Give that man a hand.

[Silentpoet]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-mans-hand-blown-off-fireworks

In which we learn of Floridaman's latest hijinks.

[DAKA]

Darwin candidate   

[Silentpoet]

23 minutes ago, DAKA said:

Darwin candidate   

You don't have to have a hand to reproduce, or so I am told.

[Maser]

Shame he wasn't equipped with living tissue over a metal endoskeleton. 

[gwalchmai]

Same thing happened to my HS bud, Gerald "Nubby" McLarty. Nubs made his own fireworks with black and smokeless powder. He did great with the 'splosives, but homemade fuses are as much art as science, and Nubby made at least one with less margin for error than most. Went off just as he was releasing his throw... 

[railfancwb]

From another thread…

[railfancwb]

On a more serious note, the doctor who created the famous body farm at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville - William Bass - wrote several books collecting bits and pieces (sorry) from his professional experiences. One of the episodes involved an explosion at a clandestine fireworks factory.

His original book - Death’s Acre - included a forward by mystery writer Patricia Cornwell who had visited the farm for novel  background. 

[Borg warner]

I wonder what kind of "Fireworks" it was. Sounds like it might have to have been an M80 t have blown his hand CLEAN off.

 

[railfancwb]

4 minutes ago, Borg warner said:

I wonder what kind of "Fireworks" it was. Sounds like it might have to have been an M80 t have blown his hand CLEAN off.

 

Yes, once M80s and Cherry Bombs were quite powerful. The names live on but most of the power is gone.

I remember something, maybe named Torpedo, about the size of a Cherry Bomb without a fuse. Contained a mixture of powder and small rocks. Throw it at a brick wall or onto a concrete walk and got a miniature hand grenade effect as the rocks flew. 

[Paul53]

I miss working July 4th. Few sick people but awesome trauma. Nothing beats downing beers and flying body parts!

[railfancwb]

Fortunately the Statute of Limitations has run, and most/all witnesses are long gone, so my fireworks stunts are safe.  

[Borg warner]

I knew a guy once who was a gun nut who reloaded his own ammo and sometimes he'd have to discard gunpowder and he saved it up and used to drill out C02 cartridges with a hole big enough to put in about 2 1.2 inches of some of that green cannon fuse and he'd make a little funnel out of paper and pour powder into the C02 cartridge and then glue the fuse in with a little epoxy glue.

One 4rth of July he set one off in his back yard and it was so insanely loud that he instinctively  ran out into the street and was looking both ways up and down the street like he was trying to figure out where that huge explosion came from. His Neighbors were out there, too, and everybody was saying "What WAS that???"

 

 

 

[Paul53]

Read the fireworks wrappers. Most fireworks are assembled in countries with no love for America by very low paid labor. I'm surprised quality control is as good as it is!

[Paul53]

And another butthead shoots up a parade, killing 6 and wounding a bunch, all parade spectators. He'll plead insanity which is fine with me. A long vacation in prison at considerable taxpayer expense is the usual outcome. This is not a deterrent IMHO. There is simply no excuse for the publicity and free vacation (My first job out of college was as a state prison nurse for perspective). Stop all the publicity, the death penalty on the table sane or not, and a short press release following the execution. Then watch how fast the shootings stop!

[holyjohnson]

"A witness told 7News said the incident happened suddenly.

"It wasn’t even like five minutes, ’cause as soon as he lights it, it exploded," said the person, according to the report."

 

First Clue: Thought it was a 5 Minute Fuse...

Second Clue: Planned to hold on to it for Four Minutes of it..

[kerbie18]

Thankfully July 4th was a day off for me. None of the usual 911 calls for me. Seniority has it's privileges.

[ChuteTheMall]

[Maser]

On 7/4/2022 at 9:14 AM, railfancwb said:

I remember something, maybe named Torpedo, about the size of a Cherry Bomb without a fuse. Contained a mixture of powder and small rocks. Throw it at a brick wall or onto a concrete walk and got a miniature hand grenade effect as the rocks flew. 

 

We called those "nutbusters".  The powder was Armstong's Mix with very course media in it such as sand or kitty litter or yeah small rocks.  They got their name from us always throwing them at the ground in between someone's legs. 

Another fun one that we called "road darts" was a plastic straw with paper fins at one end and a .22LR at the other.  We would launch them into the air with a slingshot or just a rubber band and when they came down they hit the ground dead on with the rimfire and exploded.  Since there was no barrel for the bullet to go through, it did nothing.  A few times we used the body of a plastic pen instead of a straw and the bullet would actually still be inside the pen after the cartridge exploded.  

[railfancwb]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:32 PM, Paul53 said:

And another butthead shoots up a parade, killing 6 and wounding a bunch, all parade spectators. He'll plead insanity which is fine with me. A long vacation in prison at considerable taxpayer expense is the usual outcome. This is not a deterrent IMHO. There is simply no excuse for the publicity and free vacation (My first job out of college was as a state prison nurse for perspective). Stop all the publicity, the death penalty on the table sane or not, and a short press release following the execution. Then watch how fast the shootings stop!

Many (probably most) rioting over the Roe vs Wade reversal would riot with even greater enthusiasm if prison time and death penalty were actually used to reduce crime. Their apparent motto: Kill the unborn save the murderers.