Humor

Evolution in Action

Name: Evolution in Action
Author: Wendy Northcutt
ISBN: 9780452283442

by Wendy Northcutt, Wendy Nothcutt

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Overview

With over a quarter million copies in print and six months on The New York Times bestseller list, The Darwin Awards shows that readers crave humor. And what better place to find it than in the stories of those human beings who improve the gene pool by removing themselves from it in a sublimely idiotic fashion.

Marvel at the thief who tries to steal live electrical wires. Gape at the lawnchair jockey who floats to a height of 16,000 feet suspended by helium balloons. And learn from the man who peers into a gasoline can using a cigarette lighter. All contend for Darwin Awards when their choices culminate in magnificent misadventures.

These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error-verified by the author and endorsed by website readers-illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory. The Darwin Awards vividly portrays the finest examples of evolution in action, and shows us just how uncommon common sense can be.

Synopsis

"Only two things are infinite-the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not so sure about the universe." — -Albert Einstein

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, The Darwin Awards vividly portrays the finest examples of evolution in action, and shows us just how uncommon common sense can be.

Marvel at the thief who steals electrical wires without shutting off the current. Gape at the lawnchair jockey who floats to a height of 16,000 feet suspended by helium balloons. Learn from the man who peers into a gasoline can using a cigarette lighter. All three — and many more — contend for Darwin Awards when their choices culminate in magnificent misadventures.

These tales of trial and awe-inspiring error—verified by the author and endorsed by website readers—illustrate the ongoing saga of survival of the fittest in all its selective glory.

San Francisco Weekly

The Darwin Awards is a riot to read. Deeply entertaining.

About the Author, Wendy Northcutt

A graduate of UC-Berkeley with a degree in molecular biology, Wendy Northcutt started collecting the stories that make up the Darwin Awards in 1993, and she founded the Web site soon thereafter. She has been profiled in Salon.com and USA Today, and now divides her time between managing the website and working as an Internet consultant. The Darwin Awards Web site has received awards from Yahoo!, USA Today, and the BBC.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Since 1993, the Darwin Awards have honored people whose demise is the result of their own idiocy and lack of common sense. These self-sacrificing folks, who no doubt inhabit the shallow end of the gene pool, have unwittingly made the world a better place for the rest of us simply by removing themselves, their genes, and their chances of procreation from it. Now the hilarity of this Internet phenomenon can be enjoyed in book form with The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action.

Baltimore Sun

Delightfully funny...taken together they constitute a delicious sermon in support of common sense.

Salon.com

A warning to all dimwits.

San Francisco Weekly

The Darwin Awards is a riot to read. Deeply entertaining.

Publishers Weekly

Anyone who has e-mail has probably already been entertained by the Darwin Awards, honors that stand out from the miasma of e-humor for several reasons: they are often genuinely hilarious and they are supposedly true. For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are given to people, mostly now deceased, whose actions reveal an astounding lack of common sense. The awards go only to those who have either died or rendered themselves unable to breed, confirming Darwin's belief in the survival of the fittest. Among the winners: terrorists who set their bombs on daylight saving time and delivered them on standard time, thus blowing themselves up; and a lawyer who crashed through a skyscraper window while demonstrating its safety. The audiobook also contains an honorable mention category for those who survive their idiotic behavior. This set provides hours of bizarre yet disturbing listening, mostly drawn from the author's popular Web site, DarwinAwards.com. Jason Harris does an excellent job of reading each reported incident; basically, they sound like standup comedy: yarn after yarn of such astounding stupidity that one cannot help but laugh. The lack of common sense exhibited here is undoubtedly comical, but Harris's reading accentuates the fact that beneath the laughter lurks a kind of pathetic sadness. Based on the Dutton hardcover. (Sept.)n Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.