The agency said no serious injuries or deaths were reported.

Carbs, (and maybe even you too, Wad) take note of this!

Well, I have terrible luck. Apple is doing a recall of some of their batteries and guess whose laptop battery is one that needs to be replaced? That's right, mine. I did some research last night (courtesy of New York Times and the Apple website) to find out what the problem was. Apparently as many as 1.8 million of these batteries are being recalled. There are nine reported incidents of batteries overheating, including two that resulted in minor burns and property damage. Says the New York Times. The article goes on to say...

"As was the case with the Dell batteries, the problem is contamination by metal particles inside the lithium-ion battery cells. The microscopic particles are able to bridge a porous separator between the positively and negatively charged zones of the cell and cause a short. This sets off a chemical chain reaction that can lead to the release of hot gases and liquids, smoke or a fire."

I'd recommend logging onto the Apple website, any/all Mac users reading this, and checking to see if your laptop battery serial number and such correspond to those that are being recalled. (Hint: I had some trouble with this, but to remove your battery you have to shut down your computer, use a nickel or quarter to turn the lock on the bottom, and the battery should lift right out.)

I should be getting my battery within 4-6 weeks, but hopefully sooner. It's not much of an issue, I'll just keep my laptop plugged in at all times. (My battery is safely stored away from my computer, since it's been recommended that you keep the battery out if it IS one of the possibly affected ones. Although I've never had any trouble with mine. Le sigh.) Anyway, my computer usage is not severely hampered.

Speaking of computers, my sister's IBM came in last night and boy, that thing is mammoth. It must weigh 20 lbs. Alright, that might be slight exaggeration, but the thing is HUUUGE. And not nearly as sexy as my (now battery-less) PowerBook. And it doesn't have a backlit keyboard, which is what really takes the cake. All in all, I'm assured of my computer superiority. On that note, it's now past 3 pm and I still haven't gotten dressed. Time to remedy that situation.