1994 Darwin Awards

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.

A Breathtaking View 1994 Darwin Award Nominee Unconfirmed by Darwin Darwin is seeking confirmation of this story. (1989, South Africa) Downtown Johannesburg is continuously growing with the construction of modern new buildings. One such building was designed with a steel framework, intended to be clad in glass as a final touch. On the eighteenth floor, an engineer was inspecting the framework. He asked one of the workers to stand on a scaffold that was projecting through an open space where the glass panel would soon be mounted. With the worker acting as a counterweight, the engineer walked out onto the scaffold, checked the exterior, and came back in to continue his inspection. After the engineer left, curiosity got the better of the worker. He walked out on the scaffold to see what the engineer was looking at... Fortunately the falling worker did not take out any pedestrians! The worker removed himself from the gene pool out of sheer stupidity. But one does wonder whether that engineer is blithely continuing to ask trusting people to act as counterweights without explaining his reason, and leaving a trail of bodies in his wake! MEDIA REFERENCES Reader Comments: "Curiosity killed the cat!" "Uhhhh what was he looking at?" "When engineers assume others are thinking the same thing." Share DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2012 Reference: Eyewitness account of person who was on lunch break when he saw the man fall.

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