Darwin Awards Newsletter -- 2000 Nominee Short List

IT'S TIME FOR THE 2000 DARWIN AWARD NOMINEES!

THE DARWIN AWARDS celebrate those who improve our species the most
by eliminating themselves from the gene pool in really stupid ways.

Entries in this short list of 2000 Nominees are confirmed by Darwin,
and the current score is shown next to each story. Cast your vote!
http://www.DarwinAwards.com/?0011


MOSCOW MARAUDER (4.0/10) A man who threatened to "deal with" his wife
and her lover blew himself up with a home-made bomb in September when
the device the man was attaching to the door of their not-so-secret
apartment boudoir exploded in his hands.

THROWING STONES (4.4/10) A Middle East protestor standing in the road
throwing stones at oncoming cars died when a driver tried to swerve away
from the stones, but lost control of his car and careened across the road,
injuring the driver and killing the assailant.

TIRED OF IT ALL (4.6/10) An experienced thief sneaked onto the lot of the
Buckeye Ford Dealership in London, Ohio, intending to steal tires from the
new cars. But his expertise failed him when the vehicle he had jacked up
slipped and fell, landing squarely on his chest.

PERILOUS POSE (4.6/10) A 53-year-old tourist posing nude for his camera
in picturesque Rothemberg, Germany, slipped from the stone wall while
preparing for the shot, and fell sixteen feet to his death.

DUCT TAPE (4.7/10) A misplaced faith in the miracle of duct tape led
to the demise of a man boating on the Columbia River when his 12-foot
aluminum dinghy, held together with duct tape repairs, capsized during
a fishing trip.

PASSIONATE PLUNGE (5.0/10) A man with the unlikely ambition to jump off
every river bridge in Norwich ended his athletic career with a deadly
seventy foot leap into three feet of water in April. Emergency workers
were unable to resuscitate the man, who was said to possess "a strange
and unusual passion for jumping into rivers."

KISS OF DEATH (5.0/10) A 36-year-old biochemist who attended a farewell
performance of the legendary rock band KISS climbed a 7-foot wall to gain
a better view of the stage--only to mistake a curtain for a solid wall,
and plunge to his death on an escalator 100 feet below.

STONED SLEEP (5.5/10) A North Carolina woman who had been smoking
marijuana learned a hard lesson about drugs when she decided to sleep
on the roof of the King Charles Inn. Sound asleep, she slid off the roof
and fell to her death shortly before dawn. When police arrived at the
scene, her stoned boyfriend was found still sleeping on the roof.

HORNET CHALLENGE (5.8/10) A 53-year-old man with a reputation as a 'strong
man' accepted a dare to stand beneath a hornets' nest in Phnom Penh, while
two men pelted it with stones. He endured the pain of countless stinging
hornets before expiring from the toxic injections.

TWO-AVALANCHE ALASKAN (5.8/10) A 43-year-old Fairbanks man attempting to
highmark the mountains in his snowmobile died in an avalanche in Fairbanks
Alaska in April. It was the second snowmobile-induced avalanche he had
been caught in that day, and he had already been warned by authorities
to stop highmarking in the dangerous snow conditions.

BABY DRIVE ME CRAZY (5.9/10) The bodies of a young couple were discovered
naked in the wreckage of a freak car accident in Italy in May.
Investigators assume that prior to the accident, the couple was having sex
in their small Italian vehicle while it raced along windy roads at upwards
of 80mph.

RUNNING OF THE BULLS (5.9/10) A Berlin woman attempting to capture a
memorable photograph of the Running Bulls in the southern town of Nimes
paid for her stupidity with her life on Sunday. The 68-year-old
photographer removed a metal safety barricade and strode into the street
with her camera to her eye, where she was trampled by a horse and six
rampaging bulls.

RAPPIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR (6.1/10) Artists sometimes bleed for their work,
but usually not literally. A gangster-rap video artist changed all that
when he put a gun to his head and shot himself through the temple while
the cameras rolled, accidentally putting an end to his creative efforts.

OUT WITH A BANG! (6.2/10) Heating air in a sealed container such as
a truck tire causes the gas to expand and the pressure to increase.
A mechanic at a tire store in Georgia learned this lesson in physics
the hard way when an inflated tire he and was welding exploded,
spewing shrapnel and killing him instantly.

WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE (6.3/10) A Kentucky man died after he and his friend
decided to reenact the William Tell scene where the famous archer is
forced to shoot an apple off his son's head. They used a beer can instead
of an apple, and their aim was not as accurate as the legendary archer.

HUMAN HITCHING POST (6.3/10) A 29-year-old woman was killed in Nevada when
she attempted to quell the temper of her spirited Arabian horse by tying
herself to its head. The excitable animal spooked and dragged her around
the paddock, trampling her beneath its hooves.

SHOCKING FALL (6.8/10) 26-year-old man earned a place in history as the
first person to die celebrating the millennium. Minutes before midnight,
the Stanford graduate climbed to the top of a street light in front of
the Paris Las Vegas Hotel and waved to the enthusiastic revelers below.
At midnight he slipped and, in an effort to break his fall, grabbed the
electric wires and found himself conducting more than a cheering crowd.

DO IT YOURSELF: DO YOURSELF IN (6.8/10) A 34-year-old Colorado contractor
wired his garden fence with household current in an attempt to keep his
dog confined to the yard. He electrocuted himself when he inadvertently
brushed the fence while reaching for a ripe tomato.

FIREWORKS FIASCO (7.1/10) People routinely lose fingers and eyes in
fireworks explosions during America's Independence Day celebration, and
the bigger the fireworks, the greater the damage. A 34-year-old man
suffered partial decapitation when he peered into the mouth of a launching
tube containing what he incorrectly assumed was a malfunctioning aerial
firework. It exploded, producing a spectacular grand finale for both his
head and the party.

HUMAN POPSICLE (7.3/10) Ohio police located the body of a missing truck
driver in January after his employer reported him missing in action. The
man was found frozen head down among the broccoli pallets, where he had
apparently slipped while trying to retrieve a hidden stash of cocaine,

THE DAILY GRIND (7.7/10) The owner of a chipping company in Maine was rent
asunder by his own wood chipper when he stumbled into the intake while
trying to break up a bark jam without first disconnecting the power.


Copyright www.DarwinAwards.com 2000

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