Those are called comets, they're sort of just a chunk of brightly burning stuff glued to the outside of the shell, they're usually meant to ignite inside the mortar tube and burn on the way up, but since this was clearly a monumentally huge shell some small thing was bound to go wrong.

Thanks, @naughtybear , that is indeed what I meant.

You're right. Even granting as much benefit of doubt as possible by assuming it's a 34 gauge needle (the smallest gauge I could look up) the nominal inside diameter is 82 microns, whereas a red blood cell is 6-8 microns in diameter. The proportions are off by approximately a factor of 5.

@unklethan "In this example, students will be writing out the shortcuts that the brain builds naturally." If the brain builds those shortcuts naturally then it doesn't seem necessary to forcefully teach them.
However, if a student is struggling then it seems worthwhile to evaluate whether such mental shortcuts are actually being built, and if not THEN teach them. This so called "new way" seems to have more of a place in a remedial setting.
I agree that the underlying mathematics and the relationships between addition/subtraction/multiplication/division is something that students should come to understand if they are to be truly successful. However, bringing the entire class down to a remedial level is just as unfair to those who excel as it would be to those who struggle if the whole class were raised to an advanced level.

Maybe they're in line for the doctor's office?

Give it a minute.

NOPE

IDK how anyone drinks Coors, it's terrible. The only good thing Coors makes is porcelain labware. As for Bud and Michelob, they have a few reasonable starter beers (ie. for people who don't actually like beer yet) provided that you stay out of their "lite" category.... their idea of "regular" beer is my idea of "lite" beer.