Tumble dryer bites woman in Weston-super-Mare

A Weston-super-Mare woman is lucky to have survived an encounter with an obstreperous tumble dryer after a simple fluff-removal operation ended in an emergency services tin-snip deployment, a local rag breathlessly reports. Firefighters were called to the scene in Kewstoke on Monday to find the 30-something victim with her …

[Anonymous Coward]

windows for...

...tumble dryers?

[Kevin Gurney]

IT angle ???

Is this included as part of the "Biting the hand that feeds IT" tagline ?

[Anonymous Coward]

ROTM

already? its only the 19th, give the rest of us a chance

[Anonymous Coward]

May I be the first...

...to welcome our new kitchen dwelling overlords with a penchant for human flesh.

[Eponymous Cowherd]

Call yourself a tabloid?

You need to stop using complicated words like "obstreperous", "desiccating" and "analgesic". Words like that would have your average Sun reader scratching his head in confusion.

Mine's the one with the OED in the pocket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wtf?

And the IT angle is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting Title

Wondered which part of the body is called Weston-super-Mare...

[Ivan Headache]

Powerful stuff...

is that fluff.

With apologies to McGonagall

[Anonymous Coward]

A much deserved fate IMHO

Living just 10 miles from Weston-super-Mare and as a former resident of the town, I am surprised that the machines haven't risen up against the natives earlier than this. As Weston was a centre of helicopter manufacture for many years, and still features the largest helicopter museum in Europe, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the machine in question was directed to do its dirty deed by a black helicopter circling above.

[Steven Raith]

It's a conspiracy I tells thee

No, really.

My washing machine has overrun the mains electricity in my house - when it tries to use it's [2.1kw] heater element, it pops the mains.

Not the fuse at the switch. not the MAINS breaker in the fusebox - but the main circuit breaker for the whole flat. Perhaps someone has replaced all the fuses up to there with wood screws, with a nice, healthy 2000A trip current?

As these two are clearly in cahoots, I shall perform a summary execution on my washing machine tonight when I get home* for the sake of humanity, and clean shirts, pants and jeans everywhere.

Steven R

*[Ok, I'm going to whip the cover off and see if the element is an easy job to replace and try it myself before calling the landlords, but what are a few minor details between El Reg readers?]

[Anonymous Coward]

The machines have come to save us

The machines, with their dependence on energy realise that eco-terrorists like this woman need to be eliminated.

I use a solar and wind powered dryer myself and I am willing to install this technology for anyone @ €3k + travel expenses. Though the travel expenses could be as long as the proverbial piece of string ;)

[Maverick]

Definition of obstreperous

To take Eponymous Cowherd's comment to the next level and for any millionairesses reading this article:

Obstreperous

1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.

2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous: obstreperous children.

Can be used in sentences such as 'Naomi Campbell was obstreperous in Kitts the other night'.

[Mike Smith]

The machines have come to save us

There's a scam there for someone - took me a moment to suss out what you meant by a solar and wind powered dryer. Must be getting old.

I don't believe ths story anyway. Tumble driers? Load of hot air, if you ask me.

Yep, the one with the big creases please.

[Ed Zuiderwijk]

disguise

Clearly a Dalek in disguise. Exterminate!

[Nick]

Statement...

I've just received the following statement.

All your hands and clothes are belong to us.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Steven Raith

Commonly caused by a miss wired plug.

ade memoire: (UK users only!)

bRown Right (with fuse)

bLue Left

Green&Yellow Top (Long Pin)

of course could be a miss wired socket, or any other device in the house! but tripping out is usually down to miswiring.

Bones cos if you don't....

[Stuart johnson]

@Steven R

Your 'main breaker' is probably the only one that is RCD protected. Any slight earth leakage current trips the whole house. I know only two well, as an electronic engineer who currently has a new washing machine motor sitting in the back of the car for exactly the same reason!

[Luther Blissett]

Semiotic algebra of headlining

Back in the old days there was "Man bites dog". Or fXg - expressed as a relation. But now women have equal rights, and IT has replaced dogs in so many ways (think: man's best friend, what to kick, Descartes' idea of beasts as elaborate machines incarnated in the living AI), we have lots of stories where women substitute the first term and a gizmo substitutes the second. So far so good.

Extensions are permitted, i.e. most desirable, so: fXg on/in h (anatomical reference), fXg on/in h on i (situational reference), fXg on'in h on i after j (prior event reference - may have its own semiotic substructure). If you can't think of any examples, you clearly haven't been reading L.Reg long enough, because I can.

Just don't balls it up. Don't substituting the first term but not the second - the retiring but well scrubbed Wacky Jacqui has a brand new pr0n lore, and she's just itching to scratch it.

[Les Matthew]

Consider herself lucky

that she didn't have her v-string in there too.

That would have needed some serious hand + eye coordination.

[David Simpson]

hmmm

I wonder quite what she was doing ..... don't women sit on vibrating domestic appliances for pleasure (or at least that's what the adverts seem to suggest)

[ilago]

Isn't it great...

That Microsoft don't make household whitegoods......yet

[Anonymous Coward]

@Eponymous Cowherd

Is that the OED on DVD? Now there's your IT angle.

[Mark]

Re: IT angle ???

a) This is El Reg's little peccadillo. Put up with it.

b) RoTM requires programming for AI (if you really need an IT angle)

c) Why the hell not.

[The Dark Lord]

@ miss wired plug.

Ah, one of the greatest wool-pulling exercises ever...

I wonder how many electrical engineers think about how the polarity of positive & negative reverses 100 times per second while they're slavishly attaching the brown wire to the one on the right, and the blue wire to the one on the left.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC@Steven Raith

So "Brown to earth, green/yellow to live (the one with the fuse) and blue to bits" isn't right then?

(Coat. Obvious reasons)

[Anonymous Coward]

This is not so much Rise of the Machines

as Descent of the Humans.

Next up, the Castle Bromwich man who cut himself on a knife and the woman from Crewe who unwittingly set fire to her hair with a match.

[Nathanael Bastone]

Ouch!

Of all the places to be bitten, I think this may be the worst.

So what? I happen to like tartan overgarments.

[kain preacher]

RCD

Whats this RCD ?? Never heard if it. If you brits used proper GFI :)

Oh by the way, in America you will see individual circuits GFI so as not to trip the whole house.

[Anonymous Coward]

P.E.T.H.A. Appeal

As celebrity spokesman for the mostly imaginary People for the Ethical Treatment of Home Appliances, I'd like to point out that it would be barbarous to put down this obviously abused dryer; any child or other animal would react in the same way.

Please contact your local Dryer Rescue for placement of the appliance with volunteer caregivers that will provide the attention and rehabilitation it no doubt craves.

Yours in dudgeon (high),

Tarquin Fintimlinbinwhinbimlim Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Ole Biscuit-Barrel

Brigadier-General, HMSO (Castrol) (Ret.)

(Mrs.)

[Neoc]

Meh....

This story is obviously dried-and-cut.

I'll get me coat...

[Brett Leach]

@ The Dark Lord.

Not sure about the UK, but here in Australia Neutral (blue) and Earth (Green-Yellow) are common (connected together) at the Fuse Box.

So yes, a miswired wall socket can cause problems, not to mention be absolutely deadly in the wrong circumstances. Worst case scenario can render the metal parts of an entire houseful of appliances live.

[Adrian Esdaile]

Standard dryer-opening technique

IRRC the proper technique is to say:

"Oooh, lah-de-dah! Look what I have found in my washing bag! All of Felicity Kendal's underwear... and it needs a good wash!"

Door will open immediately.

Mine's the denim jacket with studs and 'Very Metal' in biro on the back.

[Dr Patrick J R Harkin]

I for one...

...welcome the arrival of our crease-free, country-fresh-scented overlords.

[Mike Smith]

@Brett Leach

It's similar in the UK; neutral is earthed at the sub-station transformer. This can mean a potential difference will exist between earth and neutral if the sub-station's a fair way away from the house.

They may well be apocryphal, but I do recall stories from when I worked for an electricity company about the odd clever dick who made use of that to get some free juice. Apparently they got caught when the transformer load became too unbalanced.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bit of a Rough and Tumble..

.. Drier then?

[Brett Leach]

@Mike Smith

Here in Aust they're common at the consumer's fusebox too. Eliminates that ground potential. However a ground potential can still exist between 2 separate installations.

Had a friend who used the potential (90v) between his home and shop (on opposite sides of road) to keep a bank of batteries trickle charged.

[get off]

They'll all be at it, next!

Hang on a min here... Bored housewife, enclosed laundry room, ten hunky firemen turned up...."Ooo luv. It's hot in here in all this gear, we'll have to strip off a bit"....

She did it delib.... Errr how did she get to the phone to call fire brigade..

Sounds like there was a lot of prior preparation and planning behind all that lot....

Tumble drier willing accomplice and voyeur, or poor innocent that had to witness, such carnal cravings...!....

[Glenn Charles]

thank you...

for not saying "the fate of the humble tumble dryer is unknown."

--Glenn

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