Fireworks safety video/1812 Overture mashup

YouTube user Ericbolstridge set the Consumer Product Safety Commission video to a performance of the 1812 Overture, to fabulous effect -- exploding mannikins have never looked so awesome.

Fun with the CPSC Fireworks Safety Video (via Making Light)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: explosions

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

Jack

Wonâ€™t somebody think about the children?!?!?!
Anonymous

Wimpy manikins. They just can’t take it.
DreadJester

Are those rockets in your pockets or are you just happy to see me??? Ohh ohh wait, those ARE rockets in your pockets!!

Seriously, who carries around rockets in their pockets??? In the July heat in most areas your sweat alone would cause them to be duds in a matter of minutes.

Secondly, those must all be some of the illegal fireworks because I can’t blow up anything with the ones you buy at the legal dealers, not even a cheap plastic copter from the dollar store. Oh they might leave a little blck residue, burn, or melt some things but as for actually blowing things up….. not so much.
Phikus

Won’t somebody please think of the mannequins!
VICTOR JIMENEZ

Somehow it reminds me totally to the Monthy Pytons gag “How not to be seen”.
thekinginyellow

mannikins?
bcsizemo

I mean seriously, who doesn’t hold their mortars like a rocket launcher and shoot them at people?

Personally I like to light the M-80 and put it back in my pocket. So you know it’s ready for when I need it.
frankieboy

Notice no womanikins? It’s a dude/guy/manikin thing yo! Too bad they’ll never know the thrill of igniting their farts.
Cowicide

I like how there’s people wandering around in the background. Was this at a public park or something?

If the fireworks are so dangerous then why are they doing this in a public space? Ok, that’s it. I’m going to light off some fireworks in my ears.
- eaglescout1984
  
  Pretty sure that is the National Mall. It’s a fairly large piece of land so they may have been able to clear out enough room so that people walking by (presumably on the street) aren’t in danger. I would like to note that normally explosives would not be tolerated on the National Mall, but government agencies can break the law if they want to.
zapan

John Chrichton is pleased !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2xBSyVvrOA
MrScience

Eyewitness account of a mortar accident in Fargo this year:

â€œHe went over into the middle of the street, and within 10 seconds of us talking to him, he lit it and all we saw was a cloud of smoke, a bang… When I walked up to his body, it was nothing but his shoulders down.â€ link

Apparently they are dangerous. I suppose you could interpret the low number of casualties due to safety warnings actually having an effect?
jnordb

In the original video, it was said that around 200 people in the US each day during the fourth of July season were injured while using fireworks. However, there are approximately 8000 people a day (by 2005 statistics, probably more than that now….) injured in automobile accidents in the US. It seems to me that we should ban cars….as driving to Grandma’s house for a BBQ apparently is much more dangerous than lighting off a bottle rocket…