Twitter: The angel of death

People, people, people. Web 2.0 can do a lot of things, but it doesn't change the laws of physics, particularly in regards to the transmission of electricity.

To wit: A teenage girl was discovered dead this weekend, electrocuted after dropping her laptop in the bathtub.

Why did she need a computer in the tub? So she could update Twitter. About what she was tweeting remains unclear, but it was hopefully something more meaningful than the soap she was using.

Maria Barbu, 17, of Brasov, Romania, is said to have been plugging her laptop into wall current at the time, after "the battery died during a long session on social networking site Twitter as she took a soak."

Additional details are lacking, and are unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon. And it's unclear whether the laptop slipped from her hands or if she was so wet that the water dripping off of her closed the circuit and caused the shock.

Either way, any technology user should know by now that computers and bathrooms simply don't mix. (If you aren't worried about electrocution, think of the germs, won't you?) While GFCI circuits were designed to prevent tragedies such as the all-too-common hair-dryer-in-the-tub accident, they aren't perfect, and they aren't universal, especially overseas.

And seriously, can't Twitter wait until you get out of the bathtub?

Remember: They tried to warn you.