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Explosives Camp
theodp writes "How about a summer camp where you get in trouble for not blowing things up? Students with a passion for all things explosive and proof of US citizenship pay a $450 fee to attend Summer Explosives Camp, 'We try to give them an absolute smorgasbord of explosives,' quipped a professor at the University of Missouri-Rolla, which offers a minor in explosives engineering. Here's the brochure (PDF), kids!"
According to the EU Commission at least http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/04/ec_frattin i_web_terror_dunce_cap/
So we should deprive kids of safety and proper handling knowledge just in case they decide to turn on us right? Unlicensed? How do you think you get licensed, magic? They get licensed by receiving the proper training and various checks... which is exactly what this is... atleast in introductory fashion.
If those 'kids' got a little 'inspiration' they could find far more dangerous information in a public library. I've got an old chemistry book from 1902, copies or similar books are no doubt common. That book reads like a Betty Crocker cookbook. I'd much rather interested kids receive real training and experience than try some of the stuff they could cook up on their own.
Being an Alumni of UMR (or Missouri School of Technology as the name is changing this year) I can assure you that the camp is for real and not an April fools joke. Additionally, questioning the intellegence of the school, when I was there, it had the second highest entrance exam scores of any US institution, second only to MIT.
Mining explosives is a very specialised subject. The object is to produce shock waves with no blast and no fire (think about it.) You want to break up rock or minerals with the absolute minimum of side effects, using the absolute minimum amount of energy necessary and raising as little dust as possible, not only because of health and safety risks but because any other approach adds cost. If you want to be a mining engineer, you learn explosives at mining school not summer camp. And you learn it, mostly, from mining engineers who are still alive, which gives you some confidence in the training. No, I am not a mining engineer, but I have talked to enough of them, in South Africa and elsewhere, and most of us would not want to earn our living that way.
Pining for the fjords
> You don't exactly need any special training to set off explosives in a suicide bomb attack (making explosives on the other hand would need special expertise).
r orist_speci_1.html
Yes you do. Bruce Schneier ("Secrets and Lies") says the reason the Glasgow Attacks were a failure was because the terrorists didn't know how to use them: "putting a propane tank into a car and driving into a building at high speed is the sort of thing that only works in old episodes of The A Team. On television, you get a massive, extensive explosion. In real life, you only get a small localized fire." http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/ter
Yeah. "Explosives Camp" seems cool and funny, until someone uses what they learn to blow something up, then there will be an outcry, "Why didn't anyone see this coming?" and finally Congress will pass some bill with a stupid name "The Proud to be an American Bill" to soothe the jittery public. The fact that I have to justify why this is dumb, and that people say it isn't, amazes me. I mean, how stupid can the human race get?
It's not like Domestic Terrorism isn't without Precedent, and at that, on a large scale. $450 and proof of American Citizenship. McVeigh was an American Citizen. Dumb.
Britain/Europe is working on making publishing information on how to make bombs illegal. Burn the books, Burn the books!
t icle2023030.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/ar
Anonymous Coward,
As a father whose daughter asked to go last year and was accepted, SAFETY was the first and foremost emphasis. Not only did my daughter have a "blast" (pun intended) it built up her confidence and now she has chosen engineering as her major. She will be attending UM-Rolla next year as a freshman. The course was not only very well done with lectures and practicum, it was done on an campus that refuses to be politically correct. Would be terrorists were weeded out. Some child threatened to blow up a building from the middle east and he was deported 12 hours later. I think they know a lot about safety.
I'll see your claims of 24 murders over the past 20 years, and raise it.
:-P
And you really have to wonder about a site that tracks "Number of Incidents of Picketing" as evidence of "violence and harassment". I guess free speech is OK for you, but not for anyone who disagrees with you.
The "Weekly Jihad Report" for the week of June 23-29 lists 62 acts of Islamic terrorism, claiming 320 lives and 420 critically injured.
That's just one week.
320 people KILLED by Islamic extremists. In just ONE WEEK.
Here you go, you blithering naif:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Well, you can for $1295 in Oregon, and the price includes transportation, meals and all the high-order explosives!
(This post does not represent any endorsement of said program)
My blog
Effective Jan. 1, 2008, UMR becomes Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T)
http://www.umr.edu/namechange/
Article is misleading! Not unusual for /. but still! You can ONLY go if you are a high school student and if you are considering UMR, and well, just read yourself from the FAQ:
Who gets to go? Twenty Junior and Senior high school students who are interested in enrolling at UMR and are at least 16 by the first day of camp.
I have to say it sounds kinda odd that that could happen, because during the swearing-in ceremony the new citizens disclaim all rights to their country of origin, and supposedly the USA therefore does not recognize dual citizenship. I'd definitely prefer the Canadian way of doing it.