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Statically Charged Man Ignites Office

Posted by Zonk on from the nothing-to-worry-about-it's-just-a-superpower dept.

Call Me Black Cloud writes "And you think your coworker with BO is annoying? In this story carried by Reuters, a man wearing a nylon jacket over a wool shirt built up such a static charge that he left a trail of scorched carpet and melted plastic in his wake. After he melted plastic in his car he sought help from firefighters called to the scene, who measured his static field at 40,000 volts." Obviously, despite the fact that this is carried by Reuters, you should take some of the 'facts' presented here with some NaCl.

6 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Since when is Current measued in Volts ? by morcego · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Eletrical Current is measued in Amps, not Volts.
    That alone is enough to make me seriously doubt this whole business.

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    morcego
  2. Re:discharged... by cperciva · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Any authoritative debunkings yet?

    The entire story is laughable, but the most obvious problem is this:

    Firefighters took possession of Clewer's jacket and stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current.

    How does a statically charged jacket "give off an electric current" -- and why would firefighters take possession of it anyway? All they'd need to do to discharge it is pour a bucket of water over it.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  3. Oh come on... by CottonEyedJoe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Minutes of Warnambool City Council meeting:
    1. Make up BS story about "static" man
    2. Put Warnambool on map.
    3. Tourism
    4. Profit

    If someone will travel to bumphuk, nowhere to see the virgin mary in someones month old pea soup, they might travel to Warnambool to meet "static man".

  4. Re:SHC by fejikso · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What the hell is salt going to do with that?

    Dude, he meant to take a story with a grain of salt, despite Reuters being a very reputable source of news.

  5. Re:discharged... by MagikSlinger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    How does a statically charged jacket "give off an electric current" -- and why would firefighters take possession of it anyway? All they'd need to do to discharge it is pour a bucket of water over it.

    Statically charged jacket would not give off a current unless discharged. The reporter, if the story is true, was ignorantly referring to the electrical field strength (which was measured in volts in the article). Firefighters would have the meter for this because they sometimes have to find out if a downed wire is still live.

    Now for the story: it's begging a lot of questions. 1) How could the jacket hold its charge after being handled? 2) How could he re-build up such a charge after discharging into the carpet? 3) How could he not notice the massive jolts he'd get touching metal furnishings or even his computer? There's a strong whiff of bs from this story.

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    The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
  6. Re:Original story from the Warrnambool Standard by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Insightful


    If it's a hoax, it's fooled a lot of people.

    And sadly, that's quite easy. All you have to do to fool the news media is fool one semi-reputable source (in this case Reuters). Soon enough all the other newspapers will pick it up like you're living in an echo chamber.

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    AccountKiller