Mobile Phones and Lightning a Lethal Mix 374
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.'"
Talking in the rain (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:3, Insightful)
combination when you are hit by a car, the buttons distort the equal
hit and you'll die from a button breaking your chest. wear t-shirts.
we have had quite many weird articles on slashdot, this certainly is
one of them.
if i get hit by lightning, i'd honestly rather die than live like a
burned skin zombie for the rest of my days of sorrow.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:4, Funny)
Ergo, I propose, via deduction, that you are MORE SAFE if you carry a mobile in a thunder storm. Statistics don't lie.
Re:Stat's don't lie... but YOU DO (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:4, Interesting)
Our workaround was for the pilot to fly using Visual Flight Rules (VFR) during cell phone calls and to prohibit the use of the cell phone (which was, in any case, legally prohibited by the UK CAA) when operating under Instrument Flight Rules (i.e. in cloud, fog, etc).
FYI, the worst case of airborne RFI I've ever experienced was when we flew very close, at about 400ft altitude, to the 'hot end' of the BBC Russian Service's antenna array. The instruments freaked out, Russian voices came through the intercom, plasma screens threw wobblies (before the computer driving them crashed) and a 1.5 amp fuse popped in the power feed to a sensor towed on a 100m cable.
Being a Slashdot reader, I've not yet discovered whether or not this intense RF exposure has left me sterile. The whole thing was quite amusing though. We had some 'interesting' times on that contract
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:5, Interesting)
Hey, look at how many golfers and fishermen get struck by lightning every year even though they should know better.
A few lightning facts that need to be stated:
1. Lightning strikes can occur on any day, even in the absence of clouds.
2. Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm.
3. If you can hear thunder, you are in range to be struck by lightning.
4. Contrary to popular notion, there is no 'safe' location outdoors to take shelter from lightning, although your car will offer some protection (read: its a crude faraday cage) provided that you do not come in contact with any metal object.
5. If you are on your cell phone talking to your friends and lightning strikes in the general area, causing you to scream like a little girl and soil yourself, and your friends hear it, they will not let you live that down for quite awhile. Doubly so if it is captured on video.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:5, Funny)
Heheh. In South London ver kidz call it "happy-(thunder)-clapping".
Old golfers' trick... (Score:5, Funny)
When it gets dicey hold it up in the air - because as every golfer knows, even God can't hit a 1-iron.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Lightning can strike 10 miles away from a thunderstorm.
If lightning can strike even in the absence of clouds, why should there be a 10 mile limit?
Or is it wrong of me to confabulate thunderstorms and clouds? Perhaps you're suggesting that thunderstorms can take place in the absence of clouds, too.
Also, can somebody handy with Google please quantify for us the number of clear sky strikes versus "traditional" storm-associated
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:5, Insightful)
There are an average of 73 people killed by lightening every year in the U.S. While each of those deaths is individually tragic, this is a trivial number of people compared to, say, forty thousand people killed in car crashes, thirty thousand killed by household accidents, six thousand people killed in workplace accidents, or even the average eight hundred people killed every year from non-lightening accidental electrocution.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:3, Interesting)
Shouldn't that be:
3. If you can hear thunder, Thor missed you. This time.
The lightning that hits you, you won't hear. They're like the mob that way.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:2, Insightful)
But seriously, have you been out in the world lately? People use their mobile phones EVERYWHERE, at ALL TIMES. It's becoming extremely annoying.
People aren't going to ask whether they should use their mobile in a t-storm. It will never occur to them that a thunderstorm is a reason to stop talking on the phone as usual.
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:5, Funny)
Are you kidding? (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly, when I saw this Penny Arcade comic strip [penny-arcade.com], I thought I had actually been around people like that.
What makes you think that that kinda people would stop talking in a thunderstorm? I can just see the same specimens under some crude picnic/fishing/bus/whatever shelter, screaming into the phone, "YES, I'M IN THE WOODS! CAN YOU HEAR ME? IN THE WOODS! WHAT WAS THAT? THERE'S A THUNDERSTORM HERE! CAN YOU HEAR ME? THUNDERSTORM!" Or I can just see the girl mentioned above shivering under some tree in the rain, but unwilling to stop being in contact with her boyfriend even then.
Re:Are you kidding? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Talking in the rain (Score:3, Funny)
Metal objects ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Odd, my cellphone practically has no metal surfaces
At lightning voltages (Score:5, Informative)
Re:At lightning voltages (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:5, Informative)
Guess what, neither does air, and that doesn't stop lightning!
Your cellphone does have many internal parts that are metal (including conductive surfaces right next to your mouth and ear). If lightning can find a less resistive path to ground it will take it. Metal objects mean that lightning has to ionize a few cm less air (and if the storm is lucky, the human body will reduce the rest of the distance to ground).
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:5, Informative)
Right. But if you get hit by lightning, you're pretty much fscked already.
Your cellphone does have many internal parts that are metal (including conductive surfaces right next to your mouth and ear). If lightning can find a less resistive path to ground it will take it.
If it has the choice between going through air/plastic and tissue, tissue will be the least resistive path. Even a mm of air has more resistance than the human body from head to toe.
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:2)
No, that was the point of TFA. Holding a phone will incease the damage.
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:5, Funny)
Back off, bitch!
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:2)
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:2)
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:5, Funny)
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"
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:4, Interesting)
(head downhill, fast, get your pack off your back, and if/when you stop huddle down and keep your feet together, since even a close strike will have enough voltage drop across the ground to go up one leg and down the other if you're standing straddling something.)
Re:Metal objects ? (Score:2)
So you're telling me... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So you're telling me... (Score:2)
Now will you finally tell us what this secret project of yours is ?
Re:So you're telling me... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:So you're telling me... (Score:2, Redundant)
Now to do the stereotypical thing and quote wikipedia (which is always accurate to the letter, just like the King James Bible):
"Marty carries a snapshot of himself with his sister and brother, and 1955 Doc Brown discovers they are fading out, first Dave, the oldest, then Linda. Marty finds himself stranded, not having brought any additional plutonium back with him. The plutonium is used to create the "1.21 gigawatts" of electricity used to power the flux capac
Guess everone better take off their Levis then. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Guess everone better take off their Levis then. (Score:5, Funny)
You can laugh matie, but I still have a permenent brand on my arse from when I came off my motorbike and slid along the tarmac wearing jeans.
The denim held up fine, but the rivit heated up during the slide and gave me a DEEP burn :-)
Re:Guess everone better take off their Levis then. (Score:2)
And if you are hit by lightning... (Score:2, Informative)
I am no expert, but I would say:
1 - the risk of being hit is quite small if you behave with common sense (for one, stay inside!)
2 - if you are hit, the consequences are quite severe anyway (die or very bad injury) so wether you carry a mobile or not should be a minor difference in the whole picture...
It would be one thing if they said it is more LIKELY to be hit if you used the mobile, but that I cannot deduct from the statement, or?
Re:And if you are hit by lightning... (Score:2)
Of course, you might lose control from the sudden flash and boom...
Re:And if you are hit by lightning... (Score:3, Funny)
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.
What about piercings (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What about piercings (Score:5, Funny)
And what about my tin foil hat...
Re:What about piercings (Score:2)
Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:5, Insightful)
Edited paragraph, without the nonsense: "The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects... should not be used (or carried) outdoors during a thunderstorm..."
The warning about metal and lightning has nothing particularly to do with cell phones. A tiny cell phone is not the biggest hazard. Don't use metal umbrellas during lightning storms.
Don't fly kites with metal string. (Or any kite. Lightning travels on non-metallic paths sometimes.)
Re:Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes. Here (in my city) we have a big beach and generally there are a lot of guys surfing. One day (during a lightning storm) one of them with a little piece of metal in his board was hited by a light (he dies instantly).
It seems that you know what you are talking about, i remember that day... all the local news suddenly becomes, "experts on electrical storms". They give a lot of recommendations (do not
Re:Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:2, Interesting)
When I was a student, I used to know someone who loved windsurfing during thunderstorms. He also liked to sit on the (flat, copper) roof of the (steel framed) halls of residence during thunderstorms. He didn't see anything wrong with this, despite the fact he was studying physics.
Sometimes I wonder if he is still alive.
Re:Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:2)
Lightning sometimes travels on non-metallic paths??
Lightning is sometimes guided... (Score:2)
Re:Another disgusting pseudo-science article (Score:2)
I've walked through airport metal detectors with my Sony T616 a dozen times because I forgot to take it out of my pocket.
old wives tail? (Score:2)
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
You are not allowed to your phone at a petrol station because it may spark and risk a fire. That is the most phantasmagorical bull one could ever think of. Real reason is that some of the older reed contact based counters could miscount and you could deprieve Gordon Brown of some of his "hard earned" pennies.
Anywhere on the territory of a hospital so that you do not interfere with sensitive medical equipment. Another phantasmagorical bull.
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
Depends on how low quality the lithium battery is, or how badly you mistreat it.
Anywhere on the territory of a hospital so that you do not interfere with sensitive medical equipment.
There are some places (close to the equipment) where a cellphone can severely fsck up measurements (for example, cause ECGs to record pacemakes pulse when there aren't any). However, you need to be really close (within one meter, preferably closer).
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
There are. No doubt. Around 0.1% of a hospital territory. And definitely not the hospital toilets or the non-intensive wards where there is no kit whatsoever. There it is entirely a matter of money. If it wasn't a matter of money, NHS would not have investigated the possibility of putting distributed antenna systems and/or picocells in the hospitals. Which they did. Multiple times over the years.
The only re
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
Yep, there's no denying that. The "no cellphone" rule is a classic example for punishing the 99.9% that are considerate because of the 0.1% that are idiots and will park their cellphone on top of sensitive medical equipment.
It's also a liability issue. Some lawyer will find a way to pass the buck to the hospital in case of an incidents, even if it is completely unrelated.
bollocks (Score:5, Interesting)
Way to go.
I'm sitting here next to a commercial ECG telemetry system. By taking a call with my cell phone and walking around near the telemetry transmitters, I can *see* the interference on the monitor screen. I can also *see* the interference as I walk near clinical trials subjects with holter ECG recorders on. I'm doing it now: the disturbances are also present in the electronic data captured from those ECG machines.
If I were to go to our sister site and make a call within earshot of the coronary care unit, I'd get punched for using one because it *visibly and demonstrably* fucks up the readings and traces which are used for live, safety-critical monitoring.
Sure, there are areas of hospitals where it won't affect anything, but there are areas where it will, and it's safer and easier to ban the use over a wider area rather than trying to enforce a policy of allowing it in one room but not the one next to it.
Banning mobile phones in certain areas is just common sense - it's all about whether you can prove, beyond all doubt, that it *doesn't* interfere. If there's any doubt, or you just can't prove it, don't do it.
Re:bollocks (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep. I'm actually developing patient monitoring devices, and have my cellphone next to the ECG I'm working on gives me a nice 1-second warning on the screen of the patient monitor before the thing is actually going to ring.
It's nothing compared to other things we have to deal with (electrosurgery, for example), but then again, doctors _know_ that they can expect the ECG to be distorted when they push the button on the ESU probe.
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
Re:old wives tail? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:old wives tail? (Score:2)
Even in Australia. Don't they teach you basic anatomy anymore ?
I'd of thought (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'd of thought (Score:2)
Metal phones? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does it have to be metal in contact with the skin?
In other news ... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe OK??? (Score:5, Funny)
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.
In other news .... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is suspected that some natural forces can be injurious to human health. MORE FUNDING is needed to study these phenomena.
Seriously, every slash-dotter must be aware that conductive objects on or near the body - jewelery is the obvious and most likely candidate - will act as a focus for energy transmission during a lightning strike. Belt buckles and shoe nails used to be the problem in earlier times.
This can turn a survivable accident into a fatal accident. But should we all buy plastic-mounted diamond studs? Do we want to live forever? Or do we want to welcome our new insulated overlords.....?
Re:In other news .... (Score:2)
a) Children learn, and
b) Alcohol make students drunk.
I know these were legitimate studies, but they were done some years ago (1980's), and are in need of independent confirmation.
Hello!? (Score:4, Funny)
No, its crap!
*ZAP*
WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:5, Funny)
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
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:2)
What if a building is the highest "thing" around?
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:2)
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:5, Informative)
(For the impatient, lightning is 92 on the list, other gems are accidents, self-harm, assault, accidental poisoning, falling down, drugs, walking down the street, cars, bikes and things, fire, #28 is getting medical care, etc. Fun list!)
64 Nontransport Unintentional (Accidental) Injuries [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
118 Intentional self-harm [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
211 Assault [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
212 Accidental poisoning by and exposure to noxious substances [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
218 Intentional self-harm by firearm [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
228 Car occupant [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
229 Falls [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
247 Other and unspecified land transport accidents [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
264 Other and unspecified person [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
315 Assault by firearm [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
451 Narcotics and psychodysleptics [hallucinogens] n.e.c. [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
472 Other and unspecified fall [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
490 Accidental exposure to other and unspecified factors and sequelae [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
541 Other and unspecified drugs, medicaments, and biologicals [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
576 Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation, and suffocation [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
612 Pedestrian [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
675 Other accidental threats to breathing [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
679 Intentional self-poisoning [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
771 Event of undetermined intent [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
869 Occupant of pick-up truck or van [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
997 Other and unspecified means and sequelae [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1032 Other fall on same level [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1081 Accidental drowning and submersion [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1117 Poisoning [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1159 Motorcycle rider [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1179 Exposure to smoke, fire and flames [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1267 Inhalation and ingestion of other objects causing obstruction of respiratory tract [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1310 Complications of medical and surgical care and sequelae [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1366 Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1433 Other and unspecified means and sequelae [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1471 Uncontrolled fire in building or structure [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
1796 Assault by sharp object [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
2331 Fall on and from stairs and steps [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
2811 Drowning and submersion while in or falling into natural water [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
3056 Exposure to forces of nature [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
3285 Other and unspecified drowning and submersion [[ more characters to get past the lame lameness filter ]]
3638 Antiepileptic, sedative-hy
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:2)
No. It just went through hundreds of meters of air, a bit of rubber in your wheels won't make the slightest difference. Not to mention that whatever protection rubber gives you is probably counteracted by your car being metallic.
What protects you is that the car acts as a faraday cage, with the current flowing on the outside of it.
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:2)
No. The few cm from the car's frame to the ground are pretty much irrelevant. Google for "Farady's cage" for an explanation of the effect.
Why's that?
Because if the lightning strikes somewhere close to you, current flows through the ground. If you're flat on the ground, your body might become the path of least resistance for this current. If you crouch (and keep your hands and feet close together) this is less likely to
Re:WTF is this about metal objects? (Score:2)
"Isn't it the rubber in the tires that does the good though? Not so much the metal frame?"
The electricity travels along the surface in what is called "skin effect". The electricity follows the outside of the vehicle to ground. However, this does not work if your car has a fiberglas or plastic body. Saturn and Corvette owners are hosed.
The rubber in the tires does nothing, just like "teh googles."
"Why's that?"
Why crouch? Because lightning will travel along the ground. If you lay flat, it increases the c
Well, at least when you're hit using a cell phone (Score:2)
Now if you want science... Checkout the cows! (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/week.htm [noaa.gov]
Safety.
http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/outdoors.htm [noaa.gov]
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
Re:Now if you want science... Checkout the cows! (Score:2)
wow (Score:2, Funny)
Mobile phones and lightning? (Score:2)
Forgive me for responding to the article, but .... (Score:3, Interesting)
Is it just me that finds the 'flashover' principle slightly improbable? Now, I'm not a physics PhD (but then again neither were the *doctors* who wrote the letter to the BMJ, presumably!) but this was a notion first suggested by Nikolai Tesla. He hypothesised that he was able to pass the enormous voltages of his Tesla Coil across himself without feeling pain because it was so fast it 'crawled across his skin'. It has since been shown by far greater physicists than I that this was little more than a theory; it has no basis in Physical fact.
In actual fact, the reason he felt no pain was that the potential difference across his body and the floor (voltage to thee and me) was so high, and of such high frequency, that the AC current was oscillating faster than the nerves can respond - in much the same way as we like our CRTs to refresh at a faster rate than our eyes can, we just don't see it happening. As a result, his nerves never responded to the high frequency arc of electricity. If it was sustained, he would certainly feel his skin burn, and death would ensue (as continued high current has a nasty nasty tendency to do!)
In case it wasn't obvious...the arcs of electricity produced by a Tesla Coil are almost identical to lightning, in that they require a high enough potential difference to ionise the air to arc. He essentially shot (small) bolts of lightning across himself in the process of demonstrating his new-fangled AC.
So what am I saying? Well, I don't really feel the 'flashover' idea holds its own weight. Finally, who wouldn't expect a lightning strike to demobilise a person? If you ask me, she's frightfully lucky to be alive at all...
Nothing to see here... (Score:2)
They reported the case of a 15-year-old girl who was using her phone in a park when she was hit during a storm [...] "This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lighting strike injuries,"
In other news, some dude has been hit by a lightning while having a boner. Education is necessary to highlight the fact that an erect penis will increase your odds of being s
Re:Nothing to see here... (Score:2)
Doctors and EE's shouldnt switch jobs (Score:5, Insightful)
Doctors and EE's shouldnt switch jobs indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
80% of people who get hit by lightning recover [outdoorplaces.com] and "lightning often flashes over the outside of a victim, sometimes blowing off the clothes but leaving few external signs of injury and few, if any, burns." [uic.edu]
Now, I won't presume to try to explain exactly why that is because, not knowing much about biology, I don't understand the composition of the human body enough to even make an educated guess. However, considering it is observed to happen you can't argue that flashover doesn't exist.
It's official (Score:2, Funny)
It's a start (Score:2)
Lee Trevino (Score:2, Funny)
Act of God? (Score:2)
Nice one, God - smite the loud-mouthed bastards.
Insignificant but spectacular risks (Score:4, Insightful)
This whole story is based on a letter (not a peer-reviewed article) describing essentially anecdotal evidence that using a mobile phone increases your risk of injury given that you have been struck by lightning. The letter does not say that using a mobile phone increases your (negligible) chances of being struck by lightning.
This story says a lot about the inability of people (including doctors, it would seem) to evaluate risks. I'm surprised the British Medical Journal decided to publish the letter.
I've seen it in action... (Score:2)
Midway through the day, lightening struck a woman one section over from where I was sitting. She was talking on her cell phone at the time.
She wasn't at the highest point in the stadium, and in no other way seemed to differentiate herself from those around her.
About 15min later the rest of the thunderstorm moved into the area. But the bolt that hit her was the first hint a storm
I beleive this was busted by Mythbusters all ready (Score:3, Informative)
In fact.. to get the lighning to always strike a head with a piercing on it they had to have about 5lbs worth of metal on or in the head target, and rarely did it actually HIT the metal in the head (untill they added the 5lbs or so.. the big metal door knob in the head finally did it).
Statisticly.. the metal you wear or a phone is not going to make you more of a lightning magnet than no metal / cell phone.
It is still wise though to bend over and grab your toes if you are out in the middle of a lightning storm, they say the ass is the safest place to get hit....
everythings a conductor (Score:3, Informative)
Zapped on the phone while driving and Myspace (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Mythbusters (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Mythbusters (Score:2)
Lots of people survive lightning strikes.
Re:Mythbusters (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Mythbusters (Score:2)
Disclaimer : I haven't finished my first coffee yet.
You'd be surprised (Score:3, Funny)
For some people I've been around, I'd say the two probabilities are almost equal.