pop bottle explosives

[alevin]

Received the following from our safety officer this morning. Please take note, especially all you east coast/central folks.

Everyone,
There are lots of warning emails about exploding pop bottle bombs (made with simple substances) that have begun showing up in odd places in the midwest and east coast. Unfortunately, the emails that are flying around also give the recipe for the bombs. That means that these pop bottle bombs could show up anywhere. The tough thing about these bombs is that they go off when even gently disturbed. It takes about 30 seconds for the bomb to detonate after disturbance.

If you find a plastic pop bottle with some fluid in it, especially a dark-colored fluid, check to see if there is any swelling or melting of the bottle. Look at it without touching! If you think the bottle is even slightly suspicious, flag the area as a hazard and request an LEO or other law enforcement person to come out.

If you need more information, you can google "snopes pop bottle bombs". Scroll down for a video of an explosion.

 

[Frixxxx]

Received the following from our safety officer this morning. Please take note, especially all you east coast/central folks.

Yep, Kids in Summer with too much time on their hands.....We need longer school years!

 

[crws]

rascals
if it wasn't drano, and was just vinegar/water and baking soda, it would be less of an issue.
I suppose they are still more dangerous than the screw top beer bottles we filled halfway with water and put in orchard pruning fires.

 

[Buster]

Boys will be Boys.

When I was a kid..me and some buddies made the same thing..but we put a ballon over the top of the bottle and let it fill will the hydrogen gas and then we would tie a long string to it and soak it with lighter fluid..light the string and let it float away really high into the air..then when the string burned to the ballon... WHOOOOOM!..awesome

probably why I was in EOD in the NAVY..

 

[crws]

Let me guess- you'd all stand around while one guy held the balloon on, the next guy got the string and gas ready, and the 3rd lit it up while the first released it!
isn't fire and the imminent danger of a disfiguring explosion awesome!???! :laugh:

Boys will be Boys.

When I was a kid..me and some buddies made the same thing..but we put a ballon over the top of the bottle and let it fill will the hydrogen gas and then we would tie a long string to it and soak it with lighter fluid..light the string and let it float away really high into the air..then when the string burned to the ballon... WHOOOOOM!..awesome

probably why I was in EOD in the NAVY..

 

[Buster]

Let me guess- you'd all stand around while one guy held the balloon on, the next guy got the string and gas ready, and the 3rd lit it up while the first released it!
isn't fire and the imminent danger of a disfiguring explosion awesome!???! :laugh:

You got it, sounds like you may have tried something like this in your day too.....it was a very well choreographed exercise in homemade pyrotechnics....Aside from the fact we were young, dumb and adventurous..Couldn't afford barbie and ken dolls like the rich little spoiled brat kids got...Maybe you think those things were awesome instead..who knows.....we still didn't play in traffic though..we knew that could be painful.:blink:

 

[crws]

we had fun times emptying shotgun shells of their innards, taping a marble to the primer,
and tossing them onto the street below a neighbor's yard where we were hiding, laughing so hard at the loud explosion,
it was all we could do to run without peeing our pants!
I think the best fire event was one night we soaked the road at the top of the hill by our houses with
Cox airplane fuel and lit it on fire (blue flames) just before cars came over the crest.|
Yes, we were little devils, but it was FUUUN.
Styrofoam flame bombers
zzzirp
zzzzirp
zzzirp

You got it, sounds like you may have tried something like this in your day too.....it was a very well choreographed exercise in homemade pyrotechnics....Aside from the fact we were young, dumb and adventurous..Couldn't afford barbie and ken dolls like the rich little spoiled brat kids got...Maybe you think those things were awesome instead..who knows.....we still didn't play in traffic though..we knew that could be painful.:blink:

 

[Buster]

we had fun times emptying shotgun shells of their innards, taping a marble to the primer,
and tossing them onto the street below a neighbor's yard where we were hiding, laughing so hard at the loud explosion,
it was all we could do to run without peeing our pants!
I think the best fire event was one night we soaked the road at the top of the hill by our houses with
Cox airplane fuel and lit it on fire (blue flames) just before cars came over the crest.|
Yes, we were little devils, but it was FUUUN.
Styrofoam flame bombers
zzzirp
zzzzirp
zzzirp

Not to make light..When I was a kid..me and my buddies did some pretty risky stuff with gun powder and estes rocket engine propellant, match heads, shotgun shells taped on an arrow..you name ..if it burned, we tried making a bomb out of it..Stupid?..very much so..

I guess we were lucky and knew when to run like hell..but still we took great risks, now looking back...:embarrest:

Here is a scary but real video...

 

[crws]

GNARLY DUDE
btw those D estes rocket motors on a good fireworks punk would sail outta sight!
Even with an m80 fused to the next stage flameout!

Hey-
Look!
Rock and Roll tomorrow!

Fed chief focused on keeping recovery alive
Bernanke looks to reassure Congress that Fed will do what it takes to keep recovery alive.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke heads to Congress Wednesday with a message of reassurance: The Fed stands ready to take new steps to bolster the recovery if the economy worsens.

The Fed chief kicks off back-to-back appearances on Capitol Hill at a delicate time for the economy. The recovery, which had been flashing signs of strengthening earlier this year, is losing momentum. And fears are growing that it could stall.

Consumers have cut spending. Businesses, uncertain about the strength of their own sales or the economic recovery, are sitting on cash, reluctant to beef up hiring and expand operations. A stalled housing market, near double-digit unemployment and an edgy Wall Street shaken by Europe's debt crisis are other factors playing into the economic slowdown.

Bernanke, who is scheduled to deliver his twice-a-year economic report to the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday afternoon, will probably again downplay the odds that the economy will slide back into a "double dip" recession. But at the same time, he'll strike a more cautious tone, pointing out that the fragile economy is still vulnerable to shocks.

To strengthen the economy, the Fed is likely to hold a key bank lending rate at a record low near zero well into 2011, or possibly into 2012, economists predict. That would mean rates on certain credit cards, home equity loans, some adjustable-rate mortgages and other consumer loans would stay at their lowest point in decades.

If the recovery were to deteriorate, the Fed could revive programs to buy mortgage securities or government debt. It could lower the interest rate paid to banks on money left at the Fed or cut the rate banks pay for emergency Fed loans. The Fed also could create a new program to spark more lending to businesses and consumers in a bid to lure them to ratchet up spending and grow the economy.

 

[Buster]