Twitter: The angel of death

Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:36PM EDT

See Comments (22)

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.

Comments on Twitter: The angel of death

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  • 6 Posted by twohlrab3 on Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    Cruel comments for a tragic story. Did you see that she was only 17? You never did anything stupid at that age? Very hypocritical

  • 7 Posted by ptm109_2008 on Mon Jun 22, 2009 7:56PM EDT Report Abuse

    They use 240v power in other countries. And it only take 1/4 of 1 amp to put your heart into defibrillation. So getting electrocuted is not that hard to do, with or without a GFCI outlet. And I have not seen a 240c GFCI outlet, in the 15yrs of being an electrician. Give the girl the respect anyone is due, and learn from her mistake.

  • 8 Posted by magpagbst on Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:24PM EDT Report Abuse

    well . . . darwin comes to mind . . . i'm removing that toaster from my bathroom right now . . . piping hot toast during a tepid bath is not worth an unexpected exit off this mortal coil . . .

  • 9 Posted by psunjka on Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:33PM EDT Report Abuse

    magpagbst kudos for the comment!!!

  • 10 Posted by emarr3 on Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:46PM EDT Report Abuse

    could you be electrocuted if the the laptop is running solely on a fully charged battery? just wondering, i don't take my laptop to a bath.

  • 11 Posted by aprkareckas on Tue Jun 23, 2009 1:52AM EDT Report Abuse

    There are a lot of question about what happened. The article quotes police saying she dropped the computer in the tub and she tried to plug it in with wet hands. What was the condition of the cord? Where was the transformer? The source in the article is the Romanian police, but the article is on an Australian site. While the veracity of the incident is in question, the advice don't use electrical devices while in a bath tub full of water is sound.

  • 12 Posted by rivashugo@sbcglobal.net on Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:46AM EDT Report Abuse

    you sure like to write about twitter...is it cuz you don't like it or cuz you think it's the bees knees? the cat's meow? the gremlins chickens? wait. what? sounds hoaxy...let's see what urban legends says about this:

  • 13 Posted by yeevilmouse on Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:43AM EDT Report Abuse

    To People - especially teens, it's become so so important to be a part of the latest thing just to feel like they fit in that they forget to use common sense. There's reasons why you shouldn't be reading your Blackberry while crossing a street or driving, or why you shouldn't be using a device plugged into an outlet while you're in a bathtub. It's sad that she felt like she couldn't be away from her Tweets long enough to take a bath. P.S. just because GFI outlets are suppose to be in every bathroom doesn't make it so. I just recently moved and in both my old apartment and in my new apartment there weren't any GFI outlets in the bathrooms and I live in Manhattan.

  • 14 Posted by foridude on Tue Jun 23, 2009 9:59AM EDT Report Abuse

    Hoax or not, electricity and water don't mix. GFI's aren't used except in new work. Just visit a hotel in Florida---and try to find one. I have worked for sixteen years here doing maintenance. There are very few GFI's in place! I asked where to find them at home depot and the jerk didn't know what I was talking about. This was supposedly in Romania, they have a totally different electrical system. Secondly it is a very poor country. This was just plain stupid.

  • 15 Posted by rogueist on Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:10AM EDT Report Abuse

    GFCI is strictly a US thingy. You will be hard pressed to find a GFCI socket outside the US at all. The price for one GFCI socket (after shipping and customs) is equivalent to almost one whole week's worth of income in Romania. To wire a whole house would deplete a half a year's income.

  • 16 Posted by phunkylizzyswan on Tue Jun 23, 2009 2:17PM EDT Report Abuse

    Well look at it this way, maybe she committed suicide using the laptop instead of an hairdryer. I know it a dark thought be to me a more reasonable one.

  • 17 Posted by leftrok on Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:48PM EDT Report Abuse

    It's not the volts that it'll kill you it's the amps and you only need about 1/2 to kill you. go ahead, try it. let me know how it went

  • 19 Posted by mike.apilado on Tue Jun 23, 2009 10:37PM EDT Report Abuse

    You'll shoot your eye out now = you'll kill yourself via electricity

  • 20 Posted by cerin218 on Fri Jun 26, 2009 2:23PM EDT Report Abuse

    Mother Nature was on the job. Kudos! And yes we realize she's only 17. I think I was told around 5 years old not to mix electricity and the bath tub. No sympathy at all. Nothing in your life is important enough to twitter from the bathtub about anyway. It also takes only an 1/8 of an amp to kill you.

  • 21 Posted by lyricalbob on Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:42PM EDT Report Abuse

    So, if this was a girl in the US who ran into a wall while texting, we would be saying our condolences. Yes, that wasn't a smart thing to do, but EVERYONE has done something that was just as "bright". Stop trying to be intelligent, and start thinking. Blogs are way too over-run by people trying to prove their intellectual prowess. No one is going to give you an award for making the "smartest" comment. Try focusing on being human.

  • 22 Posted by mark.gresko@att.net on Tue Jul 21, 2009 2:01AM EDT Report Abuse

    Ah, evolution works.... a little bit of chlorine in the gene pool works wonders!

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