Darwin awards

[Borachio]

I would be very surprised if you haven't played this game at some time in the past.

Always good for a laugh, though, so I make no apologies.

A Darwin award, as you know, is given to a person who successfully offs themselves, and therefore usefully removing themselves from the gene pool, in the most stupid way possible.

Possible flavours:
1) the true Darwin;
2) the well-done very near-miss Darwin;
and any others you care to invent.

Ideally your candidate should be carefully referenced, though minor points can be awarded for sufficiently entertaining urban myths, fictions of your own invention, etc.

My nomination goes to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-17560534 for a #2.




(cruel, but fun)

 

[Silurian]

It was stupid to listen too the Tories and stock up on petrol.
We are now paying 10p a litre more for petrol due to their scare mongering and this women will be scared for life.

 

[LegionSteve]

It would be a better Darwin if she had accidentally set Francis Maude on fire.

 

[Borachio]

Yes, you know I really wondered about this whole "tanker drivers are going on strike thing"*. At first sight I thought it was just incompetence (surely not the first example we have seen, lately); then I thought well maybe it was deliberately released on the world in order to distract attention** from something else (surely not the first example we have seen, is it?). So I have been keeping a beady eye open for the "something else". Not seen a likely looking case, so I shall have to reluctantly go with incompetence.

*for those who don't know, they were'nt.

**technically known as burying bad news.

edit: another possibility: good excuse to up the price of petrol? aha!

 

[emzie]

Um. This isn't proper Darwin award material. This is just sad and laughing at it seems a bit cruel.

 

[Borachio]

True. That had occurred to me. But, really, although this woman of course does not deserve to be suffering as she so plainly is, it was a remarkably stupid thing to do for a grown adult. Perhaps stupidity deserves compassion more than anything else.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Perhaps stupidity deserves compassion more than anything else.

You can remove the "perhaps" , the exception being the all too common combination of ignorance AND arrogance . In which case , derision is mandatory .

 

[emzie]

But we all do really stupid things sometimes. There's not a single poster on this forum that hasn't once looked back on an action and thought, "woah that was dangerous" the difference is for this woman is that moment actually did go bad.

I hope that I'm perceived as a "not complete idiot" here but I once drove over a half collapsed bridge in a (including my weight and luggage) 4300 pound jeep... one lane wide barely, at night, in rural West Virginia. Why? I wanted to get a geocache in that state. The worst part was after I found it I could only back out back over the bridge. When I cleared it I stopped, looked at it in the headlights as half the bridge shifted. Had it gone with me on it, I would have rolled my Jeep into a creek with no cell service at night in West Virginia.

And that's far far from the stupidest thing I've ever done.

 

[Borachio]

Alright, I'll play. Perhaps arrogance + stupidity deserves more compassion than anything else?

 

[brennan]

*Ahem*

It is not known if the 46-year-old had been storing petrol in advance of the threat of industrial action by tanker drivers .

A pertinent fact methinks.

I believe I was the first person on the Guardian website to nominate her for a Darwin btw.

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

You realise I was agreeing that stupidity deserves compassion though ? Having said that , to make fun of peoples stupidity is also fine , you just need to be careful of being too hurtful (i.e a jerk) .

But when peoples ignorance is mixed with a healthy dose of arrogance , my compassion wanes rapidly .

@Contre re the jeep incident , it would appear that John Denver was not referring to your route in terms of West Virginian country roads taking you home .

 

[emzie]

You realise I was agreeing that stupidity deserves compassion though ? Having said that , to make fun of peoples stupidity is also fine , you just need to be careful of being too hurtful (i.e a jerk) .

But when peoples ignorance is mixed with a healthy dose of arrogance , my compassion wanes rapidly .

@Contre re the jeep incident , it would appear that John Denver was not referring to your route in terms of West Virginian country roads taking you home .

West Virginia has notoriously good roads. A lot of federal funding to bring business to the state. The end product is still a dirt poor area, but at least the roads are nice.

But this was on an abandoned trail....

 

[ShahJahanII]

Um. This isn't proper Darwin award material. This is just sad and laughing at it seems a bit cruel.

True. That had occurred to me. But, really, although this woman of course does not deserve to be suffering as she so plainly is, it was a remarkably stupid thing to do for a grown adult. Perhaps stupidity deserves compassion more than anything else.

Yes, it is quite sad and cruel to be laughing at this.
Not that it wasn't stupid.

 

[Borachio]

This feeling, I fear, is inevitable for any 'sensible' player of the Darwin Award Game. I find I can put it to one side for the purposes of the game. Is this very wrong of me?

 

[Borachio]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089634/Bear-Grylls-survival-challenge-man-dead-remote-Scottish-mountain-hut.html

Yay! Found a candidate. Does it qualify?

(btw this is the first time in 20 yrs I've looked at the Daily Mail. See how blindly prejudiced I've been all this time. )

 

[emzie]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2089634/Bear-Grylls-survival-challenge-man-dead-remote-Scottish-mountain-hut.html

Yay! Found a candidate. Does it qualify?

(btw this is the first time in 20 yrs I've looked at the Daily Mail. See how blindly prejudiced I've been all this time. )

Yes, I think it does.

 

[Winner]

What about all the Africans who die every year trying to siphon fuel from cracked oil pipes? I think they deserve this award much more.

 

[Borachio]

Nay! That, I suggest, is desperation. Not the same thing at all.

I might suggest the entire human race for messing about. As we do.

btw are there any experienced landlords lurking here? It seems I've to find two tenants to share my house, in the interest of global thingy. And I would like to know how to go about this without getting murdered in my bed. Any advice, or witty remarks, welcome. Meth addicts: yes/no?

Can't say I want any lodgers. I've been living happily alone for the last 8 years. But to keep to my cheery solitude I expect I could spend some time in the garden shed. If I cleared it out a bit. Well, a lot.

 

[Atticus]

Moderator Action: Celebrating people's deaths and/or saying they are doing world favour by removing their genes isn't avveptable. Thread closed.