Darwinisms:
The Darwin award is given to those people who have
helped improve the human gene-pool by removing themselves from it in some amusing and
deadly manner. The following are a selection of recent winners and runners-up, some are
definitely true, some are probably true ... all are eminently believable!
James Burns, 34, of Alamo, Mich., was killed in March as he was trying to
repair what police described as a farm-type truck. Burns got a friend to drive the truck
on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a
troubling noise. Burns clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns
wrapped in the drive shaft.
"The government must crack down on this disgusting craze of
'Pumping'", a spokesman for the Nakhon Ratchasima hospital told reporters. "If
this perversion catches on, it will destroy the cream of Thailand's manhood."
He was speaking after the remains of 13 year-old Charnchai Puanmuangpak had been rushed
into the hospital's emergency room. "Most 'Pumpers' use a standard bicycle
pump," he explained, "inserting the nozzle far up their rectum, giving
themselves a rush of air, creating a momentary high. This act is a sin against God."
It appears that the young Charnchai took it further still. He started using a two-cylinder
foot pump, but even that wasn't exciting enough for him, so he boasted to friends that he
was going to try the compressed air hose at a nearby gasoline station. They dared him to
do it, so, under cover of darkness, he snuck in. Not realizing how powerful the machine
was, he inserted the tube deep into his rectum, and placed a coin in the slot. As a
result, he died virtually instantly, leaving passers-by still in shock.
One woman thought she was watching a twilight fireworks display, and started clapping.
"We still haven't located all of him", say the police authorities. "When
that quantity of air interacted with the gas in his system, he nearly exploded. It was
like an atom bomb went off or something."
"Pumping is the devil's pastime, and we must all say no to Satan," Ratchasima
concluded. "Inflate your tires by all means,
but then hide your bicycle pump where it cannot tempt you."
(Japan Times)
Larry was a truck driver, but his life long dream was
to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes
of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So when
he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others
fly the fighter jets that crisscrossed the skies over his backyard. As he sat
there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying. Then one day,
Larry had an idea. He went down to the local Army-Navy surplus store and bought
45 weather balloons, and several tanks of helium.These were not your brightly
colored party balloons, these were heavy-duty spheres measuring more than four
feet across when fully inflated. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach
the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your backyard. He
anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep, and inflated the balloons with
helium. Then he packed a few sandwiches and drinks, and a loaded BB gun, figuring
he could pop a few balloons when it was time to return to earth. His preparations
complete, Larry sat in his chair and cut the anchoring cord. His plan was to
lazily float into the sky, and eventually back to terra firma. But things didn't
quite work out that way. When Larry cut the cord, he didn't float lazily up,
he shot up as if fired from a cannon! Nor did he go up a couple hundred feet.
He climbed and climbed until he finally leveled off at eleven thousand feet!
At that height, he could hardly risk deflating any of the balloons, lest he
unbalance the load and really experience flying. So he stayed up there, sailing
around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss about how to get down. Eventually,
Larry drifted into the approach corridor for Los AngelesInternational Airport.
A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy in a lawn chair at eleven
thousand feet, with a gun in his lap now there's a conversation I would have
given anything to have heard! LAX is right on the ocean, and you may know, at
nightfall, the winds on the coast begin to change. So as dusk fell, Larry began
drifting out to sea. At that point, the Navy dispatched a helicopter to rescue
him, but the rescue team had a hard time getting to him because the draft from
their propeller kept pushing his home-made contraption father and farther away.
Eventually, they were able to hover above him and drop a rescue line, with which
they gradually hauled him back to safety. As soon as Larry hit the ground, he
was arrested. But as he was led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called
out, "Sir, why'd you do it?" Larry stopped, eyed the man, then replied
nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around." Yea, if you sit around
too much you usually balloon-up.