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Great Acts Of Stupidity

Souleater said:
I remember that, there were also a number of incidents of people storing wheelie bins of petrol in their garages
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When wheelie bins were new there were all sorts of stories about them.

People were reputed to have used them as dog kennels and pensioners apparently fell inside while cleaning them.

Wheely bin races caused damage to parked cars and burglars used them to stand on for reccying targets or reaching windows and for carting off their booty.

Parcels were left in them by delivery services and ended up in landfill.

All tall stories. Well, except for the postie leaving Techy's birthday present in the recycle bin. :chuckle:
Luckily it was rescued in time.
 
I've got two tonnes of topsoil to move up our extremely steep drive, we have no wheelbarrow and neither does anyone local enough to borrow one.

UNLEASH THE WHEELIE BIN!

Works a treat.
 
Wheelie bin videos!

Racing wheelie bins with added F1 sounds -


Hitting tennis balls into one -


Engineer fits one with a motor and drives it -


Purely mechanical bin racing -

 
Mythopoeika said:
Yeah, it has to be in a safe container.
Plastic bags? Yikes! A disaster waiting to happen.
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Woman Bursts Into Flames After Rolling Car Full Of Hoarded Gas​

A South Carolina woman found herself on fire after rolling a Pontiac G6 during short a police chase. The hoard of gasoline in back exploded, setting both the car and its driver alight.

On May 13, a Pickens County, South Carolina, Sheriff’s Office deputy attempted to pull over a 2007 Pontiac G6 after noticing the plates mounted on the car were apparently stolen, reports the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office. The driver, a 28-year-old South Carolina woman, hit the gas instead. She lost control and flipped the car before the officer could even make the radio call.

The car reportedly immediately caught fire and the police claim to have heard multiple explosions from inside the Pontiac. The driver exited the car while on fire and the officer pushed her to the ground in an effort to put her out. She was transported to the hospital, but not before identifying the cause for why her car was exploding: her trunk was filled with hoarded gasoline.

The fire from “several containers of fuel,” as the police claim, burned through the whole car. Check out this Fox Carolina News video of the car being hauled away. There’s not much left of that G6.

https://jalopnik.com/woman-bursts-into-flames-after-rolling-car-full-of-hoar-1846895223
 
escargot said:
When wheelie bins were new there were all sorts of stories about them.

People were reputed to have used them as dog kennels and pensioners apparently fell inside while cleaning them.

Wheely bin races caused damage to parked cars and burglars used them to stand on for reccying targets or reaching windows and for carting off their booty.

Parcels were left in them by delivery services and ended up in landfill.

All tall stories. Well, except for the postie leaving Techy's birthday present in the recycle bin. :chuckle:
Luckily it was rescued in time.
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Don't forget kids setting fire to wheelie bins to inhale the fumes for a plastic high. Never knew if that was true or not.
 
GNC said:
Don't forget kids setting fire to wheelie bins to inhale the fumes for a plastic high. Never knew if that was true or not.
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Our next-door neighbour's wheelie bin was burned out a few years ago. It left just a flat shape on the ground.
 
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Regardless of how stupid it is to set up a device to video record people using the restroom, it's definitely stupid to have the recording include clear footage of you setting up the recording device ...

... Especially if you're a preacher.
West Virginia Preacher Accused Of Putting Phone In Bathroom And Recording Videos

A preacher at a West Virginia church has been charged with invasion of privacy after he allegedly placed a phone in a men’s bathroom, recording videos of two victims.

William Page, 59, of Morgantown, was charged in a criminal complaint with the misdemeanor ...

The complaint said church members told Monongalia County sheriff’s deputies that a smartphone had been placed on a ledge above a men’s restroom urinal on April 28. Deputies said the phone belonged to Page and contained videos of two males using the restroom along with several short videos of Page setting up the device. ...
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FULL STORY: https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/202...preacher-charged-after-bathroom-videos-found/
 
Not sure if this is the right place, but saw this about weird artifacts and figured it was worth mention.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...recent-times/ss-AAKvqpp?ocid=msedgntp#image=3

Slide 3 is a super old cast sword made from an alloy of copper and.... ARSENIC???

Then in slide 7 we have yet another example of the Romans using Lead for stupid things. This is a decorative semi-metallic mixture called Niello... made from copper, silver, lead and sulfur. I wonder if the idea was similar to Corinthian bronze? it looks like silver but really only has a little silver in it?
 
marhawkman said:
Not sure if this is the right place, but saw this about weird artifacts and figured it was worth mention.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...recent-times/ss-AAKvqpp?ocid=msedgntp#image=3

Slide 3 is a super old cast sword made from an alloy of copper and.... ARSENIC???

Then in slide 7 we have yet another example of the Romans using Lead for stupid things. This is a decorative semi-metallic mixture called Niello... made from copper, silver, lead and sulfur. I wonder if the idea was similar to Corinthian bronze? it looks like silver but really only has a little silver in it?
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Copper back then had all kinds of stuff in it. There was no easy way to get it absolutely pure.
The arsenic may have been from the rock in which the copper ore was found.
 
marhawkman said:
Not sure if this is the right place, but saw this about weird artifacts and figured it was worth mention.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...recent-times/ss-AAKvqpp?ocid=msedgntp#image=3

Slide 3 is a super old cast sword made from an alloy of copper and.... ARSENIC???

Then in slide 7 we have yet another example of the Romans using Lead for stupid things. This is a decorative semi-metallic mixture called Niello... made from copper, silver, lead and sulfur. I wonder if the idea was similar to Corinthian bronze? it looks like silver but really only has a little silver in it?
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That last image looks like a removable breach from a cannon, here is an example

a-breech-piece-for-a-breech-loading-cannon-german-16th-century-bronze-BRFGJR.jpg
 
Souleater said:
That last image looks like a removable breach from a cannon, here is an example

View attachment 40072
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hmm that is quite similar, the article mentions being found in 14th century ruins, but lists the artifact as being from the 17th or 18th century. Doesn't really say anything about how it was used, merely that it was part of a (presumably black powder) mortar. Yeah, makes me wonder what they left out.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Copper back then had all kinds of stuff in it. There was no easy way to get it absolutely pure.
The arsenic may have been from the rock in which the copper ore was found.
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I now find myself wondering what the metallurgical properties of such an alloy are. Hmm doing a quick search I found that there is one modern use that actually adds Arsenic to an alloy to make the metal more durable.... Lead car battery terminals? Hmmm... makes me wonder what this sword's mechanic properties are. It's believed to be 5000 years old. It looks a bit beat up, but not as bad as you'd expect a 5000 year old object made mostly of copper to be.

But looking more, it seems certain forms of Brass have Arsenic added to make them more stable. For plumbing purposes a similar material using Tin instead is used. Apparently these forms of Brass(or Gunmetal/Bronze depending on if it has more Tin(Bronze) or Zinc(Brass)) are due to a weird form of corrosion in certain cases where the Zinc leaches out of the brass making it weak due to now being mostly copper. Adding a third element can prevent it. This is apparently a physically durable material though as it has similar properties to traditional bronze or brass.

Ah, here we go: https://columbiametals.com/products/copper/c107

This is less than 1% As, But:
"C107 is a copper alloy with a small addition of arsenic which provides the alloy with enhanced tensile strength properties at elevated operating temperatures up to 300°C. As well as increasing the softening resistance, the arsenic addition also enhances corrosion resistance in specific environments."

So presumably it does make a more durable sword than pure Copper.

Here's more: https://www.jstor.org/stable/530550?seq=1

And this article preview compares CuAs with CuSc in terms of mechanical working and points out that CuAs used to be extremely common. Of course the real question in the article is if this was intentional alloying or "dirty copper". But the abstract doesn't list a conclusion, though it does mention that Tin bronze is more durable, thought Arsenic Bronze is easier to beat into selected shapes.

Hunh, well, I learned something.

EDIT: and this... hmmm....: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenical_bronze
 
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Mythopoeika said:
Copper back then had all kinds of stuff in it. There was no easy way to get it absolutely pure.
The arsenic may have been from the rock in which the copper ore was found.
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Archaeologists these days tend to refer to "copper alloy" rather than to "bronze" or "brass", because the distinction between the two is not always clear.

Back in the bronze age, producers of metal objects used a combination of experiment, tradition, trade secrets, and what happened to be available

Brass is an alloy of copper and mainly zinc, and bronze is an alloy of copper and mainly tin. However, in both cases, there may be small proportions of arsenic, phosphorous, aluminium, manganese and silicon.

In a similar way, pewter, used for decorative purposes and drinking vessels, is mainly tin, antimony, and copper, but some older versions of it included lead, and some versions include bismuth and silver. There was quite a fuss a few years ago in the folk/Morris community about lead pewter tankards because the toxic lead can leech out into the drink in some circumstances. Modern pewter tankards do not contain lead.
 
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Mikefule said:
There was quite a fuss a few years ago in the folk/Morris community about lead pewter tankard because the toxic lead can leech out into the drink in some circumstances.
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Was the consensus that, to maintain the tradition, one should contract lead poisoning?
 
Mikefule said:
Back in the bronze age, producers of metal objects used a combination of experiment, tradition, trade secrets, and what happened to be available
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But back in the Brass Age, hordes of out-of-work miners would roam across the midlands brandishing trumpets, tubas and trombones, playing jolly music.
 
Mikefule said:
Archaeologists these days tend to refer to "copper alloy" rather than to "bronze" or "brass", because the distinction between the two is not always clear.

Back in the bronze age, producers of metal objects used a combination of experiment, tradition, trade secrets, and what happened to be available

Brass is an alloy of copper and mainly zinc, and bronze is an alloy of copper and mainly tin. However, in both cases, there may be small proportions of arsenic, phosphorous, aluminium, manganese and silicon.
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Heh, a lot of ancient smiths had(by modern standards) absolutely no idea what kind of metal they were even working with. A lot of natural ore veins have mixed ores, and there's several copper ore veins that got used in ancient times that have small amounts of Arsenic in them. That metal just forms Arsenic Bronze naturally after smelting. You'd have to separate out the Arsenic to avoid that.

One weird thing about Greek archaeology is that some place in Greece actually used to have a mine where people actually mined Electrum. Yeah, the Gold/Silver alloy! It just happened to exist naturally in that one spot.
 
Using equipment that's not rated for whitewater usage on whitewater streams can leave you stranded - or worse ...
Women, children rescued on Maine river after rafts destroyed

First responders saved some women and young children after they became stranded on the Kennebec River on an island near the Moxie Stream outlet in West Forks on Thursday.

Officials say they were on rafts and one was destroyed shortly after they made it through rapids when it got stuck on a rock. ...

Then the second raft got damaged where they became stranded.

Crews used a canoe to get the group and luckily no one was physically hurt.

Officials say the rafts they used were rated for lakes and not white water. ...
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FULL STORY: https://wgme.com/news/local/women-children-rescued-on-maine-river-after-rafts-destroyed
 
This is more tragic than stupid. I've read a lot about addiction and drugs (purely out of morbid fascination, fortunately) but I didn't know about this horrible side effect of ketamine:

But four months later, Sophie relapsed.She adds: “I’d been clean for 16 weeks but was still going to the toilet every hour, it was excruciating and, in the end, I gave in. I was a mess, drugs were all I cared about. My poor gran was so upset but I couldn’t control it.
“I took ketamine every day and worked in a bar to fund it. I was so ill, my kidneys, my back and my stomach were excruciating, I felt like someone was torturing me.”
In July 2013, Sophie was rushed into hospital after she collapsed at home.
Doctors warned her that her kidneys were failing and they fitted a catheter to drain her urine.
She says: “They told me I had Stage-3 liver disease and the damage I’d done was life-threatening. I broke down.”
A scan showed Sophie’s bladder had 40mm holes in it and surgeons told her there was nothing they could do to save it.
Sophie is now waiting for an operation to remove the bits of her bladder that remain, and takes painkillers daily to help with the pain.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/5...g-ketamine-at-16-now-at-23-i-have-no-bladder/
 
A Washington (state) man flies his kite near high-energy power transmission lines; severe burnage ensues.
Kite hits power line, severely burning Washington state man

A man flying a kite in Washington state was shocked and suffered severe burns after his kite hit an electricity transmission line, officials said.

The unidentified man was flying a makeshift kite made with steel cable and a fishing rod at a park in the city of Bremerton when the kite drifted into Puget Sound Energy’s high-energy transmission lines, said Bremerton Battalion Chief Brad Richard.

He was flown to a hospital and was in critical condition. Fire officials warned people that they should never fly kites near power lines ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/wa-state-wire-business-lifestyle-932b6fedfeb2bb66e4b181900aa670a7
 
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