[MP-Ryan]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/suv-in-times-square-was-rigged-with-explosives-new-york-firefighter-says/article1553799/

Apparently some jackass tried to car-bomb Times Square and a production of the Lion King along with it.

[Ford Prefect]

I'm just glad he had the courtesy to try it on a weekend, or I would've been ****ed trying to get to class.

[Bob-san]

Did anyone else read that and start thinking of ways to ensure a similar bomb's reliability and lethality?

[Klaustrophobia]

no.  but i did start thinking about just how many attacks have failed not due to law enforcement or other kind of intervention, but by the attackers' incompetence.  rather disheartening (sp?) to know what might be happening if they were able to get it right.

[Colonol Dekker]

This is old news.
 
Still. . . . That's why There's an I in IED.

[karajorma]

no.  but i did start thinking about just how many attacks have failed not due to law enforcement or other kind of intervention, but by the attackers' incompetence.  rather disheartening (sp?) to know what might be happening if they were able to get it right.

Well I remember once reading an article that explained that the reason why terrorists haven't done anything big recently is because competent suicide bombers kill themselves on the first attempt so therefore there is no one left by now but the idiots.

[Colonol Dekker]

That's quite mind boggling.

[Dilmah G]

no.  but i did start thinking about just how many attacks have failed not due to law enforcement or other kind of intervention, but by the attackers' incompetence.  rather disheartening (sp?) to know what might be happening if they were able to get it right.

Well I remember once reading an article that explained that the reason why terrorists haven't done anything big recently is because competent suicide bombers kill themselves on the first attempt so therefore there is no one left by now but the idiots.

Hahaha!

[iamzack]

I like to think that (at least most of) the people most capable of destruction are also capable of finding better things to do.

[Bobboau]

they end up getting jobs in the defense industry.

[NGTM-1R]

Most people mentally competent enough to plan a terrorist attack, tell no one, and carry it out are intelligent enough to understand and be appalled by the consequences. Those who aren't are typically serial-killer material and unlikely to be able to embrace any real cause but themselves.

[MR_T3D]

Did anyone else read that and start thinking of ways to ensure a similar bomb's reliability and lethality?

were you working for fox news?
they had a 'nice' little piece telling people why it failed, how to do better next time.

[Lukeskywalkie]

If Only he'd blown up a production of 'Cats'.

[Bob-san]

Did anyone else read that and start thinking of ways to ensure a similar bomb's reliability and lethality?

were you working for fox news?
they had a 'nice' little piece telling people why it failed, how to do better next time.

I don't watch Fox. Can't either, but even if I could, I would rather take a hacksaw, open my own skull, and pour hazardous chemicals directly onto my brain.

[S-99]

Much better ways to do this do exist.

The main explosive here appears to be the propane tanks. Looks like the gasoline was to go ablaze to light them off. This is sloppy.

The bomber would could have read up on how to blow up a propane tank. To get a propane tank to explode, you need to increase the pressure inside the tank to whatever level will make it burst. The best way to do this is to heat it up. Lighting up 10 gallons of gas and hoping for the best is sloppy.

Putting the propane tanks on top of a camping stove would have worked better. Better yet, you can have the second can of propane powering the burners. Now the hurdle is to get the camping stove to automatically light itself after a given time...this requires some creativity. Otherwise, you're there for the world to see you running away from the car after you ignited the burners

Did anyone else read that and start thinking of ways to ensure a similar bomb's reliability and lethality?

Did the people who hacked dns servers to block the comcast website and email ensure a way to disable comcast? Yes, and we'll let you run the new paranoid detail lacking news channel called "conspiranoid" (you're janitors are thought police).

[Mars]

Well I remember once reading an article that explained that the reason why terrorists haven't done anything big recently is because competent suicide bombers kill themselves on the first attempt so therefore there is no one left by now but the idiots.

What confuses me is that it really isn't that hard to build a bomb, even if all you do is look on the internet.

Fireworks? Seriously?

It's not that I want them to do it better, they're just so bad at it, it worries me.

[BloodEagle]

You know what would be interesting? If all 'how-to' instructions on the Internet regarding the making of bombs contained a flaw that would cause the device to prematurely activate during construction.

 

[S-99]

The only bomb on the internet that i saw and utilized was really simple years ago. I made a pneumatic potato gun, and was exploring the idea of launching explosives out of it. In particular something that could fit down a 1 inch diameter barrel.

Then came the mini co2 cartridge explosive. Empty mini co2 filled with gun powder with a fuse. I made it a 3 man operation to make it safe as possible. One person to light the fuse, the person holding the explosive immediately lets it fall down the barrel after it's lit. I was listening for the clink noise of the explosive against the metal ball valve once it makes its way down the barrel, and that's how i know i need to make release the air pressure to make it fly away from me. Those two people immediately run for reasonable cover away from me holding the gun after their jobs have been performed, because there was a good risk of me exploding.

Luckily it went as planned safely, especially with my choice of slower burning fuse. The only fool in the plan was me based on what my job in all of it was. It ended up exploding overhead of the dry river bed 40 feet above a bunch of seagulls 300 feet away from the launch point. With a satisfying bang of 6ft diameter explosion of smokeless gun powder. Poor seagulls, they were all nesting and i scared the **** out of them really good (unintended, we got in there to do the test, and out pretty fast).

For a good musical i recommend little shop or horrors with rick moranis and john candy.

[SpardaSon21]

I made a potato gun once.  It used hairspray for propellant and a barbecue igniter for the ignition system.  Baby was powerful enough to shoot a carrot chunk clean through a 3/4 sheet of plywood to smash itself to paste on the cinder block wall behind it.

[General Battuta]

I came within six inches of hitting a privately owned Cessna with a model rocket.

THEN I FLED