In the late 1990s, MIT's East Campus dorm organized an annual Sodium Drop from the Longfellow Bridge. (Later discontinued after a chunk of sodium survived, oxi

In the late 1990s, MIT's East Campus dorm organized an annual Sodium Drop from the Longfellow Bridge. (Later discontinued after a chunk of sodium survived, oxidized to concentrated lye, and chemically burned an unfortunate clean-up worker who mistook it for styrofoam.) As I remember, the MC of the event would first throw 500g of some foodstuff (I forget which) into the river for comparison, and then throw 500g of metallic Sodium into the river. At least one year, I remember them following up the Sodium with a salute made with a few hundred grams of TATP (apparently called "Mother of Satan" by Hamas, due to its tendency to detonate during manufacture). A friend of mine described the assembly line process they used for making the TATP. It sounded like they had several kg of TATP out drying on baking sheets at one time. My understanding that around that time, TATP was the most common filler for Hamas suicide vests. I don't think it took very many kg to blow up a whole bus. Batshit insane.