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| Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it. |
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(17 November 1999, Germany) Germany's long-held image as a peaceful Utopia has been tarnished by an acrimonious divorce. After bitter divorce proceedings, 40-year-old Uwe of Brandenburg found that he had lost everything but his lederhosen knickerbockers. Among other possessions, the settlement demanded that Uwe turn over ownership of his house to his newly-estranged wife, Verena.
Enraged by his 37-year-old wife's unmitigated legal victory, the forty-year-old man decided to follow the sage advice of an obscure German proverb: "If life gives you lemons, burn them." Descending into the basement with his trusty drill, Uwe proceeded to bore several holes into a rather large oil tank. He then set fire to the fuel as it poured in erratic streams onto the floor. To his delight, the entire basement was engulfed in flames within seconds. His joy turned to ashes, however, when he realized that he was now in the middle of a Hindenburg-sized house fire. Despite a valiant effort to save himself, Uwe died in the flames of his own vengeance. Verena got the last laugh, which acquaintances described as "maniacal." DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2008 |
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Benoît Côté says, "This story doesn't convince me, but maybe heating oil is different in Europe. Canadian heating oil will not catch fire even if streamed against a flame. In the furnace it burns only because a fine vapourization gives it a suitable air-oil mixture. The story "works" only if the liquid was volatile, like gasoline." Dean says, "It may have been possible to ignite the oil if the holes in the tank were fairly small, and there was enough presure to force the liquid out in a spray, instead of just pouring. This could render enough of the oil aerosol for him to ignite it." |
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Visit the Darwin Awards Giftshop The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action
Hardback. 327 pages. Autographed.$15 185 Stories! In the ongoing saga of Survival of the Fittest, meet the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current! Marvel at the would-be pilot who suspends his lawnchair from helium balloons! Learn from the man who peers into a gas can using a cigarette lighter...! This book also includes a History of the Darwin Awards, Darwin Haiku, and a dozen humorous discussions of the implications of evolution, including the origin of idiots, and the role of testosterone. Autographed by Author! |
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