November 2007 Archives

In Asia and elsewhere, cell phones are exploding in popularity.

Unfortunately, one mobile phone may have actually exploded, killing its owner, a 33-year-old South Korean quarry worker. He was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest, police said today.

Reuters reported the story and included a picture of the mangled phone. The story first appeared on Korean national broadcaster YTN.

According to Reuters:

The man, who was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital, had burns on his chest, fractured ribs and internal bleeding, the doctor said.

"When he was admitted into the emergency room, the melted mobile phone was stuck to the left side of his shirt," said Kim Hoon, professor at emergency department at Chungbuk National University Hospital, who examined the victim.

"I cannot think of any other cause of his death other than his mobile phone exploding," Kim said.

Police said they are investigating that as a possible cause and whether it was triggered by a faulty battery, Yonhap news agency reported. It will take about 10 days to complete the probe into what led to the death.

"He (the victim) was found lying next to an excavator while working at a stone quarry," an official from the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Seoul, told Reuters.

Witness Kwon Young-sup told national broadcaster YTN: "He was lying on the ground and his mobile phone was still burning so I had to put the fire out."

Might be a story to keep an eye on, considering that Reuters also reported that worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions have reached 3.3 billion -- equivalent to half the global population.

I don't think anybody by now seriously doubts there's such a thing as being addicted to the Internet. And now that Internet users can spend hours watching television shows online...well, would you like some cocaine with that heroin?

But I hope the solution being implemented in South Korea doesn't catch on in the U.S. ...

The world’s first ever boot camp for teenagers addicted to the internet may be the shape of things to come, according to experts.

The Jump Up Internet Rescue School in Mokcheon, South Korea, is similar to programmes around the world for troubled youths, providing a mix of military style, physical exercise and rehabilitation.

Inmates are pushed over assault courses and learn to ride horses, as well as being given therapy workshops on more creative pursuits such as pottery and drumming.

Concern over compulsive internet use is growing in South Korea, where 90 percent of homes have high-speed broadband connections and some online gameplayers have died from exhaustion after playing for days on end.

Fortunately, according to a September Pew Internet survey, only 50% of U.S. Internet users have broadband in their homes, so we still have millions of dial-up users around to help us "keep it real."

Not real enough, perhaps, for the up to 9 million Americans that a psychiatrist quoted in the Telegraph article warns could be at risk of "pathological computer use." But you can't save everybody.

I do think it's important for teens to limit their computer use and engage regularly with the non-Internet world, not only because there actually are some interesting things going on away from their computer screens, but also because there's this national obesity epidemic you may have heard about.

Still, sending teens to "boot camps" to break their Internet habits strikes me as a solution that won't work in the long run, in large part because there's a punitive element to it. Is being forced to do push-ups or run an obstacle course going to make a teen not go online when he returns home? Are you kidding?

And while the parts about presenting alternative activities (horseback riding and drumming) seem like decent ideas, aren't those and similar activities already available in most communities?

Let's face it, the Internet boot camp is a desperation measure for parents who can't (or won't) control their children and are willing to pay someone to solve their problem. Which means you can look for one soon in the U.S.

If you've been following the story about how eagerly U.S. telecoms agreed to spy on you for the National Security Agency, you'd know that some lawmakers want to grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms, search engines, email providers ISPs and IM services for their patriotic activities.

As outrageous as this situation appears, it will seem even worse after you read this fascinating article in the Washington Post about a former AT&T technician who has inside knowledge of the sweeping spying program.

Mark Klein is in the nation's capital this week to make the argument against immunity to Congress. While there he told his story to the Post. Among the highlights:

In 2003, Klein stumbled upon documents showing that the NSA gained access to massive amounts of e-mail and search and other Internet records of more than a dozen global and regional telecommunications providers. AT&T allowed the agency to hook into its network at a facility in San Francisco and, according to Klein, many of the other telecom companies probably knew nothing about it.

Contrary to the government's depiction of its surveillance program as aimed at overseas terrorists, Klein said, much of the data sent through AT&T to the NSA was purely domestic.

NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing "peering links," or major connections to other telecom providers.

Neither AT&T, the NSA nor the White House commented to the Post about Klein's allegations. No surprise. I mean, really, at this point, what is there to say?