"Don't wiz on the electric fence..."

[Ben Bradley]

In rec.antiques.radio+phono,rec.audio.pro,sci.electronics.repair, On
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:44:37 -0400, news@picaxe.us wrote:

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 04:50:29 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
grizzledgeezer@comcast.net> wrote:

Urban legend. See
http://www.snopes.com/photos/medical/electricfence.asp

Thanks for the correction.

"Mythbusters" studied this with respect to the third rail on subways. It
turns out that there are two things preventing an electric shock. One is the
way a stream of urine breaks into droplets. The other is that it's hard to
get much current to flow through a pair of dry shoes.

I'm not surprised that this damage was caused by incompetent medical
procedure. This has happened to other people, including (supposedly) a baby
whose penis was disintegrated in a botched circumcision.

There were two or three instances of incompetent use of an electric
tool for circumcision at an Atlanta hospital several years ago - all
by the same doctor. It was covered by newspaper and TV, but no
pictures. If I remember correctly, the doctor no longer practices at
that hospital and there was some penalty (license
suspension/revocation?) from the state medical board.

I've heard of botched circumcisions happening several times, it
seems there's one in the news every few years. Perhaps you're
remembering the incident(s) at Northside Hospital circa 1986. I recall
that one well not only because it was widely publicized in the news,
but also the Atlanta Macintosh Users Group newsletter had the
following public service notice: "The annual weenie roast at Northside
Hospital has been cancelled."

 

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article
<c110a169-bff3-4be2-bf46-feb9e48caea4@r18g2000vbi.googlegroups.com>,
<morcegao@att.net> wrote:

OK, the story is clearly apocryphal, BUT it's still good advice not to
pee on an electric fence. I have personally never tried the
experiment, but I DID once get a real nasty jolt through a stream of
water (much less conductive than a stream of pee) when I was watering
a patch of grass which I had protected from my digging dog with a
strand of electric fence wire hooked up to a fence charger designed
for confining cattle. I don't know the exact voltage those gizmos put
out, but it's at least enough to produce a 1/4 inch spark with each
"tick"... about like what you'll get if goof up trying to check the
spark to your lawn mower.

You can get a half inch spark from static electricity made purely by
friction between two surfaces. It's high voltage but very little current.
It's current that kills - hence an electric fence producing high voltage
but little current.

--
*If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible?

Dave Plowman dave@davenoise.co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

 

On Apr 1, 9:24 pm, "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgee...@comcast.net>
wrote:

http://funreadingemails.blogspot.com/2008/03/never-pee-on-electric-fe...

OK, the story is clearly apocryphal, BUT it's still good advice not to
pee on an electric fence. I have personally never tried the
experiment, but I DID once get a real nasty jolt through a stream of
water (much less conductive than a stream of pee) when I was watering
a patch of grass which I had protected from my digging dog with a
strand of electric fence wire hooked up to a fence charger designed
for confining cattle. I don't know the exact voltage those gizmos put
out, but it's at least enough to produce a 1/4 inch spark with each
"tick"... about like what you'll get if goof up trying to check the
spark to your lawn mower.

PS: I SWEAR the dog actually laughed!


DD

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

morcegao@att.net wrote:

On Apr 1, 9:24 pm, "William Sommerwerck" <grizzledgee...@comcast.net
wrote:
http://funreadingemails.blogspot.com/2008/03/never-pee-on-electric-fe...

OK, the story is clearly apocryphal, BUT it's still good advice not to
pee on an electric fence. I have personally never tried the
experiment, but I DID once get a real nasty jolt through a stream of
water (much less conductive than a stream of pee) when I was watering
a patch of grass which I had protected from my digging dog with a
strand of electric fence wire hooked up to a fence charger designed
for confining cattle. I don't know the exact voltage those gizmos put
out, but it's at least enough to produce a 1/4 inch spark with each
"tick"... about like what you'll get if goof up trying to check the
spark to your lawn mower.

PS: I SWEAR the dog actually laughed!

That's a good dog.


--
And another motherboard bites the dust!

 

[Brenda Ann]

"Dave Plowman (News)" <dave@davenoise.co.uk> wrote in message
news:5046e9f296dave@davenoise.co.uk...

*If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible?

Actually, that was the original meaning. The word awesome used to have a
similar connotation.