AZHUNTERR
New member
> Subject: Darwin Awards
>
> Hard to believe, but another year has passed . (For those
> who don't know about it, the Darwin Awards are awarded
> every year to the person(s) who died in the stupidest way,
> thereby removing him or herself from the gene pool...)
>
>
> The Nominees Are:
>
> NOMINEE No. 1: [San Jose Mercury News] An unidentified
> man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girlfriend's
> windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun
> discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 2: [Kalamazoo Gazette] James Burns, 34,
> (a mechanic) of Alamo, Michigan, was killed in March as he
> was trying to repair what police describe 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!"
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 3: [Hickory Daily Record] Ken Charles Barger,47,
> accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton, NC.
> Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed,
> he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson
> .38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 4: [UPI, Toronto] Police said a lawyer
> demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto
> skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and
> plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Gary
> Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank
> Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength
> of the building's windows to visiting law students. Hoy had
> previously conducted demonstrations of window strength
> according to police reports. Peter Lawyers, managing partner
> of the firm Holden Day Wilson told the Toronto Sun newspaper
> that Hoy was one of the "best and brightest" members of the
> 200-man association".
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 5: [Bloomberg News Service] A terrible diet and
> room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man
> who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body
> but an autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his
> system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage
> (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination
> of foods. It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing
> the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. Had he been
> outside or had his windows been opened, it wouldn't have been
> fatal. But the man was shut up in his near-airtight bedroom.
> According to the article, "He was a big man with a huge capacity
> for creating "this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick and
> one was hospitalized.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 6: ["News of the Weird"] Michael Anderson
> Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously. He had spent
> several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder
> conviction! Before having his sentence reduced to life in prison.
> While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his
> small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.
>
>
> NOMINEE NO. 7: ["The Indianapolis Star"]. A cigarette lighter
> may have triggered a fatal explosion in Dunkirk, Indiana. A Jay
> County man using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a
> muzzle loader was killed Monday night when the weapon
> discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David
> Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home about 11:30 p.m.
> Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzle loader
> that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look
> into the barrel when the gunpowder ignited.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 8: [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario] A man
> cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium
> apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to
> his death. Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair
> when the accident occurred said Inspector Arcy Honer of the
> Peel Regional police. "It appears the chair moved and he went
> over the balcony," Honer said.
>
>
> AND FINALLY: (now, these two guys don't count because
> they aren't dead ... yet, but this is a goodie, nonetheless)
> [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
>
> Two local men were seriously injured when their pickup truck
> left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State
> Highway 38 early Monday morning Woodruff County deputy
> Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight
> Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis,
> 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition at Baptist
> Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were
> returning to Des Arc after a frog-gigging trip. On an overcast
> Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned.
> The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older
> model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not
> available, Wallis noticed that the 22-caliber bullet from his
> pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel
> column. After inserting the bullet, the headlights again began
> to operate properly and the two men proceeded toward the
> White River Bridge. After traveling about 20 miles and just
> before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated,
> discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle
> swerved sharply right exiting the pavement and striking a tree.
> Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the
> accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound.
> Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and
> released.
>
> "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot
> his balls off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis.
>
> "I've been a trooper for ten years in this part of the world,
> but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would
> admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.
> Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife asked
> how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get
> them from the truck.
>
> Hard to believe, but another year has passed . (For those
> who don't know about it, the Darwin Awards are awarded
> every year to the person(s) who died in the stupidest way,
> thereby removing him or herself from the gene pool...)
>
>
> The Nominees Are:
>
> NOMINEE No. 1: [San Jose Mercury News] An unidentified
> man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girlfriend's
> windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun
> discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 2: [Kalamazoo Gazette] James Burns, 34,
> (a mechanic) of Alamo, Michigan, was killed in March as he
> was trying to repair what police describe 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!"
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 3: [Hickory Daily Record] Ken Charles Barger,47,
> accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton, NC.
> Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed,
> he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson
> .38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 4: [UPI, Toronto] Police said a lawyer
> demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto
> skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and
> plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Gary
> Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank
> Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength
> of the building's windows to visiting law students. Hoy had
> previously conducted demonstrations of window strength
> according to police reports. Peter Lawyers, managing partner
> of the firm Holden Day Wilson told the Toronto Sun newspaper
> that Hoy was one of the "best and brightest" members of the
> 200-man association".
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 5: [Bloomberg News Service] A terrible diet and
> room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man
> who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body
> but an autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his
> system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage
> (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination
> of foods. It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing
> the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. Had he been
> outside or had his windows been opened, it wouldn't have been
> fatal. But the man was shut up in his near-airtight bedroom.
> According to the article, "He was a big man with a huge capacity
> for creating "this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick and
> one was hospitalized.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 6: ["News of the Weird"] Michael Anderson
> Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously. He had spent
> several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder
> conviction! Before having his sentence reduced to life in prison.
> While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his
> small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.
>
>
> NOMINEE NO. 7: ["The Indianapolis Star"]. A cigarette lighter
> may have triggered a fatal explosion in Dunkirk, Indiana. A Jay
> County man using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a
> muzzle loader was killed Monday night when the weapon
> discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David
> Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home about 11:30 p.m.
> Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzle loader
> that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look
> into the barrel when the gunpowder ignited.
>
>
> NOMINEE No. 8: [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario] A man
> cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium
> apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to
> his death. Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair
> when the accident occurred said Inspector Arcy Honer of the
> Peel Regional police. "It appears the chair moved and he went
> over the balcony," Honer said.
>
>
> AND FINALLY: (now, these two guys don't count because
> they aren't dead ... yet, but this is a goodie, nonetheless)
> [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
>
> Two local men were seriously injured when their pickup truck
> left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State
> Highway 38 early Monday morning Woodruff County deputy
> Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight
> Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray Wallis,
> 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition at Baptist
> Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were
> returning to Des Arc after a frog-gigging trip. On an overcast
> Sunday night, Poole's pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned.
> The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older
> model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not
> available, Wallis noticed that the 22-caliber bullet from his
> pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel
> column. After inserting the bullet, the headlights again began
> to operate properly and the two men proceeded toward the
> White River Bridge. After traveling about 20 miles and just
> before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated,
> discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle
> swerved sharply right exiting the pavement and striking a tree.
> Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the
> accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound.
> Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and
> released.
>
> "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot
> his balls off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis.
>
> "I've been a trooper for ten years in this part of the world,
> but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would
> admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.
> Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife asked
> how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone get
> them from the truck.
