Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

[tyler_gone]

Someone had a headache today, and was wishing he'd found something to teach that involved fewer loud noises.

Maybe he could teach very, very quiet explosions next term.

"Hey," he greeted the class. "This is the week we study C-4." He held up an illustrative block of the stuff. "It's a bit more complex than most of what we make, but may as well do it while we have the set-up. Neat thing about it is, a little goes a very long way." As he spoke, he broke off a wad of C-4 about the size of a gumball. "This is about all you need to blow up a car. The whole block would take down a skyscraper."

"C-4 is military; it's made of made up of explosive, plastic binder, plasticizer and, if it's commercial, marker or taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and identify its source. That's where making your own comes in handy -- no marker. If it's too much for you, at least have the brains to buy from a big wholesaler who doesn't track orders."

"To make it, we're combining RDX with water to get a slurry, then mixing it with a binding solution. You need to let it sit so the water evaporates -- in the shop we have a doodad that does that for you so it's finished during this session -- and then you take the powder and add a plasticizer. The most common ones are lignosulfonates."

"When you're done it will look and feel like modeling clay. It's stable unless you get it hot or light it on fire. And it is much more powerful than TNT."

He waved a hand at the lab tables. "Wear safety equipment, work in pairs, and please try not to blow anything up too loudly this week. I'll be around."

Functional Fashion, Thursday

[mistressofblack.livejournal.com]

Class, this time, was being held in the Danger Shop, as the students had been handwavily informed. It was made up to look like a street in a large city, just at the edge of a park. Lulu sat on a bench just inside the park, not wearing her usual clothes but instead in something rather like street clothes for the average North American twenty-something.

"Good morning," she said, smiling, as she stood. She had on a full skirt -- more modest, perhaps, than many people might wear -- and a long-sleeved blouse; the skirt fell to ankle-length, revealing her inch-high stilleto heels. Her myriad braids were held back not with her usual sticks, but with a different pair, one that she'd not worn previously. "I hope you're all wearing comfortable clothing today.

"Today's class," Lulu continued, "is how to dress for an entirely different function: offense. Clothing can be used to hide a number of weapons, but even more it can be used as weaponry. Take this, for example." It was clearly a cue, for the Danger Shop materialised a convenient attacker -- a mugger, going for Lulu's purse. Of course, the purse got whirled around and thwacked the mugger in the head, dropping him to the ground. "Some people advocate a brick in your purse; I don't know that you need anything quite so massive, but the principle remains the same: weighing down your purse, or any bag you're carrying, can help to make it an effective defensive weapon."

Another attacker approached Lulu, this one coming at her with a length of pipe. She ducked under his swing, even as she reached up with one hand to pull out one of her hairsticks; it could now be seen that it was sharpened at the end. Lulu drove it into the side of her attacker as she moved by him. "Accessories can also be useful," she explained. "Chad?" she added, gesturing for him to come forward. "I've shown you a few examples of what women can use, so now to show you with men. A relatively common accessory for men is the wallet-chain. Depending on the length -- some of them are even extendible -- these can make your wallet into a weapon almost effective as a weighted purse, and perhaps one over which you would have slightly more control, where it is smaller. Also, I recommend, more than anything else, steel-toed shoes." An attacker approached Chad, who kicked out, striking one of the more... sensitive areas of the male body. Lulu had hesitated briefly before asking him, uncertain how he'd feel about demonstrating that particular attack, but she knew she could trust him to be absolutely professional about any aspect of his work as TA.

Thanks to the steel-toed shoes that Chad was wearing (and probably also owing rather a lot to his size and strength), Chad's attacker crumpled rather effectively at the kick.

"There are other things you can use," Lulu said, "other items of clothing that can be used to defend yourself. What do you think you could use?"

[OCD is up in a mo'!]