Chinese fire drill. :)

homerjay

@pimlicosound: More like it will be topped with soccer fan hooliganery..

Noobs-R-Us

@pimlicosound: I'm a Brit living in the US. Here fatal shootings (and probably stabbings) are only reported on the local news!

The figures may be up in the UK, but the media makes everyone paranoid. Twenty teenagers killed by knifes in a year in a country of 60,000,000 is hardly an epidemic.

Ten children are killed every day in the US by gun violence (in a country with 5 times the number of people)!

LittleJon

@sega8800: It's good compared to here in the US, but it can never been good enough to stop Brits complaining about it!

LittleJon

@pimlicosound: I always thought London has good public transportation because gas price is so high over there.

sega8800

The end of the world machine, the particle accelerator thing, would have been a nice addition to the list. TO bad it was pushed to September 10th... It might have been the last thing on list though...

out2getu

The 2012 Olympics will be in London, so we'll naturally top this with extraordinary displays of traffic jams and failing public transport, outstanding levels of knife and gun crime, and a synchronised mumbling of national self-doubt.

Makes me so proud.

pimlicosound

FYI, the number 8 is considered a very lucky number to the chinese people.

aussie

@Crayonwaxy: Happy b-day!! Those fireworks were just for you, don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Kaspir

Not to nitpick, but only the Wright flight was on 08/08/08, the others were just 08/08/76, etc.

But hey, those fireworks were cool. Who'd have thought the Chinese would have had so many fireworks just laying around?

mhlaxp

@Munch the BanNail: Actually, the smog is caused by coal fired power plants to the south mostly... Then there is the weather in Beijing that due to prevailing weather patterns changes every week (prevailing winds change from N to S) until you get to summer where it changes every 2 weeks.

Xavoc

@rgoode: They're not real fireworks, they're just projected onto the smog.

Xavoc

i think all the fireworks are eco-friendly.

sega8800

@LittleJon: You beat me to it. They closed factories, took half the cars off of the road, and finally could see the clouds overhead.

Munch the BanNail

man, i wonder if all that smog is from those fireworks? oh, right. nevermind.

MFlick

Was that daytime or night time in Beijing? Sorry but the haze is pretty gnarly there, and I live in LA.

NagChampa

That should have helped clean up the Beijing air nicely!

LittleJon

How are they gonna clean up all that ash?

rgoode

Another cool thing about today (08-08-08) is that it is my birthday. Yay!

crayonwaxy

@out2getu: 2012 Olympics! Now with laser generated holographic fireworks...and less smog.

Xavoc

It looks like a beam shot from the alien mothership..

FinalFantasy7

Dr. Evil is in China and just attacked the Olympics with liquid hot magma! Run for your lives!

Xavoc

Wow, I wonder how they are going to top that in the 2012 Olympics

out2getu

@OMG! Ponies! Amazing Bacon Drinks: "China has no smog. The fog in the air is not smog. There is no pollution problem in Beijing and it is merely a product of western media. China has an impeccable record of environmental protection."

LOL! I needed that!

Rock on my red friend!

squishyalt

Mindblowing? Pssh! This is not mindblowing in the least. I mean that seriously.

Ever been to Le Mondial SAQ? No? Well there ya' go. Just watch one of their pyromusicals. You'll never look at fireworks shows the same way ever again.

DisposableInterloper

it's not smog; only mist.

joel_roberts

This is the country that invented them, yes? I guess I kinda expected them to put on a better-than-average fireworks show...

Killjoy

eh. 4th of July at Disneyland. Best fireworks ever.

Amen-Ra

China has no smog. The fog in the air is not smog. There is no pollution problem in Beijing and it is merely a product of western media. China has an impeccable record of environmental protection.

OMG! Ponies! Amazing Bacon Drinks

KABOOM!!! KAPLOWIE!!!

Blowing up stuff is SO FUN!!

B1663R

ok, so they complain about the air, and they ban cars from the road... but then they go and do this, wow...

giyad

Holy sh!t! That's pretty cool. Now go back to work and make some more iPhones.

duffyanneal killed WALL-E

I rather see this on HDTV tonight....

:)

aec007

I for one, am thoroughly relieved that the smog didn't ignite in an uncontrollable chain reaction.

Unless maybe, that shower of pyrotechnics was initiated by a guy on top of the building flicking lit matches into the air.

DustyButt

That's neither smog nor haze nor fog. It's the smoke from the pyrotechnic devices.

DisposableInterloper

@squishyalt: lol i think that dude was bing sarcastic, and you labeled him red.

sega8800

@DWD:
It's a lot like North Korea. Kim Jong II has some really amazingly choreographed shows.

DisposableInterloper

@sega8800:
Woosh - right over your head.

Ribs

Great people, beautiful country, their government sucks monkey balls. Hosting the O's there is an international wink and nod to gunning down people seeking freedom. Awesome fireworks are par for the course, all the most oppressive government of history were all about great displays...to distract from their real atroscities.

Do a little research about how Chinese Olympic "athletes"...really slaves...are chosen, trained and controlled, complete with threats to their families. Educate yourself and then watch the spectacle, it will take on a whole new meaning.

DWD

All those factory closing to reduce their air pollution just went moot. I hope our fellow Olympians don't come back with deficient lung capacity.

trailingedge

@DWD: how'd you get that? lol as far as i know, all the athletes are well off once they retired. they have tons of LV bags to carry their stuff, like large in the America. serious, this one swimmer from chinese team 8 years ago is living here and i once help her family to move some stuff. man, i'm telling you, it all LV, Gucci, and Chanel.

sega8800

Why do the fireworks seem really small but in large numbers?

heroineworshipper

@qbrad: lol, i didn't know you can get fake designer bags in chinatown, thought it only exist in china and ebay

sega8800

I got so many goddamn 8.8.08 chain letters today I could kill someone.

mferrari

@sega8800: Yeah, I can get a bunch of those brands in the city. A little place called Chinatown actually. (Spoiler alert: They're knock-offs)

qbrad

well, my words means nothing, here is some links.

Green Daily

EcoFriend.org

DailyMail

sega8800

The Grucci bros can weep in the face of this magnificence. This is what fireworks should look like. I guess it should be expected from the country that invented the tech.
Gorgeous.

qbrad

A lot of the interior footage reminded me of Logan's Run. I wonder how many of those performers were about to get swept up into the air...

FarfallaAthamas

Also, 8/8/8 would use all the displayable parts of an early (19)90s digital watch (y'know, the ones with displays that kinda look like this - |_| )

Themindtaker

@sega8800: I don't deny that if you go along with the system and are successful that the athletes will be rewarded.

My complaint is with their selection of athletes in which all children are screened and then directed into sports and activities where the Party believes they will be most successful and then when they are successful are not allowed to quit or train as they personally desire except upon the most dire consequences. It's all for the good of the State, the individual and human rights be damned.

DWD

@sega8800:

Those words mean nothing to me either. Worry about something else.

vee-media

Here's a nice photo of young future Chinese Olympians in training:

[www.spiegel.de]

Photo Caption: Boys hang from a bar for five minutes as part of a physical training exercise at the Gymnastics Hall of the Shanghai University of Sports. The photo was part of Nir Elias's series "Pain Threshold -- Sports Education in China."

DWD

@pimlicosound: And let's not even mention the logo...

T-man

Not to mention that 8 is a lucky number for the Chinese.
In Chinese, the number eight sounds like the word for fortune, in which sense would mean good luck I guess.
Another reason why it was on 8/8/08, and started at 8:08 =)

Mr_LaZy

You forgot one other important event:

8/8/88 - First night game at Wrigley field played under lights

jbuccino

You forgot an important one for baseball fans...

8/8/88 - The first night game ever at Wrigley Field!

jbuccino

so jesus, you were in Sweden on 08/08/08? I'm in Stockholm, a genuine "noll åtta", I'm sure you heard of the celebrations going on here?

For those of you un-aware, Stockholm Sweden celebrated 08/08/08 with song, fireworks, dance, and a huge water fight. :)

mariathephan

Probably the BEST opening that i have seen on my entire life...really..2012 has to beat this and it looks impossible.

Mike918

Don't fireworks contribute to global warming?

jkffs.

banmojo

hehe smiley face fireworks FTW

flynboarder07

@pimlicosound: You get my vote for comment of the day!

professor

The best part was the "footprints" fireworks leading to the Bird's Nest. I was watching it on NBC (I was sick) and that was some badass shit right there in HD!

michaelleung

@michaelleung

Funny, those were apparently CG - inserted into the live broadcast. Not that they didn't happen, but recording it would have been too dangerous, so it was faked.

Read here:
[www.telegraph.co.uk]

epistemus

@epistemus: I read somewhere about how the last footprint closest to the Bird's Nest was real, so as to make the live audience think it was happening. Great technology, though!

michaelleung