So this caught my eye: you can take a four-day course here in Maryland where you can learn about explosives, and shock and detonation waves.

You won't be doing this out on a blasting range somewhere; instead, your learning will come via computer modeling. The course is one of many that's put on by the Applied Technology Institute in Riva, Md.

It's being taught by Charles L. Mader, Ph.D.,a retired Fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The course is suited for "scientists, engineers, and managers interested in the current state of explosive and propellant technology, and in the use of numerical modeling to evaluate the performance and vulnerability of explosives and propellants."

The cost: $1,895 per person.

Below is the geeky course description. (And here's the course page.)

After an introduction to shock waves, the four-day course continues with shock matching and explosive technology. The formation and interaction of shock and detonation waves are illustrated using computer movies generated by numerical reactive hydrodynamic codes. Numerical methods for evaluating explosive and propellant sensitivity to shock waves are described and applied to vulnerability problems such as projectile impact and burning-to-detonation transitions. One-, two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamic codes for modeling explosive and propellant performance and vulnerability are described and typical applications presented. Hands-on use of codes for evaluating explosive and propellant performance is provided. We recommend that you bring your laptop to this course.