The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action Book

Warning: The Darwin Awards are not for the tenderhearted. The vastly popular Web site, now a book, recognizes "individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion." Who wins a Darwin Award? Terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, blowing themselves up. Folks who put garlands around a Bengal tiger's neck. Guys in Cambodia who took turns stomping on a land mine they'd brought into a bar. The six Egyptians who drowned trying to rescue a chicken that fell into a well. (The chicken alone survived.) The Buenos Aires husband who threw his wife out an eighth-floor window during a spat, noticed she'd gotten caught in power lines, and jumped after her, "angrily trying to finish the job, or remorsefully hoping to rescue her." He went splat; she escaped unscathed. There are some urban legends, like the sergeant said to have attached a Jet-Assisted Take-Off unit to his Chevy and hit a cliff 125 feet up (not true, says author Wendy Northcutt), and all-too-true honorable mentions, like the man who put weather balloons on his lawn chair, soared to 16,000 feet, crashed into power lines, blacked out Long Beach, California, and told police, "A man can't just sit around." My favorite winner: the man who was bitten nine times by the same king brown snake because he put it in a bag on his car seat and kept sticking his hand back into the bag. Why did he pick up the snake with his left hand? "Because I was holding a beer in my right one." And where did this take place? In Darwin, Australia. If you think somebody up there doesn't have a wicked sense of humor, The Darwin Awards may change your mind. --Tim Appelo Read More

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  • Product Description

    "Only two things are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." -Albert Einstein, scientific advisor to the Darwin Awards, introduces the legendary website that commemorates the remains of people who have improved our gene pool by killing themselves in really stupid ways, showing us just how uncommon common sense can be.

    Meet the absentminded terrorist who opens a mail bomb returned to him for insufficient postage. Marvel at the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current. Gape at the would-be pilot who flies his lawnchair suspended from helium balloons into air traffic lanes. And learn from the man who peers into a gasoline can using a cigarette lighter. All four contend for Darwin Awards when their choices culminate in magnificent misadventures.

    These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error--verified by the author and endorsed by website readers--illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory. Including new material never before seen, as well as favorite award winners from years past, The Darwin Awards vividly portrays the finest examples of evolution in action.

  • 0525945725
  • 9780525945727
  • Wendy Northcutt
  • 1 November 2000
  • E P Dutton & Co Inc
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 327
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