Author Topic: Darwin Awards  (Read 4601 times)

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Offline Maik

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Darwin Awards
« on: Friday, 12 December, 2014 @ 11:59:16 »
Oh dear, hope Maarm doesn't read this  :unsure:

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Men really are more stupid than women, research shows
It's official! Men really are stupider than women, accounting for 90 per cent of people who have died in foolish ways, according to the Darwin Awards

It's enough to start a new battle of the sexes, but when it comes to needless and untimely deaths, men win hands down.

A 20 year study of the Darwin Awards, an annual review of the most foolish way people have died, found almost 90 per cent were 'won' by males.

Named after Charles Darwin, who postulated the suvival of the fittest, it recognises those who have inadvertently improved the gene pool by elimiating themselves from the human race by astonishingly stupid methods.

Worthy candidates have included a man stealing a ride home by hitching a shopping trolley to the back of a train, only to be dragged two miles to his death before it was able to stop, and the terrorist who unthinkingly opened his own letter bomb on its return after he posted it with insufficient stamps.

Other examples include the man who shot himself in the head with a 'spy pen' weapon to show his friend it was real, and the thief attempting to purloin a steel hawser from a lift shaft - and unbolted it while standing in the lift which then plummeted to the ground, killing him.

Of 332 independently verified nominations 14 were ruled out of the analysis because they were shared by male and females - usually overly adventurous couples in compromising positions.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11288874/Men-really-are-more-stupid-than-women-research-shows.html


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The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, originating in Usenet newsgroup discussions circa 1985. They recognize individuals who have supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own actions.

The Darwin Awards site does try to verify all submitted stories, but many similar sites, and the vast number of circulating "Darwin awards" emails, are largely fictional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards


The real deal: darwinawards.com



Offline Maarm

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Re: Darwin Awards
« Reply #1 on: Friday, 12 December, 2014 @ 17:02:24 »
Read it?  I helped write it  :bun1:


 :bat:

Offline Aristarches

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Re: Darwin Awards
« Reply #2 on: Saturday, 13 December, 2014 @ 11:41:36 »
I hate to sound pedantic but the phrase "survival of the fittest" was first coined by Herbert Spencer in his book "The Principles of Biology" published in 1864 although Darwin did use the phrase in the fifth edition of his book.  The phrase was misused by the so-called "Social Darwinists" later in the nineteenth century.

Survival of the fittest refers to the organism most suited to its environment not necessarily the strongest or most intelligent.  Fossils of single celled organisms of the most primitive type have been discovered that almost exactly match those common today at the bottom of ponds and in cess pits.  These organisms have never had any need to "progress" as they are most fitted to their environmental niche.

 

Offline TonyKath

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Re: Darwin Awards
« Reply #3 on: Saturday, 13 December, 2014 @ 19:07:38 »
Thanks Ari.  I never knew it wasn't originally (ha-ha) Darwin's term. More detail here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/340400.html .

Tony