Friday, January 4, 2008

We'll all die of stupidity

That's right folks. It won't be starvation, it won't be over crowding, it won't be some disease epidemic like avian flu, and we won't blow ourselves to smithereens in a nuclear war. It will be stupidity that kills the human race.

Sometime early in the year, the Darwin Awards are updated and each story tells the account of someone dying because of sheer stupidity. Although, I do have to say that I'm pretty sure I've found a couple stories from the past on Snopes and one was even tested out on Mythbusters.

This year I have two nominees myself for the Darwin awards. One has to be for the hitchiker here in California who was killed because he fell on the freeway and was hit multiple times. It's a pretty gruesome story but I'll sum it up by telling you that this dumbass was turned down for a ride so he decided it would be a brilliant idea to hang on to the bottom of a truck, and what a surprise, he lost his grip for some reason and was killed on the road.

My second nominee is a recent and tragic story. On Christmas day a tiger got loose at the San Francisco zoo and killed one person and severely wounded two others. It's all over the news locally, and you can find lots of articles by searching Google on "SF Tiger Attack"

There are allegations that the boys attacked were taunting the tiger and that she passed up others to go specifically after them. Nothing has been confirmed of course and the two survivors apparently aren't talking to the family of the boy who was killed. He was only 17 and he died at the zoo on Christmas day. (What the hell was he doing at the zoo on Christmas Day without his family?) If he was taunting the tiger, then he died from stupidity.

The fact remains that there are two families (and many more out there) who are mourning the loss of loved ones. While I'm sad for these families and their loss, I just can't get over how stupid people can be sometimes. Holding on to a truck on the freeway? Taunting a wild animal? These are careless and stupid ways to die.