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Jonathan Grant Thompson, the man behind the popular science-focused YouTube channel King of Random has been charged with two counts of second-degree felony possession of an explosive device.
Thompson, 37, runs the King of Random YouTube channel, boasting about 200 videos and 8.9 million subscribers. His videos are of science experiments and are in the vein of science-based shows on networks such as the Discovery Channel.
Thompson has been making videos and putting them on YouTube since 2010. His videos have garnered more than 1.6 billion combined views.
According to the article the first complaint "resulted from a citizen complaint via Facebook Messenger on June 15 about Thompson exploding a dry ice bomb", and for the second:
Thompson said a friend had left him a bag of powder, which he believed to be from a deconstructed firework.
After lighting a couple of small "control fires" Thompson and Timothy Burgess, 20, of Ontario, Canada, ignited a larger pile which exploded, the police report states. According to the report, firefighters heard the explosion from the nearby fire station.
Google Maps shows there is a South Jordan fire station 0.2 miles from Thompson's home.
The explosion left Burgess with small particles of burned material embedded in his arms, charges say.
Burgess was charged with one count of second-degree felony possession of an explosive device. Court records show prosecutors have asked a judge to issue a $15,000 warrant for his arrest
Originally spotted via AvE's channel.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 18 2018, @10:35PM (10 children)
But, he blew it up like a bomb, and a fireman heard, and saw that he hurt himself... think of the children! We have laws to protect people from themselves, if only somebody speaks up to encourage enforcement...
I just cringe at the sloped playing field: how much permitting and safety officer fees did the major TV series have to pay for before they bounced a cannonball through somebody's car? Now, we can't make a YouTube production of some gunpowder going poof without having a legal book thrown at the producer? Cm'on folks, plenty of New Year's celebrators did stupider things with explosives and shared their exploits via Facebook - why do we single out this guy? Just because he's easy to catch, I expect.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Thursday January 18 2018, @10:40PM
> popular science-focused YouTube channel
Science-men are dangerous to The Agenda.
(Score: 2) by arcz on Thursday January 18 2018, @10:44PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday January 18 2018, @10:47PM (4 children)
Careful, they might learn something!
Can't have teenagers thinking science can be fun! (Suspect Mythbusters would have trouble getting made, if they were starting today.)
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:11PM
They started it up again, it's just that the new guys are not as entertaining as Adam and Jamie. They seem to be doing the same type things. Taking silly things from movies and blowing shit up.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Grishnakh on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:17PM
Can't have teenagers thinking science can be fun!
Exactly right. We don't need people getting interested in science. This can hurt the profits of various incumbent industries, especially in the energy sector, and besides, we need more people employed in the finance industry. You can never have too many people in banking and finance. We also need more managers; you can never have enough of those either.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 19 2018, @03:46PM
Please note that Mythbusters was created by 2 professionals who knew what they were doing. You'd have something, if they'd made it big on YouTube with little to no training. Whenever Mythbusters does anything with explosives, they have a permit, and / or a real professional helping them. Explosives aren't something you should be toying around with. That given, the whole thing reeks of government overreach. Yes, it's stupid for them to do some of that. $15k warrant / felony charges for injuring themselves and disturbing the peace seems way out of line. Maybe, something needs to happen, so they don't escalate to something stupidly dangerous. I just think charging them with a felony or two and putting a $15k warrant out on them is a bit much. Please leave felonies for real criminals.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday January 19 2018, @05:33PM
The Mythbusters were more responsible. They often notified police or did their experiments in areas specifically to reduce the potential for damage. This was infrequently shown on screen because it's not as interesting but they have discussed it in other channels. Occasionally they had law enforcement experts or medical personnel on screen for this or that reason (typically when they had an interesting angle - at least one experiment I seem to recall the FBI was genuinely curious about the result). They wore protection and did not run their more experiments in suburbs... at least not without taking precautions.
Accidents still happened of course, because it's still work that entails some danger, but they were generally good about at least trying to be responsible. It helps that they've been in the business of doing such things a very long time though.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by PlasticCogLiquid on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:39PM (2 children)
We need laws to protect people from prison or jail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @11:43PM (1 child)
Robocop!
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday January 19 2018, @12:23AM
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