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Author Topic: 2008 Darwin Awards  (Read 6674 times)

y0himba

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2008 Darwin Awards
« on: December 30, 2008, 07:58 AM »
It's that time again... The Darwin Awards are finally out, the annual honor given to the persons who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way.



Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out. This year's winner was a real rocket scientist... HONESTLY! Read on...And remember that each and every one of these is a TRUE STORY!!!



And the nominees were:



Semifinalist #1 - A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. This resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.



Semifinalist #2 - Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.



Semifinalist #3 - A 22-year-old Reston, VA, man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot rail road trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. 'The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground,' Carmichael said. Police say t he apparent cause of death was 'Major trauma.'



Semifinalist #4 - A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend - no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate - was hospitalized.



Semifinalist #5 - Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the ware house exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ''bright'' by his peers.



And Now, for the winner of this year's Darwin Award - (As always, awarded posthumously)



The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist... had somehow gotten hold of a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the JATO unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!



The facts as best as could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 -25 seconds. The driver, and soon to be pilot, would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event.



However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, b lowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable. Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground. You just couldn't make this stuff up, could you?

PhilB66

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2008, 08:10 AM »

Deozaan

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2008, 08:14 AM »
It's fun to hear about the Darwin awards, but I don't think it's that funny when idiots remove others from the gene pool.

Thumbs down to #1 and #5. >:( :(

The rest are good, though.  :D

Eóin

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2008, 09:14 AM »
The winner is a widly know urban legend, see snopes or even the Mythbusters pilot episode. That disappoints me quite a bit actually because I always thought the Darwin awards were more credible  :(

"You just couldn't make this stuff up, could you?" ...ironic I suppose.

[edit] Actually checking out the site that particular award was given in 1995 is known to be false.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2008, 09:20 AM by Eóin »

gexecuter

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2008, 10:02 AM »
If you are gonna die then might as well make it a memorable death. The rocket car seems like a memorable death to me.
Mouser is made of win and awesome!

fenixproductions

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2008, 10:15 AM »
I think being crushed by falling down DC server would be memorable too ;)

f0dder

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2008, 10:17 AM »
I've always thought the Darwin Awards to be urban legends - doesn't make them any less funnier though.
- carpe noctem

Carol Haynes

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2008, 10:41 AM »
I can't see the rocket man story on the site anymore (even under urban legends) - has it been removed?

Eóin

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2008, 10:45 AM »
I've always thought the Darwin Awards to be urban legends - doesn't make them any less funnier though.

With the Darwin Awards though they are really supposed to be genuine.

The site has this note which has restored much of my fate in it since it is prepared to acknowledge those which turned out to be legends.
Some true stories are unconfirmed until alert fans supply references. Other stories are labelled "confirmed" but new information reveals I was fooled. And some just shouldn't have been posted.

[edit] Carol, it's under the archives way back from 1995: http://www.darwinawa...n/darwin1995-04.html
« Last Edit: December 30, 2008, 10:49 AM by Eóin »

Eóin

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Re: 2008 Darwin Awards
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2008, 10:54 AM »
According to snopes that list is based mostly on a 1994 one; 2004 Darwin Awards.