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Oh, Good. Another In-Flight Fire Hazard to Worry About
In-flight fires caused by gadgets are back in the news after a recent piece in the New York Times warned of yet another risk: fires caused by the rechargable lithium batteries in handheld credit-card machines used by flight attendants to ring up purchases. The Federal Aviation Administration considers the batteries hazardous, and requires special training for flight attendants on airlines who carry spare batteries (some airlines, like Delta and JetBlue, don't carry spare batteries at all).
No fires from the readers have been reported, but according to the same article, in the last two years, a portable DVD has caught fire on a plane, a flashlight placed in a storage compartment exploded, turning into a projectile, and eight people were injured when a battery fell against a metal seat frame and exploded.
Has a Gadget Ever Caused You Serious Distraction?
Reports last week of a commercial plane that missed its destination airport by 150 miles initially raised fears that the pilots had fallen asleep, or, worse, that the plane had been hijacked. But according to the Natural Transportation Safety Board, it turns out the pilots were working on their laptops in the cockpit, causing the error. Before you ask, no, working on a computer while in-flight is absolutely not allowed.
MySpace Streets Are Safe Again: 90,000 Sex Offenders Booted
We all know the dangers of letting children (or even childish adults) wander around on social networking sites without supervision. Issues like cyber bullying and cyber stalking are things we hear about everyday, but an even scarier subject is one that involves sexual predators. How do you know that the nice 14-year-old girl your daughter met on MySpace is really a nice 14-year-old girl?
Geek Tip: Use Your Strap to Keep Your SLR Camera Safe
You know your expensive camera needs to be kept safe, but besides the obvious commonsense of wearing your camera strap around your neck, there are other precautions you can take to prevent damage to your snapper.
- Wrap it: Holding the camera body in one hand, put your other hand through the strap, then twist that hand around the strap about four times. Grab the other side of the camera body with that wrapped hand.
Personal Safety Alarm: Love It or Leave It?
A couple of my friends recently got mugged in San Francisco, so after a few years of acclimating to this city that I love, I feel like a recent transplant again, because I'm feeling a little paranoid.
Last week, I would have said this Personal Safety Alarm from Brando was unnecessary and unsightly, but this week, it's lookin' pretty good. You don't have to clip it to your handbag like that, but I actually don't hate it there.
Save Me Hello Kitty, Save Me!
By design emergencies are stressful, freaky situations that wreck your mood and shake your world. But wouldn't they be a little bit happier if you had a Hello Kitty Hand Crank Generator by your side? The smiley little device includes a tiny port on the side and houses a 9V battery for whenever your arm gets tired.
Safety Notice: PowerShot A530/A540 Overheats
Though the Canon PowerShot camera is considered to be one of the best digital cameras on the market, the manufacturer has issued a warning that a number of its PowerShot A530 or A540 cameras have a tendency to overheat.
A press release issued by Canon says:
We have discovered that, in a very small number of PowerShot A530 and PowerShot A540 digitalcameras, the area around the battery cover on the bottom of the camera may become hot. We would like to convey the details of this phenomenon and our service policy.
Other Search Results
Should Airlines Allow In-Flight Phone Calls Via WiFi?
In a recent USA Today article, I read about a man who was able to make in-flight phone calls on his iPhone during a flight using WiFi. With WiFi enabled, passengers on one of the 600 WiFi-enabled planes taking off in the US can use any number of video-chatting or voice programs like Skype or Gchat.
According to the article, a survey by the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics found 45 percent of Americans thought voice calls should be banned on flights, while 40 percent said they should be allowed if they don't pose a safety risk.
Crazy Wii Video: Nintendo Wii Safety Video
For all of you that got a Wii for Christmas, this faux safety video will serve as an entertaining guide to your new console and remote. For all the rest of you, it's just plain entertaining. If you have a Wii, and a video camera, read moreThe U.K. Government Examines the Impact of Wi-Fi on Health
With some studies saying that WiFi is dangerous and others saying that it is harmless, the U.K. government's Health Protection Agency (HPA) is taking matters into their own hands by carrying out an in-depth study into how wireless networks are being used. The HPA has already indicated that the signals used on Wi-Fi networks were very low power and well within guidelines issued by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation (ICNIRP).
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