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Darwin Awards Thread

The Atheist said:
Beautiful Darwin here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/...-shouldnt-take-health-advice-off-social-media
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This woman was anorexic. I can't fathom that mental illness, but that's what it is, it's a mental illness, not stupidity. There's nothing beautiful about an anorexic person dying, it's just sad.

And in fact, I would argue that her death is not eligible for a Darwin award, precisely for this reason. Rule 4 of the Darwin awards says that "The candidate must be capable of sound judgment." I don't think anorexics are capable of sound judgment in regards to their diet. That's the entire problem. If they were capable of sound judgment, it wouldn't be a mental illness, but it absolutely is.

I would also argue that her death doesn't qualify under Rule 2, as deaths from anorexia are sadly commonplace and not at all remarkable. That she had a large social media profile may be unusual, but it's not actually an essential element of her death.
 
The Atheist said:
Might yet end up as a Darwin: https://panhandle.newschannelnebras...-tank-explosion-critically-injures-mccook-man
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I don't think this qualifies under Rule 2, Uncommon Excellence. The victim apparently did take steps to try to make the operation safe by filling the tank with water, which is apparently the correct move. They just didn't successfully displace all the gas in the process. This seems to move it into a more mundane accident category. Had they tried to cut open a full tank without taking any precautions I think it might qualify, but this seems like rather pedestrian stupidity.
 
I feel bad about this one as the individual was apparently quite mentally ill (and that would disqualify it). But the headline itself screams Darwin Award.

Teen with dreams of lion taming mauled to death after climbing into enclosure at zoo

ETA: apparently not his first attempt at a Darwin:
Oliveira told the outlet that Machado had always dreamed of traveling to Africa to become a lion tamer and was once caught hiding in the landing gear of a plane, believing it would take him there.
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Trying to hide in a plane's landing gear is also certain death, had he not been discovered pre-flight.
 
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Puppycow said:
I feel bad about this one as the individual was apparently quite mentally ill (and that would disqualify it). But the headline itself screams Darwin Award.

Teen with dreams of lion taming mauled to death after climbing into enclosure at zoo

ETA: apparently not his first attempt at a Darwin:

Trying to hide in a plane's landing gear is also certain death, had he not been discovered pre-flight.
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It qualifies. Sad though. I'm of the opinion that many rock climbers deserve the award. But I figure at least they understand that their hobby is about courting death.
 
Skeptical Greg said:
Not quite.

Of 113 documented attempts there were 86 deaths, a 76 percent fatality rate..
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Do you think it's possible that some individuals were never discovered and survived? I don't see someone surviving a long distance cruising at 35,000 feet. A short haul commercial flight might never reach an altitude of 25,000 feet.
 
acbytesla said:
Do you think it's possible that some individuals were never discovered and survived?
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It's possible. But the number is likely low. Seems like a lot of the survivors are found unconscious.
acbytesla said:
I don't see someone surviving a long distance cruising at 35,000 feet. A short haul commercial flight might never reach an altitude of 25,000 feet.
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The cold is both a blessing and a curse in this regard. There's not enough oxygen at 35k ft for ordinary survival, but when your body gets cold, your oxygen requirements (particularly for your brain) can drop quite a bit as well. Which is how people can sometimes survive being submerged in icy water far longer than they can survive being submerged in warm water. But the re-warming process is not exactly safe (especially without medical aid), as the low survival rate of known wheel well cases shows.
 
3point14 said:
Okay, that sounds like an utterly horrific thing!
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She was upset about the first one, but I called her from Saigon three days later, so she had a chance to chill. The 2nd one she just sneered at it. I was ten days getting back to base that time. We had a code set up. If the operator said "Will you accept a collect call from ***** ******?" she would know it was me and I was alive, and she should refuse the charge so I would know she "got it".

My brother joined the USAF a year before I joined the USN. He was faced with the horrific scenario of getting a paper cut, maybe.
 
Skeptical Greg said:
Not quite.

Of 113 documented attempts there were 86 deaths, a 76 percent fatality rate..
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I see. I'll amend that to near-certain death and definitely not a pleasant experience. Losing consciousness is probably a blessing here.

One survivor, Armando Socarras Ramirez, who defected from Cuba aboard an Iberia flight from Havana to Madrid in 1969, recalled in 2021 that his earliest post-flight memories are of Spanish doctors calling him "Mr. Popsicle" because ice covered his body when the pilot discovered him after his arrival. He had boarded the plane while it was taxiing, carrying a flashlight, rope, and wool to stuff his ears; a companion fell out of the other wheel well before takeoff and a third backed out at the last moment. After takeoff, he had suffered frostbite on his middle finger so severe it turned black holding on until the wheels retracted, but then remembered nothing save shivering and shaking from the extreme cold until he lost consciousness. It took him a month in a Spanish hospital to regain his hearing, but he reports no lingering medical issues from the experience.
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acbytesla said:
It qualifies. Sad though. I'm of the opinion that many rock climbers deserve the award. But I figure at least they understand that their hobby is about courting death.
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When I used to rock climb decades ago, if you used all the safety equipment i.e. ropes etc, it was actually pretty safe. Or at least, the climbing was pretty safe. People did occasionally die but it would be doing things like abseiling to get to the bottom of sea cliffs or coming down the descent path afterwards or on the drive to the area with the crags in it.
 
jeremyp said:
When I used to rock climb decades ago, if you used all the safety equipment i.e. ropes etc, it was actually pretty safe. Or at least, the climbing was pretty safe. People did occasionally die but it would be doing things like abseiling to get to the bottom of sea cliffs or coming down the descent path afterwards or on the drive to the area with the crags in it.
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Yeah, my cousin does a lot of that. Crazy strong hands.

I'm really referring to free climbing. Without ropes and a partner. That's insane
 
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