Boys...

[vifferman]

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?

Indeed... we got into mucho trouble for spreading that on the floor of the chemistry lab.
It was fun watching the teacher trying to sweep the floor clean, but more fun watching ants walk on it on the concrete,

[R1madness]

What a fantastic article. We should post it to the minister of eduction. In fact it think i will.
It truely is a sad reflection on our society that boys can not be boys anymore. When i was a boy there were trees to climb. Now when my son gets up a tree in a park some do gooder says "you shouldn't be doing that, you will fall" or more likely "you shouldn't be doing that you might hurt the tree".
Yes i got the strap and the cane at school. It was part of the rites to manhood back then. Nothing to snivel about. Much better than a "family confrence" where the parents get the blaim and the kid gets a hug.
Super heroes were cool and you were allowed to be one, or the villan if you choose. Now its lets all sit down on the mat and read about how Mary saves the day. Where the hell is superman when you need him.
Political correctness. BLAH.

[gijoe1313]

Well here at the school I "mis" teach at, we suspend our timetable for 3 days
(known as 3 day episodes) and basically the teaching staff is let loose and able to offer whatever fancy takes them!

I've done episodes on crazy inventions, rocketeering and other such hulla balloo. This book has given me the inspiration for the next 3 day escapade!

"The 3 Day Dangerous Episode for Boys and Girls of All Ages"

Basically, I'll just run amok with the class and do all sorts of wild and wack ythings (we have a wetland pond...stone skipping! leaf boat sinking!), I'll track down parts to make.... down hill soapbox carts (we have a perfect downhill drive with a left hand bend for added mayhem!)

Make some fighting kites and see who is the Fighter Kite King! Also be doing the usual cotton reel racers, who can make the best paper airplane, dead-eye catapult contest, the garbage bag full o'water bomb experiment, hot air balloons, ooh my giddy aunt... I could so get in trouble for this... meh, what the heck, I can always teach at another school!

[Bass]

Bah! It's more fun to make your own splosives....Ammonium Tri-iodide anyone?

Agreed. But that stuff is seriously amputatingly unstable. To be avoided in amounts greater than milligrams.

Just to be thoroughly anal for amoment - it's actually nitrogen tri-iodide and it's hard to purify; usually made as part of an ammonium complex.

Now if you mix glycerine with potassium permanganate and wait..... in about 5 minutes it will burst into flame. Simple delay fuse - works great with small bombs attached to large hydrogen balloons. Instant UFO, especially around dusk.

Oh and simple recipes for rocket fuel etc......... ah, youth, stupidity and a key to the chem lab storeroom.........heaven.

[Ocean1]

Now how did this get so fuckin dangerous all of a sudden guys?

At the risk of attracting attention for all the wrong reasons (well from the wrong people...).

Ingredients:
1 plastic rubbish bag
Oxy Acetylene set.
Several metres insulated wire.
1 12V light bulb.
Tape.
1 enemy

Solder the light bulb to two lengths of wire.
Gain access to enemy’s car boot.
Connect one wire to a tail/brake light.
Connect other wire to earth.
Close boot, with bulb outside.
Break bulb.
Insert bulb/wires into rubbish bag.
Fire up Oxy set and adjust flame as per normal.
Leave gas on and extinguish flame.
Inflate rubbish bag with gas.
Tape bag closed.
Place rubbish bag out of sight somewhere not too close to enemy’s car. (so definitely not in the boot or under the fuel tank, unless you don’t mind being locked up).
Run away.

Note: try to get it all done in the correct order fer fuck’s sake.

Disclaimer: try to make sure the enemy is either a) well smaller than you, or b) doesn’t know where you live. (So no, don’t try this at home…).

[Wolf]

This thread deserves resurrecting. Ocean1, I'd bling ya for the OP but I've blung ya too recently.

Ahh, the days of acetylene bombs (like letting off one in the back yard, feeling the predictable impulse welling up from within and having to run indoors before collapsing on the kitchen floor and cracking up with laughter - because I knew that if my mum had heard that explosion and looked out the window to see me curled up in a foetal ball convulsing uncontrollably she'd've shit herself and called the ambulance. At least when she came running in she was able to see and hear I was unharmed despite being quite unable to stand up or answer her "what was that bang?" line of enquiry...)

Sliding down hills on cardboard boxes or nikau palm fronds or racing down a Wainuiomata hill on my cousin's go-kart and trying to take the corner at the bottom. Helmets? Elbow and knee pads? WTF are those?

Making my own flying fox with a length of old rope and the large pulley from dad's block and tackle set - I got all of three feet before the rope gave out under the combined weight of me and the pulley, after that there was another 6 feet of travel (albeit straight down) and then the pulley landed on my 'nads and removed the last vestiges of air that the impact with the ground hadn't knocked out of my lungs.

Riding to the local swimming hole on the back of a flat-bed truck (past the local cop) wearing no more protection should we fall (supposing we could have made it past the adult bodies surrounding us) than a pair of togs and a towel draped over our shoulders.

Spud guns and a spring-powered bolt-action "rifle" that fired corks. A real bamboo bow that could fire arrows quite some distance.

Frog hunting in the ponds, climbing trees, building our own tree huts, home-made swings involving a length of rope and a length of wood or an old tyre - best placed where they could swing you out over a swimming hole, of course.

One tree hut I made was accessed by climbing a neighbouring tree and crossing a "swing bridge" made from an old wire-wove bed base I'd slung between the trees.

All the cool old fireworks that could go bang and actually put a metal jar lid onto the roof of the house or (when inserted into the overflow pipe from the cistern) could get your niece to leap off the toilet and slam into the toilet door (not that anyone would be so unkind )

Making penny rockets more aerodynamically stable by taping them to cheap kitset aircraft.

Walking the perimeter of the section on the top rail of the fence; riding to school without helmets on dad's farm bike - me on the back, my younger brother in front of dad.

I let my kids climb trees and Taliesin occasionally (shock, horror) rides his bike without helmet or footwear. All the kids, even Nessie, have their share of bruises and they don't know how they got over half of them - they just spontaneously form as part of the playing and seldom warrant an "Ow!"

The kids demonstrate that a braced A-frame with three swings on it is not just for swinging on and the ladder is not the only part of a slide you climb up. Since before they were 2 they've been tackling the big kids' adventure playgrounds (easier for me to accompany them up and keep an eye on them).

As parents it is our responsibility to tear off the bubble wrap wherever possible.

[Ocean1]

Wee dredge. Seemed appropriate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/educ...-loses-bullies

What's the chances this'll make the safety Nazis back off some?

[unstuck]

Good stuff, a bit of common sense at last, and a kick in the arse for the PC brigade.

[awa355]

BUT,,BUT ,,BUT what if little Wilma is told she cant be in the bullrush game, Dont you see what a devastating blow this could be to her aspirations, her self worth??

[mashman]

BUT,,BUT ,,BUT what if little Wilma is told she cant be in the bullrush game, Dont you see what a devastating blow this could be to her aspirations, her self worth??

Agreed... more H&S is required and schools that encourage free play should be burned to the ground with their principles still inside, or even better, strung up a flag pole. As not every school has flag poles they could create a new industry thereby boosting the economy and all will be well with the world. Jesus christ, I hope they don't think about doing similar for adults.

[pete376403]

. And they closed all the swimming pools. Sigh. Wana make a bet the drowning stat's will rise over the next decade or so?.

In 2007 you wrote this. Here's your answer:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6312...in-eight-years

[Tazz]

Wee dredge. Seemed appropriate.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/educ...-loses-bullies

What's the chances this'll make the safety Nazis back off some?

Slim

But man that was a refreshing read. Good on that principal and school.