Overview
Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves fromit, The Darwin Awards III includes more than one hundred brand new, hilariously macabre mishaps and misadventures.From a sheriff who inadvertently shot himself twice, to the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw; from a farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag to the man crushed by the branch he just trimmed, The Darwin Awards III proves again that when it comes to stupidity, no species does it like we do.
Featuring scientific and safety discussions and filled with illustrations depicting inspiring examples of evolution in action, The Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is.
Author Biography: A graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in molecular biology, Wendy Northcutt began collecting the stories that make up the Darwin Awards in 1993, and founded www.DarwinAwards.com soon thereafter. Her award-winning website is one of the most popular humor pages on the web, and has been profiled in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Entertainment Weekly, and on NPR's All Things Considered. She is the author of the international bestsellers The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action and The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection.
Synopsis
Honoring those who improve our gene pool by inadvertently removing themselves fromit, The Darwin Awards III includes more than one hundred brand new, hilariously macabre mishaps and misadventures.
From a sheriff who inadvertently shot himself twice, to the insurance defrauder who amputated his leg with a chainsaw; from a farmer who avoided bee stings by sealing his head in a plastic bag to the man crushed by the branch he just trimmed, The Darwin Awards III proves again that when it comes to stupidity, no species does it like we do.
Featuring scientific and safety discussions and filled with illustrations depicting inspiring examples of evolution in action, The Darwin Awards III shows once more how uncommon common sense still is.
Author Biography: A graduate of UC Berkeley with a degree in molecular biology, Wendy Northcutt began collecting the stories that make up the Darwin Awards in 1993, and founded www.DarwinAwards.com soon thereafter. Her award-winning website is one of the most popular humor pages on the web, and has been profiled in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Entertainment Weekly, and on NPR's All Things Considered. She is the author of the international bestsellers The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action and The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection.
Janet Julian - KLIATT
These are "all new stories commemorating individuals who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it," collected by Wendy Northcutt, the creator of the popular Web site www.DarwinAwards.com, established while she was at Stanford University in 1994. The archive has grown, winning dozens of Internet awards, and now ranks among the top 3,000 most visited Web sites, with about 500,000 hits a month. The brief stories are mostly verified as true, though a reader will find it hard to credit the scope of human stupidity that sometimes leads to death (a Darwin Award) or to serious injury (Honorable Mention). Many are from newspaper accounts, but many are submitted by the victims of self-inflicted injury. A Darwin Award went to a police officer trying to show how a fellow officer accidentally killed himself. During the reenactment, the police officer killed himself with his own .357 Magnum. A college freshman died when he jumped into what he believed was a laundry chute in the school library. It was actually a trash chute leading to an automatic compactor. Two Hungarian farmers were electrocuted when they tried to kill a pig with a homemade stun gun. A man in Brazil died because he tied a plastic bag over his head to protect himself from bees but neglected to add air holes. The stories and accompanying commentary are amusing and cautionary. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Penguin, Plume, 252p. index., Ages 15 to adult.
Editorials
KLIATT
These are "all new stories commemorating individuals who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it," collected by Wendy Northcutt, the creator of the popular Web site www.DarwinAwards.com, established while she was at Stanford University in 1994. The archive has grown, winning dozens of Internet awards, and now ranks among the top 3,000 most visited Web sites, with about 500,000 hits a month. The brief stories are mostly verified as true, though a reader will find it hard to credit the scope of human stupidity that sometimes leads to death (a Darwin Award) or to serious injury (Honorable Mention). Many are from newspaper accounts, but many are submitted by the victims of self-inflicted injury. A Darwin Award went to a police officer trying to show how a fellow officer accidentally killed himself. During the reenactment, the police officer killed himself with his own .357 Magnum. A college freshman died when he jumped into what he believed was a laundry chute in the school library. It was actually a trash chute leading to an automatic compactor. Two Hungarian farmers were electrocuted when they tried to kill a pig with a homemade stun gun. A man in Brazil died because he tied a plastic bag over his head to protect himself from bees but neglected to add air holes. The stories and accompanying commentary are amusing and cautionary. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2003, Penguin, Plume, 252p. index., Ages 15 to adult.—Janet Julian