The Darwin Awards

[Echolilia]

Ride 'Em Cowgirl
2010 Darwin Award Nominee
Confirmed True by Darwin
A cautionary tale for those who can't spare the time to slow down and do things properly.

14 August 2010, Kentucky | Kelita H. was travelling "at highway speed" in her Chevy, cruising down Country Road 519 with the wind blowing through her hair, when she and her passenger decided to swap seats. In this situation, a less hasty person would stop the car for a "Chinese fire drill" but Kelita was a little more creative than that. Fortunately, you see, her car had an open T-Top.

She stood up, pulled herself onto the roof, and she fell. And then Kelita was travelling solo "at highway speed" down that country road.

The Fayette County Coroner's Office reported that the 20-year-old died from injuries sustained while impacting a guardrail.

On the way down, her foot hit the steering wheel and the car veered left--but the passenger, who was still inside the vehicle, grabbed the wheel and averted his own possible demise, thereby demonstrating the wisdom of learning from the mistakes of others. That passenger, by the way, easily earns an Honorable Mention himself, as he was arrested and charged with driving on a suspended license with improper registration and no insurance.

There are several lessons to learn here.

[Free Guns For All]

Short Arm of the Law
2002 At-Risk Survivor
Confirmed True by Darwin
(May 2002, Pakistan) Usually it's the criminal, not the judge, who attempts to take himself out of the gene pool. But not in this twist of a familiar tale! A man accused of possessing a hand grenade challenged police to produce it at his trial. When the police brought the grenade into the courtroom, the defendant claimed it was not real. The judge absentmindedly took the grenade in his hand while listening to arguments -- and pulled the pin! He was injured, but survived, no doubt with improved judgment.

[Echolilia]

Science: Patents Amok
2005 At-Risk Survivor
Confirmed True by Darwin
At-Risk Survivor to a Broken System!

The patent process has run amok. "Discoveries [...] that would benefit the public [...] could be thwarted by an increasingly compex intellectual prperty regime," reported a National Academy of Sciences Panel. Here's an example: Metabolite Labs was charged with attempting to patent a "law of nature" regarding relative levels of vitamins and amino acids. Their response? Attorney Glen Beaton said he would "call it a guideline of nature, more than a law of nature." The US Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the dispute.

[Echolilia]

No death or maiming, but still...
www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/20/cremains_fail/

[Free Guns For All]

Something my dad told me about. The moron in the story didn't die, but he should have, and you'll have to agree:

My dad and one of his friends were going for a run along a narrow path going along a river. They suddenly came across a man hanging onto a dead tree off the edge of the path. At first, they thought he'd simply slipped off the path, but then he told then that he and his firends had made a bet. The bet was that he couldn't swim across the river then climb up the steep cliff to the path. If he could, they'd give him a slab of beer (24 cans for non-Aussies). My dad (a near 50 year old) and his friend (a 60 year old) had to save this idiot to stop him being sent to my 3rd favourite site (the other two of course being here and NS).

[Echolilia]

www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/21/man_bird_death/

[Shelter from the Storm]

I found the Darwin Awards thread!

[Echolilia]

I no longer find this interesting. Yes, people kill themselves in stupid ways sometimes, but it isn't really funny. Call me a killjoy.