Devices in the Wild

[Josh]

I just got a drawing from an electronics engineer noting that "device thickness varies from 3.875 inches to 3.90 inches".

These are things I DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

[Laurie]

Is that... circumference of the device? That's really below average.

Also, this would be even funnier if the engineer in question was WVUM's former engineer Brendan. Making him blush was both fun AND easy.

Wait, is he still doing engineering work for WVUM and saying unintentionally dirty things that cause you to laugh and, in turn, cause him to blush furiously?

[Josh]

from BoingBoing:
According to an article in the medical journal The Lancet, immigration officials at a New York airport forced a man to remove a thread-like medical device from his rectum, because they thought it might be a bomb or indicate a drug-smuggling ploy. The device is called a seton, and is used to treat a condition that sometimes results from digestive disorders such as Crohn's disease. Snip from the article attributed to the 48-year-old man's physician:

On arrival in New York in August, 2006, for a holiday, the patient was interrogated by immigration officials, then examined and searched. The presence of the seton gave rise to much concern, I assume because of a suspicion that a drug package or terrorist weapon was in some way attached to it. A rectal examination was done, during which the examining official pulled very hard on the seton, causing severe pain, but fortunately not damaging the anal sphincter muscles encircled by it.

The patient was refused entry into the country unless the seton was removed. Given the somewhat stark choice, he chose removal of the seton, which was done by a doctor at the airport who claimed never to have come across one before. The patient now requires an examination under general anaesthetic to insert a replacement.

[Jason]

Jesus, I almost had to have a seton once.

[B_Buster]

Speaking of "devices":

Captain Nowak’s use of a diaper on the long drive to Florida is no mystery to astronauts. Mike Mullane, a retired astronaut, said many astronauts wear a device — “we call them urine collection devices” — during launching, landing and spacewalks, “when you’re in a pressure suit and cannot get to a toilet.”

[bobby.]

diaper

I really think "nappy" is a better word.. it's just funnier.