Chinese Man Builds His Own Prosthetic Hands 144
New submitter macbeth66 writes "Almost 10 years ago, Sun Jifa lost his hands in an explosion. Unable to afford the prosthetic hands recommended by the hospital, he built his own. From the article: 'After eight years of tinkering, he says he finally developed a working model that allows him to grip, hold, and mimic other necessary movements via a system of pulleys and wires.'"
Re:Impressive! (Score:5, Informative)
Dynamite is very effective at causing a major shockfront in the water, that ruptures the fish's swim bladders, which are used to control the fish's altituded in the water. Once ruptured, the fish can no longer swim, and will float listlessly on the top. It is usually also directly fatal to the fish.
It is a very indescriminate way to fish, but also *very* effective. It can completely denude a body of water of all fish.
if this man really was using dynamite to fish, it sounds like he got hold of one with a very fast burning fuse, which happens when the sticks get old. He is lucky to be alive at all.
Re:Impressive! (Score:5, Informative)
Quite.
Dynamite (Authentic) is nitroglycerine, suspended in an inert matrix. Originally sawdust, but other inert matrices have also been used historically, such as diatomaceous earth.
The sawdust form is especially vulnerable to becoming old and "sweaty". Essentially, the suspended nitroglycerine wicks its way out of the matrix, and toward the surface, where it forms a "coating." This is bad for a large number of reasons:
1) Nitroglycerine is easily and readily absorbed through the skin, and is a well known cardiac-suppressant.
2) Nitroglycerine, without the stabilizing matrix, is a notoriously sensitive contact explosive.
3) The sweated nitroglycerine can wick up into the fuse, making it burn VERY quickly; FAR too quickly to throw away once lit, making old sticks unsafe for any purpose. It will explode almost instantly.
For these reasons and several others, the use of genuine dynamite has fallen out of favor in nearly all developed and developing countries in favor of more stable and less toxic/sensitive high explosives, like PentaErythritol TetraNitrate (PETN), and TriNitroToluene (TNT).
Genuine dynamite is fairly rare, and it is much more likely that this chinese fisherman was using home-made devices, like nitrogen fertilizer bombs made from ammonium nitrate and kerosine, but it could be possible he has/had access to the genuine article.
Few float (Score:5, Informative)