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Tag: bomb

  • Dan Bilzerian Arrested For Attempting To Make a Bomb

    Dan Bilzerian, the social media celebrity who’s known as “The King of Instagram”, was arrested on December 9 after landing at LAX. According to the LAPD, Bilzerian was picked up on an out-of-state warrant which was issued in Clark County, Nevada. He is facing charges of possessing and manufacturing explosive illegal devices. On November 13, a criminal complaint was filed accusing him of possessing ammonium and aluminum powder as well an ammonium nitrate mix. When the three ingredients are mixed together, it could result in a bomb that acts like pure TNT.

    Bilzerian was initially held without bail, but was eventually released. According to the LA Times, Bilzerian’s attorney was able to get the arrest warrant recalled through the Nevada state courts system. Due to the fact that Bilzerian is facing charges in Nevada and not California, the police couldn’t keep him locked up behind bars. Bilzerian was charged alongside Jeremy David Guymon in the case and the two are expected to appear in a Las Vegas court on January 9 for their arraignment.

    Shopping for winter accessories… Gun by: Kriss, Jacket by: who gives a fuck

    A photo posted by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on

     

    In an attempt to appear more sophisticated, I rented this suit for the day

    A photo posted by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on

    While Bilzerian is free for now, his legal troubles are far from over. A lawsuit was filed against Bilzerian by Vanessa Castano, who claims that he kicked her in the face while wearing military boots. The incident happened while the social media star was onstage at a Miami nightclub called LIV. According to reports, Bilzerian kicked Castano because she was blocking him as he was trying to help another woman get on the stage.

    Dan Bilzerian made a name for himself after amassing more than 5.7 million followers on the social networking site, Instagram. He’s been known to document his lavish lifestyle, with his Instagram account containing countless pictures of scantily clad models, an arsenal of weapons, as well as his collection of yachts and an assortment of vehicles.

    I’m no lawyer, but I think she’s legally mine…

    A photo posted by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on

     

    Networking at #ComicCon

    A photo posted by Dan Bilzerian (@danbilzerian) on

  • Tennessee Bombing: Man Murders In-Laws

    Tennessee Bombing: Man Murders In-Laws

    In a tragic twist, law enforcement has determined that the culprit behind the murder of a Tennessee couple may actually have been their own son-in-law.

    CNN reports that an investigation by police resulted in the arrest of 49-year-old Richard Parker. Parker has been charged with two counts of felony first-degree murder and two counts of felony premeditated murder.

    The victims were 74-year-old Jon Setzer and his 72-year-old wife Marion Setzer. The retired lawyer was killed on Monday when the package bomb that Parker is alleged to have created detonated just inside the Lebanon home he shared with his wife. Setzer did not survive the blast, but his wife Marion was rushed to Vanderbilt Hospital. She died Wednesday evening.

    According to Wilson County Sheriff Robert Bryan, Parker lived next door to his in-laws. Bryan stated that Parker was the sole suspect, however nothing was revealed regarding a possible motive or even what evidence led investigators to suspect him in the first place.

    Officials did reveal that a note was found among the debris that may have been connected to the bomb. The contents of the note and whether or not it matched Parker’s own handwriting has not yet been determined.

    Bryan did say of of the case that, “right now we feel like we have the person responsible for committing this crime in custody.”

    Those who knew the victims are still struggling with feelings of shock and disbelief over the murder.

    Ken Caldwell, a friend of the family couldn’t understand how the bombing was “targeted” as investigators believe. While speaking with WTVF about the murder Caldwell said, “When I’ve heard it said that it was targeted, I thought, well, they must have targeted the wrong person.”

    The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation revealed that Parker was convicted of arson in 1993. He served four years on probation.

    TBI director Mark Gwyn says Parker is being held on a $1 million bond.

    Image via Youtube

  • Underwear Bomber Appeal Denied; Court Says Claims Have No Merit

    On Monday a federal appeals court upheld the life sentence of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (aka “underwear bomber”) for trying to blow up a plane headed for Detroit with a bomb hidden in his underwear on Christmas Day, 2009. He had filed an appeal asking for review of the sentence.

    Just one day after his trial began, in October 2011 Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to eight counts. Abdulmutallab, who is Nigerian, seemingly took great pride in his suicide mission, calling it a “religious duty” aimed at avenging American attacks against his faith. Yet, he argued in his appeal application that the life sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. He challenged a number of decisions by U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds such as failing to order for medical examinations and allowing him to defend himself despite doubts about his competence.

    The appeals court rejected all the defendant’s arguments and challenges against the sentence, saying “none of these claims have merit.” The court said, contrary to Abdulmutallab’s claims, the trial judge had warned him of the consequences of not being represented by an attorney but the now 27-year-old terrorist insisted on representing himself at the time.

    Abdulmutallab, whom the court described as an “educated and adept individual” was trained in Yemen by a radical cleric called Anwar al-Awlaki. Abdulmutallab hid a bomb in his underwear aboard a plane headed to Detroit from Amsterdam. The plane had 281 passengers and a crew of 11 aboard.

    The court ruled that the life sentence was adequate considering the gravity of the crime and the fact that Abdulmutallab deliberately knew what he was doing.

    “These actions show the deliberate, conscious, and complicated path Abdulmutallab chose to pursue in the name of martyrdom.”  The three-judge bench argued that these actions clearly indicated the exact opposite of “incompetence.”

    The 281 passengers on Northwest Airlines flight 253 were lucky. They are alive today because Abdulmutallab’s bomb failed to explode.

    Image via Wikipedia

  • What Is It Like To Defuse A Bomb?

    You’ve seen the movies where the focused combat veteran or nervous rookie cop clenches a pair of wire cutters and is fixated on snipping either the blue or red wire. According to TV Tropes, the bomb defusing concept is known as the wire dilemma, where in “fiction-land, disarming just about any bomb is a matter of cutting the right wires in the right order,” usually given by distinct colors. Snip the wrong wire, and its game over – but what is it really like to disarm a bomb?

    Noam Kaiser, a Combat Officer in the Israeli Defense Force of five years, had this to say to Quora.com:

    “Well…:) First of all, you are not alone. You’re backed up by an adjacent medical team, and a team mate which is meant to ensure there are no interferences such as wind, sun light blocking eye sight, sand pouring in and so on. It is carried out very slowly, with precision (Not surgical, but very precise) and with a careful, delicate touch.”

    Kaiser said that keeping such a chaotic weapon under control requires the environment to be handled without any interference of the defusing process.
    “As much silence as possible is required. [Yet this is] not always possible.”

    (image)

    With no surprise, movies don’t provide an accurate portrayal of how a bomb is defused – it’s more of a long and meticulous process with no quick impulses.

    “I agree it is nothing like the movies. For a bystander it would look like a slow, tedious and boring process. It sure doesn’t look like it when you’re the guy crouching over the bomb.

    Sean Sandeen, the second top rated answerer on Quora concerning what it was like to defuse a bomb, added that, “It is nothing like the movies. There is no blue wire to single out and cut. You have to understand the entire firing system and know how best to disrupt it. You have to account for the possibility of a detonation no matter how confident you are in your procedures.”

    “In real life it isn’t the big things that are scary. If a large device detonates in your face, you won’t even feel it. The scary things are the smaller ones, the things that take a hand or a leg; you’ll feel that.”

    Military fields like the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) keep their render safe procedures (RSP) secret in order to deprive intelligence to their enemies; if such knowledge is in the wrong hands, then opponents may develop new anti-handling techniques which make bombs harder to defuse.

    “Once finished though, a good cigarette is required. Even if you’re a non-smoker,” said Kaiser.

    (Images via WikiCommons, TV tropes)

  • Dry Ice Explosions: Arrest Made in LAX Ice Bomb Case

    Police have made an arrest in the dry ice explosion that caused a Los Angeles airport terminal to be shut down briefly. The dry ice bomb blast occurred Sunday night and other devices were later found. An LAX employee has been arrested in connection with the bombs.

    All ice bomb devices were found in restricted areas, which made officials believe that an airport worker was behind the blast. The hunch paid off, as it led to the arrest of 28-year-old Dicarlo Bennett, a Los Angeles International Airport employee, on Tuesday. According to the Facebook profile for Bennett, he was a former ramp supervisor for Servisair at LAX.

    “Police can confirm the arrest of a single suspect related to the two dry-ice incidents at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX),” Los Angeles Airport Police Chief Patrick Gannon said Tuesday night. Bennett is currently being held on a $1 million bail. So far no other employees have been arrested in the case.

    While some people were quick to assume that the dry ice bomb was an act of terrorism, LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing says that Bennett is a “prankster.” “He thought it was funny,” Downing said. “There is no terrorism here. This is one man involved who made very poor choices. There is nothing funny about what he did.”

    LAPD Chief Charlie Beck is in agreement and says it doesn’t matter what Bennett’s intentions were. “Whether you think this is a harmless prank or a way to disrupt operations at the airport, it won’t matter,” Beck said. “You will go to jail.”

    Bennett allegedly made the bombs by taking dry ice from a plane and placing the ice inside a plastic bottle. The dry ice explosion occurred in an employee restroom on Sunday night. Two other dry ice bombs were found on Sunday and Monday night, and neither exploded. No injuries were reported as a result of the dry ice bomb explosion, but in addition to the terminal being closed briefly, some flights were suspended until the LAPD bomb squad cleared the area.

    Watch the video below to see what a dry ice bomb looks like.

    Image via YouTube

  • Dry Ice Bombs Found In Restricted Areas In LAX

    The LAX airport in Los Angeles was wracked from Sunday on by a series of dry ice bombs, which were placed in restricted areas throughout the airport. There were four bombs total, two of which eventually exploded. No injuries have been reported, and the airport claimed that most airport activities have continued relatively normally throughout the investigation.

    The first bomb exploded on Sunday evening in a restroom near Terminal 2, which an employee investigated after hearing the explosion. The employee entered the restroom and discovered the plastic bottle that had contained the dry ice. No injuries or damage were done, but the fact that the restroom was in a restricted area, unavailable to the public, is rather alarming. The second explosion occurred on Monday evening, in a restricted area also only available to employees, found near the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Two other bombs have been found in a non-exploded state.

    No suspects have been apprehended, yet, but the guilty party, when and if they are found, could be tried in either federal or state court, depending on the circumstances surrounding the reasons for the bombs. Though most operations have continued as normal in the airport, some security has been upped in light of the explosions, particularly around restricted areas. Security officials also reminded airport employees to keep their eyes open and “if you see something, say something,” words that any airport familiar will immediately recognize.

    Feliciano Jiron, a passenger interviewed before the second explosion, had this to say about the strange circumstances surronding the bombs: “Given the times we live in, it’s a bit interesting that something like this would happen, even with all the security and all the efforts that people are putting forward.” In a similar vein, LAPD detective Gus Villanueva went on to say, “Apparently there is no nexus to terrorism right now.”

    Despite the terrifying implications of dry ice bombs being found in restricted areas in a very busy airport, the fact that nobody was hurt makes this story, ultimately, a good one. It will be even better, however, once the mystery is solved and the culprit handed over to the appropriate authorities.

    [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

  • Atom Bomb Almost Detonated Over NC in 1961

    According to a newly declassified document published on Saturday, two hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina in 1961. The incident occurred when a B-52 bomber carrying the weapons ripped in half mid-flight on January 23, during the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

    One of the bombs began to detonate, but was held together by a single switch – after three other safety mechanisms failed. U.S. government scientist Parker F. Jones wrote a document on the incident in 1969, saying that a detonation would’ve been “bad news in spades.” The document was uncovered by investigative reporter Eric Schlosser under a freedom of information legislation.

    The almost-detonated bomb is said to have been roughly 260 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945. Schlosser states that “the US government has consistently tried to withhold information from the American people in order to prevent questions being asked about our nuclear weapons policy. We were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating, yet here’s one that very nearly did.” Jones jokingly entitled his 1969 report, “Goldsboro Revisited, or: How I Learned To Mistrust the H-Bomb,” a play on Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 nuclear holocaust comedy “Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

    When the U.S. military dropped the atom bomb called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, some 80,000 residents were directly killed. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000–140,000. Roughly 69% of the city’s structures were completely destroyed, and another 7% were severely damaged. The bomb in the report would’ve essentially leveled the area around Goldsboro, which has a present population of 113,000. And, how an incident like that would’ve played out during the Cold War is hard to imagine.

    Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

  • Kendra McKenzie Gill: Bombshell or Bomber?

    Kendra McKenzie Gill, a beauty queen from Utah, has been booked on suspicion of throwing homemade bombs out of a car in what one writer has referred to as the case of “beauty and the bombs.”

    To be fair, it’s not as much of a national security issue as it might sound. Gill, recently crowned Miss Riverton, Utah, is accused of detonating incendiary devices after being arrested on Saturday. She and three friends have apparently admitted to buying plastic bottles, aluminum foil, and household chemicals and using these ingredients to concoct rudimentary bombs that they threw into residential yards. Nine incidents were reported, though nobody was reported injured.

    The others arrested were John Patrick Reagh, Shanna Marie Smith, and Bryce Christopher Stone. Stone reportedly told police that the four of them had been “pranking.”

    Gill had won a $2,000 scholarship at the June 8 Miss Riverton competition and was set to compete in the next Miss Utah pageant in October. Riverton is a town of approximately 40,000 people, 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.

    While the nature of the devices is unclear, the fact that the group reportedly purchased aluminum foil suggests that they were so-called “works” bombs, made from combining drain cleaner and foil in a plastic bottle. A chemical reaction created by the drain cleaner and foil results in a build-up of gas that causes the plastic bottle to explode.

    A warning from the Washtenaw County Sheriff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, notes that “works bombs” are dangerous and can result in “second- or third-degree burns or blindness.” On June 6, 2009, KCTV in Kansas City, Kansas, reported that such a device exploded in a mailbox, blowing it from its base.

    Though the bombs are powerful and easy to make, authorities caution that they are dangerous, especially insofar as they can potentially sit dormant for some time, injuring unsuspecting passers-by or curious kids/pets when they eventually do explode.

  • Woman Spooks Apple Store With Mysterious Device

    Apple Store employees in Boca Raton, Florida, got quite a scare this week. A woman walked in and showed an employee a device strapped to her chest, told them not to call police, then ran out of the store.

    According to the Boca Raton Police Department, police officers responded to the Apple Store at Town Center Mall in Boca shortly after 2:30 pm, Tuesday, July 9 after a store employee called and said a woman he confronted in the back area of the store claimed she was in trouble.

    In-store security video shows the woman walk into the store and go directly to the rear, where she attempted to enter the men’s restroom. After an employee told her it was the wrong restroom, she apologized and then entered the women’s restroom.

    After about 20 seconds, she exited the restroom, walked around the store and entered a second door leading to a back storage area. When confronted by a store employee again, the woman unzipped her hoodie and displayed a small black object attached to her chest by a strap. The woman asked for help, but also asked the witness to not call police or she would be harmed. The woman then exited the store.

    Mall security video shows the woman entering the mall from the loading dock/service entrance near a mall restaurant. She can later be seen leaving the same service exit and running through the parking lot.

    Multiple officers responded to the area, but the female was already gone. Eyewitness accounts describe and surveillance video from the Apple Store show a tall woman, possibly Hispanic, wearing a LSW red hoodie, red hat and black leggings. There was a gray graphic design on the front of the hoodie. The woman also appeared to be wearing some type of audio earpiece.

    No arrests have been made.

  • Pink Fan Arrested for ‘Bomb’ Tweet Before Concert, Turns Out to Be Song Reference

    Be careful what you tweet – you know, that 140-character limit oftentimes forces you to get creative. Just make sure that you double check your tweets to make sure they couldn’t be construed to mean something that you didn’t intend.

    Basically, try to avoid tweeting the words “bomb” and “blow up” right before you’re set to attend a giant concert. That oughta help you out.

    One Australian teen learned this the hard way, as he was arrested and booted from a Pink concert after authorities were alerted to a suspicious tweet he had made prior to the show.

    Here’s that tweet, which has since been deleted:

    (image)

    “‘They just came up to me and showed a photo and said ‘is this you?’. I said yeah, because it was my face, and suddenly they just turned me around and grabbed my hands and forced me out the back,” the boy told the Sydney Morning Herald.

    But apparently, it was all just one big misunderstanding. You see, the tweet was really just a reference to the Pink song “Timebomb.”

    “It was meant to be about drop the effects, the music, everything – just drop it all,” said the kid.

    He says he just shortened the “Timebomb” reference to “bomb.”

    Over aggressive action from the local authorities? Maybe. Then again, the kid did say that he had a bomb ready and that he was going to blow up Rod Laver Arena.

    Should’ve seen that one coming, my friend. Let’s spread the blame around. In the future, refrain from tweeting about blowing up concert venues. Also, police should just listen to more Pink. Those two actions should prevent this from happening again.

  • Princeton Threat: Bomb Scare Shuts Down Campus

    Princeton Threat: Bomb Scare Shuts Down Campus

    A bomb scare at Princeton University today has shut down the school’s New Jersey campus.

    Princeton sent out a message via email and social networks at around 10:30 am EDT Tuesday morning. The message stated that there has been a bomb threat against “unspecified campus buildings” and that everyone, students and faculty, is to evacuate the school’s campus and the university’s offices.

    The university’s most up-to-date announcement, via the Princeton University website:

    There has been a bomb threat to multiple unspecified campus buildings. Please evacuate the campus and all University offices immediately and go home unless otherwise directed by your supervisor. Public Safety officers and Princeton Police will direct drivers leaving the campus and those without cars will be directed to evacuation sites. You will receive an update later today. Do not return to campus for any reason until advised otherwise.

    Princeton Police have been directing traffic out of the campus, though the roads around campus are reportedly crowded. People were first directed to go home, but are now being told that Nassau Inn, Princeton Public Library, and the Princeton Arts Council building are designated as safe evacuation locations. Police are advising drivers in Princeton to avoid the downtown area:

    Luckily, regular spring semester classes at Princeton have ended, and commencement was one week ago. Most students have already left the campus.

    (Image courtesy Cocoloco/Wikimedia Commons)

  • Nathan Safferstein Dies; Manhattan Project Worker was 92

    The Associated Press is reporting that Nathan Safferstein, a counterintelligence agent for the Manhattan Project, has died.

    Safferstein’s family told the AP that he died Tuesday, March 5 at his home in the Bronx. He had been suffering from an unnamed illness for some time.

    As part of the program centered around creating the atomic bomb, Safferstein was trusted with some of the Manhattan Projects’ most precious secrets. The AP report states that Safferstein eavesdropped on Los Alamos laboratory scientists to ensure they weren’t leaking secrets about the program. He was also tasked with transporting sensitive material, such as uranium and top-secret messages.

    Safferstein was reportedly a grocery store manager before being recruited into the Manhattan Project and stationed at Los Alamos. He followed the project all the way to the Pacific theater, where he was able to sign his initials to the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. After the war, Safferstein returned to grocery store work. He went on to become president of a marketing company and later founded two companies.

    (Image courtesy Michael Safferstein/AP)

  • Airport Dynamite Joke Blows Up in Man’s Face

    According to an Associated Press report, 63-year-old Alejandro Hurtado’s off-hand remark at an airport this week caused the partial evacuation of a concourse at Miami International Airport.

    According to the report, Hurtado, a doctor from Guatemala, joked, “dynamite” when asked by a TACA Airlines ticket agent the standard question of if his bags contained any hazardous materials. According to a local NBC affiliate’s report, the agent actually gave Hurtado a chance to recant his statement by asking the question again, but Hurtado doubled-down on his dynamite joke and began laughing. As policy no doubt dictated, the agent took the threat seriously and called police while Hurtado tried to explain, too late, that his remark was only a joke.

    The concourse was cleared, the bomb squad was called, and Hurtado’s bag was searched. No explosives were found, but everyone’s time was wasted. The AP reports that Hurtado’s sophisticated sense of humor caused one outgoing flight and the landing of several international flights to be delayed.

    Hurtado was, predictably, taken into custody by police. He has been charged with “falsely reporting a bomb at an airport,” as an example and warning that U.S. airports are humor-free zones.

  • Rush Limbaugh Has A Bomb Scare

    Rush Limbaugh Has A Bomb Scare

    Rush Limbaugh has always been a controversial figure. From his beginnings as a radio talk show host at KFBK 1530 in Sacramento, to the nationally syndicated show he has now, Limbaugh has been a conservative figurehead in the United States since the late 80’s. Because he is a very controversial figure, he tends to have crosshairs on him from left wing activists who think he is dangerous. So when people hear that Rush Limbaugh has a bomb scare, they no longer think twice, whether due to their hatred or that they are desensitized because they feel like it happens all too often.

    The suspicious package was delivered on Thursday at around 430 PM and staffers who weren’t expecting a package moved it to the guest house to x-ray it with their mobile machine. Staffers didn’t know what it was, but thought it had the potential to be dangerous. “Some type of a plaque that was electronic in nature. Something to do with the assassination of President Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth,” Palm Beach Police Department Spokesperson Fred Hess said.

    Police were able to find out the package was sent from Wexford, Pennsylvania and they were able to contact the person who sent the package who then apologized for sending something that could be construed as being dangerous. After about 3 hours the Palm Beach Police Department gave the ‘all clear’ to the staff at the house and things went back to normal. Limbaugh, through his staff, thanked emergency crews for their prompt response and called the incident a “non-event.”