Phone Call from Zeus

Times Online is reporting a caution from doctors that cell phones or other metallic devices should not be used outdoors during stormy conditions. Typically, the high resistance of a person's skin causes a 'flashover' when being struck by lightning, but a metal object in contact with the skin disrupts the flashover and increases the odds of internal injuries and death. So far 'three fatal cases of lightning striking people while using mobile phones have been reported in newspapers in China, South Korea and Malaysia,' in addition to the debilitating strike of a fifteen year-old girl in London.