Explosives

Law enforcement officials could have something very different on their hands as they investigate the dual bomb blasts that struck the Boston Marathon finish line today: a potential abundance of photo and video evidence from the public.

Government surveillance, while growing, still misses more than it catches. But events with thousands of spectators offer the potential for a detailed crowdsourced record of what happened.

This public panopticon is changing how we see the world. February's Russian meteor was captured by many dash-cams mounted in Russian cars, but in this case the event is of profound interest to law enforcement … Read more

SAN JOSE, Calif.--If you've ever wanted a chance to bust a myth like a real MythBuster, your time has come.

Starting tomorrow, MythBusters fans can try their hand at a number of myths and see some of the artifacts behind a number of the hit Discovery Channel show's greatest hits at MythBusters: The Explosive Exhibition at the Tech Museum here.

From testing whether you're more likely to get wet by running or walking in the rain to whether it's really possible to pull a tablecloth off a table without destroying everything on it to a … Read more

Things with batteries do sometimes overheat.

Yet when smartphones start to sizzle and smoke, it is a rare, yet scary occurrence.

The latest--and, thankfully, relatively harm-free incident--was reported by a Colorado woman. She says her iPhone 4 woke her not with a tingling alarm, but with a frisson of fizzing, as it allegedly smoked and sizzled by her hotel bed at 6:30 a.m.

In telling her tale to Mashable--with persuasive accompanying pictures--the unnamed woman says that the phone was charging a mere foot or so from her head. It was, as many charging iPhones are, on the … Read more

From the age of dot, we're all told not to put gadgets in our mouths.

But along came electric toothbrushes--and then electronic cigarettes. Some will wonder how safe they might be after a 57-year-old Florida man was taken to hospital Monday night when his electronic smoke exploded while he was smoking it.

He ended up in an Alabama hospital, facing burns, the loss of part of his tongue and his front teeth.

Joseph Parker, division chief for the North Bay Fire Department, offered a graphic analogy to the Associated Press: "It was trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off. The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire."… Read more

A day after Apple announced record profits, a new report provides a detailed look at the conditions that workers at its suppliers in China have had to endure.

The company, which reported $13 billion in profits yesterday, has been plagued by reports of long hours, unsafe working conditions, and physical punishment of employees in factories that make parts for its popular devices. Dozens have been injured and a handful killed in explosions and other accidents at the plants.

In a seven-month span last year, two explosions at iPad factories in China, including at the Chengdu facility, killed four and injured … Read more

Production of the iPad may have been at least temporarily affected by an explosion today at a yet-to-open factory in China.

The blast, which occurred at a plant belonging to Pegatron subsidiary Riteng in Shanghai, injured as many as 61 people, according to a Reuters report. The explosion didn't cause a fire, but 23 workers needed to be hospitalized. Machinery was also reportedly damaged.

"The factory has not started operations yet. Part of the facility is still under pre-operation inspection and part is running trial production," Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin told Reuters.

Production of current … Read more

It seems that exploding iPhones might be like girls on the arm of Charlie Sheen. You don't see one for months and then two come along at once.

After an iPhone on an Australian plane last week began to smoke and sizzle as the flight came into land, a report from Brazil suggests that a charging iPhone almost caused its owner to charge to the ER.

I am grateful to Mashable for its diligent reading of Brazilian news reports that might just cause a troubling tinnitus in the ears of Apple devotees.

For, in this case, the iPhone was reportedly charging by the bedside of its owner, Ayla Mota, when it allegedly began to emit sparks.… Read more

A nuclear plant in Marcoule in southern France suffered an explosion earlier today.

According to France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the explosion at the plant occurred in a furnace used for melting radioactive scrap metal. Earlier reports from the BBC suggested the fire occurred in a storage space for radioactive waste. In a statement on the matter, France's nuclear safety regulator, the French Safety Authority (ASN), said that one worker died and that four other people were injured, including one person who "suffered deep burns."

Local news site Le Midi Libre was first to report on … Read more