Dangerous Entertainment

Thanks to my parents, music is an integral part of my life. Whether I'm making my bed, cooking in the kitchen or attempting to study for class, some music or the other will be on in the background providing me with some soft of stimulus. As such, I found that the iPod and other similar MP3 players are a Godsend. I say that because I have a rather large collection of CDs and I like a variety of music so it's a bit inconvenient to carry around so many CDs when you're looking to have some variety along. It becomes easier when you have something the size of a cassette tape that can carry all of those albums and then some. Still, it's becoming more and more apparent that care should be taken when using an iPod or a laptop these days.

Recently, a worker at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport was innocently going through the working day listening to his new iPod nano when all of a sudden he noticed that his pants were smoking... and not because they were stylish. Apparently, the iPod had overheated and the heat generated by the lithium-ion battery inside the worker's pant pocket was enough to generate some heat and eventually set his pants aflame. Luckily for him he was not going through security otherwise he would have likely have been detained as a security threat and made to prove that everyone in his family was in no way shape or form related to any organization wanting to overthrow the government. Thankfully the worker managed to avoid any major injuries but he did suffer some first and second degree burns.

While this case is one of the first to get some attention in the media, it certainly isn't the first case where the iPod has been to blame for some problems. A few months ago, another young man was struck by lightning and it was determined that the bolt was apparently attracted to the iPod enough that it struck him. Thankfully he also survived but then came the necessary unnecessary warnings about how it could be injurious to listen to your iPod during rainstorms; especially thunderstorms. So not only is the iPod prone to burn you (if it is played for too long and allowed to overheat) but it can also attract stray bolts of lightning. Swell. Some in the media also wish to blame it for the slight rise in pedestrian accidents. Apparently people listening to their iPods don't realize that cars still travel on the roads and have been struck while crossing the street without looking. Strange.

Still, part of the blame can be heaped upon the lithium-ion batteries that are used by the iPods. Several months earlier there were massive numbers of recalls from laptop manufacturers who realized that the batteries that they used in their laptops could overheat and explode. Wonderful, so even those of us who are trying to actually do some work can get some exercise by evading exploding laptop batteries. I guess part of it is the price for wanting to make things smaller, faster and better but without a lot of bulk. I'm waiting for the day when our iPods and laptops will be powered by small nuclear charges. I have no doubt that those days aren't too far along in our future. That would add a whole new dimension to concerns over portable munitions wouldn't it?