Set the charges, and stand well back. No cell phones, please. This is very dangerous work, but it's been a long week for you, hasn't it? You deserve to spend your day working in Demolition City.
posted by Eideteker on Aug 7, 2009 - 39 comments

Things that go boom and flash and make pretty colors. DIY fireworks. From the the relatively benign Roman Candle to the fifty foot tall Cremora Fireball. (via Neatorama) previous explosive goodies: Pyroboy, Crump and pyro page
posted by caddis on Mar 18, 2009 - 8 comments

Long revered for its value as a fertilizer, and as a raw material for explosives, guano is the dried droppings of various birds and bats. The New York Times has published an excellent account of the Peruvian harvest of this valuable resource including a multimedia slideshow. Guano was superseded by synthetics in the early part of the 20th century, due to the development of the Haber Bosch process, which fixed atmospheric nitrogen. An attempt to harvest bat guano from a Grand Canyon cave in the late 1950’s was beset by technical problems and was ultimately unsuccessful. The remaining structures at the canyon rim are now a tourist attraction.
posted by Tube on Jun 7, 2008 - 13 comments

Kill people AND save the environment!
posted by gman on May 27, 2008 - 50 comments

[ConspiracyFilter] Was the alleged "binary liquid explosives" plot actually plausible, in the sense of being capable of producing "mass murder on an unimaginable scale?"
posted by ijoshua on Aug 17, 2006 - 138 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

The country music of the atom bomb. Via 3 Quarks Daily
posted by Tlogmer on Mar 16, 2005 - 12 comments

Iraq says 'impossible' explosives taken before regime fall Bush: wrong before. Wrong again..."A top Iraqi science official said it was impossible that 350 tonnes of high explosives could have been smuggled out of a military site south of Baghdad before the regime fell last year...."
posted by Postroad on Oct 27, 2004 - 42 comments

The Coalition's lack of preparation left 380 tons of high explosives unprotected in Iraq. Now it looks like the DoD tried to cover it up. Where is your surprise now? (first one is NYT)
posted by jmgorman on Oct 24, 2004 - 66 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

model rocketry woes. the article mentions a wyoming senator who wants to amend the bill, but the homeland security act is/would put the squeeze on model rocketry, as the fuel of some engines will/would be classified as an explosive. whoa. wonder if the NHRA is gonna follow this. hate to see 'em stop the top fuelers.
posted by asparagus_berlin on Feb 26, 2003 - 7 comments

The president of a counterterrorism consulting firm has been charged with possessing 2,352 unregistered small military missiles. Investigators also found 4,000 pounds of explosives at High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), an anti-terrorism and police training company that was conducting classes for students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. More....
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood on Aug 18, 2002 - 13 comments

Reid (shoe bomber) used Web top buy explosives Or so he has claimed. Who said the Web does not have its important uses? Should such purchases be allowed" Is there now a need for disallowing some items on the Net?
posted by Postroad on Dec 28, 2001 - 18 comments