The Darwin Awards Countdown to Extinction (25 page)

 

REFERENCES:

D. Gabrilovich and V. Pisarev, “Tumor escape from immune response: Mechanisms and targets of activity,”
Current Drug Targets
4(7) (2003), 525-536.

R. Kim, M. Emi, K. Tanabe, “Cancer immunoediting from immune surveillance to immune escape,”
Immunology
121(1) (2007), 1-14.

“I know we shouldn’t make fun of the misfortunes of others, but I couldn’t help myself!”

—Fan mail

 

Electricity is often the shortest path to a “vivid” demise. Spectacular failures result from the combination of wires, water, and human circuit breakers in a series of spectacular and galvanizing stories. Read onward for amusing and illuminating electrical emergencies.

 

 

24 AUGUST 2008, JAKARTA, INDONESIA | Charles had just completed his International Baccalaureate at King William’s College in the Isle of Man. The principal of the college posthumously described him as “a very bright boy with a very bright future.” He planned to retire by the age of thirty.

Unfortunately for Charles, his elite education omitted an important lesson from the curriculum: the danger of electricity.

He had one foot in the backyard swimming pool when he noticed a cement box full of electrical wires near the edge of the pool. It was a junction box supplying power to the Jacuzzi. Curious, Charles started to fiddle with a fistful of colored wires and was immediately rooted to the spot by 240 volts of electrical energy surging through his body.

A bright future and early retirement were, indeed, in his cards.

 

Reference:
iomtoday.co.im

 

“Charles was a real live wire!”

 

 

26 FEBRUARY 2008, FRANCE | A seventy-one-year-old pensioner reached a shocking conclusion when his frugal attempt to illuminate his yard with power siphoned from the National Grid backfired spectacularly.

The gentleman in question illegally opened a major power junction box at the front of his house, intending to hard-wire a cable to his garden shed. Unfortunately he attempted to do this rewiring during a major downpour. The result was all too predictable. The poor chap was immediately rooted to the spot, and declared DART (Darwin Award Right There) at the scene.

 

Reference: Ouest-France,
rennes.maville.com

 

 

10 JANUARY 2010, BRAZIL | An electrical discharge made toast of municipal guard Arthur C., forty-seven. According to police reports, he had installed a tiny electric fence around his car to protect against the frequent robberies that occur in his neighborhood in Belém in the state of Pará. Better safe than sorry. Then one evening he forgot that he had left the current on. Let’s just say his forgetfulness caused him quite a shock. Galvanic shock.

We are all dying, but some are more eager than others.

 

Reference:
oglobo.globo.com