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May 13, 2006

Darwin Awards

OK so I have an off the wall sense of humour when it comes to people doing stupid things and getting their comeuppance - I have a few scars of my own from doing things without considering properly what I'm doing so perhaps I have a right to laugh. The Darwin Awards always provide me with some laughter fodder and there is one in recently for a guy who attempted to emulate Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite, a key and loads of safety systems - just in case lightning did turn out to be a form of electricity. It did, but, thanks to Mr Franklin's having been prepared for this, he survived to conduct further studies.

Not so the latest candidate for a Darwin. An electrician who, according to his father, should have known better, this chap flew a kite in a thunder storm, but, because he didn't have enough string, used copper wire to extend it ....

He also failed to take Ben Franklin's precautions. The lightning didn't get him, the high tension cables he flew the kite into did. I just hope that the people who have had this guy work on their electrical systems have adequate insurance for electrical faults and failures causing fires. They may need it.

One more, recently carried in all the UK nationals, is the idiot smoker who was put in hospital to have a serious skin problem sorted out. It involved him being coated from head to foot in a paraffin based ointment, which naturally saturated his pyjamas as well. He was told that he could not, under any circumstances, smoke. But he couldn't live without a fag - so he sneaked out onto the fire escape and lit up. He suffered 70% burns to his body, and did not survive. Hopefully, as one of the criteria for a Darwin is to remove oneself from the genepool completely, he has no offspring. If there is such a thing as a "stupid" gene, let us hope it has bred out of his family - or they could all be at risk of a Darwin.....

Posted by The Gray Monk at May 13, 2006 01:00 AM

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