I question the validity of this story. The wire in an iPod headphone set is so tiny that it would likely vapourize under such conditions and also, how the heck would such a tiny device be any more likely to draw a charge away from a lightning strike on a tree. If it happenened it was just coincidence the guy had the iPod on. A pacemaker in someone's chest or carrying a swiss ary knife would be more of a draw yet I am sure some people will cry out for warnings to not use them during storms. ugh

Heretic. Techlicker.

Maybe they couldn't hear the thunder coming for some reason???

I heard also that for some reason people get run over by cars and trains when they are using ipods. Hmmm - mysterious.

Thor!

Why did we forsake thee?

I also question the amount of that current that the tiny headphone wire could carry, but any that did make it through would be channeled right into your ears. Yikes. My personal favourite was watching two student painters at hte top of 25 foot ladders yesterday. They were both plugged in and would be very unlikely to hear the other fall.

Techlicker.. that's just awesome wordplay.

"There is no scientific evidence to show that lightning is 'attracted' to items like an iPod. However, if someone wearing earbuds is struck, current may travel along the wires into the ears," said Gregory Stewart of the Denver-based Lightning Reference Center. "There are documented cases of lightning traveling through wired telephones and killing the users. "

Objects such as loose change in victims' pockets have left first- and second-degree burns after a lightning strike, Stewart said.

Ben = gold

What happens if you get too close to lighting if you have a pacemaker or steel bits in yer skeleton? Do you explode? I have not heard about any exploding people other than al quaida types.

I have a dusty walkman around here somewhere, the best cassette technology available, in 1985. I prefer headphones myself, those little ear buds are irritating.

Actually, it <i>has</i> happened to folks wearing a Sony Walkman. See section 6, case study #2 in this doc from the "National Lightning Safety Institute".

You can also fry yourself pretty good by barking on the mobile phone during thunderstorms. One thing I picked up from a lightning safety briefing somewhere (not sure if it was on the golf course or somewhere else) is that the lightning doesn't have to hit you or anything really close to you. It can hit something up to 60 feet away and still fry you like an egg. The only way to be safe is to be inside a protected shelter, not touching anything that conducts electricity really well. Everything else is just playing the (admittedly favourable) odds.

I have a swiss knife in my back pocket at all times and a piece of a hollow point .22 cal bullet in my hip.. yet I was on a hotel roof yesterday during a t-storm, fearless as ever.

When its my time to go, I hope its a lightning strike.

It seems likely he wasn't a Catholic ;-)

I can't believe anything I have heard from the National Lightning Safety Institute since that incident back in 1989.

I have a suspiscion that the National Lightning Safety Institute are the ones really behind "Crocs". They just won't admit it because they thought they were too dorky to market as PPE.

Everyone knows they are a front for the US military.

Paul, you don't need lightning to muck with your pacemaker. They warned my Dad not to linger near store security scanners or it could lose it's programming. Apparently, the Downtown library is notorious for that, too.

Gord, I read your comment, close my eyes and imagine~~~~

BOOP BOOP BOOP BOOP thud...

"Oh no, it happened again. CALL 911!"

LOL .. Not quite that bad. The pacer clinic told Dad they had one guy coming in to be re-programmed every time he returned his books. They finally talked him into switching branches after the third time.

gorthos

Why don't you use the swiss knife in your back pocket to cut out the piece of a hollow point .22 cal bullet in your hip?

Then you can get rid of both potentially lethal lightning attracting items.

You can then share that story with us