>Holding a handset against your ear during a thunderstorm can lead to >Darwinian selection (but it's very unlikely). Ooh! This happened to someone I know. He was talking on the phone, with the phone against his ear during a big thunderstorm. He was leaning against the chest freezer in the shed. Leaning with his hip. A shed with a wet floor. So the chest freezer was ground. The voltage from the lightning strike went into his ear and out his hip, leaving him deaf in one ear, and with severe burns on the side of his head and hip. If he'd been leaning against the chest freezer with the hip opposite to the ear he had the phone held to -- the zap would have gone through his heart, and most likely would have killed him. It nearly did anyway. I knew the boy, and the boy's mother. The nurse that took care of him in the burn unit was my aunt. During a thunderstorm, I answer the wireless phone! Safer! I've had more than one UPS fuse zapped by lightning -- better the UPS fuse than every computer in the house! Cheryl ------------------------------------------------------------------- To remove yourself from this list, email nzlug-request@linux.net.nz with "unsubscribe" in the body of the message.
|
If you have any questions or comments about this page, email the
Webmaster Copyright © 1998-2002 Linux.net.nz |