Tag: KILLER GADGETS

A recent incident in Australia has provided a new and incredibly speedy way of incapacitating sniffers who enjoy the intoxicating aroma of inhalants. On Monday, police were called to the Warburton house of 36-year-old Ronald Mitchell, who, according to the Daily Telegraph, had apparently been sniffing gasoline. Mitchell allegedly rushed the officers, who were armed with Tasers, and ignored ...

Numerous states have already implemented bans on texting while driving, but text-related injuries and deaths definitely aren't limited to the vehicular variety. In 2008, Illinois proposed legislation that would make texting and walking illegal, and now, as textual mishaps mount among pedestrians, those who ridiculed the idea may need to reconsider their stance. The most recent walking-texting ...

The owner of a HTC Touch Pro smartphone recently made a startling discovery when preparing his laundry this week. After noticing an acrid aroma emanating from his pile of clothes, he discovered a charred hole in the back of his jeans. The man, identified as PPCGeeks user kidmet, might want to invest in some asbestos underwear. He had reportedly been carrying a spare lithium-ion battery, which ...

We all like our gadgets. Still, even though we can't imagine our morning commute without our trusty MP3 player, there's no way we're risking our lives for it. Then again, we're not 16-years old. A Tampa teenage girl was almost killed on Tuesday when she tried to save her beloved iPod from certain doom. While crossing the street, she noticed she had dropped her iPod Nano in the road. Instead of ...

Faulty installation of flat-screen televisions can pose a real risk to children when they're not properly secured, according to a new study recently published by the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. According to the study, nearly 8,500 children visited emergency rooms in 2007 because of accidents involving falling televisions. A four-year-old named Dymounique Wilson died in just ...

Hold the phone! No, literally. Hold it away from your head. Award-winning cancer researcher and neurosurgeon Dr. Vini Khurana has some things to say about our use of cell phones, and none of them are good. Having reviewed more than 100 studies of mobile phones' effects on the human brain, Dr. Khurana notes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile ...

It seems that normal civilians aren't the only people experiencing difficulty with their GPS systems these days. According to the Telegraph, England's North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) has told its employees not to rely solely on their ambulances' GPS systems anymore. Paul Liversidge, the company's director of ambulance operations, told the paper that the change was necessary, since his ...

It's been awhile, but the killer cell phones have returned. Back in 2007, we had a rash of reports of people being killed while trying to retrieve lost cell phones, including not one but two sad cases of drownings. Now we have another, similar case. In this case, however, the victim survived -- though she is now suffering from two injured legs. According to authorities in North Sioux City, SD, ...

Last month, 25-year-old Heather Storey was driving to work through Surrey, British Columbia, as she did most days, with her laptop computer perched on the backseat of her car. When her car was suddenly hit by a towtruck, that innocent laptop turned to a deadly projectile. Yesterday morning, according to the CBC News, Sergeant Roger Morrow of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the press, ...

Proponents of banning text-messaging-while-driving have a new case to use as evidence for their arguments. Last week in Boise, Idaho, an unnamed driver crashed his car while sending a text message. While this may not seem especially noteworthy, the circumstances surrounding the accident certainly qualify. According to police spokesperson Lynn Hightower, the 37-year-old Nampa, Idaho native ...

We've seen numerous examples of how GPS can get you into trouble, but never anything quite as sad as this. James Harrison of Graham, Washington had recently suspected his wife Angela of cheating and, with the help of one of his daughters, used a GPS location feature in his wife's cell phone to locate her. He indeed found her with another man in a convenience store. Confronting her husband, Angela ...

According to the British tabloid The Sun (we know, not the most reliable news source), the 'Wii Fit' can kill you in addition to helping you lose weight and have fun. The fit and seemingly happy 25-year-old Norfolk, England native Tim Eves was with his girlfriend Emma Tuck and friend Lewis Hickin when, while jogging in place playing 'Wii Fit,' he dropped to his knees, collapsed, and died. Tuck ...

A British man successfully tested the boundaries of human stupidity when he followed his car's GPS navigation system to the edge of a cliff. West Yorkshire Police told the BBC that "officers received a call at 11:18 a.m. on Sunday, March 22 reporting that a BMW was hanging off the edge of a cliff off Bacup Road." The driver, Robert Jones, had apparently decided not to disobey the ...

Look, LeVar Burton and Twitter are both incomprehensibly cool, but part of the beauty of Twitter is that you can do so many other things while using it. So while you're, say, cooking, you can pay attention to the food and exchange messages on Twitter. Network World blogger Curt Monash didn't realize how easy it was to do other things while sending messages to Mr. Burton on Twitter. So, while Mr. ...

ABC this week released a list of seven health risks associated with the use of mobile devices. Noticeably absent from the report was the risk of brain damage due to radiation emitted from cell phones. According to ABCNews.com, Food and Drug Administration spokesperson Peper Long said, "Current scientific evidence doesn't indicate any adverse health outcomes associated with exposure to ...