Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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
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.
Actually black powder and gunpowder are very sticky legal subjects in the US. Know your state and federal laws well before even looking into playing with them.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
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.
...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.
Actually black powder and gunpowder are very sticky legal subjects in the US. Know your state and federal laws well before even looking into playing with them.
I would argue that the problem stems from using the words "black powder", "gunpowder" and "playing with them" in close proximity.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
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.
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
The apartment building was successfully burned down on Thursday morning: Beaver Dam apartment burn a success; some personal items retrieved by bomb squad
...until he blew himself up.
Now he's blown into lots of separate bits.
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"?
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.
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!
One of the reports showed he wasn't intending on making explosives but part of the chemical make-up of what he was making was volitile. My guess would be that the next steps to final product would have stabilized what he was making. Such as many products we own in our very own homes can be very volitile during the manufacturing process.
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.
Homemade guns and gunpowder are totally legal in the US. Manufacturing explosives in an apartment building is not.
Well, technically gunpowder is an explosive. That's kind of how it works.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
"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.
The Bible says worldly goods aren't important.
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.
It is entirely possible to produce explosive compounds recreationally, without making them into anything that could be considered a bomb. The best candidate I know of is a highly-unstable compound that used to be often used in basic chemistry classes. Immediately after production, it is a wet paste, and can easily be spread in a very thin layer, preferably no more than a few grams covering a 2cm radius circle. Once it dries, that circle will make a lovely pop if disturbed, making it great fun to put on desk surfaces.
Of course, people are dumb. This particular compound grows in destruction exponentially as its quantity increases. A few grams is fun. A few dozen grams is dangerous. A few hundred is lethal. A kilogram in one location is probably a good reason to evacuate the building.
I am part of a group that, among many other things, handles explosives for educational purposes, partly to help chemists who are not "bomb makers" get an intuitive understanding for just how much of an explosive substance is actually safe, and how to treat them with respect. Sure, we do also build bombs, but they're also detonated safely and in a controlled environment, in full compliance with applicable laws.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Even better, know your chemistry well before playing with them.
Explosives should be kept in schools to protect from potential grizzlies.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Nah, he blew himself up for Jesus.
If he were in the South, I'd assume he was cooking meth. Not sure about Wisconsin. Either way, that seems to be the usual cause of random buildings exploding these days.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Manufacturing explosives in an apartment building is not.
Because there is a risk of losing arms, and that would violate people's right to keep their arms, right?
Ezekiel 23:20
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
Depends on what kinds of explosives he was playing with. If he was making mercury fulminate, yeah, you could well turn your whole building into a superfund site.
However if that were case, they wouldn't be able to just burn the building down. So I'm guessing he was messing some kind of unstable organic compound. The kinds of monitoring equipment they put out (there was a press release so people wouldn't be alarmed by the strange bits of equipment lying around) indicates they were looking for vocs.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
You can only be modded 5 times. ...
And no one cares about you anyway
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I guess you are talking about Nitrogen Triiodide.
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.
Because there is a risk of losing arms, and that would violate people's right to keep their arms, right?
No, the US Constitution grants us the right to "bear arms". It's easy enough to remove your original arms in various and sundry painful ways, although I'm not exactly sure how you're supposed to connect a bear's arms to your body afterward... even if the bear were cooperative.
#DeleteChrome
>. '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).
nitrogen tri-iodide trivial to make in large batches--inexpensive and widely available precursors VERY UNSTABLE even when wet as bits dry and even a breath or a fly landing on it can trigger it. Try not to blind yourself or blow off your hand.
Nuke it from orbit; it is the only way to be sure! Tim S.
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?
...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?
You can only be modded 5 times. And no one cares about you anyway ...
I too was worried no one would take me seriously. But then, you took the time and effort to reply assuring me all is well, and people will not rest till they correct everything that disagrees with them on the internet.
Thanks, for restoring faith in humanity, buddy.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Not the American version. It says that God rewards the true believers with material possessions as well as hot babes or anonymous blow jobs in the mens washroom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
My pleasure :)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Oh what a good sheep you are, self-censoring this mysterious 'compound'. Keep it up citizen!
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.
It helped me understand how anyone could call someone who was quite apparently making bombs "not a bomb maker".
When I was in the military, one of the guys in base housing decided he could make a lot of money cooking up drugs in his kitchen. Like Breaking Bad, but a decade earlier.
Well, when the military police busted him, and saw what chemicals he had already bought to make the drugs, the prosecutors decided it was easier to prosecute him for explosives than for drugs. So he got sentenced to a decade in prison for bomb making, when all he wanted to do was sell drugs.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
> 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
On principle, I will not name a compound to anyone in context where it might be an inspiration to do things unsafely. If you want names of such things, even easily-found things, find a local chemistry or pyrotechnics group, and start setting up safe environments under appropriate supervision, who have the awareness and experience to intervene before you start creating excessive paperwork.
That said, there are processes for making large quantities of unstable compounds like what I've described, in such an arrangement as to control the physical stress on the final composition. When it was describe to me, I shook my head, covered my ears, turned around, and walked away at a brisk pace.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
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/
All versions of the Bible are big hodgepodges of random stuff thrown together without thought to consistency. They're all going to include many messages against material wealth, such as "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Stop generating lies that make you look like the jerk you obviously are.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Is that measured in terms of lasers per shark?
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Actually black powder and gunpowder are very sticky legal subjects in the US.
If you think black powder is bad, you should see how the police react when they see you playing with white powder.
Is it a lie that Mike Pence, a Dominist Christian is Vice-President of the USA? Is it a lie that American politicians have been caught soliciting sex in mens bathrooms? Then there's the Christian guy who divorced 2 wives on their deathbeds to marry young things. Then there are the Christians who support Trump, a man without morals based on his actions and words.
Unluckily most of these Christians never read the whole Bible (seeming to stop before the new testament besides the thing about being forgiven no matter what they did as long as they say they belief) nor their countries excellent founding documents. Be really nice if Americans were aware of their founders actual beliefs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
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
Had a nephew's friend make 1.75L of that shit! Field that call at at 2am! Nephew had a "four wall" conversation with him after (as my instructions included how not to be arrested by the cops).
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
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.
Funny, this thread, as they all involve the same chemical. And yes, I knew the friend fucked it up by the physical description. Still had them destroy it, just to be safe. Enough to wake me up in the middle of the night. Try doing all those variables on being woken up from a dead sleep with 20 year old chemistry knowledge without getting anyone killed.
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
There are a lot of said life's in America lately
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Ultimately, the purpose is not to "prove reality", although Occam's razor ought to be given consideration. The purpose is to set up a system of rules and principles that allow humans to live a good life. If the system corresponds with reality, it stands a much better chance of promoting a good life than does a system which does not correspond well with reality. In particular, the assumption that hallucinations are universal, or even frequent, would not lead to a good life because it would discourage action.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Nitrogen triiodide?
That stuff is hilarious.
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.
It's all fun and games until a residence hall is condemned.
"Hilarious", indeed.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
"Energetic Materials" and "Energetic Materials in Application" are still still offered at a handful of schools in my state, but almost entirely for graduate students. Those used to be elective chemistry and engineering classes for undergrads during early 90's at the university I attended, but a slightly faster paced version was offered to graduate students or with department approval. I can't think of too may schools even then that offered those to undergrads back then, much less now.
School's have really taken the "fun" out of chemistry. I'm not sitting here advocating that we everyone needs to spend a couple semesters doing nothing but say fluorine chemistry (yet another thing they don't really welcome in the lab anymore, and maybe on this one I'll say okay, but someone has still to be trained to do it. Ticking time bombs in the sand bucket in the fume hood. Fun fun fun!), but until I had energetic materials chemistry ceased to be fun.
Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
I don't know about that, TM-31-210 has a couple idiotic triggering mechanisms that can get you killed in a hurry, and whose only practical application would be terrorism.
Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
I purchased a pound of Black Powder last week, not Pyrodex. Why did I buy it?For my Black Powder rifle.
Not really, they're perfectly legal in most states, but when you amass over a certain amount you are legally obligated to follow safe handling and storage procedures.
I'm wondering if he went to a Muslim college you'd make the same remarks?
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
That quote is actually true, and supported by multiple comments on this site. It's much easier for something like camel/needle to happen then someone who is rich and "happy" in their status to give up anything to help others/give oneself to a cause--Christianity or anything. If you read the quote in context that meaning will become obvious to anyone with an ability in reading comprehension. Same for other quotes in other religions.
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.
I figure likely death from a long fall is better than certain death from burning.
Should I ever find myself on a burning airship, I'll wait as long as I can and then jump.
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
That apartment must have been quite a mess.
No. Blackpowder detonates while smokeless powder just burns. There's a big difference which is why basically you can't legally buy blackpowder now. Hodgdon's Pyrodex that is not nearly as good is pretty much all you can buy now.
Nope, black powder deflagrates, just as smokeless powder. I suspect (depending on where you live) that the reason why you can't buy it may simply be lack of demand. It's a relatively weak explosive that leaves a nasty residue and plenty of acrid smoke. Why would anyone want to use it when there are dozens of other fuel/oxidizer combinations (not to mention smokeless powders) that are pretty much better at everything?
Black powder is worse because it's black? The worst kind of color?
Too easy.
He fell to pieces!!!
Oh never mind he's white
And what does this have to do with anything? You believing leftist bullshit? Tim McVeigh - he was a terrorist and he was white. The Unibomber - he is white too.
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?
I'm glad you asked! I actually am really glad you asked... I would much rather talk about the principles of explosives and how they behave (hopefully inspiring further injury-free education), than name particular compounds and say how much fun they can be (usually inspiring stupid mistakes).
Essentially, what makes explosives dangerous is primarily that they release so much gas during their reaction that it can't expand into the atmosphere fast enough, creating a shock wave. That expansion is primarily limited by the speed of sound, so having more explosive material mostly just raises the pressure behind the shock wave. Raising the pressure, in turn, increases the rate of the explosion, both due to physical effects and adding compression heat.
With just a small amount of (low) explosive at normal conditions, setting it on fire will usually just make it burn. Sometimes it will burn quickly, but it still isn't particularly dangerous. Once compression happens, either by confining the explosion into a bomb or by having enough material to cause compression behind the shock wave, each additional gram of explosive adds not just to the total power, but also amplifies the rest of the reaction.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
the purpose
and
a good life
Are subjective.
If the system corresponds with reality, it stands a much better chance of promoting a good life than does a system which does not correspond well with reality
There's some evidence that suggests that those with (mild to moderate) depression have a more accurate perspective, particularly around personal circumstances. Most non-depressed people have a slight but measurable degree of unrealistic 'optimism' about themselves. To the degree that personal happiness forms a component of your definition of 'a good life', then a slightly distorted view of reality is 'better' than a more accurate one. For an individual. At a group or societal level, the assessment might be calculated differently.
the assumption that hallucinations are universal
Not needed. I only need to assume that I am hallucinating when I see both the apple and the people saying that they see the apple. More, the GP loads the example by talking about a hallucination as though there exists a non-hallucinogenic state that has a more accurate perspective.
the assumption that hallucinations are universal, or even frequent, would not lead to a good life because it would discourage action
Not if the pattern of hallucinations is reasonably consistent. I presume you mean that inaction results from random or apparently unconnected input. If the hallucination is consistent, 'though, then you can make predictions about possible responses and choose to act based on those predictions. Religious beliefs, superstitions. So long as the cost of acting on a perspective that is inaccurate is lower than the benefit from same, then it's not even 'bad'.
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.
It is entirely possible to produce explosive compounds recreationally, without making them into anything that could be considered a bomb. The best candidate I know of is a highly-unstable compound that used to be often used in basic chemistry classes. Immediately after production, it is a wet paste, and can easily be spread in a very thin layer, preferably no more than a few grams covering a 2cm radius circle. Once it dries, that circle will make a lovely pop if disturbed, making it great fun to put on desk surfaces.
Of course, people are dumb. This particular compound grows in destruction exponentially as its quantity increases. A few grams is fun. A few dozen grams is dangerous. A few hundred is lethal. A kilogram in one location is probably a good reason to evacuate the building.
what you say is generally true but there are other mitigating factors, even small amounts are destructive in the right containment (or wrong in this case) . Most compounds conflagrate rather than true explode with the associated shockwave when in open air and not contained. The high brisance stuff used in industry and military applications are similar in that they wont always detonate in that fashion, depending on various factors and oft require containment, shape, particular det caps and so on to do that or they'll just burn very fast instead. Think oil well perforator charges, those are tiny shaped charges but inside that housing in that shape etc there is some SERIOUS power. Remove the contents and spread it out like you say and it'd be rather pedestrian. Plus most the high relative effectiveness explosives are either hard to synth at home small scale or require specialist detonation. My guess is he was packing an organic peroxide like TATP, despite lab access and making fireworks in past for the kids I've never even considered using it due to how unstable it can be. I've handled it in other situations where it is relatively inert but high enough purity and dried out you're somewhat of a fool no matter what your background to start packing that into or whatever housing, especially since it has a tendency to go off spontaneously when tamping gently even and it is goodbye fingers.
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.
don't confuse wisdom with knowledge, I've met some highly competent from knowledge pov folks in my time but wouldn't trust them not to do borderline retarded things like this. FWIW everyone I know with strong enough chemistry background (much higher than avergae in my circlke of friends and family) simply wouldn't even consider it with compounds with risk factor present; it is predictable or go home kind of thing for those with sense. That is coming from someone who has made stuff with their kids, knows friends who've done similar, and has a father who did the same when I was a young child. There are only two reasons I can see where someone without malice would make this mistake, either ignorance in the field so they didn't know enough to understand risks, or high competence but suffer from severe stupidity being the second.
Have you not heard of prosperity gospel? e.g. Creflo Dollar?
Religion doesn't necessarily fly in the face of reality. Many religious statements are unfalsifiable. There's a big difference between believing something that can't be falsified and believing in something that already has been falsified.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
don't confuse wisdom with knowledge, I've met some highly competent from knowledge pov folks in my time but wouldn't trust them not to do borderline retarded things like this. FWIW everyone I know with strong enough chemistry background (much higher than avergae in my circlke of friends and family) simply wouldn't even consider it with compounds with risk factor present; it is predictable or go home kind of thing for those with sense. That is coming from someone who has made stuff with their kids, knows friends who've done similar, and has a father who did the same when I was a young child. There are only two reasons I can see where someone without malice would make this mistake, either ignorance in the field so they didn't know enough to understand risks, or high competence but suffer from severe stupidity being the second.
Yeah, and the thing is that if he's got a pre-pharma degree with a minor in chemistry, it better be the second option there--except it's still rather baffling. I have one of the variants of pre-pharma--I got basically the major you get instead for that and premed if your school doesn't do the pre-professional major--so I've got a decent idea what sort of training he ought to have had. If he was doing it in a backyard shed, it'd actually be a lot less confusing; you learn a rather lot about why you don't want to risk your food prep or consumption areas getting contaminated, though it doesn't look like he went on to pharmacy school (which is admittedly harder to get into than med school) so maybe he was a Cs Get Degrees type of student. (Basically, the rule of thumb is that you don't necessarily know what got where and if it's safe to consume, and you probably want to know at least what it is if you're going to try finding out if it's safe for human consumption the direct way--if nothing else, so you can get credit on the paper saying that nope, pretty fatal.)
Even with that, however, he's apparently worked several chem lab jobs so he's put in a significant number of hours in labs and should have good safety training. I have questions about his school and his employers, and there's not nice ones.
The right to keep and arm bears shall not be infringed . . .
The right to keep bare arms shall not be infringed . . .
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain