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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.'"
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
He went to a Christian college. I bet God was telling him to knock it off and he didn't listen so God turned up the volume.
Uhh, who here hasn't made explosives before? Are you going to accuse half of Slashdot of being terrorists by making random, ugly guesses to confirm your own biases?
We made NI3 in chemistry class. The stupid part of this is that he made the explosives in his home. I mean, really, WTF man. I wonder if he was reading the Anarchist's Cookbook? That doc is an utter piece of trash that is a great way to get yourself killed. At least work off the Army field manual on improvised explosives, it was at least written by people who know what they're doing instead of some idiot anarchist who didn't give a crap about safety and just wanted to burn stuff down.
Did you also graduate from a evangelical Christian college in Pensacola? Those are basically schools for extremists. If they were Muslim they would be shut down by now. Did you not catch the quote by the "reverend"?
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.
It is entirely possible to produce explosive compounds recreationally, without making them into anything that could be considered a bomb.
A lot of people make fireworks, not always professionally, and fireworks both require explosives and a reasonable level of competence in chemistry. They are also typically not considered bombs, and the same goes for any chemically-powered model rockets even though the chemicals involved are most definitely explosives.
Oh, and then there's dust. That explodes too...
The part that should be questioned is how anybody with a college degree in chemistry did not get taught better than to experiment with explosive chemicals in their own living space. This falls pretty firmly under the heading of things you do in a purpose-built building.
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
Yeah. I bought a chemistry set for my kids, but going through the instructions I realize that by removing anything that could be dangerous from the set what they had left was just boring.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
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.
I posit lawsuits as a driving factor. Door #1 has "condemn the building as an EPA SuperFund site and settle up with the insurance companies after they pay out." Door #2 says, "Be stuck with the medical bills after we cleared people to go back in." There's certainly risk assessment going on, it's just not with the tenants' best interests in mind.
On explosives: The part that gets by most people is that there's quite a difference between "explosives" (burns quickly) and "high explosives" (burns supersonically, ie the stuff military use). Blackpowder is already "explosive", indeed a nice dust-air mix can explode, and oh hey, what to think of a BLEVE?
The fireballs you see in movies as "explosions" are usually burning gas, not high explosives.
Source: Highschool chemistry. That was 25 years ago, they might not teach it now. On that note, the electrolysis of water demonstration we got included filling soap bubbles with either hydrogen or oxygen, then burn, but also both: Ideal mix, ignite, supersonic boom. Small one, but still.
Tangent: The Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, but not an ideal mix. Had it been the latter half the town would've needed new glass. Instead the ablaze carcass just floated to the ground and most of the people got off alive. That's a better survival rate than most airplane crashes. Most of the dead, in fact, died from jumping, not burning. Go figure.
The part that should be questioned is how anybody with a college degree in chemistry did not get taught better than to experiment with explosive chemicals in their own living space. This falls pretty firmly under the heading of things you do in a purpose-built building.
Modern edumacasion is so scared that it errs on the side of teaching too little. Just enough to show you where to get the rest of the rope but not enough to do it safely.
OTOH, some people are less than entirely bright on such points. We had some people that required regular slapping on the head to stop them doing anything too stupid. So it just might be that this guy was being eggregiously stupid and nobody stopped him before he turned his appartment into a bomb.
But I don't put it past law enforcement that they're being excessively and destructively cautious. I know I'd be sneaking back in to get my stuff whatever the risk, because fuck them. Yeah, I really would need a specific description of why they'd want to do that "controlled burn" of an entire appartment block including everyone else's stuff also, because that's just fucking excessive. Have they even tried securing the dangerous chemicals by, oh I don't know, stuffing the affected appartment with PUR foam or something?