I try to be sympathetic to human suffering

[Dave W]

But this story floored me.

Teen gravely injured by sparkler bomb

Idiots. The boy, his mother, his aunt, and probably the rest of his family. 

[Rob]

Darwin

[Highlander]

Oppenheimer has a lot to answer for...

[gearHed289]

We made some pretty scary bombs when I was in my early teens - magnesium powder, black powder, sulfur, and the insides of a flare compressed in a stick deodorant dispenser. I'm glad to be fully intact!

[lowend1]

Questions:
What do they need two hosts, alternating sentences, to set up the story? Was it too much reading for one?
Is "Rowdy" his given name? Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

[gweimer]

We made some pretty scary bombs when I was in my early teens - magnesium powder, black powder, sulfur, and the insides of a flare compressed in a stick deodorant dispenser. I'm glad to be fully intact!

I somehow took it upon myself to learn and build all the incendiary devices for my band.  Open flames, flashpots (aka stationary pipe bombs), and we thought nothing of carrying a 25 lb. keg of Hercules Red Dot in the back of the truck.  Even when controlled as we knew how, there were incidents.

[Pilgrim]

Poor kid. Failure to learn the easy way (homework) means learning the hard way - dumb mistakes come home to roost.

[exiledarchangel]

We made some pretty scary bombs when I was in my early teens - magnesium powder, black powder, sulfur, and the insides of a flare compressed in a stick deodorant dispenser. I'm glad to be fully intact!

I've done something even more stupid, I have opened shells and used gunpowder. Oh, the joys of experimentation...

[Alanko]

I did stupid shit as a teenager. I grew up in the countryside so boredom, irresponsibility and a gallus 'must not be seen a pussy' attitude ruled the day, in the form of various fires and explosions. I'm lucky one of these wacky experiments didn't go wrong. One time I booted a flaming lump of charcoal'd branch directly at the head of my friend. By some luck of the draw his 6th sense was working overtime and he ducked out the way, even before he realised why he was ducking. The charcoal lump hit the earth bank in place of his head, and exploded in a shower of embers. It would have f***ed him up! Blowing up aerosol cans could have f***ed any one of us up. Having clandestine camp fires in tinder-dry evergreen forestry could have f***ed a lot of folk up.

I feel bad for the kid in the news story as he has lost his leg. Obvious stuff, but it isn't going to grow back and the guy will have to navigate the world as an invalid now. He lost the lottery for dumbass teenage boys. It is easy to crow on about him learning from the experience, but honestly that final self-aware cog doesn't click into place in the male brain until the early twenties, and he is now crippled for a lifetime because of an unfortunate quirk of male brain chemistry. You can crow about the parents, but I thought one of the joys of growing up as a boomer kid was having endless freedom and being able to roam the neighbourhoods and countryside miles away from parental supervision?

[Pilgrim]

Yeah, when I was in Boy Scouts I and a couple of the other older Scouts used to make small bombs by sealing alcohol in small glass tubes, then throwing them in the campfire and diving for cover. We never hurt anyone including ourselves, but if we weren't sitting next to our campfire no one would go anywhere near it.

Not perhaps our finest hours.

[66Atlas]

We were probably all "young, dumb and invincible" at that age. The sad part to me is the mother and aunt that talk about the lad doing it every year and not seeming to understand the risk.  If I had done that even once my mother wouldn't have hesitated to point out the stupidity and my father would have made me wish I lived in a country where fireworks didn't exist.

[Dave W]

Back in ancient times when I was young, cherry bombs were still legal. Yes, we did some dumb things with them. But how stupid do you have to be to not realize what igniting a couple hundred sparklers can do, especially in the age of Youtube videos showing people blowing stuff up with sparkler bombs? And how could the mother and aunt let this happen? The aunt says "he's known for his boombs" -- yeah, lady, you thought it was cute, and now you're telling other parents to "protect your kids"? It's a bit late for that, isn't it?

Straight up trailer trash.

The reporter at the hospital said that something went terribly wrong. No, it went exactly as anyone with any amount of sense would expect.

[gearHed289]

I've done something even more stupid, I have opened shells and used gunpowder. Oh, the joys of experimentation...

Where do you think we got the black powder? 

I'd never heard of a sparkler bomb before. Gotta be honest - the video made me curious.  But, even at the height of recklessness, we always used a good length of that green, waterproof wick to ignite.

[exiledarchangel]

Back in ancient times when I was young

So the rumors were right, there actually was a time when you were young!

[Pilgrim]

I've heard of sparklers bundled going up in a flash, but not an explosion.

Of course, if you don't ever listen to or read any (real) news, you wouldn't be aware of such things...and that's probably a safe assumption about the age and demographic involved.