Except that there won't be an overnight, because substance A added to substance B causes an immediate explosion taking out the bomb maker, who we can assume is dumb as a box of hammers.
When dealing with terrorists, you don't want to underestimate your enemy, but on the other hand, you don't want to overestimate them either. A significant portion of them wouldn't be able to tell at what point in this rigged bomb making process the whole thing blows up in their face. Chemistry and electronic circuits can be complicated things which offer many places where you can put little booby traps in the plan.
If I were in charge, I'd load the internets with so many terrorist self help sites that included bombs that detonated at some point during the manufacture process that you'd have to go through 100 of these "booby trapped plan" sites to get to a real one.
For all I know, these may already exist. In which case never-mind.-- doctorremulac3, May 17 2012 The Anarchists Cook Booklet http://www.haikog.d...istsCookbooklet.pdfC'eci n'est pas un Cookbook d'Anarchisme - it's more (but not entirely) an actual cookbook [zen_tom, May 18 2012] Smokeless vs. Black Powder http://www.youtube....aMI&feature=relatedSmokeless powder burns. Black powder explodes. [ytk, May 18 2012] http://www.youtube....watch?v=fMyYlf6yFcg [bob, May 20 2012] What about when the desperate ragtag remnants of the human race turns to one of your rigged plans for their last ditch efforts to repel the alien conquerors. WHAT THEN?-- bungston, May 17 2012 WHAT THEN?????-- bungston, May 17 2012 Spend no more sleepless nights B. Those of use who can survive the quest to find how to make anti- alien ordinance without blowing our fingers off will be tasked with saving humanity.
It'll be like those asian martial arts movies where the hero needs to pass some "quest for truth" tests via deep, inner soul searching before they can punch people in the face.-- doctorremulac3, May 17 2012 Survival of the fittest, yes, yes. But such a shame that the dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers hero with a heart of gold blows his fingers off trying to save the last orphanage on earth. And the kids cry "why, doc remulac? why?"
Maybe an alien dissident will volunteer to be his surrogate fingers for his second attempt. Yes, yes, I can see how that would go....-- bungston, May 17 2012 Isn't this called the Anarchist's Cookbook?-- Wrongfellow, May 17 2012 //Isn't this called the Anarchist's Cookbook?//
Yeah, I seem to recall hearing some ballistics expert explaining that the "silencer" described in that text would blow up probably 50% of the time— if you built it correctly.
Penn and Teller wrote a book called "How To Play With Your Food" that contained a fake recipe for "Swedish Lemon Angels". The key step in the recipe involved combining a mixture containing a fair amount of baking soda with a cup of lemon juice.-- ytk, May 17 2012 // WHAT THEN ? //
Well, we call it a "walk-in"…-- 8th of 7, May 17 2012 And here I thought this was what imdb was...-- RayfordSteele, May 17 2012 I worry that the majority of the users of online bomb plans are not terrorists, but rather bored teanagers. While some might think applying darwinian methods to teenagers might be good, I suspect that many teenagers who appear to be trying out for a Dawin Award have the potential to mature into people who make significant contributions to society. Therefore blowing them up might cause more harm than the good of blowing up a few terrorists.-- scad mientist, May 17 2012 "it is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious."-- 8th of 7, May 17 2012 you say terrorists, I say bored teenagers... tomato, tomahto...-- RayfordSteele, May 17 2012 Spend a little time reading about them on Wikipedia and you will discover that, as a nearly universal rule, (successful) terrorists and criminal bombers do not learn their craft from the Internet or things like the Anarchist's Cookbook.* Most either learn from prior military experience or are taught by a mentor. A handful have backgrounds in chemistry, physics, and/or engineering. The mentorship system is especially prevalent in established terrorist groups.
* As for the Anarchist's Cookbook, it is more or less the essence of this idea, but without the noble intent. It would be more aptly titled 'How to Blow Yourself Up'. I don't know if it's still around, but there was a lesser-known manuscript called The Big Book of Mischeif, which was much more accurate and of far greater threat to society than any edition of the A.C. I have a copy that I obtained in high school. The bomb-building chapter of the BBOM is very detailed, including much of the science involved in the processes, and it also makes explicitly clear how delicate and dangerous such activities are. Many of the 'recipes' it contains are real or very close. Still, I don't think it's a terrorist training manual. At worst, it may have been used by some of these idiot kids who suffer a psychotic breakdown after being bullied for years and go on a school-shooting playdate with homemade pipebombs and fucking Tec-9s.
Oh, and one more thing: I can make a safer and more effective silencer with a soda can, a potato, and a yard of duct tape than that garbage in the A.C.-- Alterother, May 17 2012 //you say terrorists, I say bored teenagers... tomato, tomahto...//
I guess one could draw a differentiation now that you mention it. Aren't we splitting hairs at that point though?-- doctorremulac3, May 17 2012 I draw a big black indelible line between the bored teenage idiots who build black powder bombs and set them off in sandpits and the emotionally damaged teenage idiots who have been bullied half to death and build black powder bombs to set off in schools. School shooters/bombers are terrorists, albeit pretty inept ones (same goes for adults who terrorize their workplace). The stupid kids who eventually drop something unstable and get off easy if they only lose a foot are not terrorists.-- Alterother, May 17 2012 // Most either learn from prior military experience or are taught by a mentor. A handful have backgrounds in chemistry, physics, and/or engineering. //
<violent bout of coughing>-- 8th of 7, May 17 2012 Must I actually link in order to prove a perfectly obvious point that anyone can confirm on their own? Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh: military experience. Ted Kaczynski: Math PhD, massively self educated. Al Qaeda, Iraqi insurgents, and other Middle Eastern extremist groups: fully-organized bomb-building schools. Big-time terrorists do not download their recipes, they go to cooking college.
Putting even more faulty bomb-making instructions on the Internet will not decrease the rate of serious bombings. It would potentially only decrease the number of clueless idiots who require full-time adult supervision, not that this would be a bad thing.-- Alterother, May 17 2012 Bingo.-- doctorremulac3, May 18 2012 Sounds like [8th] has just emerged from a cloud of oxidised nitrates.-- UnaBubba, May 18 2012 I'm pretty sure [zen_tom] used to have a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook. I also remember one of my brothers blowing himself up after concocting some gunpowder. I don't know if the two memories are related, but they really ought to be.-- theleopard, May 18 2012 // I draw a big black indelible line between the bored teenage idiots who build black powder bombs and set them off in sandpit//I resent being labelled an "idiot" forty years after the fact.And it was a gravel pit, strictly speaking.And it wasn't black powder. (black powder was too smoky and not enough flash)-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 18 2012 Umm... <mumbles> ... Hercules Red Dot powder... in a metal flask... buried in sand... dog ended up with gravel chips embedded in its backside as it ran away... no-one else was actually hurt... </m>-- UnaBubba, May 18 2012 [Absinthe], if you outgrew the behavior while you still retained all of your extremities, I'll grant a pardon.
Anyway, I routinely refer to myself as an idiot. I do recreationally stupid things all the time, just not involving explosives or firearms (I have set myself on fire several times, but that's really more of a work thing). I'm also a big fan of helmets, which are a great tool for separating the surviving idiots from the maimed or dead idiots.-- Alterother, May 18 2012 //, if you outgrew the behavior while you still retained all of your extremities, I'll grant a pardon//I retained all extremities intact, though my left ear is a little deafer than the right (that one was half the size of a pencil, but Man!, was it loud) As to whether I outgrew the behaviour, I'm not sure; I just don't seem to get the opportunity so often.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 18 2012 I think I was about 8 years old when I learned that if you take a jug of modern smokeless powder, pour it out on the street in a long line and make a big pile at one end, when you light it, it doesn't "fizzle" along slowly like in the Road Runner cartoons.
My vision came back after a few seconds luckily.-- doctorremulac3, May 18 2012 It goes off quickly, doesn't it, [dr rem]?
Our kids will never understand. We were the last generation to get up to this sort of stuff and not go to gaol for terrorism offences.-- UnaBubba, May 18 2012 O, tempora ! O, mores !-- 8th of 7, May 18 2012 I think there may be a Welshmen in your garden, [8th]. SG or No. 8 birdshot?-- UnaBubba, May 18 2012 //It goes off quickly, doesn't it, [dr rem]?//
Very.-- doctorremulac3, May 18 2012 //I think I was about 8 years old when I learned that if you take a jug of modern smokeless powder, pour it out on the street in a long line and make a big pile at one end, when you light it, it doesn't "fizzle" along slowly like in the Road Runner cartoons.//
Are you sure it wasn't black powder? Smokeless powder will, in fact, fizzle slowly (I used to handload ammunition, and I still have a bunch of it in the garage that I take out and light a bit of every now and then whenever I need to sate my pyromaniacal urges). Black powder goes ka-boom.-- ytk, May 18 2012 I'm not sure what it was, but I can testify that it definataly went "KABOOM" and not "fizzle" like the fuse in the beginning of Mission Impossible.
So of course we played it safe after that. We filled a jar full of the stuff with primers at the bottom and poured flammable glue on the top to act as a "fuse" to give us time to run like hell.
Ahhh, to be young and stupid. And where were the parents you ask? How the hell should I know? We were "free range" children back then. If little Bobby or Billy did'nt come home alive it was their own damned fault.-- doctorremulac3, May 18 2012 Must have been black powder (see link). You're lucky you still have all your limbs.
Yikes, primers? Those are unbelievably dangerous, particularly when not actually loaded into a case. Don't mess with those. The problem with primers is that a sudden jolt can set one off, and if you have a bunch of them together it can start a chain reaction that WILL destroy anything in the immediate vicinity.-- ytk, May 18 2012 Yup! That's the stuff! What's missing from the video is how brightly it burns. I had a straight line shaped impression on my retinas that took several seconds to fade away and I thought I was scarred for life. When I saw that I was alright, I declared this stuff great fun and we went right back to risking life and limb, just from a greater distance.
Yes, I must stress to any kids that might read this. If you do this stuff you can end up very maimed or very dead. I come from a time and place where life was cheap by today's standards. I was a stupid kid from East Palo Alto. You're not.
Do we need to say "Don't try this at home?" Ok, please. Don't try this at home. (Your friends house is ok though...kidding)-- doctorremulac3, May 18 2012 // Welshmen in your garden, [8th]. SG or No. 8 birdshot? //
Just a "warning burst" from the old .303 Vickers … well, the whole nine yards actually, but who'se counting … ?
// Ahhh, to be young and stupid. And where were the parents you ask? How the hel should I know? We were "free range" should I know? We were "free range" children back then. If little Bobby or Billy did'nt come home alive it was their own damned fault. did'nt come home alive it was their own damned fault //
How very true. Not many of them probably stole a full 13Kg cyclinder of Butane, took it into a farmer's field and built a bonfire round it.
It's advantageous if the Primary Instigator and Chief Dangerous Idiot has actually studied their history and understands the importance of "trenches" or at least a good, deep ditch when red-hot shards of steel are restyling the immediate landscape.-- 8th of 7, May 18 2012 Oh, great. Looks like we ran into that nasty bug in "quote.pas" again. Time to reboot the Borg...-- ytk, May 18 2012 Bombs are like guns or chainsaws or any other potentially dangerous tool: always know what the tool is designed to do, or the tool might do it to you.
The flipside of that is the importance of using high-quality tools.-- Alterother, May 19 2012 // I must stress to any kids that might read this. If you do this stuff you can end up very mamed or very dead//...or free-issued with a very fetching orange boilersuit.// Not many of them probably stole a full 13Kg cyclinder of Butane, took it into a farmer's field and built a bonfire round it.//Oo, respect, best I ever managed was filling the hollow in the base of a Gaz canister with garden weed control products and common sweetener. First charge didn't do it, so after a respectable pause, a second finished the job. (Did you really only probably steal it?)-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 19 2012 [+] Genius.-- Grogster, May 20 2012 random, halfbakery