Boeing 747 Survives a Simulated Underwear Bomb Blast

The BBC did a test on an old decomissioned 747, putting a dummy with the same type and amount of explosives found on the underwear bomber. As you can see in the above video, the flexibility of the outside of the frame allowed it to absorb the blast. If the bomb had gone off, the plane would have still been able to fly and land.

Of course, the damage inside the plane still would have been horrific. But it’s nice to know that the trusty 747 can stand up to such abuse.

Gizmodo

The pressurized cabin was also addressed:

Some readers have questioned the validity of the experiment given that the plane was tested on the ground. The programme-makers gave this response:

At the time of the attempted detonation, Flight 253 was descending rapidly and its altitude has been estimated to be around 10,000ft.

At that height the difference in pressure inside and outside the plane would not have been great enough significantly to affect the explosion.

So the explosion team ruled that the decommissioned plane’s lack of doors was not a factor in the test.
With this quantity of explosive, the peak pressure and impulse are over quickly and decay rapidly over distance. The doors were sufficiently far away that the overpressure would have dissipated before it reached them.

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Bag of Randomness

  • I can’t remember the last time CBS, NBC, or ABC aired a mini-series.
  • I saw Ashely Banfield was on Extra as a correspondent last night.  When she left our local Fox affiliate for NBC her career skyrocketed with her coverage of 9/11, but I guess her career is now on the downward slide.
  • I finished Game Change last night.  Even though I enjoyed all of the book, the chapters towards the end that deal with the selection and vetting of the VP candidates and the financial crises (with Bush White House meetings included) were the most intriguing.
  • Oh yeah, and all the debate prep stuff was quite fascinating as well.
  • For anyone interested in the new Tron movie, here’s the new trailer.  It looks entertaining, but I’m still surprised that Hollywood has no new or original ideas as of late.  But hey, Jeff Bridges and Olivia Wilde are in it, so it can’t be bad.
  • Speaking of extensions of movies from the 80’s, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps has an interesting premise, but Shia LaBeouf has a track record of ruining a good franchise.  e.g. Indiana Jones
  • Craziest lead sentence ever:  Officials say an Ohio inmate who intentionally overdosed on pills hours before his scheduled execution has returned to prison and is on suicide watch. Article (Deliberately stolen from Barry’s blog)
  • Color by Numbers Toilet Paper
  • The gay version of Taylor Swift’s You Belong to Me video – YouTube
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Sharing a Eulogy

One of my friends, better yet, one of my mentors, recently lost his mother and eulogized her earlier this week.  Here’s part of it, I found it quite touching, and think we all can benefit from reading it.

I always wonder what people will think of me when I’m gone, I hope it can be as nice as this.

A very wise woman by the name of [name removed] helped me to put my mom’s passing into perspective.  She said that while we all die, remember that there are two types of deaths; the first is a death filled with tears because someone left this world much too young without ever realizing their potential, like my brother Jean.  The second is the passing of someone who lived a long, rich and rewarding life. We may miss them, but they had a chance to live al long life.  She also said to remember, we’d all be together before you know it.

Mom raised her family, helped raise her grandchildren and watched them grow into the two fine young men they are today.  She and dad were married nearly sixty years, not many people are lucky enough to have that!  And best of all, they had a long and active retirement doing whatever they pleased whenever they pleased!

Life may not be the party we expected it to be, but we owe it to ourselves to dance like crazy while we’re here, and boy did mom and dad dance together in this life, and always tried to include the rest of us in the fun!

Three things I’ll always remember about my mama; first, her eyes always lit up when she saw me, from the time I was a little boy, to the present, she was always happy to see me!

Second, she never started an argument that I can recall, that doesn’t mean she didn’t argue she just never started one.  She was always more than willing to end an argument though, one way or another; of course she got rid of the strap when we got older!

Finally, mom was always ready to forgive.  We sometimes give our folks problems, teenagers seem to know it all, but no matter what, mom always forgave me.  One thing in this world I never doubted, mom’s unconditional love and forgiveness, dad’s too!  They both did their absolute best for all of us.

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