Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: Darwin Awards

  1. #1
    Join Date
    27th December 2005 - 00:03
    Bike
    2003 Suzuki Bandit 1200CC
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    347

    Darwin Awards

    It's that time again... They are finally out. You all know about the
    Darwin Awards - 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.


    Well, this year's nominees and winner make last year's winner look like
    a rocket scientist. Rocket scientist, read on, wait till you see what
    this year's master of ratiocination came up with.

    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 the 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 warehouse
    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.

    =========
    Now ladies and gentleman, the winner of this year's Darwin Award:
    ==========

    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, blowing 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; however, small
    fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and
    fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed
    to be a portion of the steering wheel.

    Epilogue: It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed
    of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not on the
    ground.
    Actions speak louder than words or good intentions

    He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up. - Paul Keating

  2. #2
    Join Date
    1st November 2005 - 08:18
    Bike
    F-117.
    Location
    Banana Republic of NZ
    Posts
    7,048
    I think these must be from a few years back. Still a good chuckle from them!!!
    TOP QUOTE: “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

  3. #3
    Join Date
    31st January 2005 - 20:53
    Bike
    Vulcan - God of Fire
    Location
    Auckland
    Posts
    449
    ...Yeah. Plus, the one with the JATO unit has been debunked as a myth, but it's still an entertaining read.

    Latest entries are here: http://www.darwinawards.com/
    Destroy Everything! Destroy Everything! Destroy Everything! Obliterate what makes us weak!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    8th August 2004 - 23:11
    Bike
    1987 Nifty 50
    Location
    Ashhurst
    Posts
    1,492
    Yeah, I've seen these before somewhere
    "Not one day that we are here on this earth has been promised to us, so make the most of every day as if it was your last, and every breath ,as if it were the same"

  5. #5
    Join Date
    27th March 2006 - 15:25
    Bike
    sea bass bandit250
    Location
    Kerikeri
    Posts
    222
    very funny, always good for a laugh, but i have a feeling these are at least 5 years old

  6. #6
    Join Date
    25th May 2003 - 12:00
    Bike
    Motor Cycle
    Location
    Not here
    Posts
    1,180
    Quote Originally Posted by dnos View Post
    very funny, always good for a laugh, but i have a feeling these are at least 5 years old
    Try at least 15. From snopes:

    "Contrary to common belief, there is no panel of distinguished judges weighing each potential Darwin Award entry then sagely reaching agreement as to which deserves an official accolade. Darwin Awards e-mails have been circulating on the Internet at least since May 1991, with the earliest e-mails and newsgroups posts of this nature setting before posterity inventive works of fiction that had been labeled by their authors as true accounts of actual deaths."

  7. #7
    Join Date
    9th February 2005 - 13:27
    Bike
    ...
    Location
    Van Morrison
    Posts
    2,699
    Thank god for natural selection eh
    I'm not a complete idiot... some pieces are missing

    Quote Originally Posted by DingDong
    "Hi... I rang about the cats you have for sale..."..... "oh... you have children.... how much for the children?"

    mucho papoosa bueno no panocha

  8. #8
    Join Date
    25th May 2003 - 12:00
    Bike
    Motor Cycle
    Location
    Not here
    Posts
    1,180
    Quote Originally Posted by SlashWylde View Post
    ... the one with the JATO unit has been debunked as a myth, ...
    Despite it being a myth, you can see it being recreated on the Discovery Channel pilot episode of Mythbusters. Excellent stuff.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    2nd April 2005 - 11:58
    Bike
    .
    Location
    .
    Posts
    5,095
    Yeah I saw that. Did they actually get the car airborne? I can't remember. They usually go until they've exhausted every possible avenue that can be thought of to prove or disprove a myth.
    They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
    Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
    At the going down of the sun and in the evening,
    we will remember them

  10. #10
    Join Date
    25th May 2003 - 12:00
    Bike
    Motor Cycle
    Location
    Not here
    Posts
    1,180
    This guy has a good summary:

    http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2003/01/m...ato_and_p.html

    but in short, no, the car would not take off, even with rockets 50% more powerful than JATO rockets.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    20th August 2003 - 10:00
    Bike
    'o6 Spewzooki Banned it.
    Location
    Costa del Nord
    Posts
    6,553
    True or not. Playing rattlesnake catch has to be worth seeing.
    Speed doesn't kill people.
    Stupidity kills people.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    31st March 2003 - 13:09
    Bike
    CBR1000RR
    Location
    Koomeeeooo
    Posts
    5,559
    Blog Entries
    9
    I checked out the Darwin Awards site (posted earlier in the thread) and there's one about a guy growing hooch in an undergrond/water tank.

    CO2 generator consisted of a wee gas burner which trickled away day and night... till one day it goes out.

    So - not knowing how long it's been out, he climbs into this tank, containing pure gas... and lights the burners....

    The neighbours found out when they heard a God almightly thump and found a hole in his yard with a body at the base of it LMAO!

    $2,000 cash if you find a buyer for my house, kumeuhouseforsale@straightshooters.co.nz for details

  13. #13
    Join Date
    27th December 2005 - 00:03
    Bike
    2003 Suzuki Bandit 1200CC
    Location
    Wellington
    Posts
    347
    A friend in the uk sent it to me - I'm not up on the play on how old they are lol
    Actions speak louder than words or good intentions

    He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up. - Paul Keating

  14. #14
    Join Date
    7th November 2005 - 22:56
    Bike
    zxr400 sp
    Location
    AUCKLAND
    Posts
    524
    good laugh, i want one of those jato rockets.
    From American dad :
    American dads dad: Breaking into a safe is like making love to a woman

    American dad: So you just pound on it for two minutes until your done?

  15. #15
    Join Date
    4th November 2003 - 13:00
    Bike
    BSA A10
    Location
    Rangiora
    Posts
    12,844
    Quote Originally Posted by SlashWylde View Post
    ...Yeah. Plus, the one with the JATO unit has been debunked as a myth, but it's still an entertaining read.
    The real story is just as good it's quite a few pages long but worth the read

    http://www.rocketcarstory.com/
    "If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough power."


    Quote Originally Posted by scracha View Post
    Even BP would shy away from cleaning up a sidecar oil spill.
    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Zevon
    Send Lawyers, guns and money, the shit has hit the fan

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •