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Mobile Phones and Lightning a Lethal Mix
An anonymous reader writes "In a letter to the British Medical Journal, doctors wrote that people should not use mobile phones outdoors during thunderstorms because of the risk of being struck by lightning. Usually 'when someone is struck by lightning, the high resistance of the skin conducts the flash over the body in what is known as a flashover, but if a metal object, such as a phone, is in contact with the skin it disrupts the flashover and increases the odds of internal injuries and death.'"
Also, while you're outside, try and stay away from areas populated by wild pigs.
...I no longer need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power I need?
Damn rivets! Catching my doo hoo willy on fire!
Does that mean that the steel plate in my head violates Australian health and safety standards ?
Hmmmmmm
Don't hold up umbrellas, large metal spikes or TV antennae. Jury is still out on iPods and tin foil hats maybe OK.
You mean "tale". Unless the women around your bit of the world are really weird..
http://twitter.com/onion2k
I'm in a thunderstorm!
No, its crap!
*ZAP*
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
The best way to insulate oneself from lightning is to be _inside_ a metal object, such as an automobile.
Anyone who has seen the Electricity Show at the increasingly unchanging Boston Museum of Science knows that.
Lightning Safety tips, for the uniniated:
1. Do try to not be the highest thing around.
2. Don't stand under the highest thing around.
3. Don't lay flat on the ground if you are at a golf course or open field. Crouch.
3a. Some country clubs splurge and buy lightning detectors. Pay attention to the warning.
4. Seek freakin' shelter
5. 4 may conflict with 2.
6. Cell phones are the least of your worries.
7. Geeks should be more concerned whether the insurance covers the electronics.
8. The rubber soles of your shoes won't protect you.
9. If you are talking on your cell phone in the middle of a field during a lightning storm, Saint Darwin will announce "You! Out of the gene pool!" and take your soul.
and lastly...
10. **"The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that >>metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm," Esprit added.** So drop your pants and toss your belt buckle when the storm hits.
--
BMO
And what about my tin foil hat...
hilarious
This is really shocking news, I must call my boss on his cell phone and warn him. Wait, let me check the weather where he is on vacation, clear and sunny, guess it can wait.
At high school one student in my class charged himself up on a van degraff generator. I suggested he touch a tap. I was pretty sure what would happen if he touched a really good earth and I wasn't disapointed.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Lighting information week...
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/week.htm
Safety.
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm
Check out the line of dead cows near the metal fence.... I didn't see a single cow with a mobile phone in it's non-opposable-thumb hoof.
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
shocking
Or metal object like coins or jewels. no-one ever carries coins. Use paper money/plastic only! it is safer!
Ergo, I propose, via deduction, that you are MORE SAFE if you carry a mobile in a thunder storm. Statistics don't lie.
...and tin foil hats maybe OK.
Wearing a tin foil hat in a lightning storm is a win/win situation. If it works you are protected from lightning, if it dosen't work the lightning will melt the tinfoil and fuse it with your skull creating a permanent mindsheild to protect you from those cosmic mind rays plus the lightning will probably also fry all those alien implants.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I spend 3 hours a day commuting on trains, and my most hated saying has become "NO! I'M ON THE TRAIN! I'VE GOT PLENTY OF TIME!". I always know it's going to be a long ride after I hear that.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
God doesnt want people to marry... Why else would a metal object such as a wedding ring increase the chance of internal injuries and death in case of a lightning strike?
Doubly so if it is captured on video.
Heheh. In South London ver kidz call it "happy-(thunder)-clapping".
... that if you're in an area prone to lightning, you should make sure you have a 1-iron in your bag.
When it gets dicey hold it up in the air - because as every golfer knows, even God can't hit a 1-iron.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Remember when Lee Trevino would stroll casually with a 1-iron over his shoulder during thunderstorms? Oh wait, this is Slashdot...nevermind.
For some people I've been around, I'd say the two probabilities are almost equal.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Hey, there's an idea for a stupid lawsuit - sue to make pants manufacturers include a warning label on metal-zippered pants: "In case of thunderstorms, drop pants and hurl them away from you"
It makes me so mad when some loudmouth on a cell phone keeps yacking while I'm trying to watch a good thunderstorm.
Easy. If it's squishy that's normal, if it's crunchy the lightning did it.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Sometimes I'd love to be able to hurl a bolt of lightning at some cell phone users.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
So I have a Cell Phone of +1 Lightning Damage?
Back off, bitch!
Just junk food for thought...
I think you just made a new meaning to the expression "suing their pants off"..
Seriously the real danger is driving in thunderstorm while talking on your phone while simultaneously logging on to MySpace as illegal immigrants are slaughtering avian flu infected Pit Bulls to buy crack to fund their gang activities in the kiddie porn and terrorism industry.
Surely that would be a Cursed Cellphone of -1 Lighning Resistance?
;-)
Can you put it down?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
If you're going to beat a perfectly good joke into the ground, could you at least bother to spell your words correctlY?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.