Darwin Awards

[Fliegenmong]

If it happened in Australia...the aftermath would be as follows.....

An enquiry into all gates,..the finding would be that all gates need to be registered, and licenced, with a yearly fee (tax) on having a gate, no discounts on multiple gates massive fines for anyone found with a gate that is not registered....gate inspectors would need be licenced also...

Nah really, that is the Nanny state mentality of it here.. (Banging head against wall 'smiley')

[TWT]

Not a candidate,but an honourable mention.This idiot found a couple of hand grenades in a local park.He then picked them up,carried them to his car and drove home.2 weeks later,he took them to the local cop shop.He walked in to reception and put them on the counter.Must be one of the dumbest people alive.Fortunately,they were found to be inert, however....

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/dandenong-police-station-evacuated-after-grenades-dropped-off-at-reception/news-story/5c8fff57750c28b11e4f37fa25cf4485

[500N]

Surely someone can tell if the pins are still in them ?

Evacuate a huge police station over grenades ?

As per one of the comments, as long as the boxes are ticked, all is good.

[TWT]

500N,weren't you told never to touch unexploded ordnance in the Army ? I was only in the cadets and I was made to watch a film about the dangers.Young family go to the woods for a picnic.Little boy finds an unexploded piezo-electric detonated mortar and places it on the car bonnet.It rolls off and blows everyone to smithereens.It made an impression on me.A while later,I did come across a mortar shell at Cultana while on an orienteering exercise,but it was completely hollow,totally rusted out.I just kept walking.

[dubbleyew eight]

oh there just happened to be a camera crew when the family found the ordinance. bollocks. you were fed a dramatisation.

did you know the you can't put a pin back in?

we were surveying out in the bush north of dallwalinu I think.
anyway the chopper dropped me and the instruments in the middle of nowhere.
what I didn't know is that they couldn't find me again.
we each carried two smoke grenades to mark positions just in case.
we had never seen one go off so we didn't know how visible they were.
I had some time to kill so I tied one in the fork of a long branch to hold it up in the air.
I'd pulled the pin out and was holding the detent.
chopper returns and sets down.
I can't for the love of trying get the pin back in so in desperation I dropped it on the ground and it went off.
huge pall of orange smoke.
boss comes over from the chopper and asks "how did you know to let off the smoke?"
"what?"
"we thought we were in the wrong place and were just about to lift off again and go and search to the west of here"
"well I..."
"you could have been here for days if we hadn't seen that smoke"

thank heavens for stiff split pins.

if the pins are in it is bleeding obvious.

[Hydromet]

Was in Dandenong last week. My impression was that a couple of old grenades would be the least of your worries there.

[dubbleyew eight]

when the pin is taken out and let go the handle goes bling and flies off into the distance.
if you ever find a grenade of any type that has neither pin or handle and hasn't been disabled get well away from it.
it is potentially live.

the time delay mechanism is usually a reliable chemical reaction.

[TWT]

"oh there just happened to be a camera crew when the family found the ordinance. bollocks. you were fed a dramatisation"

W8,I was shown the film by the Army.It was a training film depicting a fictional scenario designed to demonstrate the dangers of handling unexploded ordnance.Got it now ?

[500N]

Was in Dandenong last week. My impression was that a couple of old grenades would be the least of your worries there.

You would need a Nuclear bomb to clean up Dandenong and Doveton

Used to work at Myer store there doing security when I was at Uni, that and Northlands were rough as guts.

[Hydromet]

During initial training with the M36 grenade (50 years ago this year!) we were required to watch after throwing until the instructor called "Down!", just before the grenade exploded. However, with one grenade, there was a 'crack' from the det immediately it left the thrower's hand. Normally, this would have resulted in the grenade firing and wounding a number of those watching. In this case, the grenade did not explode, and we then observed a WO II demonstrate the procedure for demolishing a misfire.
I've wondered if this was a set-up, with a special no-delay det and a grenade with no explosive charge. I suspect so, does anyone know if this was a normal training procedure?

[dubbleyew eight]

no not a normal procedure.

the grenade range at kapooka was an environment of high drama.
the instructional technique was a 'by numbers' bollocks thing.
one grip the grenade while facing at 90 degrees to the direction of throw.
two place at arms length behind you
three pull the pin while holding the detent
three bowl the grenade with arm straight.

now obviously they hadn't thought this through since there was an instructor/switched on safety evacuator beside you.
typically the bowling motion swung the live grenade past his face missing by millimetres.
occasionally the guy would fumble the horrible ergonomics and the grenade would hit the concrete berm and bounce back into the throwing area.
the pandemonium that resulted in the 11 seconds before the grenade exploded was incredible.
the instructor had not only to duck the swing but then had to work out where it had bounced and push both of them into the remaining safe trench.

when I came to do the by numbers garbage the poor instructor had had enough.
he picked up a quartz rock and hurled it at me.
"pick the **** up and throw it out there" he screams pointing down range.
"ok you managed that so why can't you throw the fcuking grenade?"
"well sir that's not how we were instructed to throw it and bye the way when you have the grenade extended all the way behind you it is physically impossible to reach the pin let alone pull it out"

I believe the training techniques were revised after our session and a few staff went off on stress leave.

[Hydromet]

Thanks W8.

[500N]

I didn't think much of running grenade practices. Boring as hell.

Luckily none of my soldiers cocked up and dropped one but as W8 said, it has been known.

[500N]

The latest member plus an honorable mention for the husband.

The Vegan lady who decided to show that vegans can do anything but has now shown the world they can't by dying on Everest.

And the husband gets an honorable mention for having to be flown off the mountain.

[Woody]

How did we miss this one?

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/07/trave ... index.html

Apparently there is no body to recover as it dissolved in the acidic water

[Alisoncc]

This has to be one of the better ones. Massive flooding from heavy rains in Oz East coast and Tasmania, with people dying in flood waters.

So in Tassie we get "Hydro Tasmania asked to explain cloud seeding in catchment day before flooding". Duh - seemed like a good idea at the time.

Tasmania's government-owned energy company has been asked to explain why it conducted cloud seeding over the Derwent River catchment the day before flooding began this week.

The catchment flooded on Monday near Ouse in southern Tasmania, where the search continues for a missing farmer.

In the state's north, one person was killed and another remains missing.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-10/cloud-seeding-carried-out-over-tasmanian-catchment-before-floods/7499226

Alison

[500N]

How did we miss this one?

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/07/trave ... index.html

Apparently there is no body to recover as it dissolved in the acidic water

I read that, wish we had those type of springs in Australia.

[Woody]

I read that, wish we had those type of springs in Australia.

Plenty in NZ

[500N]

I read that, wish we had those type of springs in Australia.

Plenty in NZ

Yes, have been there, but getting the people I'd like to put in them over there is a problem.

[OFSO]

I saw some poor bloke fell in a hot spring at Yosemite (was it ?) last week. 98ºf I believe. Too difficult to recover his body, not a nice way to go.