Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1006

Is It Really Possible to Die By Peeing on the Third Rail? An Investigation

Last night a man reportedly was killed while peeing on the third rail of the G train in Brooklyn, leading to a renewed debate over the myth that one can actually kill oneself by taking a leak on the super electrified subway track. The report from the New York Post suggests that the man indeed died because his pee came in contact with the deadly rail. "A drunken man was electrocuted and killed relieving himself on the third rail in Brooklyn this morning, sources said," reads the report. But, both the Manhattan Transportation Authority and law enforcement officials have denied a "whiz-3rd rail connection" to the Wall Street Journal's transportation reporter Tedd Man. So, it sounds more like the man fell while peeing onto the third rail and then got electrocuted and died. But, that doesn't mean it's not possible to die in such a manner. We investigate.

The idea behind the myth makes scientific sense: an electrical current could travel up the stream of urine through one's penis, thus causing a jolt. Or, as a couple of New York City kids put it to a homeless man on the verge of peeing to his death: "Your dick will get blasted, bro." A Yahoo answers commenter also insists the risk is serious, real, and terrifying: "Electricity can arc across gaps in your pee and zap you right in the nuts. Penile electrocution is very painful. And if the electrical current is sustained, your testicles will explode."

There have been plenty of reports of death while peeing, but few have confirmed that the pee-to-rail contact was the actual cause of death, rather than electrocution for touching a 600-plus-volt line. A 1967 news story suggests it happened, but the coroners don't sound certain of the cause of death. "In all probability, he was dead from electrocution before the train ever hit his body," reads the autopsy. More likely, the rail caused a jolt through his fingers and penis, causing him to fall on the rail.

In fact, most of the tales of death by pee carefully word the incident so that either the urine stream or contact with the actual rail could have killed the man. A 1977 court case reads: "At this point, he apparently proceeded into the CTA's [Chicago Transit Authority] right-of-way in order to urinate. In the process of doing so, he came into contact with the third rail, and suffered fatal injuries." That final clause suggests that more than his pee touched the rail. The Daily Mail reported a Polish man died in Britain while whizzing. Authorities, however, found him slumped over the rail, questioning the actual cause of death. An ex-Marine died in Chicago after "climbing on electrified train tracks to urinate," reported the Daily Mail in 2012. But, that definitively said he fell on the rail. 

[image error]

Once, however, a medical examiner cited the phenomenon as a cause of death in a 1991 Chicago incident, suggesting it can happen. While it is possible, a 2009 Mythbusters found it would be incredibly unlikely in practice. When people pee, it often dribbles, as pictured in the GIF from the show at right. To conduct electricity, one would have to reach a League of Their Own stream levels. Certainly, drunken people have very full bladders. But, it would take zero wavering and a hefty go at it. That same MythBusters program says the act has not once led to someone's death in the New York City subway, but that was back in 2009. 

In any case, for safety's sake, we'd suggest not peeing on the third rail ever because: Why risk it? Also, peeing in public makes the subway smell worse than it already does. 

       

Death Toll Rises to 13 In Canadian Oil Train Accident

The death toll from the crude oil train accident in Quebec this weekend rose to 13 on Monday, as officials announced that up to 40 people are still missing in the wake of the explosion that devastated Lac Mégantic, a small border town. 

[image error]The The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train was on its way to Maine on Saturday when the train lost control, sending 72 cars full of oil downhill towards the town, where at least five cars derailed and exploded. The missing in the wake of the disaster include many  patrons of a crowded cafe near the center of the explosion. The blast took out the town's library and archives, along with several apartment buildings. The Star had a gruesome take on the scene there, as framed by the eerie quiet in the nearby hospital where the expected wounded never arrived: 

Bernard Théberge received second-degree burns on his right arm while fleeing from the patio of the downtown Musi-Café, where many are thought to have died, but he said he hadn’t seen

 any other burn victims when he went to the hospital Saturday.

One Red Cross volunteer who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media put it bluntly: “You have to understand: there are no wounded. They’re all dead.”

[image error]

Investigators have only searched part of the blast site because the situation there is too dangerous: according to the AP, officials are concerned that some of the remaining train cars at the scene, filled with oil, could explode. As of Monday morning, no one had yet reached the site of the crowded café to search for wounded or, sadly more likely, to count the dead.

Photos: Reuters. Second photo is a handout from the Safety Board of Canada, via Reuters. 

       

White House Still Can't Call Egypt a Coup

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney refused to call the Egyptian military's ouster of President Mohammed Morsi a "coup," in a press conference with reporters on Monday. That follows President Obama's statement on the military takeover, which also omitted the word coup. "We are going to take the time necessary to review what has taken place," Carney said. "This is a complex and difficult issue, with significant consequences." The Egyptian military calls it a "popular uprising"—Ambassador Mohamed Tawfik said it was "Absolutely not" a coup on Sunday. The facts seem pretty simple: a democratically-elected government was removed by military force. But calling it a coup has side effects. The U.S. government would have to halt its $1.5 billion assistance to Egypt.

[image error]The Foreign Assistance Act requires aid to be cut off if "duly elected head of government is deposed by military act or decree." The New York Times' Peter Baker explains that Obama is delaying defining the event to increase his bargaining power. "Obama seemed content to let the debate play out in hopes of using the possibility of an aid cutoff to influence the situation without actually pulling the trigger yet," Baker reports. It seems to be a powerful bargaining chip. On Sunday, the Times' David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh reported that Egyptians have a sarcastic term for their patron: "Mother America." When American officials told Morsi's foreign policy adviser that a military takeover would soon begin, an Egyptian aide texted, "Mother just told us that we will stop playing in one hour." Mother America is waiting to see what the military does next, Baker reports, because Obama's "aides made clear that he would escalate his response depending on where the Egyptian military went from here." State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says, "We're just not taking a position."

This means there's now a debate raging in Washington over whether the definition of "coup" or aid to Egypt is more important to maintain. In a statement released on Monday, Arizona Sen. John McCain said he understood the military had broad public support in taking out Morsi last week. "However, it is difficult for me to conclude that what happened was anything other than a coup in which the military played a decisive role," McCain said. Saying the law is "very clear," McCain concluded, "I do not want to suspend our critical assistance to Egypt, but I believe that is the right thing to do at this time." At Bloomberg View, Harvard professor Noah Feldman writes, "the whole reason the law exists is to deter a coup like this one -- which is why it would be terrible policy to wink at its violation." The law is supposed to force the U.S. president to support democracy, instead of whichever coups he likes. 

But many disagree. Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tells Foreign Policy, "I do not believe now is the time to cut aid… I believe that it is important for the people of Egypt to know that the United States has not abandoned them as they continue to fight for freedom." Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez doesn't want to end aid either. Republican Rep. Mike Rogers said said the U.S. needed to help stabilize Egypt. "I would not try to circumvent the law by calling this something it is not," Rogers said on CNN on Sunday. It's an interesting idea: change the law, instead of the definition of words. But changing the law might prove more difficult for this Congress.

       

The Brooklyn-ized VMA Moonman Is Dumb

For some reason MTV is changing the iconic Moonman statue for this year's Video Music Awards to fit the show's new locale. They're broadcasting live from Brooklyn, y'see, so they brought in KAWS, a Brooklyn-based artist popular with the youngs, to give the old Moonman a makeover.

For the first time in the award show's 29 year history (has it really been that long?) the traditional Moonman statue is being retired for something new, different and, well, dull. Designed by "artist and provocateur" KAWS, the same guy who did the cover art for Kanye West's 808 and Heartbreaks, the new VMA statue looks a lot like the old VMA statue except that it's "gunmetal" gray and has been designed to look like one of the artist's vinyl toys that he normally produces. The X's over the eyes and Michelin Man curves are KAWS hallmarks. 

Look, this is a silly way for MTV to drum up interest in the VMAs. No one watched them last year so they're moving the whole show to the Barclay's Center and changing the statue to something new and hip in a desperate attempt to attract young people to watch the show again, to remember a time before they were born, when everyone wanted their MTV. Whoever runs MTV now needs to realize today's 18-year-olds were roughly ten years old when Total Request Live was finally, mercifully cancelled in 2006. They're going to have a hard enough time remembering when MTV even played music videos. 

Besides, the old Moonman was a cultural touchstone! It was a monument to that stretch of time when MTV was relevant, a cultural force to be reckoned with, and for many a wistful reminder of what once was. There was a certain generation of us who grew up when music videos were mega-events and MTV was bigger than life itself. Everyone wanted a Moonman and the VMAs were still a thing people cared about. But now 40 to 60 people will get this new dumb thing instead, just because MTV went to Brooklyn to stay young. KAWS killed the video star.

 

       

Eliot Spitzer is Running for Office

Eliot Spitzer has joined the posse of male politicians who believe that voters, at this point, should be totally over their Id-driven past escapades and elect them back into public office. On Sunday, the New York Times effectively launched Spitzer's campaign for city comptroller with a mid-sized piece on the former governor's last minute bid for public office.

And this campaign looks like it's really, really, last minute: Spitzer has until Thursday (as in, just a few days from now) to get at least 3,750 Democratic signatures to qualify for the primary ballot in September. He'll, as he told the Times, "be on the street corners... out across the city" with the help of 100 signature gatherers. 

Spitzer was a highly effective Attorney General in the state before a brief tenure as governor, until he was given another title: Client 9 of a prostitution service in 2008. Oh, and weirdly, a former madam connected to the Spitzer scandal is apparently running against him on the Libertarian ticket:

Happy birthday to me! What a great present - a chance to confront Eliot Spitzer in the debate! Davis for comptroller!!!

— Kristin Davis (@manhattanmadam) July 8, 2013

So, you're asking, why would Spitzer run for comptroller, a relatively obscure office with a function that's not easily explained? Ben Smith at Buzzfeed makes a pretty convincing case that Spitzer might not have a clear reason at all, beyond an impulse to get back into public office. Here's what Spitzer told the Daily News: 

I love public service. I believe in it and hope I will be given a second chance. After being out of office for five years, thinking deeply, reflecting on what I was able to do when I was in government…I'm going to try and seek the controller’s office and ask to the public to consider me.

Adding that the comptroller's office has "enormous untapped potential...It's not just audits to see whether the paper clips got delivered on time." According to the Times story, Spitzer's pitch for comptroller is essentially a redefinition of the office itself — instead of accounting for city spending, he wants to "conduct regular inquiries into the effectiveness of government policies," which sounds a bit like what Spitzer did as Attorney General.  

Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president who was until today the "shoo-in" for the office, released the following statement from his campaign manager Sascha Owen late on Sunday in response to the news (via the Times): 

Scott Stringer has a proven record of results and integrity and entered this race to help New York’s middle class regain its footing. By contrast, Eliot Spitzer is going to spurn the campaign finance program to try and buy personal redemption with his family fortune. The voters will decide.

       

Here's What We Know About the Asiana Flight 214 Crash (So Far)

On Sunday, the National Traffic Safety Board released their preliminary findings on the crash of Asiana Flight 214. And while it's not yet a crystal-clear picture of the events leading to the crash inSan Francisco that killed two and injured over 100, an emerging timeline is giving a frame to the narrative of what went wrong. 

The NTSB held a press conference laying out details of the events leading to the crash, based on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, the the agency said contained "good" data on the crash. Here's their timeline, so far:

Early approach — everything seems normal. 

According to NTSB spokesperson Deborah Hersman, there's no indication, i.e. discussion of the approach among the crew, that anything was off as the plane began its approach. The plane was cleared for a "visual landing," but the weather was favorable for such a maneuver. At San Francisco, the airport's glide slope indicator was offline. That piece of equipment is one tool available to pilots to determine their altitude upon landing. 

Seven seconds from impact — a call increase speed. 

Flight 214 was way below normal landing speeds, according to the NTSB: the plane was "significantly" below the target speed of137 kts, with the throttle idling (according to the AP, this is  unusual for a wide-body jet like the Boeing 777, seconds away from a landing). While the agency didn't specify exactly how much more slowly the flight was going, NTSB spokesperson Deborah Hersman noted that "we’re not talking about a few knots.” The plane begins to accelerate, just over 7 seconds before impact.

Four seconds from impact — the planeis about to stall. 

According to the NTSB, this is when the stick shaker activated. The stick shaker does what it sounds like it does: it shakes the control stick. When that happens, it's a warning topilots that the plane is about to stall. Usually, a pilot would increase speed in response, which is exactly what happened for flight 214. And according to the NTSB, their throttles responded properly, indicating that engine failure or malfunction probably didn't play a role in the crash. 

One and a half seconds from impact — attempt to abort the landing. 

At this point, someone on board called for a "go around," or an aborted landing, to circle back and try again. But apparently, it was too late. 

Impact — the plane hits the seawall.  [image error]

Based on witness accounts, the plane was very apparently coming in too low before it hit the seawall, crashed into the ground, losing its tail in the process. While the NTSB did not release the archaeology on how the plane was too low, or how its slow speed played into the impact, some aviation experts are alarmed by the juxtaposition. There's a horrifying video of the crash that emerged today, which, among other things, shows just how astonishing it is that the death toll wasn't much higher. Over at The Atlantic, James Fallows has a thorough round-up of what professional pilots are saying about what may have caused the crash. [image error]

According to CNN, many of the injured were sitting towards the back of the plane. Of the 182 hospitalized after the crash, 19 are still in the hospital, with six in critical condition. Injuries range from paralysis (there were "several" snapped spines, according to the San Francisco Chronicle) to abdominal injuries related to the seat belts, to road rash. 

There's another troubling question emerging about the crash, concerning one of the two fatalities: according to the local fire department, one of the two teenage girls who died in the crash may have been killed by an emergency vehicle after the fact. The city's medical examiner is performing an autopsy to determine her cause of death after authorities noticed injuries consistent with being run over, according to     

Teresa Heinz Kerry Hospitalized in 'Critical but Stable' Condition

Teresa Heinz Kerry, the wife of Secretary of the State John Kerry, was admitted to a Nantucket hospital Sunday afternoon in critical but stable condition, according to multiple reports. There aren't any details beyond that about her specific condition immediately available, though there are reports that Heinz Kerry might be or have been transferred to the larger Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 

The Boston Globe, citing an unnamed source "close to the family," said the 74-year-old heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune fell ill due to an "unspecified medical condition" at her vacation home on Sunday, where she was staying with her husband. She left by ambulance at around 4 p.m., and was admitted to the emergency room at Nantucket Cottage Hospital by 5:30 p.m. when Nantucket Cottage Hospital spokesperson Noah Brown spoke to the paper: 

She was brought in, in critical but stable condition, and that is currently how ... her condition still remains...At this point, we are determining the next phase of her care, be that either in our facility on the island, or on the mainland.

While there's way too little information out there to speculate about Heinz Kerry's unspecified medical emergency, others have noted that she underwent surgery twice in 2009 due to stage one breast cancer, after an annual mammogram detected a lump. She's since become an advocate for the preventative mammogram procedure. 

John Kerry just finished up a 2-week trip to the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and was supposed to return to Washington on Monday. He was also planning another trip to Israel for later this week, but it looks like both of those plans could change pending his wife's health, according to State Department officials cited by the AP. 

       

What the First Arrest Captured on Google Glass Really Means

On July 4th, documentary filmmaker named Chris Barrett took his newly acquired pair of Google Glasses out for a stroll on the very busy, proudly recovered Jersey Shore boardwalk. What happened next was either something extraordinary, or something completely innocuous, depending on how much hyperbole you like to put behind things that happen on Google Glass. 

Newt wore them. There was a wedding proposal captured on its video recorder. A crazy man took a picture of himself wearing Google Glass in the shower. We know what it's like to play basketball while wearing Google Glass. What I'm getting at is there were very few barriers left for this medium to cross, besides the obvious unseemly one, before Barrett went out and captured the first fight and subsequent arrest using the extended video recording option. And no, this isn't a video of the person wearing Google Glass getting beat up. (Though we're sure that will happen soon.)

"I wanted to test Glass out, so I filmed some fireworks, getting a very cool first-person perspective. About 10 minutes after the fireworks, we were walking back to our car, and I just decided to try it out on the boardwalk," Barrett told VentureBeat on Friday. There's very little pugilism in the actual video. No one yells "World Star!" like every other fight video on the internet. You can see some scuffling over a shoulder or two, but there are no visible punches thrown. Just the immediate, tense, enraptured crowd, and the required shirtless sweaty bros, that come after a fight among a drunken throng of people. Eventually the authorities step in and arrest a a few of the sane, surely sober young men who decided to celebrate their independence with a scrap. Here's what Barrett wrote about the scene on his YouTube video: 

Tonight, I was testing out the extended video recording option with Google Glass on the Boardwalk of Wildwood, New Jersey. I walked right into the tail end of a fight happening on Jersey Shore boardwalk and filmed the first arrest through the lens of my Google Glass.

This video is proof that Google Glass will change citizen journalism forever.

Well, that is certainly a claim one can make about the first arrest captured on Google Glass. As with everything that happens on these glasses, the significance of the event must now be debated and, sure enough, that discussion has already started. Some people don't think this video means very much, and it certainly won't change journalism in any way. "Because if human nature has taught me anything," writes Ashley Burns at Uproxx, "it’s that more people will spend $1,500 on Google Glass with the hopes of catching a nip slip or their dog doing something hilarious than they will Edward Snowden eating biscuits and gravy at a Cracker Barrel. But of course I hope I’m wrong."

But others are more optimistic about how Google Glass change our life in new and creative ways, or something. Christophe Gevrey, the Global Head of Editorial Solutions for Thompson Reuters, writes on his personal website that the video does signal something significant: "More notable than the video itself is the ease at which it was captured without the knowledge of those in the middle of the melee," he says. "His footage foreshadows the rapidly approaching future where everything can be filmed serendipitously by folks wearing devices like Google Glass without the knowledge of the parties involved." If the NSA is big brother, Glassholes are the new little brother.

Who knows if that will actually happen. Google Glass can do plenty of things and, yes, record video is one of them. But this video is everything people are afraid of when it comes to Google Glass's popularity. Oh well! Just wait until someone wearing Google Glass gets beat up. That's the video I want to see. 

       

See the Stunning Video of the Boeing 777 Crash in San Francisco

Until now, there was no video footage available of the Boeing 777 crash landing at the San Francisco International Airport on Saturday afternoon that killed two 16-year-old Chinese girls and sent over 100 people to the hospital. But CNN obtained some revealing footage shot from across the water from the airport runways that shows exactly what happened. 

In the video obtained by CNN, shot by amateur aviation enthusiast Fred Hayes, you can see Asiana flight 217 approaching the runway low with its nose noticeably high in the air. The plane's tail catches the seawall and smoke starts coming from the back of the plane. There's gray and brown smoke trailing the plane as it slides out of control across the runway. The plane's nose twists up and it does, for a moment, look like it's doing a cartwheel, as some witnesses said yesterday. "Oh no," Hayes says on the video. "You're recording this!" a woman says. Watch the whole horrifying video here: 

This confirms what a lot of amateur sleuths had determined using the available data and visual evidence from the scene after the dust had settled. The main theory being that the plane hitting the seawall was what caused the tail to come off. The National Transportation Safety Board announced moments ago that the pilot tried to initiate a "go around" -- or, to attempt a new landing -- moments before the crash occurred. Doctors treating the wounded, most from the back of the plane, said many remain hospitalized today with critical injuries. Some are suffering from paralysis and head trauma, others from abdominal injuries because of pressure applied by their seat belts. The alternative, though, would have been much worse. Others suffered from "severe road rash suggesting they were dragged," Margaret Knudson, chief of surgery at San Francisco General Hospital, told reporters. 

       

'The Lone Ranger' Had a 'Despicable' July 4th Weekend

Welcome to the Box Office Report, where we're used to little yellow dudes having big hair and jewels for bellybuttons. (No, seriously though: these things look like marshmallow troll dolls.)

1. Despicable Me 2 (Universal): $82.5 million in 3,997 theaters

The Box Office Report is not sure when Despicable Me turned from a well-liked enough kids movie into a franchise worthy juggernaut of money making mystery. Over the five day weekend, this plucky kids click will take in around $140.5 million when the receipts are counted. Despicable Me 2's $82 million Friday-through-Sunday take helped fuel a record breaking long weekend box office. In all, Hollywood took in $220 million over those three days.

2. The Lone Ranger (Disney): $29.4 million in 3,904 theaters

This one, though, is a real mess. The movie that cost well over $200 million to make couldn't muster more than $48.5 million over the five day weekend. Barring a miracle rallying performance overseas, The Lone Ranger is already an embarrassing bust.

3. The Heat (Fox): $25 million in 3,184 theaters [Week 2]

Hey, look! It's visible confirmation word of mouth is helping The Heat. The Melissa McCarthy movie only suffered a 36 percent drop between its first and second week, signalling strong support for this going forward. As more people realize its one of the funniest movies of the summer (This Is The End is the only other movie that could contend for the title) the dollars will keep rolling in. 

4. Monsters University (Pixar): $19.6 million in 3,739 theaters [Week 3]

Ooh, boy, what a drop after two weeks on top. Once kids had another option -- a smaller, cuter, squishier option -- they flocked to the new shiny movie instead of the Pixar sequel with astounding furor. It's hard to keep kids' attention these days, y'know. 

5. World War Z (Paramount): $18.2 million in 3,316 theaters [Week 3]

So World War Z is a relatively short 2 hours long, keeping it from being a World War zzzzzzzzzz-level snoozer. Probably, right? It can't be that bad.