{"id":848,"date":"2004-10-05T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2004-10-05T16:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp\/2004\/10\/unnatural_selection\/"},"modified":"2004-10-05T09:17:47","modified_gmt":"2004-10-05T16:17:47","slug":"unnatural_selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/2004\/10\/unnatural_selection.html","title":{"rendered":"UNNATURAL SELECTION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like the far more celebrated Nobel Prizes, the Darwin
\nAwards<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> have just been announced. Unlike the Nobels, however, the Darwins
\nhonor people who improve the human gene pool “by removing themselves from it. Of necessity,
\nthis honor is bestowed posthumously.”<\/P>
\n

This year’s nominees, according to Insight
\nmagazine<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> (which describes itself as a sister publication of the Washington
\nTimes), included:<\/P>
\n

+ A man who used a shotgun like a club to break a former girlfriend’s windshield and
\naccidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged. (Reported by the San Jose Mercury
\nNews)<\/P>
\n

+ A man whose death was caused by his own gas emissions in a room with no ventilation.
\n“An autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system,” it was reported. “His diet had
\nconsisted primarily of beans and cabbage.” Three rescuers who responded to the
\nemergency were sickened by the gas “and one was hospitalized.” (Reported by Bloomberg
\nNews Services)<\/P>
\n

+ A man on death row who electrocuted himself while trying to fix a small TV set as he sat
\non a metal toilet seat in his cell. (Reported by News of the Weird, a syndicated newspaper column
\nby Chuck Shepard)<\/P>
\n

+ A man who used a cigarette lighter to look down the barrel of a .54-caliber muzzleloading
\nweapon he was cleaning. The gun discharged in his face and killed him. (Reported by the
\nIndianapolis Star)<\/P>
\n

The 2004 Darwin Award, in a departure from tradition, was awarded to a pair of Arkansas
\nmen who did not die. As reported by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, they used a .22 caliber
\nbullet to replace the headlight fuse on their pickup truck. <\/P>
\n

“The bullet apparently overheated, discharged and hit one of the men in the testicles,” Insight
\nnotes. While neither man died in the crash that resulted, they were awarded the prize because one
\nof them “DID, in fact, effectively remove himself from the gene pool.” (Who said Insight
\nmagazine’s right-wing ideologues have no sense of humor?) <\/P>
\n

The rules of the Darwins require<\/FONT><\/B><\/A> that “nominees
\nsignificantly improve the gene pool by eliminating themselves from the human race in an obviously
\nstupid way,” writes Wendy Northcutt, a Stanford University junior scientist who founded the
\nawards in 1994. “They are self-selected examples of the dangers inherent in a lack of common
\nsense, and all human races, cultures, and socioeconomic groups are eligible to compete.” <\/P>
\n

Winners must meet the following criteria:<\/P>
\n

Reproduction:<\/B> Out of the gene pool: dead or
\nsterile.
Excellence:<\/B> Astounding misapplication of
\njudgment.
Self-Selection:<\/B> Cause one’s own demise.
Maturity:<\/B>
\nCapable of sound judgment.
Veracity:<\/B> The event must be true.<\/BLOCKQUOTE>
\n

Northcutt concedes that the Darwin Awards are “tasteless” and “macabre.”<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like the far more celebrated Nobel Prizes, the Darwin Awards have just been announced. Unlike the Nobels, however, the Darwins honor people who improve the human gene pool “by removing themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is bestowed posthumously.” This year’s nominees, according to Insight magazine (which describes itself as a sister publication of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbvgEs-dG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/herman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}