Terminology

[jhetley]

I'd like The Authorities to be a little more specific than waving around the phrase "bomb components" when talking about Vast Secret Conspiracies.

I have "bomb components" in my house. So do you. A cell phone is a bomb component. Just about any kind of timer is a bomb component. Flashlight batteries are bomb components. Gasoline is a bomb component. Lawn fertilizer is a bomb component. Household ammonia cleanser and chlorine bleach are binary poison gas components...

Comments

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

I was reading an article on how chemistry sets for children are no fun anymore, because one cannot make something that will blow up from them. This made me *headdesk*. I'm a chemical engineer. I know exactly how easy it is to make something that will blow up quite well from no more than the contents of the usual kitchen.

No, I'm not going to offer even one detail. Someone out there would be foolish enough to try it, and that fool might manage to kill some innocent family member, nearby apartment denizen, passerby, or rescue worker. I'd suggest removing your reference to ammonia and chlorine, only those can be accidentally mixed to the detriment of the poor lady just trying to clean her toilet.

But yes, the language being thrown around is nothing but propogandistic hyberbole, as far as I can discern.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

>I'd suggest removing your reference to ammonia and chlorine...

I think of it as sorta a public service announcement. As you went on to say, people have died through that particular bit of ignorance.

As for kiddie chem sets, my friends and I used to make black gunpowder from scratch. Formula out of any encyclopedia. I still have all my fingers and both eyes.

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

I heard about a repair to a piece of laboratory equipment that replaced oxygen bubbling through glycerin with a spare bottle of nitrogen.

Though black powder in the hands of kids would worry me some, it is the bad combinations done by people unaware of the hazards that worries me far more.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I had a set of remarkably tolerant parents.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Common household sugar can be a "bomb component." Just like the mere possession of large amounts of cash is evidence of drug crime.