We often overlook how common, everyday gadgets simplify and enhance the quality of our lives.  And we definitely overlook the awesome killing power of these devices of death! So, here’s a closer look at these killing machines in disguise and how they could possibly cut your life short.

1. Phone - Probably the most commonly used of any electronic device, the invention of the phone drastically changed the way people communicate.  The phone helps friends and family stay in contact, helps Senators hook up with call girls and also helps people suffer an untimely death!

Ways to die:
Lightning Strike -  on average one person a year is killed by lightning while talking on the phone. One such example is a 1985 lightning strike that caused the death of 17 year old Jason Findley of New Jersey.  He was found dead at his grandparents house with the receiver still clutched to his ear.

Driving while talking (or texting) - Cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the journal’s publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. R U 4 real? OMFG!

Murder - Police arrested 34-year-old Hitoshi Kawakami for allegedly killing his wife because she found porn images on his cell phone while he was taking a bath.

2. TV - Another extremely popular household device is the television.  While mainly used to enhance the quality of life, the TV has been known to take a few lives, as well.  And surprisingly, none of those lives lost were due to watching MASH reruns!

Ways to die:
Crushed by TV - From 2000 through 2005, Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has reported 36 TV tip-over-related deaths. Expect this to drop dramatically with the advent of the plasma screen, as it won’t be the TV killing the child, but rather the parents killing the child for ruining their expensive TV.

For watching soccer - Radical Islamic militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were watching a banned World Cup soccer broadcast. The Muslim fighters opened fire after a crowd of teenagers were reluctant to leave a hall where a businessman was showing the Germany-Italy match on a satellite TV. The businessman and a teenage girl were killed.  I think Somalians have just surpassed English soccer hooligans as the craziest people ever when it comes to sports!

Slowly, through the loss of brain cells - Wikipedia says, “The basal ganglia portion of the brain becomes very active when a person plays video games and watches TV. And the body releases a chemical called dopamine. Ritalin (and cocaine) also works on the basal ganglia of the brain and increase dopamine. More dopamine is released; the less neurotransmitter is available to do anything else. For that reason persons with illnesses related to dopamine unbalance like ADHD should limit the time spent on watching TV to a half-hour a day.” So, basically it’s not a good idea to sit around and watch Scarface while snorting quarter gram lines of coke! I wish I knew that back in college…

3. Video Games - Another popular form of entertainment for all age groups.  While your character in the game is most likely to die before you, video games have been the cause of a few untimely deaths (Ok, so it probably has more to do with the crazy ass person playing it than the game itself).

Ways to die:
Exhaustion - A South Korean man died after playing an online computer game for 50 hours straight with only a few breaks. The 28-year-old man collapsed after playing the game Starcraft at an internet cafe in the city of Taegu.

Stabbing - A typical afternoon of video game playing turned deadly as a thirteen year-old boy fatally stabbed his sixteen year-old brother in the chest during an alleged dispute over who’s turn it was. The younger brother stabbed his sibling in the chest twice, puncturing his heart and a lung.

Punched to death - A 25-year-old North Philadelphia man was charged with killing his 17-month-old daughter by violently punching her over a video game.

“His confession was she pulled the cords in the game, the system is — the box itself — fell, and he was upset and then responsible for paying for the game, so he hit her in her face twice,” the girl’s mother said, adding that Spellman also allegedly slung the child over a chair.  The good news?  This guy gets to enjoy a new game in prison called “Ass Pounding with No Vaseline”.  And like the South Korean man above, bubba likes to play for extended periods of time!

4. Alarm Clock - Here’s another reason to hate your alarm clock more than you already do.  Alarm clocks are a necessary evil that assist people in getting up early, but they can be evil in another way, as well.

Way to die:
Scared to death - Lisa Browne, 27, died from heart failure brought on by the shock of her alarm clock going off. This is sad news, though on some mornings, if I could, I would choose death as opposed to dragging my hung-over ass out of bed.