🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <12974@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
> For reliable electric fuses, nothing beats photographic flashbulbs.  Be sure
> to remove the "protective" plastic coating for best results.
> 
> Many gun shops sell black powder (gunpowder for people who roll their own
> ammo).  Even with the plastic coating on, a flash bulb sets this stuff off
> pretty well.
> 
> Always remember the safety rule for gunpowder:  If it doesn't have a casing,
> it doesn't go BOOM !!!
> 
> Come to think of it, that's not the safety rule.  I think the safety rule was:
> Don't mix carpet tacks with the powder, put them around the sides.

	Congratulations, I knew SOMEONE would do it, and it was you!  You
give the Net explicit instructions on how to build an explosive device
capable of no purpose other than to destroy life and property.  Excuse my
prejudice, but is it just coincidence that you happen to be an account
holder on Portal?

	The original poster was obviously no bona fide model rocket hobbyist;
if he were, he would not have posed a naive question about 9-volt batteries
and diodes (as fuses).  Can you think of any lawful purpose other than model
rocketry to pose such a question?  Might he have something _other_ than
model rockets in mind?

	Do you feel a sense of satisfaction that you have furnished explicit
instructions to an obviously naive poster (and to God knows who else) on
how to build a gen-u-wine explosive device capable of serious personal
injury and destruction of property?

	You seem to find amusement in the effects of an explosive advice.
I can assure you that few, if any, people who have ever served in the military
or worked as a fireman or police officer would share your amusement.  I have
done forensic science consulting to certain law enforcement agencies for
the past 17 or so years; I am not the greatest expert in any one area,
but I come cheap because I enjoy the analytical challenge.  I have seen
firsthand the effects of explosive devices, and do not find it a joking
matter.  Some years ago in the days before ICP, when my organization had
a JACO 3.4 meter Ebert spectrograph (once THE state of the art emission
spectrograph), I did some analysis for a law enforcement agency on the
residue of a fatal pipe bomb explosion.  I signed for a large plastic
evidence bag containing about 1 kg of material, and put in in my lab.
It sat for two days in a locked cabinet before I could get to it.  I then
dumped the contents on a large tray to sort out under a stereomicroscope
and find specimens to prepare as samples for analysis.  In the roughly
1 kg of material, I found close to 100 g of bone and assorted human remains.

	Perhaps you will now understand why I find no amusement in
explosive devices.

	I would also like to point out that while I have done a number
of dumb things in my youth involving chemicals and pyrotechnics, I
never, ever, constructed any device which could even be loosely
construed as a bomb.

<>  Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York
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