Justin Buist

I stopped into a local Dunham’s store today to see if they had any firearms sales going. Yep, they did, and they had the Yogu SKS 59/66 on sale for $99.99.

At that price I should have bought two, but I only snagged one. Just not thinking clearly, I suppose. I might have to go back for another one.

Now, if you don’t already have a semi-automatic rifle chambered for an intermediate cartridge and want one these are a heck of a deal. They’re not too light, the 59/66’s that is, but they’re pretty hard to beat for one hundred stinking dollars. These days a case of 7.62×39mm ammo will cost you more than the actual gun, and 7.62×39mm isn’t exactly pricey.

Well, it’s getting pricey, but that’s another topic entirely.

I would like to take this time to mention that Dunham’s now “requires” a phone number for every gun purchase. I’m used to retailers asking for a phone number and I usually reply with a polite, “No thanks.” or, “I’d rather not.” but the cashier informed me that they required it for gun purchases. Apologetically. I suppose they get a number of gun guys that balk at that question.

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In regards to the attack of the killer raccoons out in Washington GeekWithA45 weighs in and nails it:

All that pain and suffering, for failure to properly apply $98 worth of hardware?

Where I grew up, this would have never made the papers.

It’d have been taken care of about 2 minutes after the pattern was discerned.

The obvious action item would have been delegated to the nearest 12 year old.

Ayup. Shoot the little fuckers.

I figure the only thing we differ on is choice of caliber. He’s thinking .22LR, I’m thinking a break-action 20 gauge. The later being good for anything from pesky birds to something the size of a deer depending on the shells used. My choice would be a bit loud, I suppose.

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No, not in the booze-related way. We’re talking about cashy money here.

SayUncle is outraged, and I can’t blame him.

Instead, the court ruled that the mere fact that Gonzolez was carrying a large sum of money, that he had difficulty understanding the officer’s questions, that he incorrectly answered some of those questions (due, Gonzolez says, to fears that if police knew he was carrying that much money, they might confiscate it — imagine that!), and that a drug dog alerted to the car Gonzolez was driving (which, as dissenting judge Donald Lay noted, was a rental, likely driven by dozens of people before Gonzolez), was enough to “convict” the money of having drug ties, even if there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Gonzolez.

We’re talking about $124,000 here, and this wasn’t some po-dunk backwater court either; it was the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unless the Supreme Court picks this up and overturns it, well, I can’t imagine what the ramifications of this as precedent will be.

To understand just how messed up this situation is, one only needs to look at the case name: United States of America v. $124,700, in U.S. Currency.

The mind boggles.

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I’m still here, folks, just been busy with a few other things in my life and haven’t found time to post much lately.

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There’s a live video feed here.

They plan on detonating the substance sometime soon. I’m predicting that it’s nothing even remotely serious.

UPDATE: Baaahaha! It’s a “make up bottle” apparently with nitrate residue on it. Residue. Possibly from handling fertilizer or a hot dog. A. Hot. Dog. This is coming from a “federal official” and the news fellow is repeating it.

Oh, it could be residue from handling recentl dry-cleaned clothes too.

Hmm. I think it’s over.

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John McCain might be breaking Campaign Finance Reform Laws.

Sucks having to abide by the law, doesn’t it, McCain?

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This is a bit old, but my father and I were discussing Landis’ doping charge on Saturday and it’s still fresh on my mind.

Something’s not right with the story.

First, I’m in the camp that a one day boost of testosterone wouldn’t do much for an athlete. Others would disagree, saying that it does increase your endurance. To quote Dr. Black from the above article:

“I have injected myself with testosterone in doing research, and I can tell you from personal experience that within hours, you feel a profound psychological change, a sense of well-being, aggression and energy,” Black said.

Well, from my personal experience the psychological changes are there, but there’s no physical benefit short term. I’ve never injected the stuff but I have taken testosterone supplements (after I had left the world of sports) in pill form and the only thing that happens, short term, is you get a really strong desire to fight everybody and screw any woman you see.

It’s like being 16 all over again.

Second, it’s fairly easy to absorb it through your skin. A fellow I hung out with during my college years worked at a pharmacy and would lift some of the liquid testosterone, mix it up with Purell hand sanitizer, and smear it on his body. It helped with his weight lifting. It isn’t inconceivable, to me, that somebody could have smeared some liquid testosterone on Landis somehow the night before the 17th stage just to disqualify him.

Just one lone individual with access to testosterone and a strong desire to keep yet another American from winning the Tour. That’s all it would have taken.

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In relation to my post below on the likelihood of liquid explosives being built on planes I’d like to address something that I’ve seen a lot of over this weekend.

The insistence that we must do something to combat this new threat.

I’m not dumb and I realize that we must react to the conditions around us as human beings to ensure our continued survival but I’m prejudiced against letting a government body make those decisions for me. Frankly, government bodies aren’t known for their critical thinking abilities.

I really do believe that the American public figured out the answer to this new wave of terrorism within the first hour after the first WTC tower was struck: If somebody is fucking around with a plane you kick their ass.

It’s unfortunate that Flight 93 went down over Pennsylvania, but the passengers did that they had to do. They figured out that the game had changed and acted appropriately. Given the same people in the same situation one day later (if not even a few hours) I highly doubt that Flight 93 would have ever gone down. They’d have started kicking ass earlier; well before those asshats took control of the cockpit.

That’s the answer to this problem, not forcing people to dump out drinking water before they board a plane.

Hell, since 9/11 we’ve seen people do exactly that. There was a report some time ago about a fellow (veteran of Iraq II actually) trying to bust down a cockpit door. The passengers took him down. We’re Americans — that’s what we do. If we feel that you pose a threat to us we’re going to fuck you up. We live in a nation where carrying a loaded handgun is considered a right. We’re starting to pass laws across the country permitting lethal force without the duty to retreat.

Frankly I don’t see why our government expects us to act like a bunch of dickless pussies when we board a plane. Further, I don’t understand why the populace as a whole feels it’s prudent that we do and that our safety should lie in the hands of government agents incapable of telling the difference between H₂O and HCl.

I’m no hero, and I’m not even particularly brave, but damned if I don’t get on a plane with the understanding that as a decent American that values human life I might need to assist in putting the hurt on some asshole that tries fucking with the plane.

Fuck security screening. You put me on a plane where I know that at least 3 other men are willing to drop fists, knees, elbows, and a good choke hold and I’ll figure I’m pretty safe. I want no part of any system that would take a juice-box from a child based upon the prediction that I, as an American male, would be a dickless pansy unwilling to stop some yahoo from constructing a bomb or doing anything else to jeopardize the other souls on that plane.

An empty water bottle is a symbol. An honest man willing to visit violence upon a terrorist is a real testament to safety.

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Well, the big news lately is the threat of liquid explosives being built in airplanes. My initial reaction to this news was one of skepticism. I figured if the threat is really that serious then security personnel wouldn’t be dumping random liquids into barrels.

Seriously… if you’re afraid that somebody is going to make an explosive out of liquids the last thing you want to be doing is mixing them all together in an airport terminal. Hell, that’s just not safe period. A little hydrochloric acid (HCl, found in toilet bowl cleaners) combines with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO, bleach) would release toxic chlorine gas. Since we can’t trust the security personnel to properly identify drinking water then I’m going to presume that they can’t ID these other chemicals that shouldn’t be mixed together.

So, tonight I did some digging into liquid explosives. What’s out there, what’s the easiest to make, and how easy is it? I have a cursory understanding of how explosives work and a fairly sound grasp on basic chemistry so I wasn’t worried about being able to keep up with technical articles on the subject. Hell, it’s actually a fun topic for me to be looking up. I’m a guy — we did stuff that goes boom.

Apparently a substance known as acetone peroxide is considered the most likely goal of the terrorists in this situation. I say this because it was also the substance used in the July 7th UK tube bombings.

Other fairly common liquid explosives are nitroglycerine and Astrolite.

I think we can rule nitroglycerine right out because it’s too unstable to be transported. It wouldn’t take much to set it off before the plane was even boarded. Further, it’s not exactly easy to manufacture. Certainly not something that one could even attempt in the bathroom of an airliner.

Now, Astrolite is another beast entirely. It seems far simpler to make, consisting of only ammonium nitrate (fertilizer) and hydrazine. While hydrazine is a liquid at room temperature ammonium nitrate most certainly isn’t. Given it’s organic nature ammonium nitrate would show up on an x-ray scan machine used to screen carry-on baggage. As we’ve seen previously the TSA will shut down an airport when they see an organic object under their x-ray machines that they can’t identify; even if it’s just a freaking cookie.

So, we can rule out Astrolite too I think.

Now, back to acetone peroxide. It’s unstable as hell but the ingredients are quite stable until they’re all mixed together. So, you’d stand a decent chance of getting this stuff onto a plane. Sorta. Airport terminals have already been cleared out when nail polish remover (acetone) was smelled. Further, within the past year a plane landed because the crew smelled nail polish remover.

So, good luck playing around with that stuff on a plane and not having anybody notice. Still, let’s suspend belief for a bit here and presume that nobody on the plane in this post 9/11 world would freak right the fuck out at the smell of something odd.

Hydrogen peroxide, the other main ingredient in acetone peroxide is fairly docile. Plenty of folks use it for mouth wash and just like acetone you can buy it at any drug store. Even the stuff that’s 3% pure will work — no need to get all industrial here.

So, how easy is it to make turn these two liquids into an explosive? Let’s take a look:

Before beginning the synthesis procedure, you should put the H₂O₂ [ed: hydrogen peroxide] and 2-Propanone [ed: acetone] in a refrigerator for several hours. This will speed up the procedure.

Hmm. I’m guessing that’s not going to happen on an airplane.

Once the several hours have passed, prepare an ice bath for the glass beaker. Pouring a small amount of water around the beaker with plenty of ice seems to work well, as the cold water will surround the beaker better than the ice alone.

Try asking your next flight attending for a pound of ice on your next flight. I’m guessing that might stand out.

Put the H2O2 into the beaker in the ice bath, and add 60mL chilled 2-Propanone. Measure the temperature of the liquids with a thermometer and wait for it to drop to around 40 °F (4.4 °C).

How the hell are you going to control the temperature of a chemical reaction when you’re in the bathroom of an airplane?

Using a glass eyedropper, slowly add 15mL H₂SO₄ [ed: sulfuric acid. Found in car batteries]. Monitor the temperature closely while adding the H₂SO₄, if the temperature gets around 50 °F (10 °C), quit adding the H₂SO₄. Failure to quit adding the H₂SO₄ when the temperature rises may risk explosion.

Okay, so failure to keep the temp below 50 °F means Ackmed just lost a couple of fingers.

Oh, and what the hell are you going to put sulfuric acid into and sneak it onto a plane? It’d have to be fairly diluted to keep it from eating right through a plastic soda-pop bottle if my memory serves me correctly.

When all of the H₂SO₄ has been added, stir the mixture for about 15 minutes.

Uhm, at this point you would have been in that bathroom an awful long time.

After 15 minutes, place the reaction mixture into a refrigerator for about 24 hours.

Whoa! How long is this flight!?

A white crystalline solid will result. This crystalline mass can then be filtered out with filter paper. When the crystalline mass has been filtered, pour 400mL of water over it to wash the acid residue away. Set the crystalline mass out to dry. The crystalline mass is tricycloacetone peroxide. If you did the reaction above 50 °F (10 °C), you will have the much more unpleasant dicycloacetone peroxide.

Shit. This really turned out to be a bit of work.

Ice, refrigerators, thermometers, sulfuric acid, 24 hours, filtering, drying — all of this in the bathroom of an airplane?

Still sound plausible to you?

Not me.

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