Chinese Man Builds His Own Prosthetic Hands

New submitter macbeth66 writes "Almost 10 years ago, Sun Jifa lost his hands in an explosion. Unable to afford the prosthetic hands recommended by the hospital, he built his own. From the article: 'After eight years of tinkering, he says he finally developed a working model that allows him to grip, hold, and mimic other necessary movements via a system of pulleys and wires.'"

Comments

Impressive!

[steppedleader]

Seems like this would be hard to do without hands...

Re:Impressive!

[wierd_w]

Dynamite is very effective at causing a major shockfront in the water, that ruptures the fish's swim bladders, which are used to control the fish's altituded in the water. Once ruptured, the fish can no longer swim, and will float listlessly on the top. It is usually also directly fatal to the fish.

It is a very indescriminate way to fish, but also *very* effective. It can completely denude a body of water of all fish.

if this man really was using dynamite to fish, it sounds like he got hold of one with a very fast burning fuse, which happens when the sticks get old. He is lucky to be alive at all.

Re:Impressive!

[wierd_w]

Quite.

Dynamite (Authentic) is nitroglycerine, suspended in an inert matrix. Originally sawdust, but other inert matrices have also been used historically, such as diatomaceous earth.

The sawdust form is especially vulnerable to becoming old and "sweaty". Essentially, the suspended nitroglycerine wicks its way out of the matrix, and toward the surface, where it forms a "coating." This is bad for a large number of reasons:

1) Nitroglycerine is easily and readily absorbed through the skin, and is a well known cardiac-suppressant.

2) Nitroglycerine, without the stabilizing matrix, is a notoriously sensitive contact explosive.

3) The sweated nitroglycerine can wick up into the fuse, making it burn VERY quickly; FAR too quickly to throw away once lit, making old sticks unsafe for any purpose. It will explode almost instantly.

For these reasons and several others, the use of genuine dynamite has fallen out of favor in nearly all developed and developing countries in favor of more stable and less toxic/sensitive high explosives, like PentaErythritol TetraNitrate (PETN), and TriNitroToluene (TNT).

Genuine dynamite is fairly rare, and it is much more likely that this chinese fisherman was using home-made devices, like nitrogen fertilizer bombs made from ammonium nitrate and kerosine, but it could be possible he has/had access to the genuine article.

 

Re:Impressive!

[Dodgy G33za]

You do realise that by asking a question like that you might find yourself on a list somewhere? Maybe not at the top where Julian Assange rules supreme after OBL's demise, but on the list none-the-less.

Oh bugger, that probably means I am on it now too.

Groovy

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

I went from 'go Chinese man!' to 'one of those could have been a chainsaw!' remarkably quickly.

I'm trying to decide if that makes me bad.

Re:It's not just that he built his own prosthetics

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

He's a handyman.

Gotta hand it to him

[Anonymous Coward]

That is quite a feet.

Puns totally intended.

Inspiring

[asmkm22]

Say what you will about the Chinese but, if this were an American, he'd be shopping for a book deal and making millions as a motivational speaker. He'd probably get some weird Craftsman sponsorship as well. Instead, he seems genuinely interested in helping other people get access to what he built. It's inspiring, to say the least.

Re:See communism works after all

[houghi]

Communism is bad, because he needed to pay for his own medical needs. Of wait that's capitalism. Disregard.

Few float

[SgtChaireBourne]

Actually only a few will float to the top if you use explosives. The majority will sink to the bottom and go to waste. If you want to do it right, stun them with electricity, but not enough to kill them, and then they will float to the top. That way you can also release live the ones you won't eat. I've seen the DNR gather fish for their surveys using stunners and the equipment is rather simple.