"Hold my beer and watch this" (The Darwin Thread)

[Koolau]

Yeah.

Before moving boat to new covered berth ask marina owner entrance height.

Then measure boat height off water and correct if needed -

Do you remove items from the top of the boat or add ballast to lower the boat in the water?

 

[Gremlin]

All I can say is from reading this thread is that women need to rule the world, stat.

Men, gotta love ‘em. But seriously . . .

 

[Koolau]

All I can say is from reading this thread is that women need to rule the world, stat.

Men, gotta love ‘em. But seriously . . .

Men, being men - Never gonna change us and most Ladies I've talked to either love us FOR it or INSPITE of it. YMMV

 

[Jim Thiewes]

There's a fine line between dumb and stupid.

 

[SATim]

Yup

Living in San Antonio, I'm not even a little surprised

 

[NW-Bound]

All I can say is from reading this thread is that women need to rule the world, stat.

+100

Oooohhh!

 

[NW-Bound]

In 2014, a strange sight occurred in London, when a man was walked on a leash by a woman. Several passerbys took photos and videos of the occurrence.

Just as strange as this happened, pedestrians mostly ignored it as if it were no big deal.

 

[isisdave]

I like to think that women couldn't mess up the world more than we men have.

How many wars have been started by women?

 

[Fermion]

I like to think that women couldn't mess up the world more than we men have.

How many wars have been started by women?

Does Helen of Troy count?

 

[aja8888]

How many wars have been started by women?

OK, how many have been ended?

 

[Global Wizzo]

Florida Man

“Florida Man” seems to be showing up more and more as a contender for the Darwinian Awards maybe even replacing “Bubba”.

There is no end to stupid.

 

[Caskem]

I hope he didn’t breed. Darwin at work.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Ok I have another one for you, watch till the end...

(sorry i only found it on twitter).

What gets me, is this is their own video from their own security cam, so they not only created this debacle, but decided to share it somewhere public.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1544490105636671488

Our next door neighbors for the last 41 years are from Texas, their kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids show up every 4th for a back yard fireworks display that's as good as anything the city puts on. They laugh about the time a skyrocket went astray and detonated right in front of Grandma, fortunately without injury.
We love watching it but marvel at all the things that could go wrong...

 

[marko]

When I was about 12 I learned from a family friend (adult) that you could cut the ends off of strike-anywhere matches and use them as "explosives."

We took a couple of long iron bolts (maybe 6" long by 3/4") and screwed a nut down on one of the bolts. That left a gap we would partially fill with match tips. We then screwed a similar bolt to the other side of the nut. Snugging the two bolts/nut combo over the match tips created a "hand grenade." We would throw the device and upon landing it would explode - typically detaching one of the bolts from the nut. Nice report and a flying

OMG! THANK YOU for bringing back something I've forgotten for 60-65 years! We used to do that as well.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's a firework accident that happened just a few days ago, same as the OP story.

No death, but a guy lost most of his fingers of both hands.

I myself outgrew the interest in firecrackers once I reached 15. I was not even interested in movies with a lot of fires and explosions for special effects.

 

[JoeWras]

Thread drift is always an amazing thing.

 

[Time2]

When I was a kid, we'd make hydrogen balloons by mixing aluminum foil, water and lye in a soda bottle. Once it got cooking, we'd put a balloon over the bottle mouth and the balloon would fill so we could tie it off and release it. But then we thought, what a waste - all that explosive gas and no bang. So, we started attaching firecrackers to the balloon with a long fuse that we made out of heavy string. They were pretty spectacular at night and the long fuse gave us time to look innocent.

My boss purchased some WWll surplus Canisters, I think they had the chemical Calcium Hydride in them, water was added and they produced Hydrogen to fill balloons for servicemen. We opened one and put some in a can with water, then put a 30 gallon garbage bag on it. when it was filled my boss lit it, he lost his eyebrows, but was otherwise OK. Made sure to be farther a way on subsequent "testing". The sound it makes when exploding is a very low frequency boom.
If anyone can find a reference, I would appreciate it, I can't find anything. Here's a picture of the can I have left.

 

[Ronstar]

Lots of things being learned by reading this thread!

 

[Koolau]

OMG! THANK YOU for bringing back something I've forgotten for 60-65 years! We used to do that as well.

Heh, heh, I'm not really proud of it, but I do own it.

 

[Gremlin]

Very true.

And it seems to me that most of the stories on this thread are more a reflection of youth and that inflated sense of immortality the young have and not really stupidity per se. Many are quite creative! (Except for the video of the guy with the firecracker between his bum cheeks)

I still wouldn’t want to be the one that has to clean up the mess or drive the injured to the ER lol.

Women do a lot of stupid things also.

 

[travelover]

My boss purchased some WWll surplus Canisters, I think they had the chemical Calcium Hydride in them, water was added and they produced Hydrogen to fill balloons for servicemen. We opened one and put some in a can with water, then put a 30 gallon garbage bag on it. when it was filled my boss lit it, he lost his eyebrows, but was otherwise OK. Made sure to be farther a way on subsequent "testing". The sound it makes when exploding is a very low frequency boom.
If anyone can find a reference, I would appreciate it, I can't find anything. Here's a picture of the can I have left.

Thanks for reminding me. We used to buy calcium carbide chunks that were used for miner's lamps. We'd put it on the ground, pour water over it and them stomp a tin can into the ground that had a small hole in it, over the calcium carbide. Light that hole and the can would fly 20 feet into the air.
One can buy toy cannons that use this same chemical.

 

[NW-Bound]

Water+calcium carbide produces acetylene (C2H2), and not hydrogen (H2).

This was how welders generated acetylene for their torch. I think they are still doing this in poor countries. Transporting calcium carbide in solid form is easier than acetylene tanks.

C2H2 under some conditions may decompose into H2 and C, with a hot of heat released. Thus, a sealed tank of C2H2 can explode, even without oxygen for combustion.

PS. C2H2 is lighter than air, and is still used to fill balloons in 3rd word countries but not in the US where helium is used for safety. Poor countries have no other choice than C2H2 for balloons, and burns from balloons are not uncommon. It's tough to be poor.

 

[travelover]

Water+calcium carbide produces acetylene (C2H2), and not hydrogen (H2).

This was how welders generated acetylene for their torch. I think they are still doing this in poor countries. Transporting calcium carbide in solid form is easier than acetylene tanks.

........

Yes, it is acetylene. It burns with a very bright white flame. Early cars used headlamps that burned acetylene as did miner's lamps.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's an old acetylene generator, where water is dripped onto calcium carbide rock to make the gas.

 

[braumeister]

We used to buy calcium carbide chunks that were used for miner's lamps.

I used one of those old miner's lamps when I went spelunking in my youth. They were great for the purpose -- produced a very bright flame.