USA! USA!

November 30, 2005 9:08 AM

US-Made Suicide Bombs - These are by US military, law enforcement agencies or commercial security firms - whether for training or marketing or spooking the public
posted by growabrain (20 comments total)

I don't get it?

They also make mock-up IED's for training purposes. Would you prefer personnel train on real ones?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:13 AM on November 30, 2005

What?
posted by loquax at 9:14 AM on November 30, 2005

Gawd, this is OLD.

Wouldn't it be a great idea to hook up our U.S. Suicide Hotlines with a U.S. Military Program for American Suicide Bombers? If you can't talk them out of it, maybe you can talk them into signing up for the military and doing something useful with their suicide. (If by useful you mean murdering more people than yourself).
posted by spock at 9:16 AM on November 30, 2005

Jeez, grow a brain already.
posted by Plutor at 9:27 AM on November 30, 2005

I'm with Pollomacho in that I'm not following the point of the post.
Maybe the point was to foster discussion interesting heavy weapon training devices?
posted by forforf at 9:28 AM on November 30, 2005

Ho hum
posted by delmoi at 9:28 AM on November 30, 2005

Look, the vest has nails and nuts on it. It's obviously an ingenius way of quickly fastening a house together in one shot.
posted by cleverusername at 9:34 AM on November 30, 2005

dont know whether to laugh or cry over the "Safety First" sign in the background....
posted by ShawnString at 9:35 AM on November 30, 2005

cleverusername : "Look, the vest has nails and nuts on it. It's obviously an ingenius way of quickly fastening a house together in one shot."

In earthquake-prone areas where wooden housing is impractical, explosive construction vests are filled with welding torches and 15 foot long steel i-beams.
posted by Bugbread at 9:37 AM on November 30, 2005

I wonder what the profit markup is to make these babies.
There's obviously a demand for them, it's just free-market, baby! Who's the subcontractor for these wingnuts?
posted by Busithoth at 11:41 AM on November 30, 2005

Could this be the new look for 2006?
posted by iamck at 12:06 PM on November 30, 2005

Who's the subcontractor for these wingnuts?

Um, you realize, except for the news photos at the bottom, these are inert mock-ups used for security training, no?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:06 PM on November 30, 2005

In earthquake-prone areas where wooden housing is impractical

Wood is the most flexible element to use on earthquake areas, it perform better and it is lighter construction (less heavy) If you built correctly and triangle (add a diagonal element to joint several vertical members) all the walls, they perform excellent..... NOW!!
if you are building 3 or more story high buildings with wood, that is different because all the vertical members are interrupted at the same horizontal plane (each floor); they slide out from each other and collapse
posted by CRESTA at 12:08 PM on November 30, 2005

that is different because all the vertical members are interrupted at the same horizontal plane (each floor)

What if you staggered the construction? Say you used various size beams, sistered to the above beam for the vertical members on the support wall?
posted by Pollomacho at 12:12 PM on November 30, 2005

Could this be the new look for 2006?

Might get away with it on Halloween ("I'm going as a Suicide Bomber"). Then again, you might be shot on sight. Don't recommend trying to board the London Tube wearing one, or going near any airport terminals.
posted by spock at 12:35 PM on November 30, 2005

Double post
posted by cillit bang at 12:40 PM on November 30, 2005

if you are building 3 or more story high buildings with wood, that is different because all the vertical members are interrupted at the same horizontal plane (each floor); they slide out from each other and collapse

Take that idea and apply it to the foundation and you have an earthquake resistant building. Remember, the earth moves, the building shakes because it's attached to the earth... give the building multidirectional "shocks".
posted by cleverusername at 12:49 PM on November 30, 2005

Cresta: Thanks, that was pretty informative.
posted by Bugbread at 12:53 PM on November 30, 2005

Except, on reflection, it would be hard to build an explosive wooden house construction vest, because, hey, what's to guarantee that the diagonal element will actually be thrown diagonally.

No, loading your explosive construction vest with welding tools and steel beams seems safer, from a probabilistic viewpoint. I'll leave wooden house construction to people using old-fashioned, non-explosive construction methods.
posted by Bugbread at 1:28 PM on November 30, 2005

Do terrorists frequently wear Bass Pro Shops hats? I think the law enforcement agencies should start profiling on the basis of this information.
posted by batou_ at 4:31 PM on November 30, 2005