We have heard plenty of stories about tasers being harmful or even deadly, but could they also be healthy and heart-friendly? Possibly, given new evidence unearthed in the case of one 28 year old man who was tased after he hid from police in a lake for 40 minutes then tried to flee the ER when captured. Because of his stint in the lake and the drugs found in his system, the man's body temperature had dropped to 89 degrees and his heart fell into atrial fibrillation—a condition where the upper chambers of the heart quiver rather than beat.

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Every year, Taser demos their latest and greatest in a mock prison riot at an old penitentiary in West Virginia. This year's star is peel-and-stick taser tape, that'll turn any surface into a fully electrified no-no zappy zone. On the practical side, this stuff will be rolling out by the end of the year to instantly upgrade cops' riot shields into serious business, no taser wand-waving necessary, like an instant force field. On the other hand, consumerised taser tape could become the best thing since sliced electric bread: Keep roommates out of your beer fridge! Shocking revenge on your soon-to-be-ex who gave you the herp! [Prime Newswire via Danger Room]

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The cops in Canada seem to be getting the hang of the Taser business. Mounties summoned to a British Columbia hospital tased an octogenarian patient after he pulled a knife from his pocket. Eighty-two-year-old Frank Lasser, who was suffering from pneumonia and had been admitted to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, claimed that sometimes he got delusional when he got short of breath. Did that, however, make it right for the police to tase him, bro?

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Ok, we know bad things can happen when the general public use tasers, but cops tasing a guy and setting him on fire? No... really? Apparently the 31-year-old in question was causing a disturbance in an apartment in Hamilton, Ontario, recently, and three police officers attended. Whatever happened after that, the police ended up firing a taser at him. Unfortunately when the high-voltage device went off some sort of flammable object in his pants waistband caught fire. He sustained burns to his hands and thigh, and had to be taken to hospital. Ouch. Someone at some point must've started saying "Liar! Liar! Pants..." [Danger Room]

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Forget DIY camera stun guns: they're just a stunt. If you want real pocket protection, these charmingly disguised stun guns can deliver 350,000 volts of agony to an assailant. Will they think it looks like you're just brandishing a tube of lippy at them? Probably not an experiment to try. They have an LED flashlight built-in, and come with a charger. If carrying this around in your purse makes you feel safer, they're available for a paltry US$49.95 in a variety of shades and shapes. So you can, you know, coordinate your electro-shock defence with your outfit. Weird. [Red Ferret via Gizmodo UK]

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The father of an 18-month-old child is off to jail for four years after being found guilty of using a stun gun on the boy. His reason for using the 100,000-volt Dragonfire, which resulted in muscle damage to the kid's heart, was because he wanted his son to be "the toughest cage fighter ever." Yeah, the toughest heart-damaged, cage-fighting 18-month-old ever.

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Taser wants its products to be common gadgets along the same lines as cell phones and MP3 players; you know, the stuff you always carry with you. That's why it's released a belt hoster for its tasers that can be loaded up with 1GB of MP3s. Perhaps the most feature-free MP3 player we've ever seen, it has a mere 2 buttons and no screen on it. But hey, it holds a Taser! I'd like to see an iPod actually prevent you from being mugged instead of the other way around. Oh, and it also unveiled leopard print and pink Tasers, just in case you want to look fashionable before taking someone who's political beliefs you disagree with down to the pavement.

Fortune magazine reports this week that there's a formidable new weapon on the horizon, an Autocopter Gunship that's a mini helicopter drone with two of those badass AA-12 12-gauge recoiless automatic shotguns strapped on. Imagine swarms of robot-copters, each equipped with dual shotguns filling the air with lead, all at a moment's notice.

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As tasers turn into must-have gadgets for self-defence and police officers alike, dubious tasings have apparently also gone epidemic, making taser-proof clothing a must for any activist's, driver's or breathing human's Christmas list. Today's exhibit: A woman walks into a police station, wants to give up her one-year-old, then tries to leave. Guess what happens? To be fair though, if she was more cooperative, should probably wouldn't have gotten the toasted. [Liveleak]

Get out of the way everybody! Here comes a Taser Flying Saucer from France. A company headed by Taser distributer Antoine di Zazzo is working on an unmanned "mini flying saucer" that will be able to zap electric hell from above onto rioting crowds, malcontents and evildoers.

Zazzo says his hovering shocker will be raining down the pain sometime next year, and could even find its way to these shores. Pushbutton Tasering from a distance? Sounds like an insane idea. This whole Taser concept has gone way too far, but we suppose it's better than mass murdering crowds of people. [Danger Room]