it was, they were being human when they did that. There is certainly a lot of humor in what they did, and in the tragic result. But you shouldn't diminish them for it. Three humans once sealed themselves inside a tin can sitting on top of tons of combustibles, then ignited them. They were launched to the moon, on which they then landed, then planted a flag and some useful science experiments. They then gathered up some rocks, got back in their tin can, and came back home to be lauded as heroes. They took a calculated risk for enormous reward -- that is something that people are built to do. These amateur cinematographers took a far greater risk for a far smaller reward, and things didn't work out that well for them.

I agree they were foolish, and I don't deny that the whole thing makes me laugh. But I refuse to allow myself to feel contempt for them.

Don't be a facilitator of stupidity, be a BOFH

[Thud457]

"I told her we were all out of them, not being mean, but knowing that if I said there is no such thing as clear paper plates I would have had to argue with her about it."

Now she gets into arguments at family picnics because "the guy at the party store did too tell me there was such a thing"!

Re:Don't be a facilitator of stupidity, be a BOFH

[Anonymous Coward]

My brother-in-law used to work at Sears and being one of the lower level managers was allowed some leeway with playing pratical jokes on coworkers.

One of the few he will share are the phone calls. He would randomly call Sears while he was off duty and ask for the cordless exention cords or something. He has this voice he uses that is very close to the oriental accent of someone who speak very very bad english.

ObScotty

[Rufus88]

The other day I was talking to someone that couldn't tell me whether the end on what ended up being his ethernet cord was metal or plastic. Even after he told me he could see the wires inside [...]

Haven't ye ever heard a' transparent aluminum, laddie?

Re:ObScotty

[allanc]

You know, until I read this comment, I was taking "Even after he told me he could see the wires inside" to mean "Ha ha, he's stupid because he doesn't understand that a metal connector would short out the wires inside" rather than "Metal is not see-through."

And I was feeling so smart this morning...

Video??

[Hits_B]

C'mon...you GOT to show us the video...please!?!?!?

Re:Video??

[gtkuhn]

This article says there is a video! bbc article Someone find that video, oh please!

Re:Video??

[fnord_uk]

Funny as the story is, I don't actually want to watch people writhing in agony after setting themselves on fire. Do you?

A horrible tragedy..

[FidelCatsro]

That said..

Obi-Wan: The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together. Though it does not make you flame retardent , ask vader

Re:A horrible tragedy..

[tomstdenis]

hahahha appropriate!

A+++++ Max Funny!

Tom

Re:A horrible tragedy..

[catdevnull]

If they ever dared to give me mod points, I'd mod this up +5 funny.

Re:A horrible tragedy..

[nsaspook]

And they will look like Vader, if they live.

Re:A horrible tragedy..

[FidelCatsro]

I really should of added some Schtick about this being in the lucas re-re-re-re-re-release of the movies

their next scene

[Anonymous Coward]

What the article forgot to mention was their next scene.

To emulate the emperor's force lightning ability, they were going to stand in a water filled bathtub and submerge an active toaster.

uh oh

[zenneth]

Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned.

"I am so totally not with these freaks, officer."

They Should Have Used Gasoline

[ReadParse]

The problem, of course, is that they used petrol, whatever the hell that is. They should have used good ol' American gasoline.

English: If it was good enough fer Jesus, it's good enough fer you.

RP

Re:They Should Have Used Gasoline

[Sarrek]

** LAUGHS **

That's what Brit's call Gas .. hehe

Re:They Should Have Used Gasoline

[woot account]

You know, they figured out what part of the brain detects sarcasm, and soon, maybe they'll be able to fix yours!

Re:They Should Have Used Gasoline

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem, of course, is that they used petrol, whatever the hell that is. They should have used good ol' American gasoline.

English: If it was good enough fer Jesus, it's good enough fer you.

What I don't get is how they name their whole country after our language and they still don't talk right.

Re:They Should Have Used Gasoline

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you're kidding. You realise that you guys named your country after the Antipodean word for "stupid," right?

Re:WHAT????

[databyss]

every second of every day, somebody, somewhere is undergoing some unbearable pain and suffering.

Should we all live lives of sorrow because people suffer? Do you limit your sorrow to just people or all living things? Somebody burning a puppy is some pretty intense pain too I'd wager.

It's rediculous to mourn every single act of suffering... the world would cease to spin.

Take from this what you can and move along.

To be honest, this whole situation is about as meaningful as a couple of jokes. There's no new information to be gathered here... Playing with fragile containers full of gas is dangerous. That's already well established.

They were on to somethng...

[Anonymous Coward]

...for building an explosive device, that is. Fill florescent tube with gasoline, rettach cap. Insert bulb into florescent fixtre, and attach to battery power supply. Remotely apply electrical current (or via timer)... and BOOM. Maybe you'd want to insert some shrapnel in there too...

Related Stories

[Ranger]

See all related storiesthrough Google News. They each have tidbits the others don't.

Expect toy lightsabres to be banned or include warning labels: DO NOT FILL LIGHT SABRE WITH MIXTURE OF GASOLINE AND SOAP. DO NOT SET IT ON FIRE OR YOU WILL DIE.

Really Stupid?

[E IS mC(Square)]

Once, in my earlier days, I complained to the SA (in exact words): "The middle of those three computers there fails to boot".

The response was : "From left or right?"

I just answered her "Oh, from the right!" - just because I was in no mood of killing someone that day.

Re:Really Stupid?

[AJWM]

Well, the correct answer would have been "Yes".

(Which is how I tend to answer silly questions like that. It usually has the desired effect of causing the other person to pause and re-think what they asked, because they weren't expecting a yes or no answer.)

Fiberoptic Lightsabers

[Pfhorrest]

I know someone who built what looks, in the dark or not right up in your face, like a real functioning lightsaber. A good many of them actually, he pulls them out at renaissance faires after hours to entertain the guilds with lightsaber duels. They're basically real swords lined with side-luminous fiberoptics, and a laser (or at least a strong, colored light source) shining into one end of the fiber. You wouldn't even need to use swords properly to make them... a transparent plastic tube (hard acrylic like they build marine exhibits ala Sea World out of) would probably work better, twist the two lines of fiberoptics down the center, and let the lens effect of the plastic tubing "fill in" the space in the middle.

The problem with the segmented plastic lightsabers you can buy is (A) they're weak as fuck and you can't fight with them, (B) you can see the segmenting and it's clearly soft plastic between!

Re:Fiberoptic Lightsabers

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with the segmented plastic lightsabers you can buy is (A) they're weak as fuck and you can't fight with them, (B) you can see the segmenting and it's clearly soft plastic between!

at least they cost less than 3 years supply of instant ramen

Re:WHAT????

[Gulthek]

We aren't evolved to be risk takers. We are evolved to have a sufficently powerful intellect that we can think our way out of the flight or flight reflex and critically analyze a sitution for benefit.

Three humans once sealed themselves inside a tin can sitting on top of tons of combustibles, then ignited them.

Mind-bogglingly stupid simplification. If that were what happened then the Apollo program would have been appropriately mocked. Those humans relied on a lot of work, a lot of dedication, a lot of design, a lot of safety, and a lot of will to get to the moon. Sure it was a risk, but it was a calculated risk.

These gasoline swinging idiots didn't take a calculated risk. They didn't even know that they were taking a risk, I highly doubt they thought it through.

To compare these morons to the US space program is...aahh!

BTW, the statement: I refuse to allow myself to feel contempt for them. implies that you do feel contempt for them, but are supressing it.

I can imagine how this got set up...

[WarmBoota]

Idiot #1: Hey let's film a light saber duel.

Idiot #2: That's a great idea! But jeepers, we don't have light sabers.

Idiot #1: I know! We can swing around these long, extremely brittle, light tubes.

Idiot #2: I don't know. They won't glow impressively and we'll look like "Star Wars Kid" with his broom stick.

Idiot #1: What if we fill them with gas and light them up? That would be impressive looking. Take that "Star Wars Kid!"

Idiot #3: Hello, emergency services, my two friends just went *boom*whoosh*. By the way, do you know of a good ISP where I can host a large video file?

Re:Glow Sticks - or

[pHDNgell]

...or just use less expensive cgi techniques.

It's not like they'd be the first to make a star wars fan film.

This thread is worthless

[MannyO]

...without pics.

Re:This thread is worthless

[east coast]

...without pics.

They're saving the video; they hope to win 10,000 dollars.

Not stupid

[geekoid]

just bored.

A little late...

[Penguinoflight]

to tell people to avoid telling jokes... This is slashdot after all.

Re:A little late...

[Lovesquid]

I think that joking was the whole point of posting a story like this on here to begin with. I mean, it really doesn't have any other point if not posted in humor. I really doubt the submitter expected 8 pages of sympathetic well-wishes when he submitted the story.

Two words

[Molina the Bofh]

Sith happens.

Re:WHAT????

[JPelorat]

More irony.

Yeah, ok, Alanis..

But you shouldn't diminish them for it

Don't have to, they took care of that themselves.

Three humans once sealed themselves inside a tin can sitting on top of tons of combustibles, then ignited them. They were launched to the moon, on which they then landed, then planted a flag and some useful science experiments. They then gathered up some rocks, got back in their tin can, and came back home to be lauded as heroes. They took a calculated risk for enormous reward -- that is something that people are built to do. These amateur cinematographers took a far greater risk for a far smaller reward, and things didn't work out that well for them.

That is. The most. Retarded comparison. Ever.

There's 'calculated risk', and then there's 'self-destructive idiocy'. If you're going to equate the Gemini/Mercury/Apollo SPACE EFFING PROGRAM with filling a light bulb with gasoline and setting it on fire, then there's no point in discussing anything further with you. These two morons did nothing noble, nothing redeeming, nothing intelligent, nothing that morally protects them from ridicule.

They deliberately set themselves on fire, there's no other outcome for the sequence of events that they undertook. They didn't even do it in protest like some Buddhist monks do. Useless. Senseless. Witless.

But please, continue to worship them. Maybe you too can emulate your cinematographic heroes someday.

Your Lightsaber and You

[Fjornir]

Jedi training film here.

Welcome!

[jim5272]

I for one welcome our new Petrol Waving Jedi Overloard Masters.
And I humbly request instructions for properly removing the end of a florescent tube without breaking it for future takes.

Original light sabre?

[Senor_Programmer]

Back when the WREK transmitter and antenna were located on the roof of the Van Leer(sp) Electrical Engineering building at Georgia Tech a few of us went up on the roof with flouresecnt tubes. Made dandy light sabres (long before star wars) as the RF got the atoms in the tube excited. Procol Harem or maybe a bit of Rossinni.

If you're gonna use flourescent tubes, it's probably easiest to generate some high voltage using an old TeeVee or computer display flyback transformer. Wear it in your pocket with a couple of pounds of Alkaline D-Cells. You can spiral a very thin wire around the outside of the tube and fix it with wide, clear, packaging tape. This will prevent injury from glass when the tune breaks.

Gasoline? Evolution in action.

IANAEE, I am not an electrical engineer but instead a wayward physics major about to head back to school after 30 years if they'll let me in.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

> 500 years ago, these two would have volunteered
> to get on ships led by some guy that had a
> dream saying, "go THAT way."

Yeah, but they would have set fire to the ship halfway across the Atlantic.

I am quite sure that, even 500 years ago, while people might have volunteered to undertake a voyage, any sensible captain would have rejected those that were an obvious liability.

REPOST!

[MuMart]

NOTICE: Due To Its Mass, This Product Warps Space and Time in Its Vicinity.

WARNING: This Product Attracts Every Other Object in the universe, Including the Products of Other Manufacturers, with a Force Proportional to the Product of the Masses Divided by the Square of the Distance Between Them.

CAUTION: The Mass of This Product Contains the Energy Equivalent of 85 Million Tons of TNT per Net Ounce of Weight. The Manufacturer warrants that this product is to be used only as matter and will not be responsible for injury or damage if it is converted into energy.

HANDLE WITH CARE: This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles Per Hour.

CONSUMER NOTICE: Due to the "Uncertainty Principle," it is impossible for the User to know precisely and simultaneously where this product is located and how fast it is moving.

ADVISORY: There is an Extremely Remote Chance That, Through a Process Known as "Tunneling," This Product May Spontaneously Disappear from Its Present Location and Reappear at Any Other Place in the Universe, Including Your Neighbor's Domicile. The Manufacturer Will Not Be Responsible for Any Damage or Inconvenience That May Result.

READ THIS BEFORE OPENING PACKAGE: According to Certain Suggested Versions of the Grand Unified Theory, the Primary Particles Constituting this Product May Decay to Nothingness Within the Next Four Hundred Million Years.

THIS PRODUCT IS 100% MATTER: In the Unlikely Event That This Merchandise Should Contact Antimatter in Any Form, a Catastrophic Explosion Will Result. The Manufacturer cannot be held responsible for resulting injury or damages.

PUBLIC NOTICE AS REQUIRED BY LAW: Any Use of This Product, in Any Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Aggregate Amount of Disorder in the Universe. Although No Liability Is Assumed Herein, the Consumer Is Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to a state of "Warm Death" of the Universe.

NOTE: The Most Fundamental Particles in This Product Are Held Together by a "Gluing" Force About Which Little is Currently Known and Whose Adhesive Power, therefore, Can Not Be Guaranteed Indefinitely. No responsibility is therefore assumed for the structural integrity of this product.

ATTENTION: Notwithstanding Any Listing of Product Contents Found Hereupon, the Consumer is Advised That This Product Actually Consists of 99.9999999999% Empty Space.

NEW GRAND UNIFIED THEORY DISCLAIMER: While the Manufacturer is Technically Entitled to Claim That This Product Is Ten-Dimensional, the Consumer Is Reminded That This Confers No Legal Rights Above and Beyond Those Applicable to Three-Dimensional Objects, Since the Seven New Dimensions Are "Rolled Up" into Such a Small "Area" That They Cannot Be Detected.

PLEASE NOTE: Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That, When Unobserved, This Product May Cease to Exist or May Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State. Therefore all warranties are in effect only while this product is under the direct observation of a human being.

COMPONENT EQUIVALENCY NOTICE: The Subatomic Particles (Electrons, Protons, etc.) Comprising This Product Are Exactly the Same in Every Measurable Respect as Those Used in the Products of Other Manufacturers, and Competitors' Claims to the Contrary are neither Justified nor Legitimate.

HEALTH WARNING: Care Should Be Taken When Lifting This Product, Since Its Mass, and Thus Its Weight, Is Dependent on Its Velocity Relative to the User. The manufacturer cannot be held liable for injury or damage resulting from relativistic mass increase.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PURCHASERS: The Entire Physical Universe,Including This Product, May One Day Collapse Back into an Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently Reemerge, the Existence of This Product in That Universe, and its performance and suitability for any purpose, Cannot Be Guaranteed.

Re:REPOST!

[Anonymous Coward]

This was the absolute funniest post I've read in as long as I can remember. Thanks

Re:REPOST!

[Scottl_h]

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball!

Re:REPOST!

[DigiShaman]

And so it goes... Another clueless lawyer will try and sue God. Of course he will win, but be forever damned to hell in the after life.

Re:WHAT????

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people absolutely deserve what happens to them.

Stick your hand in a chipper/shredder, and no one will or should feel sorry for you.

Jump out of a perfectly good aircraft with no parachute because you saw James Bond do it, and no one will or should feel sorry for you.

Light a glass tube full of gasoline and swing it at someone else who has done the same thing because you saw Darth fucking Vader do it, and no one should feel sorry for you.

Do you know why no one should feel sorry for you if you do one or all of the above things? Because the outcomes are predictable, avoidable, and incredibly self-destructive. You are guaranteed to fuck up your life if you do one of the above things.

The greater tragedy here is that people like you do in fact feel sorry for them.

Re:WHAT????

[Lovesquid]

We're not joking about the fact that they were injured. We're joking about the fact that they are incredibly fucking stupid.

Glow Sticks are non toxic for HUMANS

[Anonymous Coward]

.. but might not be for cats. My girlfriend and I came home from a bar one night where all of the drinks had mini glow sticks in them, as stirrers. We brought them home and had lots of fun as we watched the cat chase them around the darkened apartment. Well, some stuff happened and we got a little distracted, and when I walked back into the living room the cat had of course chewed open the glow sticks. The couch was covered in fluorescent green liquid and what's worse, the cat, also coated in fluorescent green liquid, spent the next 12 hours foaming at the mouth. Cat survived and eventually stopped glowing.

No, but...

[aardwolf64]

No, but his pet turtles have started growing rapidly, eating pizza, and carrying ninja gear...

So, basically...

[cab15625]

These guys made crude pipe-bombs out of glass, lit them, and then bashed them together. Even your average three year old would know better than that.

You smell that?

[Anonymous Coward]

... That gasoline smell? That's the smell of victory!

I love the smell of napalm in the morning!

article from the sun..

[medgooroo]

Dear god, have we stooped so low? might as well get the farkish boobies links going as well....

Re:WHAT????

[AJWM]

They took a calculated risk

And that is the difference between the Apollo astronauts and the idiots playing with highly combustible liquids in fragile glass tubes.

The former (and their fellow engineers in the Apollo project) carefully calculated risks, redesigned systems where necessary, designed in backups and failsafes. Yeah, sometimes they blew it (doing a plugs-out test in an Apollo spacecraft pressurized to 16 PSI with pure O2, for example) and people suffered for it. (They thought the material was fireproof -- mostly it was, at normal partial pressures of O2).

I sincerely doubt that any calculation of risk at all was involved with the latter idiots, though. And that is what makes them idiots.

Redneck fun

[Anonymous Coward]

I couldn't agree more!

For example, check out this Redneck Roller Coaster!

true Star Wars fan

[chegosaurus]

He has a seventeen year old girl with him who is obviously none too bright and easily led, and what he wants to do with her is - have a lightsaber fight. The young people of today...

We are not laughing at their injuries

[mangu]

Before you make any cheap cracks, the people involved are seriously injured

We make cracks at their stupidity, not at their suffering. With death and suffering all around us, one gets a strong sense of relief from the perception that at least our intelligence spares us from something as dumb as what these people were trying to do. Relef brings laughter.

There, feel better now? We aren't as inhuman as you seem to think. Perhaps you should read something about one of the human qualities that sets us apart from other animals?

Re:Glow Sticks are non toxic for HUMANS

[AndroidCat]

Glow stir stick? Now, this is the drink of a Jedi! (Warning, extremely cheesey web site!)

Re:Glow Sticks are non toxic for HUMANS

[Anonymous Coward]

At least it wasn't CAT-ASS-trophic.

get the human genome project on the phone

[Anonymous Coward]

and which chromosome carries the napalm filled fluorescent light dueling gene?
should those of us with wack understandings of genetics also be bred out, mr. elitist?

Re:get the human genome project on the phone

[Slashcrap]

should those of us with wack understandings of genetics also be bred out, mr. elitist?

No, but those of us who think it's cool to avoid using any capital letters should be shot in the face and buried in quicklime. Go back to AOL where you belong you pathetic little prick.

Re:get the human genome project on the phone

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no. AOLers don't avoid using capital letters - they avoid using anything *but* capital letters.

Re:WHAT????

[flimflam]

Stupid younger people don't come out of the ether. They had shitty parents

Hey, don't talk about my parents that way!

Actually, I guess I'm actually not that young any more...

British or English, but not both.

[courtarro]

Rather than use complete sentences for his Slashdot post. This poster instead used pieces of them. Which he then submitted.

Redneck mad scientists

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people aren't thought about after they're gone. "I wonder where Rob got the plutonium" is better than most get.

Not to make light of their injuries, but...

[Captain Scurvy]

"Oooh, whydya slice off my hayynnd?"

Just how??

[t_allardyce]

This isn't even funny, there are people who have REAL accidents and REALLY need specialist burns units and now 2 people might have to suffer because two fucking idiot retards who Darwin intended to die, are now wasting these beds with their fucking waste of space retarded sacks of shit. In what possible scenario does fluorescent tube lighting and petrol become an even semi safe idea? Please someone tell me what these people were trying to do that 'would' have been relatively safe had it not been of some totally random spark, bolt of lightning or cow farting next to a naked flame pointed in their general direction, because i fail to see how you can unite these two objects in any sane way.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[coronaride]

A creationist tends to take the view that "God" has control over everything. Ergo, no act is so stupid as to be life threatening, since "God" will surely save you.

I don't necessarily disagree with you...let's say that we're talking specifically about someone who believes in the Judeo-Christian God, as most Americans that I come across believe themselves to be followers of Him simply because they were are registered to vote (Republican, no doubt). I would say that most of these same people would believe that God is going to protect them and keep them from death and make them prosper no matter what they do. This is completely anti-Biblical, however. I believe, and the Bible would back me up, that God, for the most part, leaves us to our own devices unless we humble ourselves and ask for help/guidance/what-have-you.

Anyhow..not looking to stir up a hornet's nest - just wanted to expound on your point a bit.

The Empire should have won

[sbrown123]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Artic les/000/000/001/248ipzbt.asp

Re:The Empire should have won

[identity0]

Wow, that link was the stupidest political analysis I've ever read. Then again, it's based on a film where a 14-year old was elected to "Queen" and represents her planet, even though she spends more time modeling fashion and handling blasters than actually negotiating or legislating.

But I found it amusing that the editor of a conservative magazine founded by William Kristol is rooting for the Empire. I wonder if they'll change that after episode 3?

Re:The Empire should have won

[Anonymous Coward]

It's essentially a fine, although fictional, example of the classic right-wing apologetics: "yes, maybe the Empire/Pinochet/Saddam Hussein before 2001/U.S. occupation of Iraq after 2001/various U.S.-allied African and Latin American regimes during the 1980s/etc./etc. did kill untold millions/thousands of civilians, but the economy prospered, the trains ran on time, and they were responsive to U.S. geopolitical concerns, so we'll just file that under 'shit happens.'"

Dearest Star Wars Fans....

[Cnik70]

Please stop trying to make your own star wars fan movies. They suck, they lack originality, and did I mention how they suck? Nobody cares that you have better ideas for Darth Vader, Luke, Han, etc... Really! Now please, I'm sure that you've all seen all 6 episodes a million times by now. Move and and try to do something else with your life... star wars is only a MOVIE, it's not Reality.

Oblig simpsons quote!

[Altus]

Dr Nick: "Inflammable means flammable??? What a country!!!

Tact please

[LucBorg]

They are in hospital in critical condition, in a specialist burns unit. Some tact from slashdotters would be nice...

It gets better.

[Grendel Drago]

Ah, you left out that the entire Star Wars economy is based on an enslaved underclass, which, despite being clearly capable of initiative and sapience, are defined as property. I speak, of course, of droids, subject to discrimination ("we don't serve their kind here!") and a great big snub from Lucas's Herrenvolk, the Jedi, since droids don't show up on The Force, this being a rather arbitrary distinction that makes all the difference.

The droid army just... bothered me. Why would anyone use a non-droid army? Why would anyone use meat-based labor? Star Wars makes way, way more sense sans droids.

--grendel drago

Re:It gets better.

[spyder913]

because the costs of a droid army are not zero -- and the smarter you make them, the more they cost. so you can either zerg your enemies (standard battle droids) or outsmart them with smaller numbers of more advanced droids (destroyers). In most scenes in the movies, the meat soldiers were able to take out many droids, especially the jedi.

Re:Our loonies fight with petrol-filled fluorescen

[carlos_benj]

A creationist tends to take the view that "God" has control over everything. Ergo, no act is so stupid as to be life threatening, since "God" will surely save you.

So, do you sit on a stool in the marketplace and offer these verbal caricatures to passersby in exchange for cash?

Microwave

[uberjoe]

You can also put them in a microwave and they will light up. Assuming the tube is small enough, or the microwave big enough respectively.

A litmus test.

[Grendel Drago]

I have a bit of a litmus test for anything like this. How would I explain this if I woke up in the hospital? "Well, Timmy and I thought it would be a lovely idea if we put napalm in glass tubes and swung them merrily about! Cheerio! Bollocks! Knickers!"

It's saved me from many a stupid act.

--grendel drago

Alternative ending

[jonoverdose]

[igniting Luke's saber]
Darth Vader: I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are complete, indeed you are powerful as the Emperor has foreseen.

Luke Flamethrower: It's the new petrol powered model. Here, give it a shot.

*whoosh*

Anyone have some better details?

[tankd0g]

This story has about as much in depth reporting as first run headline on CNN.COM. Based on the description, I'm picturing light tubes that they took the soldered cap off, filled it with gas and then put the cap back on and somehow "set alight". Now that obviously can't be what went down because A. How would you have a sword battle with tubes 10 times more fragile than an egg and B. Florecent light tubes on this side of the pond aleady glow in the dark, no gasoline required. So does anyone have any more accurate info?

Oh my. Stupid people! STUPID PEOPLE!

[Grendel Drago]

Stupid people... breeding! This can't be a real article. This must be a satire. No one actually says things like "She thought I would hit the roof and didn't tell me for seven months. I only found out when I took her to buy a new bra and as she was being measured I saw her huge bump" or "It was just one of those things really. I wasn't using contraception and I suppose I just thought it wouldn't happen to me." Stupid people!

I... I'm vein-poppingly infuriated.

I maintain that the greatest technological advance in the foreseeable future would be making conception an extra, voluntary, act instead of a side effect of sex.

I wonder how birth rates would change if things were like that.

--grendel drago

Re:WHAT????

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Interesting post. But one major error
I just wanted to point out that evolution doesn't breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria without bacteria being exposed to antibiotics.
Actualy, evolution does breed them. Evolution states that random mutations happen all the time, including the ones that create antibiotic resistant bacteria.
What you're talking about is the environment is changing the dominant type of bacteria, in this case, all the non-resistant bacteria get killed, and only the resitant ones survive.

Back to the idiots: all sorts of people get created, some tall, some short, some risk takers, some coservative, some thoughtful, some careless, some athletic, some that are klutzes. The nexus of risk taking careless, klutzy people tend to die off. Whether or not that is tragic, that risk takers (even stupid ones) are needed to forward the species, that's a different debate.

Similar Garage Expierence down the street

[OS24Ever]

Older brother shows younger brother if you toss a match on the gasoline you spill it 'foomps' real quick.

Younger brother tries it when older brother not around, it goes foomp, younger brother then opens can of gasoline and pours it onto still burning match on the floor.

Garage burning down (no children hurt) and hilarity ensue.

There were seven secondary explosions becuase older brother mowed lawns to make money and had multiple mowers & gas cans in the garage.

What???

[brkello]

And me embarassed to be a Star Wars geek.

Why in the world would this embarass you? Two dumb kids did something stupid. Unless you actually suggested this to them or have tried it out yourself, I just don't get it. Listen, just because two fans of star wars did something stupid, it doesn't reflect on the millions of star wars fans out there. Got it?

Re:What???

[tankd0g]

It might be worth noting, that with no witnesses and the two victims being unconcious, how does anyone even know if had anything to do with light sabers or star wars? Were they wearing jedi robes? Maybe they were just filling light tubes in preperation to burn down their high school.

Lightsabers, Feh

[jameskojiro]

Everyone knows that Psi-blades are far far better!!

Double Darwin winners:

[kencurry]

1) Fluorescent lights are filled with mercury vapor. Very bad stuff to be breathing.

2) "Petrol" + flame + playing swords. not good

Either one alone will get you into trouble - both at the same time? Have to give them a special award for that one.

Donald Trump says...

[Anonymous Coward]

YOU'RE FIRED! Both of you!

Re:Donald Trump says...

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe it should be fried...

What??

[doyle.jack]

This story totally sucks without pictures.

Tesla Coil?

[StratoChief66]

They should have used normal, working flourescent tubes and ran a tesla coil in the room, the electricity would have made the tubes glow and completed the effect nicely. As a freak I know would say, "What could go wrong?"

has slashdot. forgot what a fragment is?

[makeyourself]

come on, front page, major news outlet or whatever, and you let go that?

Rather than use expensive cgi techniques to make the light sabres glow for their home movie. This couple instead used fluorescent tubes filled with petrol
and great run-ons too!
Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants The service will allow users to choose...

offtopic, if you must but at least somebody will notice and be more careful. :|

Expense?

[Grendel Drago]

Droids build droids. We've seen them do it. Labor costs are zilch. You can drop a Von Neumann device on a planet with readily extractable energy and pick up your army a year later, without all that mucking-about with clones.

Where, exactly, is the 'cost' in any of this? The only real cost in building a droid army is the designs, and the energy. Given energy, it makes its own labor.

--grendel drago

Re:Expense?

[sickofthisshit]

The cost of a droid army, even in your scenario, is the "opportunity cost" of being able to make any other kind of stuff from the material & labor that went into making the droids, except that you used it already.

In your example, you're using up a whole planet and its extractable energy. Which could make quite a bit of stuff, like the entire product of human civilization to date and then some. That's easily hundreds of trillions of dollars by now, and we aren't even close to using up our coal and nuclear resources. (Of course, the existence of von Neumann replicators may significantly alter the price you would pay for everything ever made on Earth, but there must be *some* alternative use for the planet with value in your Star Wars economy, such as pleasure palaces full of hookers and blackjack, or whatever, that would clearly be worth some amount of money.)

The way this is reflected economically is that you would be prepared to pay the owner of the planet for the right to strip-mine it down to zero usefulness. If there isn't an owner, then, assuming "rights to a planet" is an enforceable thing, you could claim the planet, then resell it to someone else, instead of using it for your own droid army. The potential revenue, again, assuming everyone has access to a similar level of technology, would be roughly equal to the value of the droids, unless there is something peculiarly specialized about this planet that makes it good for droid making but nothing else.

You might not need to come up with cash, or you might have enough political power to just take planets without paying, but there is a substantial economic cost to making a droid army, even if you don't need to get any human hands dirty to do so.

Re:Expense?

[sickofthisshit]

Sorry, I messed up the logic around the value of the droids and the specialization of the planet affecting the price of the planet. It's apparently too late in the day (and my microecon is too rusty) for me to carefully figure out what the right statement is.

Point remains: "using up a planet with no intervention" != "hey, free droids".

Weapons are dangerous?

[webweave]

This should be no surprise as anytime there was a Light Saber fight in the movie someone ended up dead or missing limbs. Reality mirrors art. Do you think StarWars should have a disclamer? "Don't try this at home, dummy" Admission to movies may need an IQ test.

Yep, they're geeks.

[Mr. KFM]

when one of the devices exploded in woodland...

Yep, that's a Star Wars related incident, alright.

if it had been a videogame...

[zr-rifle]

Police said copying scenes from Star Wars was 'the latest craze' among children and young people. Despite this, officers were keeping an open mind about the exactly what had happened.

If they had imitated a videogame, in a related news we would have heard about lawsuits and crusades.

Some of my stunts

[Thaelon]

I'm not stupid enough to put a flammable substance in a fragile glass tube and swing it around, but I did some exciting things in my time! I'm fairly lucky I'm not missing some parts or pieces. I'll share for the entertainment of the unwashed masses.

I've put M90's in various things, lit them and held them in my hand until they were about to explode then threw them just to get an airburst effect.

I've made polystyrene based napalm. And of course lit it. Interesting stuff! I could hold a lighter flame ON it and it would not ignite, but as soon as one of those sparks from the lighter's flint hit it WOOOOSH. It gives off a nasty black smoke as it burns and it leaves behind a thin black sheet of what looks like burnt plastic.

I constructed crude shrapnel bombs out of spent C02 cartridges, pure gunpowder, some calk to seal and some cannon fuse. I don't really know what kind of damage one of those things could cause to a person but I have NO desire to find out. I lit that sucker and ran 20 meters. The only one I let off I kinda buried in the ground. When I went to inspect the smoking rent earth where it was there wasn't a trace of the thing....aside from smoking rent earth. That means that the shrapnel was probably very small pieces embedded fairly deeply in the ground/trees nearby.

Also, if you put gasoline on something cold, hard and ceramic then light it, it will eventually crack/explode. Temperature disparities in solid substances can be fun!

I made a $3 flamethrower out of an adjustable spray bottle and 70% isopropyl. I melted the shower wall and the alcohol fucked up the plastic of the bottle.

Btw, model rockets launch MUCH more reliably with cannon fuse than those stupid ignitiers the estes engines come with. Cheaper too, I usually got mine for around $1/ft and one foot is enough to safely let off about 6-8 engines, but don't trust my vague guesstimational recollections.

Disclaimer: These stories are provided for entertainment purposes only, if you are injured or killed by attempting any of the above I will not be held responsible. I'm a bright guy and make sure to fully understand what can happen and I play it safe to the point of being a paranoid squirrel; meaning I tend to run far away from where the "interesting" stuff is about to occurer.

Good thing they used petrol ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... if they used gasoline things could have been really nasty.

mold someone in carbonite like Han Solo for show!

[sammytwotone]

"Rather than use expensive cgi techniques to make the light sabres glow for their home movie. This couple instead used fluorescent tubes filled with petrol." I can't wait to see what they do for their prequel/sequel to come out next once they get out of the hospital. You know it will go through thier minds at least once.

And so you see Evil will always triumph over good

[fussili]

Because Good is Dumb

Wrong about not penetrating the Epidermis.

[Anonymous Coward]

It is true that the Alpha radiation from Plutonium can't penetrate the skin, so it isn't dangerous to handle unless you ingest it. The same thing is not as true of the Beta radiation you get from Tritium. It does not penetrate deeply either, but it does penetrate through the living layers of skin. It is also easier to accidentally ingest if it is in the air.
Realistically of course, ingesting a decent amount of tritium probably won't hurt you much more than getting some chest x-rays done or doing a lot of flying. Overall, though, using some sort of post production editing is probably going to get you much better results than any chemical, radioactive, or electrical process. For live action stuff, it's probably better to use creative lighting effects. Carefully chosen materials for the light sabers and costumes in combination with a blacklight, for example.

United States of Nooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://unitedstatesofno.ytmnd.com/

Hilarious, I tell you. (Must be viewed in the evil IE, lest you have your plugins magically configured. Turn up the volume.)

Lameness filter is for some reason hating this post.

DIdn't anyone see the name of the hospital?

[Anonymous Coward]

West Herts hospital... LOL.

West Hurts hospital.

I see the advertisement now:
"West Herts, where you go for all your hurts"

Which form of stupidity is more tragic?

[shanen]

On the one hand, we have a couple of people who very obviously had no idea what would happen to gasoline under those circumstances. They could have learned the dangers without destroying the rest of their lives, but they didn't. Too late now.

On the other hand, we have a bunch of supposedly more intelligent people making jokes about the tragedy. Good thing that being morally defective is not fatal, eh?

Linkage? They're all equally badly educated, and we all wind up paying costs for it. In the first case, these two ignorant-about-gasoline fools would have had normal working lives, contributing their efforts and productivity to a society that all of us benefit from. In the second case, these morally-ignorant people will go vote for fools like Dubya and contribute to destroying a once-great nation.

Not intended as a joke, but the Darwin Awards should be classified and have levels. Most specifically, a Darwin Award 1st Class should only be awarded when the loser/winner dies before reproducing (or exterminates the descendants, too, in the course of "winning" the award). Someone who dies stupidly after reproducing has not removed those genes from the gene pool, and should only get a 2nd Class or lower award.

Actually, in extreme cases, it might be possible to kill oneself spectacularly and foolishly, but in a way that saves other people's lives, even if only by way of avoiding the bad example when they hear about it. For really spectacular demises, there should be special orders of merit, say a fig leaf cluster for dying of stupidity on television...

Yes but...

[iplayfast]

Did they get the shot?

Everyone has a purpose in life. Some people are just there to show the rest of us what NOT to do!

Re:WHAT????

[eraserewind]

The theory of evolution is that what doesn't kill the species only makes it stronger.

No it's not.

Mod Parent Down

[stry_cat]

I have Tritium sights on my Glock and don't need a license or medical exam. You can get Tritium it is just expensive.

Re:WHAT????

[gowen]

It's rediculous to mourn every single act of suffering

There's a world of difference between mourning and refraining from laughing.

Re:WHAT????

[databyss]

Very true, one is a cause the other an effect.

MSDS

[gcatullus]

According to the MSDS for cyalume lightsticks http://www.sarcamp.com/cyalume_msds.pdf no significant skin irritation was observed in animal testing.

Still cheap.

[Grendel Drago]

Yes, but they're certainly cheaper than human armies, or even clone armies, since there's apparently only one place to get clones.

And if impoverished moisture farmers can afford droids which are clearly way, way smarter than the ROGER-ROGER ones, then the opportunity cost of a droid just isn't that much.

My point stands. Droids are terribly, terribly cheap, and furthermore, form an oppressed underclass, ground under the bootheel of the Jedi Herrenvolk.

--grendel drago

Petrol is Gas Dummy!!

[*Angel Lazerus*]

Hi. It was a group of Jack-Ass fans trying to do a stunt with flouresent tubes filled with petrol/gas and washing up liquid. (Apparently it makes it a different colour, I dont know eather :? ) They where filming what happened when it happened. They phoned for the fire brigade and an ambulance and then ran off and left the two to it. (you know who your friends are in these situations dont you.) It was a girl and a boy who got burned. She has 50% burns and he is close to deaths door. The boy runs a website calld www.retardz.co.uk featuring their stunts and I believe submissions from other people round the UK. Hope this puts some light on it.

Hospital?

[thomn8r]

They were rushed to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex.

Is that the institution founded by Dick Herts?