Is my friend an X-man?

January 19, 2007 5:01 PM

What's the name of the condition for people who for some reason are highly susceptible to passing on electrical current to things like computers and other electronics, leading to strange problems with said devices?

I used to work with someone who had to wear a special wristband all day because she would ruin all of her computers (through normal use, NOT working inside them without grounding herself first) and now I have another friend who swears her random and truly inexplicable computer problems are due to static/electrical activity, and we want to research ways to help prevent or reduce the problem.

posted by wubbie to health & fitness (41 comments total)

Oooh! I need to know this too! I've always wondered if there's a name for it... I haven't worn a watch in 24 years because they wouldn't keep time on me. I also used to go through cameras like crazy... they'd just inexplicably stop working after a little bit of use (my garage is a camera graveyard). For some reason have had no camera problems at all since I switched to digital, though... been using the same digital camera for 4 years without an ounce of problem. So weird.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:09 PM on January 19, 2007

Too much synthetic clothing.
posted by b1tr0t at 5:11 PM on January 19, 2007

Wow - I'd never heard of this with anyone other than my mother and her mother. My mother could only wear watches that wind up, not the kind that use batteries - and anything metal that my grandmother handles regularly becomes magnetized somehow. (I missed this, and am relieved).
posted by dilettante at 5:23 PM on January 19, 2007

dilettante: fascinating! How did you come to notice the magnetization?
posted by phrontist at 5:33 PM on January 19, 2007

I swear I work with some people that have this same problem. They are otherwise intelligent but have abnormally bad luck with all machinery. I've always wondered if there's possibly something different with their body chemistry.
posted by Octoparrot at 5:36 PM on January 19, 2007

I call them "staticy". Or "unlucky", whichever seems more appropriate.

If you are looking for something more fun, you could call them a 'gremlin conjurer'.
posted by quin at 5:43 PM on January 19, 2007

What's the name of the condition for people who for some reason are highly susceptible to passing on electrical current ...

I would call them "not acquainted with the concepts of selective perception and attributional bias."

In other words, they wear a wool sweater and get a shock once or twice, the swear up and down that they have magical powers.
posted by frogan at 5:48 PM on January 19, 2007 [3 favorites]

Wow! I have a friend whose computers continually stop working for no real reason--he's gone through DOZENS. Specifically, well-built, well-engineered top-of-the-line Macs, doing things no Mac should be doing (spontaneous restarts? NINE hard drive crashes?) When I take his machines home to fix them, they work perfectly for me.

I wonder if it really is "just him".... fascinating.
posted by dmaterialized at 5:51 PM on January 19, 2007

People's body conductivity varies for a number of reasons, and people with low body conductivity will tend to build static charges more easily than others. Furthermore, a person with low conductivity (high resistance or impedance to electrical current flow) might also have personal habits, such as long hair, or an aversion to using fabric softener, that exacerbate their tendency to build static, or live in a locale where low humidity is the norm, particularly in winter months. And then, they might still further exacerbate their problems by wearing a mix of synthetic and natural fibers that are effective in building static charge by friction, and living/working in an environment where the environmental controls and cleaning mechanisms further promote static build up. And I agree with frogan that a person who might have all these factors and tendencies adding together could develop some perceptual biases to explain their frequent experience of zapping themselves, others, and mechanical/electrical/electronic equipment, without ever putting all the contributing factors together in a scientifically accurate explanation, particularly if they have little scientific or engineering training.

"Curing" such a "sparky" person usually requires a series of interventions, and if their natural body conductivity is low, they will always have a proclivity to shoot static sparks, and damage electronic equipment. Using plenty of certian types of skin moisturizer and hair conditioner regularly helps immensely, as does moving to all cotton clothing and conductive footwear, and working to increase the humidity of their surroundings significantly in dry months. In cases where people have to work in situations where even small static voltage can't be tolerated, as in electronics test and assembly, the air handling equipment is usually fitted with a system for ionic control of the air around work stations, which can drain very large amounts of static charge in small areas around workstations.
posted by paulsc at 5:55 PM on January 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Just get them one of these.
posted by banished at 5:56 PM on January 19, 2007

phrontist: my grandmother sews. Everything metal in her sewing kit sticks together - straight pins cling to straight pins or scissors or bobbins (if you get them too close together). It's very annoying if you're trying to pick up just one pin.
posted by dilettante at 6:16 PM on January 19, 2007

I would tend to agree with frogan, but with a caveat, I suppose. I truly believe that I am one of the most staticky people I know. But I have never, ever "ruined" or broken anything due to alleged electromagnetic properties or whatever. I always thought that was total crap.
posted by peep at 6:37 PM on January 19, 2007

I suggest reading up on the properties of ferro- and paramagnetic materials, dilettante.
posted by Loto at 6:40 PM on January 19, 2007

The Pauli effect?
posted by Opposite George at 6:42 PM on January 19, 2007 [1 favorite]

Gee frogan, thanks for that bit of insight. It only stands to reason that as a kid I (and my friends & family) imagined it when TWENTY watches went haywire on me in a two year period. Two of them were antique watches that were my great grandmothers that I totally adored... and I was heartbroken because I had to give them to my sister since they didn't work on me (she still wears them). People just began giving me watches after a while... but it was always the same pattern so I had to just give up. And back then we didn't carry cel phones & stuff, so having to always ask people the time was a giant pain in the ass. I hated not wearing a watch, but wearing one didn't help me figure out the time either.

And being in art school where I had to regularly use photography in projects... replacing &/or troubleshooting a nearly new SLR camera (that had NO reason to be acting up in the first place!) on a student's income was always awfully convenient. NOBODY would loan me their cameras, and I was terrified of borrowing one from the school because I couldn't afford to replace theirs too.

But hey... I wish I'd known you back then. You could've really helped me out by just being patronizing and calling me crazy. That would've really made things easier.

In other words... frogan's never experienced it himself, but this IS a real thing for some people. Crazy though it seems.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:45 PM on January 19, 2007

Street Lamp Interference, according to this article. People who are affected by it are known as SLIders.
posted by ScarletSpectrum at 7:05 PM on January 19, 2007

miss lynnster

Agreed.

My powers of prophecy tell me that my firstborn will be an indigo child with empathic abilities. Naturally, this will be balanced by a disaffinity for electronic devices and stored energy.
posted by The Confessor at 7:09 PM on January 19, 2007

if you don't believe things like this check out this guy. via yesterday's boingboing.
posted by ab3 at 7:12 PM on January 19, 2007

Hey I turn street lights off! I had no idea it was a previously undiscovered psychic phenomenon. I thought I just walked very heavily or something.

I'd guess that up to 10%+ of all lights I pass under turn off. Certain lights turn off 90 to 100% of the time when I walk under them, including the one at the end of my street which is mighty irritating.

I get static shocks up to and inlcuding arcing sparks, from everything too but I thought it was due to my choice of footwear. I havent' ever destroyed anything electrical, in fact the computer I'm typing this on is a 7 year old laptop that works perfectly.
posted by fshgrl at 8:48 PM on January 19, 2007

In other words... frogan's never experienced it himself, but this IS a real thing for some people. Crazy though it seems.

I've never experienced an alien abduction, either. Am I now supposed to believe other people's claims?

I wish I'd known you back then. You could've really helped me out by just being patronizing and calling me crazy. That would've really made things easier.

Then I'm sorry our paths didn't cross sooner. Would've helped you with your fears, I guess. I could've pointed out that antique mechanical watches don't usually have electronic parts.

For some reason have had no camera problems at all since I switched to digital, though...

OMG, and you think this ISN'T an attribution bias? Yeesh.

Regardless, this really sounds like a task for asavage and his crew.
posted by frogan at 9:04 PM on January 19, 2007

Loto, could you provide any starting points appropriate for the almost entirely ignorant? Wikipedia got me a little, but not enough to be sure what you mean, and I haven't had to even think about serious science in over 15 years. I'd always wondered what caused it, and when I was younger thought it might somehow be the contact between items in the sewing basket (these are arranged kind of like large tackle boxes, btw, it's not just a lot of stuff thrown in together). But then it didn't happen in my other grandmother's stuff, so I finally just decided it was some weirdness specific to this person.
posted by dilettante at 9:30 PM on January 19, 2007

The scientist in me wants to call this "bunk", but experience tells me otherwise. In my college apartment days we had a roommate 'John' who would repeatably cause static on the television if he was anywhere within 5 feet or so of the antenna. Repeatable enough to be a standard party trick. Nobody else ever had the same effect. So I'm a believer.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:37 PM on January 19, 2007

Dilettante: Check out Ferromagnetism for a brief description. Specifically, the term hysteresis is what you are looking for.

If you have access to a well stocked library, Griffiths writes a book called "Introduction to Electrodynamics" which has a section on dia, para, and ferromagnetism that is understandable even without knowing the physics.

Basically, the needles are made of ferromagnetic materials (Fe, Co, and Ni) which hold their own magnetic field even when an applied magnetic field is removed. This could have happened in an innumerable number of ways, and you sometimes see it with eating utensils and tools. Next time you go out to eat, play around with the cutlery, sometimes you'll find a knife with a field strong enough to dangle other cutlery off the edge of the table.
posted by Loto at 9:42 PM on January 19, 2007

I think the name is gremlins.
posted by magikker at 10:54 PM on January 19, 2007

Wow. I'm totally one of these people and I've always associated it with the fact that I have epilepsy - I'm shocked (HA!) to hear that this happens to the neurologically normal as well.

(As I type this, half of the lightbulbs in my living room and kitchen are blown out and I have to make a trip to Lowe's tomorrow for replacements. Also, the lights near where I stand most often at work have blown out and the café in general has started experiencing light-switch dysfunction in the areas I spend most of my time.)

I don't have the static problems you mention, but I do blow through an impressive numbers of stereos. I also blame the death of many a computer on my presence. (Macs, for some reason, in my experience can survive whatever vibes I'm throwing off.) My iPods commit suicide after a while. Batteries lose their charge in an impressively short period of time.

My husband thought I was making this shit up until he realized how often we have to change lightbulbs versus how often lightbulbs normally burn out. Now only he only partially thinks I'm nuts.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:04 PM on January 19, 2007

As for ways to reduce the problem, I can't think of a single thing I've been able to do to stop myself from destroying electronics. And as for the lightbulbs, I just always have a lot of spares. Except for when I've already blown through those. Like now. Now is a very dark time for me.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:05 PM on January 19, 2007

You'll find a number of amateur websites on the topic (example, example) if you search google for "Street Lamp Interference" (usually acronymed to SLI).

Here's a report from 'The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena' (with large pdf of a book the SLI Effect).

Here's the straight dope on the subject.

Everything2 has some stuff on SLI, including a link to a reprinted WaPo article, also a reprinted CNN report, including video [.mov]

This phenomena is quite widely reported on the net, many first hand reports can be found googling, with often very similar symptoms; street lamp interference, batteries running down, computers breaking, lights breaking etc. However, little research appears to have been done on the matter. The now defunct Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research apparently did some research into it, but I can't find anything useful on that.
posted by MetaMonkey at 11:59 PM on January 19, 2007

Frogan, what I was told from the people I've talked to about this before is that it's not entirely electric... it's magnetic. I'm an artist so I don't understand the technical junk to explain it.

But I really appreciate you calling me an idiot. Congratulations on your superiority.
posted by miss lynnster at 1:17 AM on January 20, 2007

People who have to change lightbulbs more often than average are probably living somewhere where the voltage of the mains supply is above average, causing the bulbs to draw more current, consume more power than their nominal rating, shine more brightly and burn out sooner.

Where I live, the opposite happens. The nearest stepdown transformer to my house is two streets away, and the house's nominally 240V electricity supply is usually somewhere around 225-230V. My lightbulbs last a long time.

John's effect on the TV probably had more to do with blocking the signal by virtue of being an appropriate size, shape and conductivity to do so, rather than personal static charge, magnetism or paranormal qualities. I'd expect that a lifesize papier-mache model of John sprayed with conductive paint would have a similar effect.

And miss lynster, though there are certainly ways for some people to build up bigger-than-normal or more-frequent-than-normal electric charges by virtue of dry skin and/or choice of clothing, there really is no way for a human body to generate a significant magnetic field. I don't think you're an idiot, but then, I don't think only idiots experience attribution bias. Seems to me that it does occur more often in people with no affinity for technical junk, though :-)

Anybody who genuinely believes that they have a statistically significant personal effect on street lighting should take it up with James Randi and make a million off it. Just quietly, I'm tipping this won't happen.
posted by flabdablet at 7:07 AM on January 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

My street lamp interference was strong enough that my fellow students made quite a bit of comment on it, especially when we got bored one night and went for an eighteen count of me switching off randomly selected lights in the parking lot.

And we were physics grads and undergrads. We concluded it had something to do with capacitance and went to sleep.
posted by adipocere at 8:39 AM on January 20, 2007

Don't know about the rest of you but I call such people "Grandpa" - he can't wear a digital watch, because the batteries go out in a matter of weeks. The watch itself is usually OK, but he stopped buying digitals because he got tired of replacing batteries.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:11 AM on January 20, 2007

flabdablet: Your theory about living someplace with odd voltage doesn't hold up in my case as I've moved around between several very different locations in two different countries for the past few years and it doesn't matter where I'm living, the lightbulbs, they burn out.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:31 AM on January 20, 2007

I'm an artist so I don't understand the technical junk to explain it.

So you're just going to make up some bullshit and then get upset when somebody calls it bullshit?
posted by empath at 1:21 PM on January 20, 2007

Electropause.
posted by damn dirty ape at 2:43 PM on January 20, 2007

grapefruitmoon: OK, if it's not the supply voltage and the effect follows you around, I think your bulb-blowing tendency has no choice but to reflect the way you use your bulbs, or the kinds of light fitting you prefer in your living spaces.

In any case, energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs will help you out. These things are usually specified for 8000-10000 hours of service life, and over that service life they will save you roughly $40 worth of energy each.

The good part for you is that they run cool enough that if you write the installation date on their base with a sharpie, it will still be there when they eventually blow. File the receipts when you buy them, date-stamp their bases when you install them, and if you get significantly less service life out of them than they promise, just get your vendor to replace them.
posted by flabdablet at 4:24 PM on January 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

My dad worked first as a teletype technician, then as an engineer for RCA for 15 years. He said that they had a UNIVAC which would go haywire everytime certain people came in contact with it. He wondered why this was. This caused such a problem that one day, he had EVERYONE who worked there go to the UNIVAC to test this out. All people have an electrical field around their bodies, presumably because the nerve cells transmit messages electrochemically. I guess some people have a stronger field, and/or negative polarity, who knows. My father never told me if there was a name for it but the terms I can think of are auras (if you want to get metaphysical) or "Kirilian Field" if you believe there is any validity to Kirilian Photography. My father's solution: he simply banned some people from the computer room! (In all fairness, today's computers have fewer exposed parts and are probably less sensitive to charges/static that people carry).
I know of a similar story from the early days of corporate computer use concerning two female keypunch operators. They made the computer go haywire whenever they came near as well. Finally it was discovered that the problem was the static charges carried by their nylons! The world's best argument for pants for women! Let's hope they didn't choose polyester!
posted by bunky at 7:02 PM on January 20, 2007

This "fields due to electochemical nerve cell activity" business is quite a persistent meme. A little technical junk is probably in order to explain why it's bunk.

It takes roughly a thousand volts of potential difference to create a spark across a 1mm gap. So when you've just been zapped by a doorknob, you've built up a potential difference between your body and the doorknob of at least a thousand volts; probably several thousand.

Nerve cell signalling is measurable in microvolts to millivolts (millionths to thousandths of a volt). Nerve cell signals are somewhere between a billion and a million times too small to account for the doorknob zap effect and related damage to electronics.

Friction between dissimilar fabrics or between fabrics and skin and/or the pulling apart of objects with a small existing charge (such as your body and an office chair) can easily build up an overall body charge of several thousand volts. This doesn't disrupt your internal nerve signalling processes because the charge distributes itself around the outside of your body.

If you've got dry skin and/or you're in dry air, it takes a long while for such a charge to leak off your body into the air, and you become susceptible to being zapped when it suddenly transfers itself into something you've just touched.
posted by flabdablet at 8:11 PM on January 20, 2007

Of course it's impossible for people to have something inherent about them that causes watches and cameras to stop working, blows lightbulbs and affects neon streetlights. Of course, thinkers and scientists from Aristotle to Newton knew it was impossible for rocks to fall from the sky.
posted by Hogshead at 4:38 PM on January 21, 2007

Of course it's impossible for people to have something inherent about them that causes watches and cameras to stop working, blows lightbulbs and affects neon streetlights. Of course, thinkers and scientists from Aristotle to Newton knew it was impossible for rocks to fall from the sky.

Right, so people must have magical powers now because guys hundreds of years ago made mistakes.

Let us know how that that argument works out for you. On the other hand, you could always look up the meaning of a negative proof.
posted by frogan at 6:29 PM on January 21, 2007

I could look up negative proof. On the other hand, back in the day my party trick for impressing girlies was pointing at a streetlight and saying, "Turn ON!" and it would. Plus I know what it means already.

More things in heaven and earth, Horatio, is all I'm saying.
posted by Hogshead at 9:44 AM on January 22, 2007

Hogshead, if you can still do that trick, and do it repeatably, there's an easy million bucks waiting for you at the JREF. Get in quick, though, because they're about to close down applications from claimants without significant media exposure.
posted by flabdablet at 3:17 PM on January 22, 2007