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back to article Tumble dryer bites woman in Weston-super-Mare

A Weston-super-Mare woman is lucky to have survived an encounter with an obstreperous tumble dryer after a simple fluff-removal operation ended in an emergency services tin-snip deployment, a local rag breathlessly reports. Firefighters were called to the scene in Kewstoke on Monday to find the 30-something victim with her …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    windows for...

    ...tumble dryers?

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  2. Kevin Gurney
    IT Angle

    IT angle ???

    Is this included as part of the "Biting the hand that feeds IT" tagline ?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ROTM

    already? its only the 19th, give the rest of us a chance

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    May I be the first...

    ...to welcome our new kitchen dwelling overlords with a penchant for human flesh.

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  5. Eponymous Cowherd
    Coat

    Call yourself a tabloid?

    You need to stop using complicated words like "obstreperous", "desiccating" and "analgesic". Words like that would have your average Sun reader scratching his head in confusion.

    Mine's the one with the OED in the pocket.

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Wtf?

    And the IT angle is?

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Interesting Title

    Wondered which part of the body is called Weston-super-Mare...

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  8. Ivan Headache

    Powerful stuff...

    is that fluff.

    With apologies to McGonagall

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A much deserved fate IMHO

    Living just 10 miles from Weston-super-Mare and as a former resident of the town, I am surprised that the machines haven't risen up against the natives earlier than this. As Weston was a centre of helicopter manufacture for many years, and still features the largest helicopter museum in Europe, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the machine in question was directed to do its dirty deed by a black helicopter circling above.

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  10. Steven Raith

    It's a conspiracy I tells thee

    No, really.

    My washing machine has overrun the mains electricity in my house - when it tries to use it's [2.1kw] heater element, it pops the mains.

    Not the fuse at the switch. not the MAINS breaker in the fusebox - but the main circuit breaker for the whole flat. Perhaps someone has replaced all the fuses up to there with wood screws, with a nice, healthy 2000A trip current?

    As these two are clearly in cahoots, I shall perform a summary execution on my washing machine tonight when I get home* for the sake of humanity, and clean shirts, pants and jeans everywhere.

    Steven R

    *[Ok, I'm going to whip the cover off and see if the element is an easy job to replace and try it myself before calling the landlords, but what are a few minor details between El Reg readers?]

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    The machines have come to save us

    The machines, with their dependence on energy realise that eco-terrorists like this woman need to be eliminated.

    I use a solar and wind powered dryer myself and I am willing to install this technology for anyone @ €3k + travel expenses. Though the travel expenses could be as long as the proverbial piece of string ;)

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  12. Maverick
    Paris Hilton

    Definition of obstreperous

    To take Eponymous Cowherd's comment to the next level and for any millionairesses reading this article:

    Obstreperous

    1. resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.

    2. noisy, clamorous, or boisterous: obstreperous children.

    Can be used in sentences such as 'Naomi Campbell was obstreperous in Kitts the other night'.

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  13. Mike Smith
    Coat

    The machines have come to save us

    There's a scam there for someone - took me a moment to suss out what you meant by a solar and wind powered dryer. Must be getting old.

    I don't believe ths story anyway. Tumble driers? Load of hot air, if you ask me.

    Yep, the one with the big creases please.

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  14. Ed Zuiderwijk

    disguise

    Clearly a Dalek in disguise. Exterminate!

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  15. Nick

    Statement...

    I've just received the following statement.

    All your hands and clothes are belong to us.

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  16. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    @ Steven Raith

    Commonly caused by a miss wired plug.

    ade memoire: (UK users only!)

    bRown Right (with fuse)

    bLue Left

    Green&Yellow Top (Long Pin)

    of course could be a miss wired socket, or any other device in the house! but tripping out is usually down to miswiring.

    Bones cos if you don't....

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  17. Stuart johnson
    Linux

    @Steven R

    Your 'main breaker' is probably the only one that is RCD protected. Any slight earth leakage current trips the whole house. I know only two well, as an electronic engineer who currently has a new washing machine motor sitting in the back of the car for exactly the same reason!

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  18. Luther Blissett

    Semiotic algebra of headlining

    Back in the old days there was "Man bites dog". Or fXg - expressed as a relation. But now women have equal rights, and IT has replaced dogs in so many ways (think: man's best friend, what to kick, Descartes' idea of beasts as elaborate machines incarnated in the living AI), we have lots of stories where women substitute the first term and a gizmo substitutes the second. So far so good.

    Extensions are permitted, i.e. most desirable, so: fXg on/in h (anatomical reference), fXg on/in h on i (situational reference), fXg on'in h on i after j (prior event reference - may have its own semiotic substructure). If you can't think of any examples, you clearly haven't been reading L.Reg long enough, because I can.

    Just don't balls it up. Don't substituting the first term but not the second - the retiring but well scrubbed Wacky Jacqui has a brand new pr0n lore, and she's just itching to scratch it.

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  19. Les Matthew

    Consider herself lucky

    that she didn't have her v-string in there too.

    That would have needed some serious hand + eye coordination.

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  20. David Simpson

    hmmm

    I wonder quite what she was doing ..... don't women sit on vibrating domestic appliances for pleasure (or at least that's what the adverts seem to suggest)

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  21. ilago
    Linux

    Isn't it great...

    That Microsoft don't make household whitegoods......yet

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  22. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    @Eponymous Cowherd

    Is that the OED on DVD? Now there's your IT angle.

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  23. Mark

    Re: IT angle ???

    a) This is El Reg's little peccadillo. Put up with it.

    b) RoTM requires programming for AI (if you really need an IT angle)

    c) Why the hell not.

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  24. The Dark Lord

    @ miss wired plug.

    Ah, one of the greatest wool-pulling exercises ever...

    I wonder how many electrical engineers think about how the polarity of positive & negative reverses 100 times per second while they're slavishly attaching the brown wire to the one on the right, and the blue wire to the one on the left.

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  25. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    @AC@Steven Raith

    So "Brown to earth, green/yellow to live (the one with the fuse) and blue to bits" isn't right then?

    (Coat. Obvious reasons)

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  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is not so much Rise of the Machines

    as Descent of the Humans.

    Next up, the Castle Bromwich man who cut himself on a knife and the woman from Crewe who unwittingly set fire to her hair with a match.

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  27. Nathanael Bastone
    Coat

    Ouch!

    Of all the places to be bitten, I think this may be the worst.

    So what? I happen to like tartan overgarments.

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  28. kain preacher

    RCD

    Whats this RCD ?? Never heard if it. If you brits used proper GFI :)

    Oh by the way, in America you will see individual circuits GFI so as not to trip the whole house.

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  29. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    P.E.T.H.A. Appeal

    As celebrity spokesman for the mostly imaginary People for the Ethical Treatment of Home Appliances, I'd like to point out that it would be barbarous to put down this obviously abused dryer; any child or other animal would react in the same way.

    Please contact your local Dryer Rescue for placement of the appliance with volunteer caregivers that will provide the attention and rehabilitation it no doubt craves.

    Yours in dudgeon (high),

    Tarquin Fintimlinbinwhinbimlim Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Ole Biscuit-Barrel

    Brigadier-General, HMSO (Castrol) (Ret.)

    (Mrs.)

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  30. Neoc

    Meh....

    This story is obviously dried-and-cut.

    I'll get me coat...

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  31. Brett Leach
    Pirate

    @ The Dark Lord.

    Not sure about the UK, but here in Australia Neutral (blue) and Earth (Green-Yellow) are common (connected together) at the Fuse Box.

    So yes, a miswired wall socket can cause problems, not to mention be absolutely deadly in the wrong circumstances. Worst case scenario can render the metal parts of an entire houseful of appliances live.

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  32. Adrian Esdaile
    Coat

    Standard dryer-opening technique

    IRRC the proper technique is to say:

    "Oooh, lah-de-dah! Look what I have found in my washing bag! All of Felicity Kendal's underwear... and it needs a good wash!"

    Door will open immediately.

    Mine's the denim jacket with studs and 'Very Metal' in biro on the back.

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  33. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    I for one...

    ...welcome the arrival of our crease-free, country-fresh-scented overlords.

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  34. Mike Smith
    Pirate

    @Brett Leach

    It's similar in the UK; neutral is earthed at the sub-station transformer. This can mean a potential difference will exist between earth and neutral if the sub-station's a fair way away from the house.

    They may well be apocryphal, but I do recall stories from when I worked for an electricity company about the odd clever dick who made use of that to get some free juice. Apparently they got caught when the transformer load became too unbalanced.

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  35. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Bit of a Rough and Tumble..

    .. Drier then?

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  36. Brett Leach

    @Mike Smith

    Here in Aust they're common at the consumer's fusebox too. Eliminates that ground potential. However a ground potential can still exist between 2 separate installations.

    Had a friend who used the potential (90v) between his home and shop (on opposite sides of road) to keep a bank of batteries trickle charged.

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  37. get off

    They'll all be at it, next!

    Hang on a min here... Bored housewife, enclosed laundry room, ten hunky firemen turned up...."Ooo luv. It's hot in here in all this gear, we'll have to strip off a bit"....

    She did it delib.... Errr how did she get to the phone to call fire brigade..

    Sounds like there was a lot of prior preparation and planning behind all that lot....

    Tumble drier willing accomplice and voyeur, or poor innocent that had to witness, such carnal cravings...!....

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  38. Glenn Charles
    Boffin

    thank you...

    for not saying "the fate of the humble tumble dryer is unknown."

    --Glenn

    8]

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