[Noisebridge-discuss] My pants got pwned @ 5MoF

[John Morgan]

Yeah, I've tried to think of scenarios like that as well.  When I looked at
it under the microscope, the fibers are cut in a nearly perfectly straight
line, the ends of which have tiny little spots of charred blackness. While
you can see some slightly charred fibers on the outskirts, there aren't
many, and they're all well within 1/8' of the actual cut.  Whatever did it
was pretty accurate.  Some sort of caustic or acidic paste may be possible,
but my boxers where slightly crispy, and looked like they started to almost
melt from the middle due to heat.  My boxers are 55% Cotton 45% polyester.

Also, I took a soldering iron to a different piece of that same pocket (on
the inside where it can't be seen), and the charring looked nothing alike
under the microscope.  I only had the soldering iron on it for a small
amount of time and during that time the denim around the new hole turned
white, very quickly. It also frayed the shit outta the denim.  Neither of
these things happened around the square that had been forcefully removed
from my ass.

I still haven't worn them (except the next day or so after the incident) or
washed them, trying to preserve as much evidence as possible.  I'm thinking
about cutting the square out with some scissors and mounting it between some
Plexiglas so I can someday figure out what the hell happened as well as be
able to wear my pants.  The 'ole soldering badge should cover up the hole ok
=)

I finally found my decent digital camera, so here are some high res up close
macro shots.  You can see how straight the cuts are in some of the pictures,
especially spots where there has been little fraying...

Apparently flickr reduces the resolution if you don't pay them, so if anyone
wants to look at the full shots, lemme know I can e-mail 'em. These look
much better than the ones I originally posted with my Droid.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25605356@N08/sets/72157624447495442/

-John


On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 1:47 PM, Martin Bogomolni <martinbogo at gmail.com>wrote:


I have an idea of how that could have been done, without a laser.
> Unfortunately, either scenario is a bit more scary.
>
> There are two acids I can think of that leave burn marks on cotton,
> one is more dangerous than the other.   A solution of nitric acid
> would do it, but while it would leave a burn mark, it would also very
> likely have left a burn on the skin underneath.   The other thing is
> that using nitric acid would result in the burned area becoming
> nitrocellulose, an explosive (that would have disintegrated in the
> wash).  It's also very hard to control .. making a 'stamp' with even
> weak nitric acid would be a challenge.
>
> The second is hydrofluoric acid, used in glass etching.   It would
> take a while to burn through, and is available as a paste.  A thin
> line of that stuff could be 'rubber stamped' on silicone stamps and
> applied to your pants, leaving a perfect square.   It's horribly
> dangerous though, and it definitely can cause super nasty chemical
> burns.
>
> Those would be scenarios that would leave a nice square 'burned' cut
> though, without the use of a laser.   Stupidly dangerous, of course.
>
> -Martin
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