A definate for a Darwin award!

Well at lease he is removed from the gene pool!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39307418

Although quite wha it has to do with Apple I have no idea? He lay in his bath with an extention socket on his chest and the coroner is sending advice to Apple? I don't know who is the more moronic, the dead bloke or the coroner?

Jonzjob said:

Well at lease he is removed from the gene pool!

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39307418

Although quite wha it has to do with Apple I have no idea? He lay in his bath with an extention socket on his chest and the coroner is sending advice to Apple? I don't know who is the more moronic, the dead bloke or the coroner?

Click to expand...

Boy, hard not to laugh at that story! I can imagine a hair dryer or something similar near the bathtub, but to run an extension cord from an unprotected hallway plug -

Our bathrooms have GFCIs (believe this was discussed in another thread), a must these days around water and electrical outlets - I have a hair dryer in the bathroom plugged into one of the GFCI receptacles and the unit itself has its own similar device, so I guess 'double protection' - Dave
.

Man is his own worst enemy. (And being PC, I've got to say; Woman is her own worst enemy.)

It's terribly sad. He was only 32 years old. We all do stupid things, but that really was absurdly thoughtless.

Ian

Darwin Awards was my thought too. Utter stupidity. Plus, apart from the danger from mixing water with electricity his phone would be toast (as it were...) if it fell in! We don't have sockets in bathrooms in the UK specifically to prevent these sorts of mishaps. I thought the coroner was wrong in saying there should be advice re phones. A teacher friend of mine said she would be very surprised if her class of seven-year-olds weren't aware of what happens when you mix water with electricity.

This has got to be Apple's fault the poor guy wasn't personally warned. Get the lawyers on it and SUE!!

PS. Not you Sue the legal sue.

This epidemic of needing to be constantly connected is just ruining the younger generation. They just don't understand how to behave when not staring at their screen..

Raz0rEdge said:

This epidemic of needing to be constantly connected is just ruining the younger generation. They just don't understand how to behave when not staring at their screen..

Click to expand...

Very true. Had a young guy pass me in a pickup weaving and starring down. He was texting and trying to drive at the same time. A sure formula for disaster.

Ian said "It's terribly sad. He was only 32 years old."

But that would appear to his age from the neck down Ian. He must have been still in his nappies from the neck up? Sorry, but no sympathy from here.

Dave, I don't know if it's still the same your side of the pond, but it was the norm for the mains to be 115v AC whereas this side the norm is 235v AC and that make for a LARGE difference!

The French don't worry about sockets in the bathroom. We have 2 in ours here and that is legal and normal. One is about 12" from my wash basin. In the U.K. there hasn't been a problem like this idiot for decades now and the U.K. law will probably be changed as far as sockets are concerned. After all 235v razor sockets are OK and they are still 235v!

Edit : - Just saw your post Chas. I am convinced that a prat phone is a part of the young generations physical makeup? It seems to be a new appendage on the end of their arm? I even read that they wake in the night just to check the dammed things.

Jonzjob said:

Dave, I don't know if it's still the same your side of the pond, but it was the norm for the mains to be 115v AC whereas this side the norm is 235v AC and that make for a LARGE difference!

The French don't worry about sockets in the bathroom. We have 2 in ours here and that is legal and normal. One is about 12" from my wash basin. In the U.K. there hasn't been a problem like this idiot for decades now and the U.K. law will probably be changed as far as sockets are concerned. After all 235v razor sockets are OK and they are still 235v!

Click to expand...

Hi John - the electricity is brought into the house @ 240V (or so), then split into two branches, so 110-120V is the standard - the only 240V socket that I have is in the basement for the dryer and possibly to one of the kitchen appliances (cannot remember @ the moment) - when I was in the market for a new table saw 6 years ago, I almost went w/ a more powerful HP motor which required the higher voltage. I do know about the higher voltage in Europe (been there a dozen times but has been 20+ years since my last trip) - so, are there no GFCIs for that voltage on your side of the pond? Assume not a code issue? Dave

That's right John. Normal power in North America (US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America) is 120 VAC 60 Hz, whereas most of Europe and the UK is 240 VAC 50 Hz. It really doesn't matter because either one can kill you real fast if it passes thru your body. AC current can cause the heart to fibrillate I believe. Have to ask Dave or Ian about that to see if that's true.

By the way, when I was working on the side repairing TV sets in the old days, I was zapped a number of times by the high DC voltage coming off the 2nd Anode of TV CRTs. Lots of bruised elbows and skinned knuckles getting out of the way!

Darwin Awards or no it's still pretty sad. I know young men have a "it could never happen to me," attitude but surely he must have known the risks, I mean the old scenario of murdering someone by throwing the radiator into the bath is pretty classic.
My sympathies to his family and friends, obviously suffered a bit of a brain fade there.

Dave, they are called RCDs this side, not sure what the French call them though. They are normally on the mains input on the distribution board and operate at 30ma if I remember correctly?

The only place that I recall that uses split 240 down to 120 are in the coal mines and neutral becames the centre tap to create the lower voltages at the socket. The only other places are construction sites. Here in France the construction sites are all 235v and they give you a very funny look if you try to buy a 115/120v transformer or the low volt mains tools! I once saw a bloke working on the lock gate on the Canal du Midi. He had an angle grinder, mains. He was stood ankle deep in water and the disk was touching the water. I had one look and walked away!

Mind you, the French have a special attitude towards work safety? This bloke is a pro tree surgeon and was taking 2 largish pines down by our swimming pool.



He was 10' up a ladder when I took that photo! Left hand holding a branch and the chain saw about a foot from his throat. I legged it into my workshop and did something noisy after taking that photo so that I wouldn't hear the scream! He survived that one I'm glad to say or it would have been a complete pool water change to get rid of the blood!

I too feel sorry for the family Rod, but how can you take anyone like that seriously?

When I was a Boy Entrant, 16 1/2 years old, in the R.A.F. doing my aircraft electrical training one of the things we had to learn was how to check piston engine ignition harneses. We used a 'magneto box', an engine ignition magneto in a box with a handle and a dial on the face. One wire was connected to the harness inner cable and one to the earth braid. You always connected the braid last or you had to hold the clip of the other cable and the braid to connect it to the inner. I got it wrong once and a joker spun the handle! It threw me across the room about 6 foot. I nearly killed the idiot, but I never got it wrong again!

Jonzjob said:

Dave, they are called RCDs this side, not sure what the French call them though. They are normally on the mains input on the distribution board and operate at 30ma if I remember correctly?

Mind you, the French have a special attitude towards work safety? This bloke is a pro tree surgeon and was taking 2 largish pines down by our swimming pool.

He was 10' up a ladder when I took that photo! Left hand holding a branch and the chain saw about a foot from his throat. I legged it into my workshop and did something noisy after taking that photo so that I wouldn't hear the scream! He survived that one I'm glad to say or it would have been a complete pool water change to get rid of the blood!

Click to expand...

John - that is a scary picture - where did that tree fall? For the last 10 years or so, we've been using Bobby's Tree Service - very careful, insured, and amazingly efficient & quick w/ all of their equipment (buckets, limb grinders, stump grinders, etc) - BUT, not cheap! Dave
.

"John - that is a scary picture - where did that tree fall?"

Due to that idiot Newton and his inventing gravity it fell on the floor ;P;P A couple of small bits fell into the pool but were too small to cause damage.

There are good tree surgoens here too, but we found a real Muppet! He did a good job, but I have no idea if he still has all his limbs? The favorite dress code in the summer for most here when swinging a chainsaw around is shorts and flip-flops and any kind of ear/eye/head/leg protection is strictly for whimps.

Edit : - I almost forgot that I had been facetious up there? The tree actually dropped parallel with the pool so we couldn't even claim a new liner..

Hey Guys

In some of the preceding posts, people have made reference to mobile phones, texting whilst driving and other less-than-responsible behaviour.

It might not therefore surprise you to learn that a genuine medical condition has been described called "Transient Smartphone Blindness".

This comes about when an individual is so attached to their phone that they, literarily, keep an eye on the phone during the night. The bright light from the phone "blinds" that eye relative to the other.

For a full description of this entity, and to prove I'm not pulling your leg, you may care to follow this link: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1514294

Ian