Sunday 9 January 2011

Pocket Rocket goes with a bang

firework accident injury

The world seems to be obsessed with setting fireworks off on any occasion these days, and at weird times, too. I’m not particularly taken with them at any time of the year, but I’ve certainly never understood doing it a few days either side of Guy Fawkes Night or about 9.45pm on New Year’s Eve.  What’s up with that?

Anyhow, I came across this rather painful story on Legal Juice the other day:

Police responded to a call for medical assistance in the 12000 block of Ambaum Blvd. A man accidentally set off a bottle rocket firework in his pants. He was transported to Harborview by ambulance to be treated for superficial burns on his groin, face and hand. No other injuries were reported.

Hmm…  He accidentally set it off or it just activated in his pants?  They’re not quite the same thing.

But why would you carry fireworks in your trousers in the first place?  That’s just mental!  In fact, I’m surprised he didn’t have a rocket tucked behind his ear as well.

In any case, I guess this brings a new meaning to the term ‘pocket rocket’. 

And it’s probably safe to say that’s it’s not something the guy will be repeating any time soon!

12 comments:

  1. I've always been astounded by the cavalier attitude that people have with fireworks. It's not as if you can claim you didn't realise it could explode.

    I wonder if " A man accidentally set off a bottle rocket firework in his pants" is what you say when you were trying to stick it up your bottom (cite: YouTube) and end up having to call an ambulance. It may be a bit like explaining getting strange things lodged in your cavities with "I fell on it".

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  2. Yeah, I know what you mean. Some people just never seem to learn.

    And that's an interesting idea... perhaps the firework going off in his pants *was* a euphemism for having it inserted elsewhere. A bit like that old guy in the guinness book of records who managed to wedge a jam-jar up himself in a supposed cure for constipation...

    :-\

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  3. Yeah, for example in the jam-jar scenario for you to accept his story as plausible you need to believe that an apparently rational adult decided that what he needed to sort out his constipation was to add an internet meme sized solid object to his already not exactly empty digestive tract.

    Admittedly constipation is a very serious problem for a lot of people and you do get cases of people using pencils and stuff as an act of desperation. It's a shame really.

    As a side note - have you ever come across an Eclipse/Butterworth Tolley journal called Electronic Business Law indexed anywhere? I'm commenting from the library just now and Lawtel and Westlaw are drawing a blank.

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  4. I'd not heard of EBL before but I see they're one of publications indexed on Westlaw...

    Seems strange that Westlaw isn't picking it up... is there are specific article you want?

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  5. Yeah, as far as I can tell it's indexed as abstract only on Westlaw. I'm looking for "ICANN dispute resolution procedure - the good, bad and ugly" Julia Hornie EBL 2002 4(8) 5-7 but all I'm finding is the tantalising headnote.

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  6. wow... that takes me back. I vaguely remember writing a paper on domain name disputes as an undergrad.

    No luck with the article, I'm afraid. I can only access the abstract, too. Zetoc, heinonline, science direct and all the other trusty sources came up with nothing either.

    It's only a couple of pages long and nearly 10 years old so hopefully not too vital... unless you're focussing on the history of the dispute resolution system, of course...
    ;-)

    But there's nothing worse than finding a killer article you absolutely MUST have and then can only turn up the abstract. I never knew academic databases could be such a tease!!

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  7. Cheers for having a look, I ended up with an option to pay £30 to have the three pages posted to my house and thought I'd had enough of that. I gave up and turned to the nuclear option: asking my librarian. It's a lot like movie trailers really — the abstract's supposed to tease you, but the thing is you're also supposed to be able to see the full thing too.

    It's a question about what things ICANN has done well and badly since '98. I'm actually still quite undecided but by the looks of it there's a surprising dearth of comparison articles out there which seems surprising to me. It seems like quite a reasonable question to ask.

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  8. This isn't a laughing matter, but omg! hahahaha ;D

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  9. lacking anything better, im going to agree with android.

    on another note, do not mock my candle sticking skills! if you must know, it was a very soft and spongy cake and so the candles wouldnt stay straight.

    and on yet another note. do you know anything about contract laws re: renting and specifically, GETTING MY DEPOSIT BACK!!

    im tempted to ask my class teacher to give me a hand but the guy hates me for reasons yet unknown to me.

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  10. hehe... you're very defensive over your cake... I was only joking! ;-)

    If you wanna drop me an email, I'll see what I make of your deposit woes... michael (at) lawactually.co.uk ;-)

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  11. haha u were just jealous you didnt get to try any! Im telling u it was an amazing cake!

    email coming your way

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  12. Definitely!! ...I was hoping you saved me a slice! :p

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