Have we completely lost the ability to think in this country? This may be a chemistry class and learning about explosives might be a reasonable thing to teach, but come on.
College prof gives explosives to class
Police were seeking “homemade dynamite things” distributed to University of Nebraska-Lincoln students by their chemistry professor.
Associate Professor John A. Belot handed out the explosives, about the size of a roll of quarters, to his Chemistry 110 students as they filed out of the classroom Friday, the Lincoln (Neb.) Star reported Monday.
A student who asked to remain anonymous told the newspaper Belot called the explosives “homemade dynamite things or something,” which he held in a brown lunch bag and warned “they can blow an arm off.”
The incident was reported to campus police immediately after class and six of the devices had been recovered by Monday, a UNL spokeswoman said.
University and Lincoln Police, the Lincoln Fire Department and the FBI were investigating.
The spokeswoman said the teacher could face disciplinary action.
I doubt they will get all of the explosives back.
That’s one of the most irresponsible things I’ve heard a professor do in a while.
I’m confused as to how this is SOOO irresponsible? I mean, look at the description of the size…this is basically a M-80 firecracker. So for everyone old enough to remember pre-Nanny state, this is a firework that people played with as children. Yes, some hurt themselves, but if this is a college level chem class, I would hope they were smart enough not to injure themselves or others. But in realitiy, I would much rather have them learning about what explosives can REALLY do than just taking the media and hollywood at face value. Isn’t that what education is meant for anyway?
From little info is give in the Article this does sound stupid. He hand these out wil the students were leaving class. It doesn’t say what the class was studing that day.
I do agree with #2 though about the nanny state part though. I want my M-80’s. But I think the professor was dumb giving these out for no apparent reason give the current climit of things.
We know nothing about the explosives, except (vaguely) their size.
The professor, who presumably managed to get through 15 or 16 years of learnin’, knows everything about them.
Assuming that he isn’t mentally ill or sociopathic (possible but not likely) I have to assume that 1) he knew what he was doing and 2) they aren’t really dangerous, although I suppose you COULD put your eye out, even with a real roll of quarters.
This will turn out to be nothing, as usual. As we former m80 commandos know well, just because it’s the size of an M80 doesn’t mean it’s going to blow up.
No meaningful info in the article, no way for an outside observer to draw any conclusions. But it’s fun to guess.
Back in the day, the chemistry text books told you how to make explosives out of common household chemicles. Not anymore….
#5 Yea, that information is available on the internet now. Guess a few to many high school chemistry labs got trashed.
It would be much to difficult for the police to actually light a couple of the stupid things and figure out in about 10 minutes if the things are worth making a fuss over. Just the fact that he “said” they were explosives has now made a FEDERAL case out of a stupid incident.
How long before the TERRORISM charges are filed against the professor?
Don
This is a huge potential liability issue for the University. Some kid loses a finger messing around with the device or harms someone else with it and the University gets sued for a million or two. Bear in mind that even though 18-22 year olds are legally adults, their brains aren’t yet wired for making smart choices. I know several kids in this age group that are brilliant students that do really stupid things. LIke a Regent’s Scholar getting drunk, wrecking a car, forgetting that he wrecked the car and reporting it stolen to the police. That kid might be smart enough to make his own explosive, but I wouldn’t want to be the one that handed one to him and risk being sued when he does something stupid with it. I’m also not that wild about my tax dollars being wasted on such a lawsuit.
Calling them explosives is a bit of a misnomer. They were home made fireworks. Second, he offered them to anyone who wanted one. No one was forced or even encouraged to take one.
http://tinyurl.com/eltof
If you scroll down, there are several comments by students from his class.
You’re right, they are basically fireworks. I’m a little pissy about it because my kid goes to this school and I’m not pleased about rising tuition costs. This is the same school where the cheerleaders can’t do basket tosses because of a lawsuit. M-80’s (probably the level of firework these items are) are illegal in this state and if there were any incident involving said fireworks, the University would be liable, thus resulting costs that would inevitably be passed on to me.
For crying out loud, he gave them to kids in a 100 level class. Give them to some upper-classmen or turn them into the fire department if you want to get rid of them.
#8
From the article you posted:
The first concern of UNL police is safety, said Capt. Carl Oestmann.
“I think any time there’s a risk of someone getting hurt I consider it serious.”
Risk of someone getting hurt… I suppose that guy better start doing something about people using planes, trains and automobiles… playing sports… practicing archery… eating fast food…
But you know, I don’t think our government is concerned with people getting hurt. They are concerned with making sure we all feel a false sense of security. Pacify the masses and ensure they are as calm as Hindu cattle so that you can pull off whatever Draconian BS you want to pull off today without too much fear of reprisal.
It was just a few short years ago that I was just an average liberal. (by the way, that is liberal in the rational and realistic sense of the word, not in the Fox News/neocon slur of the word) I was concerned with health care and tax reform and whatever…
But these days I’m feeling more and more revolutionary. I wonder why that is.
1. This is college
2. this is an advanced class
3. This is chemistry
4. these are ALL adults(or better Be)(or ACT like adults at least)
5. If you dont know that most things can be MADE, At home, out of basic materials, I laugh at you.
Get off it, this shouldnt be a concern, except the the Psycho student that might want to figure out HOw to make his own.
At age 10 I was Taught how to use fire works, and how NOT to handle them. IF these students dont have THAT basic knowledge it could get them hurt.
But these days I’m feeling more and more revolutionary. I wonder why that is.
OFTLO, I can’t speak for you, but in my case I put it down as hemorrhoids. I find those damn neo-con, chicken hawk, draft dodging, selfish, war mongers such a pain in the butt. But hey, that’s just me.
If the professor is randomly handing out something that he claims “can blow an arm off”, like candy treats – especially post 9-11, he is probably not the kind of guy you want messing with such things.
All this makes me shudder to think, as 15 year olds, we were building truly dangerous devices out of drug store products for entertainment.
RBG
All this makes me shudder to think, as 15 year olds, we were building truly dangerous devices out of drug store products for entertainment.
I shudder to think, too, but probably not for the same reasons.
I get the willies when I think about what a nanny state the US has become. My high school chemistry teacher showed us how to make flash paper, among other things. He’d probably go to prison for that now. And guess what???? None of us burned ourselves up making or using it!!! Imagine that!
We did have some Scheißekopf in our high school who blew himself up making pipe bombs. (He forgot to drill the hole for the fuse until after he’d filled them up with [secret explosive… rhymes with “fungowder”]. To this day I still feel bad for his parents.
It was a good thing from the perspective of the collective gene pool, though.
Hmm…
I predict exploding toilets…
… woohoo!
A chem class? Bad idea. A psych class? Seems reasonable to me.
So some guy hands you a paper bag and says, “This could blow your arm off.” Do you take it? Really? Of do you politely say, “Not my arm, fella. Keep it.”
When I was a kid I learned how to make gunpowder from strar trek. Kirk made some on the fly out of basic materials he found. I found these at my local hardware store. Don”t remember the episode.
As already stated: this is a university class with educated adults who are learning about chemistry. I did the same thing in my Chemistry class, albiet we weren’t literally given explosives which I think is irresponsible at best. Sure, we know how to make them, detect them, analyse them etc because that’s a fundemental part of chemistry.
The guy just needs readjusting and being told that his teaching methods leave a lot to be desired and the sensationalist crap by government and media needs to stop.
I live in the country and about a year ago this man and his wife found a handgernade in their front yard while doing yardwork. The police called the explosive ordence from the near by airforce base. My point what that professor gave out was not as dangerous if those kids had ever handled fireworks. Yes it is not something he should have done. As with the hand gernade anyone with milatery experince could have handled it safely. But we as a country have became crybabies and scaredy cats. We do not need to have our hands held, if we would just pull our heads out of our ass and turn on our brain and common sense.
Raymond