Good morning DRM!

ich weiss, es ist ein bisschen off topic, aber der diesjaehrige Darwin  
Award ist verliehen worden, und den wollte ich Euch nicht vorenthalten.

Gruesse

                Henning

MZ ETZ 250
BWaM#2
-----------------------schnipp-----------------------------------------

## Nachricht vom 09.03.98 weitergeleitet
## Ursprung : AUTOMATIX
## Ersteller: burkhard.bein@arup.com

Subject:        The 1997 Darwin Award competition

These awards are given each year to bestow upon (the remains of) that
individual, who through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done the
most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. Note there
was great improvement in the areas of teamwork and cooperation among the  
candidates in 1997-- it's no longer an individual sport. Here are (drum
roll) the 1997 runners-up and winners:


5th runner-up:

A San Anselmo, California man died when he hit a lift tower at the
Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a foam pad.

22-year old David Hubal was pronounced dead at Centinela Mammoth Hospital.  
The accident occurred about 3 a.m., the Mono County Sheriff's Department  
said.
Hubal and  his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run called Stump
Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from lift towers, said Lt.  
Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. The pads are used to
protect skiers who might hit towers. The group apparently used the pads to
slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. It has since
been investigated and determined the tower he hit was the one with its pad
removed.


4th Runner-up:

Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St. Louis market. When
the clerk threatened to call the police. Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved  
it into his mouth and walked out without paying. Police found him  
unconscious in front of the store-paramedics removed the six-inch wiener  
from his throat where it had choked him to death.


3rd Runner-up:

To poacher Marino Malerba of Spain, who shot a stag standing above him on an
overhanging rock and was killed instantly when it fell on him.


2nd Runner-up:

Man loses face at party. A man at a West Virginia party (probably related
to the man in Arkansas who used the 22 bullet to replace the fuse in his
pick-up truck) popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down,  
triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth, and tongue.

Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during the  
party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D.  Payne. "Another man had it in an  
aquarium hooked to a battery and was trying to explode it", saidPayne. "It
wouldn't go off and this guy said I'll show you how to set it off". "He  
put it into his mouth and bit down. It blew all his teeth out and his lips  
and tongue off", Payne said. Stromyer was listed in guarded condition  
Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesperson at  
Charleston Area Medical Division.  "I just can't imagine anyone doing  
something like that". Payne said.


1st Runner-up:

Doctors at Portland University Hospital said an Oregon man shot through the
skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive and will be released soon  
from the hospital.

Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye last weekend during an initiation  
into a man's rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous (probably known now as  
Stupid Mountain Men Anonymous) in Grants Pass, Oregon. A friend tried to  
shoot a beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Robert's right eye.   
Doctors said had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left,a major blood  
vessel would have been cut and Roberts would have died instantly.
Neurosurgeon Doctor Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in Portland
said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain with the tip  
protruding at the rear of his skull, yet somehow managed to miss all major  
blood vessels. Delashaw also said had Roberts tried to pull the arrow out  
on his own he surely would have killed himself. Roberts admitted  
afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said  
Roberts, "I feel so dumb about this". No charges have been filed, but the  
Josephine County district attorney's office said the initiation stunt is  
under investigation.


Last year's winner, you will remember, was the fellow who was killed
when he attached a JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) unit to his Chevy Impala
and shot himself and his car into a desert cliff at 300 M.P.H.


Now this year's winners:

(The late) John Pernicky and his friend, (the late) Sal Hawkins, of
the great state of Washington, decided to attend a local Metallica concert
at the Gorge, Washington amphitheater. Having no tickets (but having had
18 beers between them), they thought it would be easy to "hop" over the  
nine-foot fence and sneak into the show. They pulled their pick-up truck
over to the fence and the plan was for (the late) Mr. Pernicky (who was
100-pounds heavier than Mr.  Hawkins) to hop the fence and then assist his
friend over. Unfortunately for (the late) Mr. Pernicky, there was a
30-foot drop on the other side of the fence. Having heaved himself over,
he found himself crashing through a tree.  His fall was abruptly halted  
(and broken, along with his arm, as it were) by a large branch that  
snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree with a broken arm, he  
looked down and saw some bushes below him. (Possibly) figuring the bushes  
would break his fall he removed his pocketknife and proceeded to cut away  
his shorts to free himself from the tree. Finally free, (did I mention he  
is THE LATE) Mr. Pernicky crashed into Holly bushes. The sharp leaves  
scratched his ENTIRE body and now without the protection of his shorts, a  
Holly branch penetrated his rectal cavity. To make matters worse (?!), on  
landing, his pocketknife penetrated his thigh 3-inches. (The late) Mr.   
Hawkins, on seeing his friend in considerable pain and agony, decided to  
throw him a rope and pull him to safety (now he thinks of the "S" word) by  
tying the rope to the pick-up truck and slowly driving away. However, in  
his drunken haste/state, he put the truck into reverse and crashed through  
the fence landing on his friend and killing him. Police arrived to find  
the crashed pick-up with its driver thrown 100-feet from the truck and  
dead at the scene from massive internal injuries. Upon moving the truck,  
they found John under it, half-naked with scratches on his body, a holly  
stick in his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and his shorts dangling from a  
tree branch 25-feet in the air.

Congratulations gentlemen, you win...
Remember, safety first...  Remember THE safety question:  "WHAT'S THE  
WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN IF I DO THIS?"
------------------------schnapp------------------------------------------