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Home Front: WoT
Times Square bomb could have 'killed thousands,' FBI test shows
2010-07-20
Posted by:ryuge

#10  I had a friend once that was developing a fusion of copper and steel plate for applications in industrial welding. He rented a gravel pit where he buried the copper and steel, cover it with fertilizer and diesel, and ignited it. This was all pre-911.

Needless to say the neighbors grew quickly tired of the noise, to say nothing of the numerous environmental regulations he was breaking,

Useful little product, though.
Posted by: Skunky Glins****   2010-07-20 23:34  

#9  So the fertilizer part of the formula was unobtainable.

If you cannot find AN at your local garden center or Home Depot, any rural farmers supply will carry it. Be prepared to offer your name and address. Usually farm suppliers know their regular customers, so strangers ordering larger quantities will get special attention.
Posted by: Skunky Glins****   2010-07-20 23:21  

#8  Apologies for the excessive 'o's. I got caught up in the heat of the stupid.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2010-07-20 22:49  

#7  So the fertilizer part of the formula was unobtainable.

Only if you're a complete dunce at chemistry, TW.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2010-07-20 22:21  

#6  Thousands? C'mon. It was a good-sized FAE-type bomb. He had about ten gallons of gas, a few bags of fertilizer, and a can of firecrackers. Talk about making something out of nothing. Is someone trying to discredit someone else?

Here's my not-so-professional "Holiday Inn" analysis:

The Oklahoma City bomb was composed of several barrels of fertiizer and diesel in a V-formation aimed at the Federal Building. It took a Ryder truck to carry it, not a Pathfinder. Those two bombs aren't even in the same league.

I can see why it is tempting to assume that the gasoline and fertilizer would be distributed ideally by the initial blast, the the structure of the SUV and any people milling about and any nearby objects would seriously diminish this effect. Only the mixture going upwards would stand a chance of getting any distance, and then it would only pound people from above and give them a good headache, and only at close range.

Was this thing parked in the middle of a concert or something?
Posted by: gorb   2010-07-20 22:13  

#5  Or maybe not thousands. Maybe one or two, nobody knows. Jeez..
Posted by: Mr. Bill   2010-07-20 22:04  

#4  I thought part of the problem was that the various bits weren't connected properly, but that the other problem was that the proper fertilizer had been pulled from the marked some years ago, precisely because a terrorist might use it to make a bomb. (There also was the point about using sparklers instead of cherry bombs or something, but the news articles didn't last Christmas didn't say whether he could have gotten the right fireworks.) So the fertilizer part of the formula was unobtainable.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-07-20 21:42  

#3  Details please. Exactly HOW many people did the FBI create or save?
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-07-20 17:46  

#2   The impact of the explosion would have been felt both "upwards and outward,"

This is why we need FBI experts.
Posted by: phil_b   2010-07-20 17:32  

#1  "It could have opened a vortex to an alternate dimension and doomed us all! Doomed, I say! Doooooooooooomed!"
About 80 'o's deleted -- broke our formatting. AoS.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2010-07-20 16:41  

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