Anatomy of a Moral Panic
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Anatomy of a Moral Panic
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Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#2Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#3It looks like this is an unpublished post. It doesn't show up on the front page of idlewords.com, and isn't available as a "next" link from the previous story.
maxerickson, how did you find this post?
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#4It looks like this is an unpublished post. It doesn't show up on the front page of idlewords.com, and isn't available as a "next" link from the previous story. maxerickson, how did you find this post?
He subscribes to idlewords premium.
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#5Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
Better range/higher velocity with something more aerodynamic, maybe?
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#6Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
It's the energy that matters. A famous military anti-personnel mine, the claymore, uses spherical shrapnel.
I guess that lines up with the other reply about the shrapnel being aerodynamic, something with less air resistance will have more range.
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#7It looks like this is an unpublished post. It doesn't show up on the front page of idlewords.com, and isn't available as a "next" link from the previous story. maxerickson, how did you find this post?
Twitter.
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#8Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
Quite probably, and it'd probably be cheaper too; ball bearings are kinda precision things and the processes that make things like gravel or nails probably cost less.
That said, if someone was really set on creating the opening scene of the movie Swordfish, they could make those ball bearings deadly if they got them going fast enough. A 3/8" ball bearing moving at a few hundred meters per second has enough energy to fuck up persons and property. I didn't pick those numbers completely at random -- 3/8" is about 9.5mm and common 9mm handgun rounds have velocities in the 300-400 m/s range.
Edit: I want to call attention to other replies to this comment pointing out that ball bearings can be good shrapnel for other reasons I'd not considered. Today I learned a thing.
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#9Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
That's assuming a rational customer ;)
Re: Anatomy of a Moral Panic
#10Minor additional point - if you're trying to create dangerous shrapnel, don't you pick something angular & sharp like crushed gravel, nails or even hex nuts, instead of nice round ball-bearings?
The chance of your nail hitting pointy side first is very low. A ball bearing, being spherical, will always deliver maximum energy to the smallest point possible.