Firecrackers, cardboard boxes, and clocks are among the items remaining after a bomb failed to explode in New York Times Square. The device was a dangerous Rube Goldberg contraption and for once such a setup wasn’t cartoonish or amusing.
This time instead of giggling and staring, we’re left in terrified awe of the parts this car bomb was built from:
https://gizmodo.com/how-ok-go-built-the-craziest-rube-goldberg-machine-yet-5484736
The device and the way it was designed speak to a “grandiose purpose.” It was apparently fashioned in short order and with seemingly common tools. The clocks were on the floor of the back seat area, and the plastic gas containers were on the rear seat, on either side of a 16-ounce canister with M88 firecrackers. Behind that, the three propane containers were arrayed, one with some firecrackers affixed to it. And behind that was the gun locker, inside a cardboard box, containing eight bags of nonexplosive fertilizer.
Instead of catching a mouse, accompanying a song, or amusing children, this particular Rube Goldberg contraption could’ve taken lives. It’s just another chilling reminder of how the things which amuse us in simple, innocent ways could could be the stuff of nightmares. [NY Times]
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Image
