"You might as well argue that you can't identify something as a television unless you know how to make one."

What kind of an idiot are you? Everybody has a TV and knows what the fuck a TV looks like. Most people have never seen a real homemade bomb--have you? If you found an unlabeled bomb schematic in your neighbor's house, would you know what you were looking at? Did you have ANY idea that pressure cookers were being used to house bombs before this Boston incident? You known damned well you didn't.

So these sites that tell you how to make these bombs can serve as much good as bad if you bother to peruse them so you can educate yourself.

If you saw a neighbor unloading a bunch of brake fluid or ephedrine or offered you money to buy ephedrine for him, would you call the cops? You damn well better. That's a meth lab in the making and it will render that house toxic and worse, if your house is anywhere close to it, YOUR house will also be made toxic. So, yes, you'd damn well better call the cops to protect yourself and your neighborhood. If you see a house with dead grass, dead trees in the yard, dead animals nearby, it's probably a meth lab although it's probably too late to save your property but you can at least save yourself. I learned this by reading online how to make meth. The authors warn people not to try it unless they have learned it from someone who has done it and that you must have experience working in labs. It's helpful to know, it might just save your life.