# CSI 12/11 -- question about time bombs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 12, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672 "2003-12-12T22:12:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/1 "2003-12-12T22:12:06Z")
In last night’s CSI, a pipe bomb was fastened to a car, and connected to the car’s digital clock, timed to explode at 8:30 (or something like that).
I know nothing about bomb-making, but I have a problem with this concept: is there anything in a digital clock that you could connect to externally, that would “know” when it’s 8:30? There’s nothing mechanically going on, like there would be with an old-fashioned analog alarm clock–which were (in movies, at least) always used as the timer in a bomb.
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### Author:  [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/2 "2003-12-12T23:14:28Z")
Well, there are digital alarm clocks so there is certainly something in _some_ digital clocks that you could connect to externally for setting off your bomb. (And there have been mornings where my alarm didn’t wake me up but a bomb might have worked. But I digress.)
A digital clock in a car may or may not have an alarm setting but, given that digital clock chips are probably pretty standard, there is a good chance that it had the _capability_ of having an alarm. All you would need to know is which lead from the chip triggers the alarm and how to set it.
A bit of a stretch maybe but certainly much more plausible than some of their plots.
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### Author:  [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/3 "2003-12-13T01:00:12Z")
Yes, as **tanstaafl** says, it’s easy! All you have to do is expose the alarm clock circuitry to reach the alarm-set wires, short these appropriately to set the alarm, and then connect a wire unobtrusively to the buzzer wire to run to the bomb. This last part shouldn’t require anything more difficult than removing large parts of the dashboard, so it’s a piece of cake. Certainly much easier than buying a $5 travel alarm clock, as I’m sure any Bond villain would agree.
I think I’ll get the no-clock option on my next car, just to be on the safe side.
Seriously, though, my guess would be that the little inserted-in-dash digital clocks wouldn’t have any vestigial alarm circuitry, except maybe in the one IC buried inaccessibly beneath the epoxy blob on the board. Circuit boards are easy to redesign.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/4 "2003-12-13T02:30:13Z")
Hey, I only found the other day that the lyric of the theme song was “Who are you”, and I learned this becuase it came up as a TV trivia question on _Beat the Geeks_.
All this time, I thought the high-pitched voice guy was singing “Blue water”.
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### Author:  [@Astra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astra)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/5 "2003-12-13T05:48:33Z")
The song is “Who Are You?” by The Who. CSI:Miami uses “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” also by The Who.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/6 "2003-12-13T18:11:05Z")
How young are you **Bryan**? I recognized “Who Are You?” from the very first chord the first time I saw the CSE opening.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [December 13, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/csi-12-11-question-about-time-bombs/218672/7 "2003-12-13T19:43:37Z")
I also giggled like hell the first time I reflected on the choice of those two theme songs in context with the allegations against Pete Townsend last year.
Yeah, my soul is as pure and white as a bar towel after last call.