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Exploding phone battery not blamed for Korean's death

by Darren Murph posted Nov 29th 2007 at 10:49AM

This certainly won't be the first time that an exploding cellphone battery has been pegged with blame before all the facts shook out, but now it seems that the South Korean worker who perished yesterday was in fact not killed by his mobile. Reportedly, the National Institute of Scientific Investigation "said the injuries were too substantial to have been caused by a battery explosion," and an unnamed medical examiner was quoted as saying that it was "difficult to conclude that the damage of internal organs was caused by [the explosion]." Details are still likely to unfold in the coming weeks, as it will be about a fortnight before autopsy results are analyzed and a final conclusion is drawn. Seems that "virtually impossible" notion from LG may be accurate after all, eh?

[Image courtesy of Yonhap News]

Death row inmate unable to appeal, computer troubles blamed

by Darren Murph posted Oct 5th 2007 at 8:13PM

In a very bizarre case, a death row inmate was unable to file for appeal after his lawyer's computer began acting up. On the day in which he was to be executed, Presiding Judge Sharon Keller decided to not accept a filing for appeal after 5:00PM, even though a number of personnel stayed after. Turns out, a "severe computer problem" hindered Mr. Michael Richard's lawyers from being able to print and deliver the paperwork before the Judge-established deadline, thus eliminating his ability to receive a stay of execution. Of note, the legal team stated that they could have still had the documentation sent in before 5:00PM if e-mailed filings were acceptable. As expected, the director of the Texas Civil Rights Project is already thinking about "filing a complaint with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct about Keller."

[Via TheRegister]

Vintage Sanyo fan sparks fire, leads to two deaths

by Darren Murph posted Aug 23rd 2007 at 2:59PM

This past Monday, an old electric fan (circa 1970) that was produced by Sanyo reportedly "caused a fire" which led to the death of two people in Tokyo. Apparently, a fire broke out "due to decay in the motor and other parts" of the fan, but the firm has denied that there were design flaws "or any other defects" to blame. Interestingly, the company has purportedly received "23 similar reports since 2000, including two involving people who suffered burns," but recalling a device made nearly four decades ago isn't exactly high up on the feasibility list.

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, father of LCDs, passes away

by Darren Murph posted May 23rd 2007 at 12:32AM

We'll admit, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes didn't exactly get the ongoing credit he deserved for spearheading discoveries that gave us the liquid crystal display, and it's with regret that we convey the news that he has indeed passed away at 74. Pierre-Gilles was born in Paris where he graduated from the elite Ecole Normale Superieure school after working in "neutron scattering and magnetism before moving to the realm of supraconductors and later to liquid crystals." He went on to take home the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991, and was even dubbed the "Isaac Newton of our time" by some of the judges. Thankfully, much of his brilliance can still be enjoyed via his 1974 book "The Physics of Liquid Crystals," and while we're sure the context is way over our heads, we can certainly appreciate the end results of his unwearying work.

Computers to make the call on your life or death dilemma?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 16th 2007 at 10:31AM

If there's one thing we're a tad skeptical of, it's a piece of silicon making a decision that will ultimately decide whether we live or perish, but bioethicist David Wendler of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, suggests that the unbiased computer may actually be a more reasonable decision maker than your frantic family members. For those forward-thinkers out there who've already completed your advance directive, you have no worries should you become incapacitated, but for those who will end up relying on relatives to make treatment decisions for you, check these statistics. In a recent study of 16 scenarios where the patient lost the ability to make their own call, surrogates only matched their wishes "68-percent of the time," pushing the researcher to devise a formula to hopefully remove the second guessing and eventually "predict patient's wishes to an accuracy of 90-percent." Of course, critics argue that a machine can't make ethical / unethical decisions, but regardless of waiting around to see if this miracle solution actually reads your braindead mind, we'd recommend penning your future wishes right about now to avoid such quandaries.

Strange family sues KDND-FM and employees for wrongful death

by Darren Murph posted Jan 26th 2007 at 7:20PM

Yeah, you could see this one coming way back when the original tragedy actually happened, but after getting things all lined up, it seems that the family of Jennifer Lea Strange will be aiming for Sacramento-based KDND-FM, its parent company Entercom, and the employees associated with the whole "Hold your wee for a Wii" ordeal in a wrongful death lawsuit. Although on-air personalities claimed that the contestants signed "a release," that paper was apparently one that simply "granted the station permission to use the contest in its promotional materials," and the family lawyer believes that no waiver of liability was ever signed. Notably, the FCC has jumped into the investigation as well at the request of the family's attorney, as one of their suggestions is to have the station "taken off the air." Per usual, the lawsuit "seeks unspecified medical, legal, burial, and funeral costs," as well as presumably lofty sums of money to compensate for "other punitive damages," which we're fairly sure they'll end up receiving.

[Thanks, Jason D.]

Sony's Walkman monkey "Choromatsu" passes away at 29

by Darren Murph posted Jan 16th 2007 at 10:50AM

While devices such as the GameBoy and original Atari are more like slivers of history than gadgets of days past, Sony's Walkman has also become transcendent through time, and one of the fellows who helped put it on the map has sadly passed away. Choromatsu, the "meditating monkey" who starred in a Sony spot that eventually won best commercial in the late 1980s, died this past Sunday after living for 29 years. The monkey was famous for his various performances around Japan, and happily retired in 1990 to live out the latter half of his life with his 41 year old "human partner in performances," Goro Murasaki. While Sony's recent marketing attempts have been somewhat intriguing and less subtle than the firm would've hoped, this critter could probably convince anyone that owning a Walkman is a soul-soothing experience, so if you missed his performance back in 1987/88, be sure to click on through for the ad in its entirety.

[Via TokyoMango]

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