iPods ARE dangerous

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Grendel
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iPods ARE dangerous

Post by Grendel »

They should add a label -- "Warning: pirating music may cause [your] Gods wrath !" :lol:
Dencer Post wrote: Lightning zeros in on teenager's tunes
Castle Rock boy burned via iPod wires

Castle Rock - Jason Bunch was listening to Metallica on his iPod while mowing the lawn outside his Castle Rock home Sunday afternoon when lightning hit him.

The last thing the 17-year-old remembers was that a storm was coming from the north and he had only about 15 minutes before he should go inside.

Next thing he knew, he was in his bed, bleeding from his ears and vomiting. He was barefoot and had taken off his burned T-shirt and gym shorts. He doesn't know how he got back in the house.

Bunch immediately called his mother, who was in Illinois visiting family.

"Mom, I think I was hit by lightning," he said.

Kelly Risheill told her son to call 911, and she started the 14-hour drive home.

About the same time, a neighbor saw Bunch's scorched green and white Reebok tennis shoes in the street, a few feet away from the lawn mower. She also called for help.

Bunch was taken to Sky Ridge Medical Center and placed in intensive care. He was sent home Tuesday.

"I'm alive, and that is what I am grateful for," Bunch said as he lay in bed Wednesday.

From the hospital, Bunch called a friend and told him he wasn't able to go bowling. Then, he called a girl he was supposed to meet for a date.

"I said, 'I did not stand you up. I was struck by lightning."'

Bunch's ears were burned on the inside, and he's lost some hearing, mostly on the right side. His hair was singed.

His face, chest, hands and right leg have freckle-size welts on them as if buckshot had come from inside his body out.

The wounds follow the line of his iPod, from his ears down his right side to his hip, where he was carrying the device. The iPod has a hole in the back, and the earbuds dissolved into green threads.

Bunch and his mother believe the iPod acted as an antenna, drawing the lightning to him. There were tall pine trees nearby that didn't get hit.

But lightning and weather experts say that's probably not the case.

"There is no scientific evidence to show that lightning is 'attracted' to items like an iPod. However, if someone wearing earbuds is struck, current may travel along the wires into the ears," said Gregory Stewart of the Denver-based Lightning Reference Center. "There are documented cases of lightning traveling through wired telephones and killing the users. "

Objects such as loose change in victims' pockets have left first- and second-degree burns after a lightning strike, Stewart said.

Doctors have told Bunch his hearing might come back if the nerves inside were not damaged. For now, he can't stand up because he gets dizzy and his equilibrium is off.

Bunch's mother recalled the death of a motorcyclist who was hit by lightning on U.S. 36 last month and expressed relief that her son's life was spared.

"It's a miracle," she said. "He should not have lived through it."
Source (w/ pic)

Edit: generalized warning label :)
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Hattrick
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Post by Hattrick »

wow! :shock:

Good thing the flying spaghetti monster didn't want him to die! ;)
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Xamindar
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Post by Xamindar »

Wow, that's an interesting story.
Why doesn't it work?
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Zuruck
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Post by Zuruck »

Gives the album Ride the Lightning a whole new meaning.
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Mobius
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Post by Mobius »

Extremely doubtful that the iPod caused this in any way at all. More likely is that the lightning was drawn towards the lawn mower, and he got in the way.

The tiny wires in an iPod would surely transmit some electrons to his ears, but it's also likely that it'd last for only a microsecond or two, because those wires would almost instantly be blown apart by the current.

A genuine lightnine strike where there are clear entry and exiot points tends to leave a person pretty cripsy, although there is some guy in Oregon who has supposedly been struck by lightning six or seven times.
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AceCombat
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Post by AceCombat »

Mobius wrote:Extremely doubtful that the iPod caused this in any way at all. More likely is that the lightning was drawn towards the lawn mower, and he got in the way.

The tiny wires in an iPod would surely transmit some electrons to his ears, but it's also likely that it'd last for only a microsecond or two, because those wires would almost instantly be blown apart by the current.

A genuine lightnine strike where there are clear entry and exiot points tends to leave a person pretty cripsy, although there is some guy in Oregon who has supposedly been struck by lightning six or seven times.

once again here comes Mr. Perfect :roll: :roll: :roll:


Zuruck wrote:Gives the album Ride the Lightning a whole new meaning.
yeah no shiz!
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Duper
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Post by Duper »

mowing during a lightning storm.....wonderful.

It sounds like the lightning traveled dow the outside of his body.
VERY lucky.
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Top Wop
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Post by Top Wop »

Having a smaller number of ipod-listening hippies is OK in my book. :P
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Ferno
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Post by Ferno »

freaky....
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Tyranny
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Post by Tyranny »

Zuruck wrote:Gives the album Ride the Lightning a whole new meaning.
lol
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