Electrifying Stats

"Don't stand under a tree when its raining, or when there's lightning!"...
We used to hear that when we are young. That still holds true now....

However, a year or even just months later, you may hear parent's telling their children: "Don't listen to your iPod when its raining!".

What's a phenomenon and deemed as a music revolution has lately become a target of nature. It has become an electrifying experience for a few users. And thats not about the tunes either. Rather, its related to rain and lightning.

Recently, according to the newspaper, a Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums, and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player's wires. And furthermore, it wasn't even raining, but only a storm in a distance.

"Yikes! more hazards" may be one pertinent thought now. A questionable thing is that, if electronics was to blame here, why is this happening only to iPods? Last summer, a Colorado teen also ended up being struck by lightning when he was listening to the iPod while mowing the lawn.

In fact, any of these could happen to anyone bearing an electronic device on them. And frankly, everyone would have at least one on them nowadays. Maybe they were the tallest in the area? I don't by that argument. What I can accept is that now, with the huge success of iPods, majority of the people own one, whether its an iPod, mini, nano and so on. (Sadly, I don't have any of them). Thus with such a large sample, the chances of lightning striking a person with an iPod is very high.

For all we know, its just an unfortunate accident and a case of bad publicity for it.
However, I guess its best to err on the safer side and keep that music player in your bag or pocket (if you feel safe enough) when its raining, lest it becomes too electrifying to handle.