Do NOT try this at home or anywhere.

Today's blog entry is a public service announcement, trying to help a YouTube star get the message to all home craftsmen and artists. 

It may come as a shock to you that things you see on the Internet are not always trustworthy -- although I doubt it, since you show the intelligence and good taste to visit this site (ahem). But what will come as a shock to you or me or anyone else, a shock of the fatal variety, is if we try this stunt.

Ann Reardon is a food scientist and baker from the Land of Oz, maybe best known for her incredible miniature bakes on her "How to Cook That" channel. She also makes terrific videos that review silly kitchen implements and debunk food hacks. But this debunking isn't about food; it's about a project using electricity to burn patterns in wood. At the time she made the video there were 34 known deaths in the United States reported due to this project, and who knows how many more in other places or just not reported in the newspapers. So of course YouTube moved this important video to the top of their viewing for everyone, right?

Nah, they banned it. 

After making this protest video with the important parts of the original and posting it, Ann had shamed YouTube into reposting the original. But I wanted to do my little bit to keep this going, because I know a lot of crafters and you probably do too, and let's not do this craft together, shall we? 

Here's the problem in a nutshell, which she explains far better than I can: While normal household electricity is usually not instantly fatal to an adult human, this project calls for taking the transformer out of a microwave oven and using jumper cables to burn patterns in wood. An average dingdong like myself might think that's just a means of getting the juice to the cables, so it's no more dangerous than sticking a paper clip in an outlet. There might be a pop, and I'd get a shock and maybe a burn, but it's not going to kill me, right? And when these things happen, the circuit breaker will instantly shut off anyway.

And I would be wrong, oh so wrong, because the transformer lifts the voltage coming out to about 2,000 volts, enough to stop my heart before I even hit the floor. The circuit breaker has no connection to the transformer's output, so it doesn't even know this is happening, so the juice won't shut off. Even brushing against the wood while doing this craft can impart a fatal shot of Reddy Kilowatt. 

So bear this in mind if you should know anyone who likes to try woodcrafts, or is known to fall for the various "life hacks" promised on Internet videos. Beauty and art may be worth dying for, but foolishness is not.