Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends
Today's lesson: don't mow the lawn while listening to your iPod during a lightning storm
The Denver Post is reporting that Bunch, a 17-year-old teenager in Castle Rock, CO, was struck by lightning while mowing the lawn and listening to his iPod. While scientists aren't laying any money down on how likely it is that lightning sought out the teenager's iPod, the boy and his mother suspect Apple's little white player acted as a sort of lightning rod in this most unfortunate of accidents. The strike traveled all the way down his earbuds, burning his ears and the side of his face, causing Bunch to lose some of his hearing.All things considered, Bunch and his mother are just happy that he is alive.
[via iLounge]
Thanks Gidge.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nick said 11:40AM on 7-07-2006
Good job mowing the lawn during a thunderstorm.
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the other steve jobs said 11:42AM on 7-07-2006
i live in colorado - the lightning storms are not hard to spot. The sky goes black mid-day, and the hellacious downpour of rain also helps.
This is a Darwin Award winner, not a problem with iPods.
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Ralph said 11:45AM on 7-07-2006
How about, "God hates Metallica" as a headline instead?
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David said 11:50AM on 7-07-2006
I agree with commenter #2. If you believe in evolution, you've got to look at this one as part of natural selection.
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Eric said 11:54AM on 7-07-2006
I wonder if his sideburns were the actual lightning rod!
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Wheels said 12:13PM on 7-07-2006
"Oh, I was mowing the lawn during a thunderstorm and I got hit by lightening. It's my ipod's fault."
I worry for the future.
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DrWho said 12:19PM on 7-07-2006
Damn, I wish I could have grown sideburns like that when I was 17. Come to think of it I still can't.
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Ole Martin Holter said 12:21PM on 7-07-2006
Yeah, I always mow the lawn during thunderstorms...
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Brian said 12:23PM on 7-07-2006
maybe I won't move to Castle Rock if this is how mother nature treats iPod owners....
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Hopa said 12:26PM on 7-07-2006
Aren't our parents supposed to teach us how to avoid danger whilst taking responsibility for our own actions? For this rube's mom to say she believes the iPod is at fault is strikingly (sorry) ignorant. I think she should test her theory by standing in a field during the next storm, holding MP3 players of various manufacturers up to her head.
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Dan H. said 12:28PM on 7-07-2006
The ipod, yes, has metal on it.. That could have attracted the lightning.. Maybe. But wait. What about the... oh I don't know... SPINNING METAL BLADE ATTACHED TO THE METAL LAWNMOWER? Just a thought..
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Quinn said 12:48PM on 7-07-2006
what an idiot. He was mowing his lawn in the plain fields of colorado during a thunderstorm.
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bryan said 12:50PM on 7-07-2006
the guy is called bunch?
fuck me he deserved to fry the dumb fuck! what they trying to do sue apple now? you americans are pretty dumb fucks!
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Metryq said 12:53PM on 7-07-2006
Things on the ground don't "attract" lightning, they provide the pathway UP.
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Forrest said 12:53PM on 7-07-2006
He's lucky he was wearing the iPod. Looks like the lightning traveled to ground via the earbuds, rather then through his heart. While they blame the iPod, it very well may have saved his life.
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Azhar said 12:54PM on 7-07-2006
serves him right...... how can he not place any blame onto the lawnmower, a lawnmower takes electricity so in a thunderstorm it seems like a bad mix of things.
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FritzLaurel said 1:00PM on 7-07-2006
I see a new movie coming out ... and it's name is "Death Metal."
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Justin said 1:03PM on 7-07-2006
Funny how multiple commenters on this post are eager to equate the suggestion that the ipod helped attract the lightning, as a blanket denial of responsibility. Seems to me to be pretty senseless assuming.
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Alex said 1:11PM on 7-07-2006
Whether or not the iPod attracted lightning is inmaterial. What kind of idiot mows the lawn during a lightning storm? You can't blame Apple for the stupidity of some of their customers.
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Dan said 1:11PM on 7-07-2006
#14 - azhar - in the US, most lawnmowers are gasoline powered.
#16 - Justin - how could Apple be in any way responsible for someone mowing his lawn in a thunderstorm? As another commenter pointed out, we could conjecture that the iPod saved his life as well.
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