Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 1 Nov 2012 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090508/2313164812/dailydirt-nothing-to-fear-maybe.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090508/2313164812/dailydirt-nothing-to-fear-maybe.shtml urban legend about poisoned candy on Halloween has pushed parents away from handing out home-made treats -- even though the realistic odds of finding dangerous treats is vanishingly small. Still, there are some crazy people out there, so maybe it's better safe than sorry. Just know that getting hit by a car while crossing the street is a far more frequent occurrence on Halloween....

• Joel Best has been investigating Halloween Sadism reports since 1985, and while he can't prove a negative (ie. that no kids have ever been sadistically poisoned by Halloween candy), the evidence for any widespread Halloween threat to children is pretty thin. The last update for this study was done in 2010, and 1982 was a particularly bad year for poisoned candy scares. But since the mid-80s, there haven't been more than 2 reported incidents per Halloween -- and so far, follow-up investigations have only found evidence of hoaxes. [url]
• Timothy O'Bryan was actually killed by a cyanide-laced pixie stick in 1974. However, the murderer was the boy's own father who had taken out a $60,000 life insurance policy for his son and was later convicted and executed for killing him. [url]
• Last year, there was at least one report of a razor found in a Reese's peanut butter cup by a father in New Mexico. Chocolate and peanut butter are two great tastes that taste great together, but razors are not part of that recipe. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090508/2313164812 Fri, 1 Jul 2011 17:00:00 PDT Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110225/13081113259/dailydirt-deadly-lab-accidents.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110225/13081113259/dailydirt-deadly-lab-accidents.shtml

Plague still infects over 2,000 people each year, but usually it doesn't kill people at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, Malcolm Casadaban discovered (the hard way) that European descendants with hemochromatosis are more susceptible to lab strains of live plague bacteria. [url]

Chemistry professor Karen Wetterhahn's death from mercury poisoning demonstrates that even experts in the field of heavy metals aren't safe from lab mishaps. Wetterhahn was wearing gloves, just not the right kind of gloves... [url]

Working alone in a machine shop at night is not a good idea. Biology and chemistry labs are not the only dangerous places for students to be. [url]

To find more stuff on forensic-related topics, check out what's currently in the StumbleUpon archives. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110225/13081113259