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May 5, 2017

Strange But True!

Q. Technically speaking, what are a few rather novel ways of dying these days — some more literal than others?

A. If you suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), you just might be a candidate for death-by-smartphone, as you hear that ding or chirp (“attention magnets”) and just have to know what's going on, even as you cross a busy intersection, says Paul McFedries in IEEE Spectrum magazine. Or consider death-by-GPS, so coined by Death Valley National Park rangers, who attested to people following their GPS into the hostile environment of the park and perishing when they ran out of gas and couldn't get help. And, adds McFedries, “by now the stories of clueless tourists who drive straight into the ocean or go 900 miles in the wrong direction because they mindlessly followed the directions on their GPS devices are legion.”


 
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