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What is the dumbest idea, you ever thought of, and done?

LandBoatBuick

By LandBoatBuick
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ARS

ARS

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Using Lathe machine without safely clamping the steel chunk and running it at full speed just to make it fly (When you want to shoot something but there's nothing to use for shooting) and letting me getting hit to see how hard it is (Yes, this is probably the dumbest thing I ever do when I'm bored in machine shop and jury-rigged a catapult made of lathe machine flinging chunks of steel)

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XB-70A

XB-70A

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I stopped counting a long time ago... the dumbest always being supplanted by an even dumber.

- Around 8 years old, I burned my face while making a stupid experiment with my kid's chemical kit. I was boiling some potassium with another add, until I got the smart idea to grab a little frog (many of them were living in the piping network) and to drop it in. At the time it touched the "mixture", the test tube literally exploded.

- Still around the same time, I jumped from a 15 meters high cliff while holding trash bags in the hope of having succeeded in designing my first parachute. Somewhat, it worked a bit, but not enough to slow down the fall. Fortunately, the few neurons I had made me choose to jump from the coast, and therefore to fall into the sea rather than on land.

- A couple of years later, my main interest in stupid was to put lizards and others "test subjects" in various rocket propelled cardboard craft :( ... All of them survived, but it was a pretty stupid idea.

- When I was ten, I used a small portable fan as a High-G training simulator on "subjects".

- Still as a kid, some friends and I used to light a fire...  only to throw parts of asbestos in it. Sparkles, crackling sounds... and toxic fumes.

- Also, not really an idea but a choice; about 5 years ago:  taking the Aerospool WT9 from the aero club to go to Ushant (LFEC), and landing there with about 25 kt of crosswind... while the aircraft was certified for 15 kt max. I did another stupid choice with the same aircraft around the same time when I decided to depart with a mass of around 485 kg, while the MTOW was 472.50 kg. Not only dumb, but dangerous in both case.

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YNM

YNM

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Sniffing ammonia (probably 10% concentration or so), because in my naive mind when I was a child I thought it'd just smell like pee.

 

Now I always heed the warning "never sniff any chemicals" - been there, done that. Thank God it wasn't anything worse, didn't sniff for too long (it was *very* strong smelling, let's keep it at that), and I went out of the room immediately finding fresh air. Rather interesting to know that I was only like 10 or something !

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kerbiloid

kerbiloid

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  On 7/3/2019 at 1:02 AM, XB-70A said:

- Around 8 years old, I burned my face while making a stupid experiment with my kid's chemical kit. I was boiling some potassium with another add, until I got the smart idea to grab a little frog (many of them were living in the piping network) and to drop it in. At the time it touched the "mixture", the test tube literally exploded.

- Still around the same time, I jumped from a 15 meters high cliff while holding trash bags in the hope of having succeeded in designing my first parachute. Somewhat, it worked a bit, but not enough to slow down the fall. Fortunately, the few neurons I had made me choose to jump from the coast, and therefore to fall into the sea rather than on land.

- A couple of years later, my main interest in stupid was to put lizards and others "test subjects" in various rocket propelled cardboard craft :( ... All of them survived, but it was a pretty stupid idea.

- When I was ten, I used a small portable fan as a High-G training simulator on "subjects".

- Still as a kid, some friends and I used to light a fire...  only to throw parts of asbestos in it. Sparkles, crackling sounds... and toxic fumes.

- Also, not really an idea but a choice; about 5 years ago:  taking the Aerospool WT9 from the aero club to go to Ushant (LFEC), and landing there with about 25 kt of crosswind... while the aircraft was certified for 15 kt max. I did another stupid choice with the same aircraft around the same time when I decided to depart with a mass of around 485 kg, while the MTOW was 472.50 kg. Not only dumb, but dangerous in both case. 

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Sounds familiar... Are you sure you are not a Kerbal?

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2s9r7r8.gif

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Future plans...

 

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ARS

ARS

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  On 7/3/2019 at 1:02 AM, XB-70A said:

I stopped counting a long time ago... the dumbest always being supplanted by an even dumber...

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It's amazing that you're still sane after doing all of the above. Those are literally mad scientist's free time

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Guest

Guest

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  On 7/3/2019 at 4:34 AM, YNM said:

chemicals

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When I was 8 or so I went to a friend's house, later deciding to make an """"experiment"""": mix a bit of every cleaning product (laundry products, house cleaners, all of it) we could reach nearby into a single plugged laundry sink, see what happens. We did that, and I'm almost certain we accidentally made at least three different chemical weapons during the process. The chemical smell was horribly strong (possibly also mustard gas, since bleach and ammonia were certainly mixed there), but luckily the sink had open air. We then stuck a hook-like object into the solution as to not risk wetting our hands with the nuclear waste and pull the plug to let it drain out. God knows what was in there.

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Guest

Guest

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  On 7/6/2019 at 4:41 AM, qzgy said:

Bad things.

The hook probably was smart.

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure chemical burns would have happened had we not thought about it. It was absolute vile stuff, trying to get close to it for long enough to pull the plug was like doing the bio-robot cleanup from Chernobyl

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YNM

YNM

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  On 7/6/2019 at 4:37 AM, Aperture Science said:

mix a bit of every cleaning product (laundry products, house cleaners, all of it) we could reach nearby into a single plugged laundry sink, see what happens.

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Did it destroy the drain ?

 

FYI, we can freely buy caustic ash to clear up drains here... Heck, I can buy it in the most remote of rural areas here !

  On 7/3/2019 at 5:57 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Peg my car at 180 mph.

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Which road ? What car ? No cops ?

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kerbiloid

kerbiloid

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  On 7/6/2019 at 4:37 AM, Aperture Science said:

When I was 8 or so I went to a friend's house, later deciding to make an """"experiment"""": mix a bit of every cleaning product (laundry products, house cleaners, all of it) we could reach nearby into a single plugged laundry sink, see what happens. We did that, and I'm almost certain we accidentally made at least three different chemical weapons during the process. The chemical smell was horribly strong (possibly also mustard gas, since bleach and ammonia were certainly mixed there), but luckily the sink had open air. We then stuck a hook-like object into the solution as to not risk wetting our hands with the nuclear waste and pull the plug to let it drain out. God knows what was in there.

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Now they know whom should they thank.

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  On 7/6/2019 at 5:57 AM, YNM said:
  On 7/3/2019 at 5:57 AM, 5thHorseman said:

Peg my car at 180 mph.

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Which road ? What car ? No cops ?

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No more cops on that road. Nobody wants.

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Superfluous J

Superfluous J

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  On 7/6/2019 at 5:57 AM, YNM said:

Did it destroy the drain ?

 

FYI, we can freely buy caustic ash to clear up drains here... Heck, I can buy it in the most remote of rural areas here !

Which road ? What car ? No cops ?

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A freeway in my old hometown. A 1965 (iirc)  Dodge Dart. The cops were a potential but them not finding out is part of it working. :)

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YNM

YNM

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  On 7/6/2019 at 10:45 AM, 5thHorseman said:

A freeway

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Ah. Wide, level, empty, sraight roads I imagine...

  On 7/6/2019 at 10:45 AM, 5thHorseman said:

1965 (iirc)  Dodge Dart.

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What the...

How big was the engine ? Did it *really* went up to 180 mph (as indicated) ?

Edited by YNM
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Superfluous J

Superfluous J

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  On 7/6/2019 at 12:55 PM, YNM said:

Ah. Wide, level, empty, sraight roads I imagine...

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Mostly straight, about 2 miles downhill.

  4 minutes ago, YNM said:

How big was the engine ? Did it *really* went up to 180 mph (as indicated) ?

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V8. I don't know any details because I'm not a car guy at all.

I have no idea what the speed really was. The speedometer went up to 140 (not 180 sorry) and I hit that and then instantly slowed down.

Also, it was not a 65 it was apparently from the early 70s. I had access to 2 dodge darts back in my high school days and this was the later model apparently.

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