They were in the stairwell that led down to the commode, a dangerous place in its time, the Grand Central Station Men’s, but for different reasons. I saw the dirt tracks leading there, and I left the monkeys in the chandelier and followed them. I kept to the tracks careful as I could. There were pits and corrugations everywhere in the old tile, any one of which could hide a man killing gob of explosive. At my back I heard Spot complain: “Leave ‘em be, Blacks. We’ve warned ‘em, ain’t we? If they blow themselves up, it ain’t on us.”
UXO, BOMB DOG by Eliot Fintushel (single-link short fiction)
posted by grobstein
on Jun 15, 2009 -
15 comments
Japanese Balloon Bombs — "In 1944, during World War II, Japan launched a top secret project, nearly two years in the making, to send thousands of "balloon bombs" (called Fu-Go Weapons) to the United States. The goal of the attack was to create panic, forest fires, and show the United States that it could be attacked from afar. Each of the more than 9,000 balloon bombs launched towards the United States, over the course of several months, carried a 15 kilogram bomb that would detach from the balloon and explode on impact with the ground."
On a Wind and a Prayer.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on May 2, 2009 -
39 comments
Why He Went Nuclear. Before he was the infamous father of the "Islamic bomb," A.Q. Khan was just another midlevel scientist working at a research job in Amsterdam. Here, the story of how he betrayed his employer and set out to create a worldwide bazaar in lethal weapons.
posted by chunking express
on Nov 20, 2007 -
19 comments
Huge gently floating bombs made their way across the pacific below
balloons using the high altitude jet streams floated to the Americas during WWII. Kept secret for most of the war, you can read about their amazing history
here.
posted by lee
on May 6, 2007 -
37 comments
The folks down at the
Pakistan Ordnance Factory [youtube: 6'40] would like to show you how they make some of their machine guns, mortar bombs (in a surprising range of bright, cheerful colors), tank and anti-tank ammo
("capable of defeating the toughest armor in the battlefield!"), aircraft and anti-aircraft ammunition, and so much more.
"P.O.F. products are in service with over 40 countries around the globe, with an ever-expanding market!"
posted by flapjax at midnite
on May 4, 2007 -
17 comments
The Bookseller's Story, Ending Much Too Soon. Anthony Shadid of the
Washington Post writes about Mohammed Hayawi, "a bald bear of a man," who ran the Renaissance Bookstore on "Baghdad's storied Mutanabi Street." Back in 2005, Phillip Robertson wrote a
Salon article about Al Mutanabbi Street, "Baghdad's legendary literary cafe, the Shabandar, " and Hajji Qais Anni's stationery store: "Hajji Qais had been on Al Mutanabbi street for 10 years and the vendors all knew him... He wore a beard and was also known as a devout Sunni who had no problem hiring Shia workers or spending time with Christian colleagues." Both Hayawi and Hajji Qais were killed by bombs, the cafe has been gutted, and the street that "embodied a generation-old saying: Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, Baghdad reads" is no longer its old self. "When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, it was said that the Tigris River ran red one day, black another. The red came from the blood of nameless victims, massacred by ferocious horsemen. The black came from the ink of countless books from libraries and universities. Last Monday, the bomb on Mutanabi Street detonated at 11:40 a.m. The pavement was smeared with blood. Fires that ensued sent up columns of dark smoke, fed by the plethora of paper." Two views of a part of Baghdad that doesn't make the news much.
posted by languagehat
on Mar 13, 2007 -
42 comments
9306 Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles & Similar Munitions of War now available at the Ukraine outlet mall (free samples too!). Apparently it's just a click away to get just about
any type of explosive you could imagine too.
posted by Guerilla
on Dec 8, 2005 -
15 comments
French police on Sunday ended their practice of hiding plastic explosives in air passengers' luggage to train bomb-sniffing dogs after one such bag got lost, possibly ending up on a flight out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.
WTF were they thinking? Isn't there a better way to train the dogs without making innocent people unwittingly carry plastique?
posted by Vidiot
on Dec 5, 2004 -
34 comments
Advanced methods of bomb detection and investigation.
New equipment developed to scan cars and people, such as a parking lot device which
quickly bathes the car's trunk in invisible neutrons, a procedure that makes materials inside the trunk emit gamma-rays that would indicate the presence of explosives.
Also,
a bomb disposal robot which take[s] fingerprints before blowing [a] package up.
posted by mcgraw
on May 3, 2004 -
17 comments
With the trial of the bali bombers underway, a
bomb has been exploded in the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta's CBD. Deaths have been reported here on Australian TV at 13, with over 120 injured, although these figures are expected to rise. The
BBC is reporting on the experiences of those at the scene.
posted by dg
on Aug 5, 2003 -
46 comments
Young-hae Chang's latest, Operation Nukorea, is shattering, unflinching, and beautifully executed. It's a little tale about consequences, and what happens downstream from decisions not sufficiently considered.
It probably would have brought tears to my eyes even if I did not have family in Seoul. Watch it through to the end.
posted by adamgreenfield
on Apr 18, 2003 -
56 comments
MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast), privately known in military circles as "the mother of all bombs," carries 18,000 pounds of tritonal explosives. It replaces the Vietnam-era
"Daisy Cutter" a 12,600-pound bomb. It was tested in public for the first time today in Eglin Air Force base, Florida as PR to
send Iraq a message (plus video). It is the largest conventional bomb in existence.
posted by stbalbach
on Mar 11, 2003 -
49 comments
When was the last time we bombed Iraq? 1991? 1992? How about
4 days ago. And again six days before that to name just a few.
The US Bombing Watch page keeps detailed tabs on all bombing attacks by allied forces since March 9, 2000, but the bombing has continued since the end of the Gulf War [via
rc3.org].
posted by mathowie
on Sep 19, 2002 -
81 comments
You Call That Evidence? Op-Ed from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists about the so-called evidence for the administration's claim that Iraq is "moving very near a nuclear weapon capability." Too bad something that at least seems to be approaching the truth will have nothing to do with whether we go to war or not.
posted by elgoose
on Sep 11, 2002 -
51 comments
It is not a crime to look at bomb-making websites... or so says Lieutenant Jason Ciaschini, police spokesman in Punta Gorda, where a Briton who was using a computer to look at bomb-making websites is now being held at Charlotte County Jail on immigration violations.
Florida police had evacuated the library and arrested him after he looked at bomb-making websites, and found suspicious liquids in his backpack.
"
Looking up stuff on the Internet - everybody has freedom to do that," he also said.
posted by Blake
on Jul 30, 2002 -
6 comments
Nuking Lincoln (via www.dailygrail.com). Thaddeus McMullen, 1864.
"I showed McMullen’s writings to physicists familiar with nuclear fission and they were stunned," Remarsh states. "His bomb was crude, with maybe a tenth of the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but it would have worked.
Maybe. I suspect this is a hoax, but it's interesting enough to post it anyway. Now whether the Confederates could have refined the uranium to make the bomb out of is another question. Any physicists care to express an opinion?
posted by aeschenkarnos
on Jul 5, 2002 -
28 comments
Angering Arabs for Dummies, By Ariel Sharon. "Israel will respond to acts of terror by capturing PA territory," says Sharon. How, exactly, will this stop the bombings?
Sorry for the I/P post, but this seems fairly important.
posted by fnord_prefect
on Jun 18, 2002 -
34 comments
Remember how some of us joked that the mailbox bomber was placing his bombs in a smiley face pattern? Well,
we were right.
posted by Reggie452
on May 9, 2002 -
9 comments
Mailbox bomb found in Colorado: " 'Initial description of the device indicates that its construction is consistent with those found recently in Nebraska and Iowa,' said a press release from the Denver Federal Bureau of Investigation." The boxbomber (that's what I named this person) is most likely heading out west... could the next one strike in California? Where do
you think the boxbomber will strike next?
posted by Kevin Sanders
on May 6, 2002 -
32 comments
Mailbox bomber at large. "More than a half-dozen pipe bombs were placed in rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa on Friday, and at least two people were injured in explosions, the post office said." Part of the note that accompanied the bomb said "PS. More info. will be delivered to various locations around the country." If you live in the midwest, be careful.
posted by Kevin Sanders
on May 3, 2002 -
19 comments
Anyone else find reports on
civilian casualties and the "bomb that went astray"? I've only heard one other corresponding report, on NPR, about a cave full of explosives that detonated for over three hours, killing hundreds. Nothing up front on Cnn.com except this bit of
titillation I've just now discovered, and for which I have no words.
posted by mirla
on Oct 14, 2001 -
41 comments
Is Terrorists For Nukes the 2001 version of Arms For Hostages? President Bush has lifted the sanctions on India and Pakistan imposed by the U.S. in 1998 to protest their "tit-for-tat" nuclear tests. In a memorandum just released by the White House, he states that keeping those sanctions in place "would not be in the national security interests of the United States".
Is this an acceptable exchange? Just how far should the U.S. go in appeasing Pakistan, not to mention further fuelling its already explosive confrontation with India?
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 23, 2001 -
8 comments
More NMD to make you nervous. If you're in an area about to be vapourised then you are safe. If you live anywhere else you are not. I live about half a blast radius away from
one of the radar stations in the UK (it doesn't look like that picture anymore - some of the golfballs are now pyramids). From direct assault I maybe won't be hit but the bombs falling out of the sky on their way from Iraq to New York are pretty much going to land on my head. Cool.
posted by vbfg
on Sep 3, 2001 -
8 comments
