Off-topic: danger of 120v mains?

[Antti Huovilainen]

On Wed, 3 Jan 2001, Colin Fraser wrote:

> You Americans have it lucky - you should stick your fingers on 240 V UK
> mains a couple of times.

Been there, done that. Then again, I'm not an american.
Got shocked by a faulty 30 year old transformer. Oddly, the reason for the
shock was that my brother who has a license to do electrical  
installations, added a grounded power cord to the transformer. I switched
it in, touched the 0V terminal (which turned out to be 220V) and chassis
with my other hand and found myself lying on the other side of the room.
No side effects but the current only passed from arm to arm. Needless to
say, the transformer is staying in the closet. Forever.
Moral of the story: grounds fault protector is not enough necessarily to
protect you AND just because you survive the electricity, it doesn't mean
you won't hit your head on something when you get shocked to the other
side of the room.

Antti

"If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding!
 How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat!?"
   - Roger Waters