I've had refrigerators explode, microwave ovens melt down, and once spawned a small black hole with a matter/antimatter blast involving a toaster oven.

Perhaps the British Medical Association should add this to its proposed alcoholic beverage warnings: Your refrigerator may suddenly explode, killing you and forcing your survivors to make their libations with room-temperature beverages, or at least make a run to the corner store.

(Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)

...didn't look like Sigourney Weaver by any chance?

My fridge tried to kill me too, it formed a dastardy cabal with a bowl of spag bol and cultivated bacteria unknown to science. Boy was I ill. Scared I was going to die? Worse, I was scared I was going to live.

I think the guy had one of those 'intelligent' fridges; so when he set the 'ice' configuration, the fridge proceeded to 'ice' his user!

"(Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)"

You like your beer cold because 'Mercan beer is like having sex in a canoe - they're both f*cking close to water.

In the words of the legendary Hobgoblin T-shirt

What's the matter lager boy - afraid you'll taste something?

"(Of course, this may work better in the states, where we prefer our beer cold.)"

Typical dumb yank responce ay..

I dont know one person that would even consider drinking a less than cold beer.

Where do you yanks get this false information from??

Then again what else is to be expected from the land of ignorance....

Dosen't that infer that your just as ignorant for lowering yourself to the level of the yanks?

Oh wait.... I'm trying to use logic on a drunk/snob.

X O D

I'll go get my coat now.

My apologies, rundata. We yanks are brainless, wife-beatin', God-believin'-in, nose-pickin', butt-scratchin', ignorant hicks without a trace of sophistication like you Brits have, especially the soccer fanatics ;-)

@ Coward: Ignorance "Ignorance is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated, lacking knowledge or information"

My responce was not uninformed, uneducated, lacking of knowledge or information... So I guess I didnt lower myself :)

@ Ron Enderland

My apologies for the generalisation of "yank"

But yeah I Totally agree with you, thanks for the comment back ;)

I bet he was keeping some kind of flammable solvent in the fridge - people do that because they think it's safer than out in the heat but they're wrong, wrong, wrong. Vapour pressure builds up in the enclosed space, and then instantly ignites with a tiny spark - usually from the thermostat mechanism switching the power back on.

When I was a graduate student in chemistry there was a compulsory "safety" training demonstration which included going out to a field where the fire brigade blew a few old fridges sky high just to remind us _never_ to put flammable liquids in any fridge that didn't have the switching mechanism specially sealed into a gas-tight component (as the lab ones did). That was a lot of fun, though maybe not quite as good as learning to extinguish fires or making cotton wool explode by soaking it in liquid air before putting a light to it. Those were the days. Bet they don't do that kind of safety training now ... much too dangerous.

"...blowing food and shrapnel from his four-month-old fridge across the room"

Who keeps shrapnel in the fridge, I ask you?

@Ron Enderland

You can't possibly be a yank as you exhibit a level of sarcasm unknown here in the land of the free (not beer). Real yanks would never admit such terrible things about themselves.

I bet it was running Windows for Refrigerators. You know, the one that automatically orders in new stuff to replace what you've removed from the fridge. I got fed up with mine ordering new mould cultures every time I tried cleaning it out, so I swapped it for an Open Sauce fridge. This one lets me compile my own meals from its contents, be they English, Indian, Chinese or any other language, all using readily-available recipes.

> My responce was not uninformed, uneducated, lacking of knowledge or information... So I guess I didnt lower myself :)

Well, this one was uninformed, uneducated, and lacking of knowledge and information about the correct spelling of "response" and the need for an apostrophe in "didn't"... :-(

Of course he's a yank, he gave it away by use of the term "soccer" instead of football. For the unenlightened, football is a game played primarily with the feet. Any modifications to the rules require use of a descriptive prefix such as "rugby", "gaelic", "American", etc.

"without a trace of sophistication like you Brits have, especially the Liverpool fanatics ;-)"

Fixed.

Land of the free?

Errr, have you checked that recently?

Mines the nice red one, oh and the musket

Well, he wouldn't have been the first to be knocked off by his fridge, sadly...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10513733

I bet it was one of those modern 'green' fridges. They're called Green because the refrigerants are supposed to be environmentally safe. By 'environmentally safe' they mean safe for mother earth - as in not a threat to global warming or the ozone layer. They don't mean environmentally safe for the poor bugger who has to use them. They will be using hydrocarbon gases as refrigerants, which, when mixed with air, are explosive.

"Who keeps shrapnel in the fridge, I ask you?"

Priceless!!!

Now, can you pay for a new keyboard? Mine's got snorted coffee in it!!!

"Where do you yanks get this false information from??"

The same place the rest of the world gets the notion that the US is still "land of the free" and "home of the brave", that the US people are accurately represented by their president, and that we in the US have a great selection of broadband providers.

"When I was a graduate student in chemistry there was a compulsory "safety" training demonstration... Those were the days. Bet they don't do that kind of safety training now "

Yeah, and they wonder why fewer youngsters are choosing to study science these days.

It is a shame they don't do that anymore. Nothing teaches you the proper respect for chemicals like seeing how large a fireball they can produce. Same with tools and how quickly they can remove body parts. I remember a (licensed!) fireworks technician who forgot his gloves when handling a misfired incendiary device. The amount of damage to his face shield was impressive. His hands took months to heal. And a large community of pyros will never work without gloves again.

The Irish Refrigerator Army.

"Knocking up a milkshake with his back to the fridge"?

Paris has knocked up a couple of milkshakes in her time, I'll bet.

I regretted the soccer term as soon as I hit Submit.

Perhaps if mom and dad hadn't been so closely related...

spoiling a good story is tha fact that there is no Pretoria Times newspaper. We have a Pretoria News and a Sunday Times (actually from Johannesburg, but still). So which was it, assuming there was indeed such a story? My vote goes to the more sensationalist Sunday Times. Nothing ever happens in Pretoria.

Regarding Yanks: according to the latest TV ad, they think South Africa is somewhere in Mexico, so they probably would not be able to distinguish between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Suspicion thus falls on a Yank journalist trying to generate a few more column-inches. Ashlee Vance?

More likely it was running some sort of freeware 'equivalent' the Linuxloonz are always droning on about as being "just as good". I've been caught in only slightly less dramatic fiascos as a result of managers buying *that* one more than once.

Luckily my fridge runs OS2200. Guarranteed to run for decades without trouble.

:o)

"I bet it was running Windows for Refrigerators"

I made the switch too, but got an iFridge. I can't get as many different meals as your open source fridge, but each one looks fantastic. It never explodes and is 10 times whiter* and shiner than the average fridge.

* Also available in black.