NEWS: Lava lamp left on hot stovetop explodes, killing man

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It has to be extremely improbable for a piece of glass to hit such a crucial and fatal spot.

Darwinism isn't survival of the fittest as much as survival of the luckiest. This guy ran short on that day.

Kudos for his curiosity.
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Everybody simmer down. Yes its not always appropriate to laugh at someones demise but sometimes its a good outlet for stress and grief. That being said, its a combination of dumb and unlucky that hit this guy. i mean the odds of a piece of glass with enough velocity being able to penatrate and miss the ribs and still have enough momentum to get through the heart is mind boggling, say 50 million to one. But someone has to be the 1 and it sucks if you are.

Life truely is stranger than fiction. Fred, do you know how much force was exerted in the explosion? What is the temperature needed to cause the lamp to explode?

Originally posted by Mephorium
Life truely is stranger than fiction. Fred, do you know how much force was exerted in the explosion? What is the temperature needed to cause the lamp to explode?

I have no idea. But after that im not about to try to reproduce the results Maybe this could be a mythbusters episode except its not a myth. Goes to show: never underestimate hydrodynamic force

Originally posted by FredT
Goes to show: never underestimate hydrodynamic force

I would say never underestimate the power of curiosity with an underlying lack of common sense. Some people are getting angry that others are bringing up this guys lack of clear thinking, and its kind of idiotic of them in my opinion. The guy didnt think before he acted. Grady, would you put a lava lamp on a stove to heat it quicker? If your answer is no, then you feel the way the rest of us feel, you are just afraid you might look bad for thinking that way. If the answer is yes, then you can guarentee that if something like this happened to you, me or anyone else here, the same statements would be made. Get over it and laugh a little. Do you think this guy would want people going "Awwwww poor fella", or do you think he would want people to lighten up and keep living thier life with a positive outlook.

When I die, it is in my will that at the funeral dinner, good music is playing, beer is on tap, and I havent decided yet for sure about this last one, but if I can talk my wife into it, I'd even like a clown or something else silly like that at the dinner. People are too concerned about death and not concerned enough about life, and having a little fun while living it.

I have never put a lava lamp on a stove, but I have pulled plenty of life threatening stunts in my life and have come so close to death so many times I have lost count. It is one thing to appreciate the dark or gallows humor in the circumstances of this young man's death, but it is quite another to celebrate that death as an improvement of the gene pool. The kid committed a thoughtless act and he paid for it with his life.

I have given my body to science and I don't give a hoot what anyone does after I'm gone. The world can flood Times Square and fart in unison, for all I care.

[edit on 04/12/1 by GradyPhilpott]

I have too say I'm sorry for the family and the inmaturaty of my previous post on this thread. Well let's hope that everybody learns their lesson from another man's mistake. I wonder how many various busines groups are going to investigate, I sure hope that a pressured Congress doesn't make them illeigal.

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Kudos to Grady. I'm not sure i have the nerve to discard my body, even in death. Maybe I will mature some with (more) age.

Who knows maybe we will figure out what is going on in your brain Grady.
sorry i just couldn't resist.

Truly, giving your body to science or being an organ donor is commendable.

[edit on 1-12-2004 by slank]

What the heck was this guy thinking, Lava lamps use a 25 watt bulb and take heats up slowly over a long peroid of time. Putting something like that a enclosed liquid on a stove is crazy.

This guy didnt deserve to die but man that was not a bright ideal.

Originally posted by slank
Truly, giving your body to science or being an organ donor is commendable.

Thank you. Not only is the donation of your body to science, including organ donation, commendable, it is easy. The Living Bank will provide all the information you need.

Anyone else notice the lava lamp ad over to the top right of this thread?
Hearing about this accident might make some parents not wish to buy
their kids lava lamps maybe. Lava lamps could get the reputation of being
dangerous even though they're not if used properly.

Okay, I admit I'm guilty of being insensitive - it's not the first time & it won't be the last. Yes, I feel bad for his family - it is a sad story. Yes it was a fluke. Yes, I've probably done many things that if one little thing went wrong I'd be dead too. Fact is though the lamp had to explode - Lavalamps use airspace in the top for expansion and are too cheap for pressure relief valves. These are $20 novelties.

If we see a lawsuit Lavalamps will have to made out of Pyrex or some other hardend glass or plastic and they will have to have a pressure relief valve that will open before the breaking point of the material used to house the liquid - just like your water heater. Then instead of twenty bucks they'll be a couple hundred.

This sounds like a typical case for the...

..MYTHBUSTERS

Death by lava lamp...what's next? Strangulation by love beads? An inadvertent eye-gouging by someone flipping a "Peace sign"? How about a drive-by pillowing by gangsters driving a daisy-stickered VW Bus??

Yep, I agree...the stupidity gene is thriving!

The "why" is pretty obvious, I'd think. If a little heat is good, and makes the blobs rise faster, how cool would a lot of heat be? Darwin Rules! And it happened before he bred, too!