Archive for the ‘DarwinAwards’ Category

“an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences”

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

Stirring Up the Wasp Nest
2007 Personal Account

I work in a geology lab with very smart people, such as James, who can tell you the petrogenetic peculiarities of low-alkali tholeiitic basalt after hydrothermal alteration. But our hero James recently demonstrated that there is a significant difference between intelligence and common sense.While casting about for ways to rid himself of a pesky wasp nest, his eye fell upon his trusty Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner. Armed with this fearsome weapon, James attacked the wasp nest. He sucked up all the wasps, who buzzed angrily as they struggled in vain against the wind-tunnel. The dustbag was soon alive with their buzzing.James now found that he had a new problem: to wit, a vacuum cleaner bag full of live, disgruntled wasps. He had to find a way to kill them before he could safely turn off the vacuum. And while his previous idea was merely ill-considered, his next was a masterpiece of moronity.He held the vacuum tube in one hand, a can of RAID in the other, and proceeded to spray the insecticide into the vacuum. What our smart young scientist failed to remember is that aerosols are flammable, and vacuum cleaner motors generate heat. The resulting explosion removed his facial hair, and scattered the dusty, angry contents of the Dirt Devil all over the vicinity.

Adding insult to injury, James was not the only one to survive with minor injuries. The wasps proceeded to vent their spleen upon the exposed (and slightly scorched) skin of the scientist, who referred to the episode as “an unfortunate lapse in calculation of consequences.”

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 – 2008

Gag Reflex

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

Gag Reflex
2007 Personal Account

A story to make parents shudder… Some friends were hanging out in Andrew’s basement, joking around, playing video games, eating. Andrew was irritable that night. He chose to to deal with the situation by threat. If certain named people did not stop bothering him, he said, as he loaded his Tippmann 98 custom paintgun, he would shoot them.Although Andrew assured everyone that the safety was on, and he wouldn’t shoot unless annoyed, one guy was not reassured. He jumped on Andrew and wrestled for the gun. Andrew threw him aside, and (as he later explained) “to prove the safety was on,” he opened his mouth, inserted the barrel of the paintgun, and pulled the trigger.His eyes widened as the paintball fired into his throat at 300 feet per second. He fell to his knees, coughing blood, but refused to let anyone call an ambulance. His throat was so swollen that he had difficulty breathing. After two hours, he recovered long enough to kick everyone out of his house, and suffer in private.Andrew couldn’t eat for three days, and couldn’t talk for a week. Once he was able to open his mouth, he realized he had blown his uvula clean off. It was gone! And he had no gag reflex, either.

His uvula does appear to be growing back, and he shows no symptoms of long term damage, which is rather lucky. We all tease him about it from time to time. The best part of the story is that his parents never found out!

Darwin says, “The parents will know now, though! Considering how many people die or are seriously injured by blanks, he was extremely lucky.”

Original Submission

DarwinAwards.com © 1994 – 2008
Reference: Brandon