Elsewhere: Man’s static jacket sparks alert

A man, wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a wool shirt, built up such a large static charge that he set fire to a carpet, burned plastic in his car, and caused the evacuation of an office building.

His clothes were measured by firemen as carrying an electrical charge of 40,000 volts, the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Barton as saying.

The fire official added that the charge was close to being high enough to cause the items to spontaneously combust.

They don’t mention if he got the job or not.

Apr 14, 2010  •  ,