Darwin Awards 2006

ms1234 writes "The year is coming to and end so it is time to see how our genepool is doing. Darwin Awards 2006 includes everything from whacking RPGs with hammers to recreating experiments by Franklin."

Fool me twice...

[rancher dan 3]

Are these real events or made up ones, like in previous years?

Re:Fool me twice...

[Elliot_Lin]

They are real. There wouldn't be lots of point honoring a non-existent person for something they hadn't done.

"Stuff that matters"

[chia_monkey]

Ah yes, Slashdot, the source of news for nerds and stuff that matters.

What would be really nice and noteworthy is if we could actually let Darwinism take its course. You just have to love how current laws and modern medicine continuously allow these people to live in our society, not only endangering themselves but also endangering the rest of society. "Only the strong survive" just isn't applicable anymore.

Re:Fool me twice...

[GrumpySimon]

Yeah - this is the problem with these, they sound far too urban-legend-y to be true. The stories do have a "Confirmed True by Darwin" note, but I only counted ONE that backed things up with a link to a newspaper story.

With things like google news, it's certainly not hard to find five or six million versions of the same article, so until they do this, the Darwin awards are just a collection of mildly funny stories that happened to someone's Aunt's cousin twice removed. ( Seriously - one of them starts with "I am 14, and I know this is a true story..." -- WTF? ).

Just malicious

[badzilla]

I know I'll get flamed but will say it anyway - I think this site is just plain cruel to take the piss out of people who have had severe accidents with fatal results. Especially as things ain't always what they seem, such as the side-splitting hilarious story of Vietnamese bomb-rollers who got blown up. According to TFA they know perfectly well it is dangerous but are forced to do it anyway because they are starving and get a few cents if they can reclaim the scrap metal.

Humorous reminders need not be malicious

[dfoulger]

I have a very good friend who, despite knowing all the reasons why she shouldn't, smokes. This years "Stubbed Out" made an impression. If the effect is to get one person to stop smoking (or doing other really stupid things like igniting gasoline in florescent tubes), they server a valuable social function.

Favorite Darwin Award Classic

[dattaway]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JATO_Rocket_Car [wikipedia.org]

"the staff of the Darwin Awards decided it was such a funny story to "grandfather" it in and let it keep its award."

cultdeadcow link at the bottom has the most amazing recent version.

No integrity

[Lord Kano]

I lost all respect for the Darwin Awards when they refused to give one to JFK Jr. [salon.com]

Some jackass flying an airplane in conditions that he had not been certified for and kills himself, his wife and his sister-in-law and they call it a "lapse of judgement" not worthy of a Darwin award.

LK

First Prize goes to;

[jafac]

Saddam Hussein.

The lesson: when Don Rumsfeld sells you Chemical Weapons precursors to use in gassing domestic political opponents, don't cross him, or he'll FUCK you.

Stupid Spearfisher

[pNutz]

I heard this story at least seven years ago, when I was getting my diving certification. Some idiot spears a Jewfish, gets tangled in the line and is dragged to his watery death. The legend of the idiot Jewfish-er who forgets his knife and common sense on the boat is not by any means new, and this tale has no references. Different from the chain letter how?

Also, from the 'man-tries-to-jump-from-train' story:
"I am 14, and I know for a fact this story is true."
Convincing. Actually, only one of these stories has any references.

This is garbage, as usual. They find a couple of real facts and laugh at the people who died, then make some others up because humanity is just not stupid enough to die in an amusing manner for the legions of misanthropes.

Re:Fool.

[haeger]

...not only fill their own lungs with a cancerous death but also those non-smokers around them.

This annoys me too. I have this urge to fill a spraybottle with water and start spraying it in very very close proximity to smokers. Then proceed to explain to them that it's "just urine, it doesn't cause cancer or is harmful in any other way, quite opposite to what you're posioning me with".

Somehow I don't think they'll appriciate it so I should probably brush up on my wushu before attempting this. In case I need to defend myself.

 

.haeger