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DIY Explosives Experimenter Blows Self Up, Contaminates Building (fdlreporter.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader hey! writes:
Benjamin D. Morrison of Beaver Dam Wisconsin was killed on March 5 while synthesizing explosives in his apartment... The accident has left the apartment building so contaminated that it will be demolished in a controlled burn, and residents are not being allowed in to retrieve any of their belongings.
It was just five years ago that Morrison graduated from Pensacola Christian College in Florida with a degree in pre-pharmacy and minors in chemistry and math. Though a local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker," USA Today's site FDL Reporter notes that "Officials assume he was making bombs that accidentally exploded and killed him... They have not publicly disclosed what chemicals were in apartment 11 where Morrow lived, only describing them as 'extremely volatile and unstable explosives.'"
It was just five years ago that Morrison graduated from Pensacola Christian College in Florida with a degree in pre-pharmacy and minors in chemistry and math. Though a local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker," USA Today's site FDL Reporter notes that "Officials assume he was making bombs that accidentally exploded and killed him... They have not publicly disclosed what chemicals were in apartment 11 where Morrow lived, only describing them as 'extremely volatile and unstable explosives.'"
strikes again.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Well, nothing is said about building arms. If I was from murica should I be offended. I am confused now.
I'm helping by keeping them in my thoughts and prayers.
Everyone should help in this matter by doing this.
This is the most helpful thing that can be done.
Another "anti-abortionist" willing to kill. How original.
The man just blew himself up with explosives he made yet...
local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker,"
I wonder if the reverend believes anything else that flies in the face of reality
Nullius in verba
Bad stuff
PETN is decently easy to make, if the drying is done wrong it is radically sensitized, and the precursors are easy to find.
Given the FBI's records for creating "bombers" and then busting them, I do wonder what the FBI's involvement was beforehand with this guy.
Reminds me of an old part of an old blog: Things I won't work with.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pi...
I'm guessing something with fluoride chemistry:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pi...
It's a really fun read about a shockingly horrible bit of chemistry done by our military science.
https://youtu.be/Atr8iFcc0qQ
In GOD we trust, all others we monitor.
You live a sad life if you immediately link this kind of event to Trump. I wonder who/what was the Boogeyman for you before he got elected, and where you will direct your fears and insecurities when he's no longer president.
...until he blew himself up.
Since it happened in America, I'm waiting for the rave that will inevitably follow in this building (complete with pyrotechnic effects).
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
How unstable can the remaining stuff be? I mean it obviously did not detonate when the fist blast went off.
My guess if the FBI is covering something up.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Hoisted by his own petard,
He flew up high and landed hard,
And proved again for all to see,
Before you leave you always pee.
Place one on the barbie and all that.
Makes sense in the Trumpverse.
I'm sick of jerkoffs like you attempting to bring politics into every discussion.
Why don't you go ride a skateboard on a highway, you useless worthless prick.
"I hate people who talk about stuff I don't like, go die"
Typical child with no life experiences.
The apartment building was successfully burned down on Thursday morning: Beaver Dam apartment burn a success; some personal items retrieved by bomb squad
really exothermic
...until he blew himself up.
Now he's blown into lots of separate bits.
He was as unstable as his chemicals.
He just couldn't keep himself together.
He was quiet after he blew himself up, too.
Yuk yuk. Now let's look at TFA:
“I’d love to defend Ben because he has been described as a bomb maker and he’s not a bomb maker,” [Reverend] Marsden said. “He wasn’t a recluse as some have said he is. He was far from that.”
Emphasis mine.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
"I wonder if the reverend believes anything else that flies in the face of reality" religion is an article of faith for which reality offer no evidence, so in all fairness he is probably used to believe stuff which are contradicted by everyday's reality.
While the residents weren't able to get any belongings, the FBI bomb squad did retrieve high value items for them.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
He probably won't be getting his security deposit back
My unbelievably excellent chemistry teacher in high school guaranteed at least one explosion per week in class. Kept our attention grinding through stoichiometry, with the side benefit that most of us went through AP chemistry the next year and got some cheap college credits. The last week he filled a huge balloon with a perfect mixture of oxygen and some exotic relative of pentane, detonated with a remote piezo device he concocted himself. The shockwave blew covers off of the fluorescent lights and rattled windows on the opposite side of the fairly good sized school building.
My AP chemistry teacher was a bit more pedestrian, but as a bonus for attending a study session on Saturday, he demonstrated thermite burning a hole through 1" thick plate steel.
Of course, nowadays this would be completely vorboten, and such activities would end you up on an FBI watchlist.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
"Uhh, who here hasn't made explosives before?"
I was going to say the same thing. As a kid, we would make black powder from its base three ingredients - took awhile to learn the right proportions. Used extension cords to detonate out in the backyard. Today what was once considered a hands-on chemistry lesson would today get you thrown in jail.
I have to wonder if certain authorities aren't severely over-reacting. In general, amateurs will use fairly readily available components, many available at your local hardware store or Walmart. They aren't sensitive or all that dangerous until they are combined and processed to make an explosive. The dangerous chemicals are of course harder to get, and not at all necessary to make explosives.
The report doesn't say what was in the apartment, but odds of are the components aren't really the dangerous at all. After being combined and processed, you of course end up with an explosive, which is dangerous. I wouldn't expect that to be made into a powder and sprinkled around, though - the more dangerous explosives would be contained. The explosion that killed him would also be expected to set off any nearby high explosives. That's how high explosives are set off - by a smaller explosion, not by burning. Generally only low explosives such as black powder are set off by burning. Low explosives have to be in a container to explode, so residue isn't really a problem. (A LOT of residue built up somewhere is a fire hazard, though.) Black powder isn't quite as safe as something like table salt, but a little residue isn't really dangerous and even humidity will render it non-flammable.
In short, a good cleaning with soap and water probably would have rendered it perfectly safe as far as explosive residue. If the explosion did structural damage to the building that's another issue entirely.
Explosives don't kill people, people kill people.
Manufacturing explosives is the tool intended by the founding fathers to protect the citizens from tyranny.
Hey! Almost all the second amendment arguments easily extend to explosives.
Sadly, ... I will be modded down to negative infinity in no time.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
TATP is easily made from acetone and hydrogen peroxide. From Wikipedia:
"A key disadvantage is its high susceptibility to accidental detonation (and resulting in "workplace accidents" in bomb-making shops), which has led to TATP being referred to as the "Mother of Satan." TATP was found in the accidental explosion that preceded the 2017 terrorist attacks in Barcelona and surrounding areas."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetone_peroxide
This sounds like a 4th amendment violation.
How is burning one's personal items any different than confiscating them?
Expect to see more of these 'necessary' controlled burns in the future now that precedent is set.
Oh wait. It's a Christian School?? Not mooslims? Ah, never mind. Carry on with the thoughts and prayers then.
It sounds like he knew just enough chemistry to kill himself. Chemical reactions can be oddballs simply because following exactly the same mixtures and methods can have more than one final result. So if you do not know that you may have either a good result or an explosion you just might try certain experiments. My bet would be he was trying to cook up a batch of meth.
Explosives should be kept in schools to protect from potential grizzlies.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
"closer to his $DIETY"
Well it sounds like he's lost weight (mainly limbs I guess).
This college holds and teaches extreme fundamentalist beliefs by its own admission, right on the "about" page. This isn't part of what is known as "christian modernity," which is a popular movement of politically liberal Christians who do not regard the Bible as inerrant. This is a classic "the lost burn in literal fire forever, and that's the highest example of God's love" college.
They, of course, do not recognize themselves as extremists. When you are born into such an environment, and its beliefs are reinforced for you by your parents, teachers, friends, etc., everywhere you go for your entire childhood, any belief, no matter how extreme, can seem perfectly reasonable and normal.
Of course, none of this means that the guy was planning on murdering people with his chemistry experiment. Despite the temptation to equate extreme christian beliefs with abortion clinic bombers, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of extreme Christians don't do that sort of thing. If they did, we would have blown-up hospitals every other day!
And, of course, non-christians always love it when devoted Christians do things that are clearly immoral, because everyone likes to look down upon the hypocrisy in others.
as the chem lab assistant in military school I used to order a 2.5 kg tub of TNT powder yearly for the 3 years I served as one so the students could learn to mold TNT safely in our military chemistry course...
Coolest school ever(in the '60s)..
I imagine colleges and universities have it easier.
This whole situation seems odd and subject to a wide range of interpretation due to the lack of information.
- He could have been just a guy who chose an extremely stupid hobby.
- He could've been cooking meth (although it's hard to see why the police wouldn't just say that).
- He could've been working on some other synthesized and highly volatile drug... has anyone sought out the expert opinion of John McAfee?
- He could have been an anti-government wacko planning an attack on a government building.
- He could've been a radicalized convert to Islam.
- He could've been planning an attack on an abortion clinic.
- He could've just been another dude with a grudge against someone and a psychological disorder.
#DeleteChrome
Contamination is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.
Some of these "contaminants" might have no human (or wildlife) health effects, but could simply be watch-list chemicals for terrorism screening sensors, and the authorities simply don't want to have to navigate false positives for years or decades to come.
Now grab your popcorn and watch the fire insurance companies declare this self-interested DHS bonfire an act of God.
>. 'blows self up' though, smart money is on hydrogen peroxide and acetone. Good old TAP - high explosive you can make in your kitchen from readily available chemicals. Also tends to explode if you just stir it a little too fast.
I thought of the same. Low explosives such as black powder don't tend to kill the maker in an accident. (Unless it's industrial scale). Losing a finger is entirely possible. Acetone peroxide, as you said, attracts idiots because the components are readily available, AND it's very unsafe to make - killing yourself is entirely possible.
I heard one guy who lives near me had a lot of experience making pyrotechnics, making black powder and such. He (very carefully) made a few MILLIgrams of acetone peroxide. Seeing what just a few milligrams was like, he swore to never again go near AP.
My last name is Morrison, so count me as being a bit sensitive to this – the original article identifies this particular Darwin award winner as Benjamin D. Morrow (not Morrison).
Nuke it from orbit; it is the only way to be sure! Tim S.
...until he blew himself up.
So you're saying he got mad over something that wasn't working right and ... went to pieces over it?
..... ohhh, never mind.
Too early? If I wait a week you'll forget about it; if I wait two weeks then I can't comment anymore. Come back and read it in a month or two -- it'll be funnier then and he'll still be dead. If you wait MUCH longer than that, then
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Maybe we will obsess over the candidate that lost the electoral vote even if the popular vote went their way. Nah... Only an idiotic goon would blame the losing opponent of their election for their own incompetence.
That's the catch, you can't prove the existence of objective reality when all you have to go on is your own subjective experiences, including your subjective experiences of other people reporting on their subjective experiences.
Put simply, one person seeing an apple might be hallucinating. So, we get ten people all looking at it and describing it in the same way, and we say that by doing so we have established objectivity. That, at least is good enough for the scientific method.
But, one person seeing that apple, and seeing nine other people talking about it, might still be hallucinating. All nine people might also be hallucinations.
Though this isn't a particularly useful position to take, it remains true that there is no logical basis for establishing objectivity by means of subjectivity (and subjectivity is all we've got).
If he was experienced, I doubt he would be making anything too unstable. But the convenience of organic peroxide based explosives is really tempting.
I wonder if the sublimation of acetone peroxide claimed another life. I would think he would have been aware of that though, it's well documented on a number of 'energetic chemistry' forums.
Wisconsin man. Not Florida man
> mention the chemical names because that might (somehow) enable people to whip them up in their kitchen...never mind that by that same theory, merely knowing the word 'cake' would grant one the necessary knowledge to produce one from scratch.
Although I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusion, that's really not a good analogy. We're talking about listing the ingredients used. If major newspapers published the ingredients for Coca-Cola, some people might TRY to make it. Not knowing anything more than the ingredient list, they'd probably fail to make it right. When making high explosives, failing to do things right can result in KABOOM, as it did in this case.
So the theory is given the list of ingredients, some idiot might TRY to make it, perhaps by just mixing together random amounts. In the case of acetone peroxide, just mixing the two ingredients will cause an explosion. It'll go off without being purposely detonated, if you don't take active steps to prevent spontaneous detonation.
He was a Christian, you know, those who love Trump as Trump has so many Christian values.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Crates Labelled ACME were found all around.
than explosives. A common argument is that if mass shooters couldn't get assault rifles they'd just use explosives. Believe it or not handling explosives is tricky. Even with access to the Internet and info on how to handle them you can still blow yourself to bits. Yeah, crock pot bombs are easy enough to make, but that mess in Boston had all of three victims. Compare that with the parkland shooting that killed 17 and injured the same.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Get to work guys.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
As an amateur chemist I keep my hazmat in my shed for just this reason.
I know what's in there, and I would seriously consider burning the shed down if an explosion smashed open a bunch of the containers. For a fire marshal to make the same decision is not at all unreasonable.
You have access to information not available to the general public, that you've not reported to the police? No, you're just advertising your ignorant prejudices.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Okay two issues. First, I'm talking about the components, the ingredients, used to make the explosive. Any actual explosives likely detonated in the explosion that killed him.
Secondly, the name of the explosive may very well be "acetone peroxide". Think nobody can guess which two ingredients you mix to make "acetone peroxide"? (For those unsure, it's acetone and peroxide.).
> Barring something in the way of highly exotic medical problems, your excrement is not likely to blow up.
> And yes, yes you are randomly mixing the elemental ingredients when you use the toilet.
Try randomly mixing acetone and peroxide some time and see what happens. Mix no more than 1 gram, and make sure nobody is within 300 meters for the next several days.
There are a lot of said life's in America lately
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Just like Trump.
Only thing I can think of that is that unstable and that contaminating would be mercury fulminate. How do I know? My roommate in college stole a huge bottle of mercury from the chemistry lab and was making it in my dorm room, explaining, "I have to keep the window open for this; they usually use a fume hood to keep from poisoning themselves when they did this." Thanks...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I've lived here for 23 years, and have met many people that went there... None of them are right in the head. The joke we locals make is that it stands for Pensacola Concentration Camp because the rules are so ridiculously strict. No secular music, no movies... They can't go out by themselves if they live on campus. Groups of 2 for the guys, minimum 3 for the girls, and only in long dresses.... Gender separated elevators and stairwells... My sister rebelled after their high school program got through with her... Shitty place. Their basketball team had to forfeit a game because the coach checked the opposing team's uniforms.. Their shorts ended half an inch above the knee.
Oh never mind he's white
Here's another idoit that has to bring President Trump's into every conversation not about politics. Rub some more Vaseline on your rim, you're getting cranky.
He used a diamond bladed knife, shot a U235 atom at it thus split a atom BOOM.
You've been on Slashdot long enough, and I've read enough of your posts, to know that when you quote me saying "until they are combined" you know what that means.
Bleach is in fact not all that dangerous, and doesn't require demolishing a building. Same with swimming pool chemicals. "until they are combined".
"Though a local reverend believes 28-year-old Morrison was "not a bomb maker,"" No shit?!
PS the main chemical you put in swimming pools is bleach.
Then you pour in that acid. In order to make the water SAFER than just plain water. Just add water - no more danger.
I'm pretty sure this is part of a government conspiracy to turn me into a person who believes in government conspiracies, because: too contaminated, therefore we're going to put it all into the atmosphere?
Does this make sense to anyone?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
Yuk yuk. Now let's look at TFA:
“I’d love to defend Ben because he has been described as a bomb maker and he’s not a bomb maker,” [Reverend] Marsden said. “He wasn’t a recluse as some have said he is. He was far from that.”
Emphasis mine.
Agreed. Not everyone is a Unabomber. When I was younger, I wanted to make explosives. I collected a lot of info about it. I never knew how accurate it was, and didn't think that the reward was worth the risk, so I never made anything. I didn't want to go postal, I just wanted to make a big bang in an empty field or something.
Recreational explosives enthusiast. Not deranged lunatic. I don't know this guy, so I can't really say which one he was. I wouldn't jump to conclusions though. Vehicular homicide has become a new favorite among radicals, that doesn't mean that car enthusiasts need to be on a watch list.
That apartment must have been quite a mess.
He fell to pieces!!!
He may have been a chemical experimenter or making a meth lab?
Grignard chemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grignard_reaction,
or Schlosser's base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlosser%27s_base and there are other reactions that use very reactive metals like potassium
Many of these reactions are strongly exothermic and any explosion IS an instantaneous exothermal process.
This guy may have been an experimenter beyond his reach and ability, or he may have been a trub bomb maker. I tend to believe the experimenter theory and there is not much need for volatile explosives.
A quick check for nitratiing materiel, Nitric Acid and Sulfuric acid would tell. TNT is tri[ly nitrated Toluene, and has intermediates that are volatile, but DNT is not very good as an explosive.
He may have been a chemical experimenter or making a meth lab?
Grignard chemistry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...,
or Schlosser's base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and there are other reactions that use very reactive metals like potassium
Many of these reactions are strongly exothermic and any explosion IS an instantaneous exothermal process.
This guy may have been an experimenter beyond his reach and ability, or he may have been a trub bomb maker. I tend to believe the experimenter theory and there is not much need for volatile explosives.
A quick check for nitratiing materiel, Nitric Acid and Sulfuric acid would tell. TNT is tri[ly nitrated Toluene, and has intermediates that are volatile, but DNT is not very good as an explosive.
> And no, you can't turn chlorine gas back into chlorine by adding water,
Actually that's what happens if you sit and do nothing. Chlorine reacts with water in the air, strongly catalyzed by sunlight, to form hydrogen chloride. That's not the fastest and easiest way to get rid of it, though. Chlorine reacts (combines) with almost every element on the periodic table, other than the noble gasses, which don't really react with anything. So you could neutralize it by adding just about anything, or just sit and wait while it reacts with (bleaches) whatever happens to be in the room.
Soldiers in WW1 would protect themselves (somewhat) by breathing through a wet handkerchief, allowing the chlorine gas to react with the moisture on the handkerchief instead of the moisture of their mucous membranes.
Just curious, why are you arguing about chemistry.without having any idea what you're talking about?
Yes. Good guess. As reported by Wisconsin News3 (CBS).
The building was already demolished in a "controlled" burn last Wednesday. Residents in the other apartments in the building weren't allowed to return to retrieve their belongings, also believed to be contaminated, though someone supposedly went through and retrieved a few irreplaceable items for them.
so if a meth lab is found sometimes burning the house down is the only way to avoid contamination, but other units would still be allowed to move their stuff out beforehand.
so that get me thinking that maybe, N, B or C, with less emphasis on C and more on B and N. N being the worst, which would definitely be "you don't want people taking stuff out" comes to mind. Dirty bomb maybe?