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| 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. |
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Copper is a favorite target for thieves. One enterprising fellow with a good knowledge of the electrical system planned to cut the copper cable during the time between trains, when no electricity was travelling through it. His plan might have worked... but for one small flaw. In the pocket of his charred overcoat, police found an out-of-date rail timetable. The train arrived ten minutes before he thought it would, sending hundreds of volts of electricity through the thief's hacksaw and into his body, and putting an untimely end to his career.
DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2008
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Aodhan lives in Glasgow, and heard the story a bit differently. "My cousin works at the hospital where the post mortem was done. The man had been told that using a saw with a rubber grip would protect him from electricity..." "This story contains an inaccuracy about electric railroads. The overhead catenary is like one prong of a plug, with the rails acting as the other prong. An electric train completes the circuit by drawing current from the overhead and the rails. Electricity is only 'returned' from trains when they are equipped with regenerative braking, which turns the electric locomotive into a generator when slowing the the train going downhill." -Henry |
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Visit the Darwin Awards Giftshop Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest
Hardback. 304 pages. Autographed.$15 The human race's most popular humor series returns with a brand-new collection of macabre mishaps and misadventures. Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves from it, the Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is. Salute the sheriff who inadvertently shot himself--twice! Witness the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw! Heed the story of the farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag! Cringe at the man crushed by a branch he'd just severed... directly over his head! 123 new stories, 18 full-page illustrations, plus discussions of transgenic animals, the origin of life, and more. Autographed by Author! |
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