Darwin Awards explained.

[Richard_Cranium72]

You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way. This one is my favorite of all Darwin Award winner stories. ==>> And this year's nominee is...("87 or so)

The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab finally figured out what it was and what had happened.

It seems that a guy had somehow obtained a JATO unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra "push" for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the JATO!

The facts as best could be determined are that the operator of the 1967 Impala hit JATO ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the prominent scorched and melted asphalt at that location. The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds. The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing him to become insignificant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20)seconds before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater and fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p...rwin+awards%22


[This message has been edited by Richard_Cranium72 (edited 03-18-2000).]

[Wiz]

Further explanation,

Darwin was a scientist who first said: "Only the strong survive."

Darwinism is derived from this. Darwinism is the belief that those who are a burden to society should be removed.

[Apostle 83]

That would've been cool except for the part about remains. That is sick.

[Target]

Cool story, and probably someone has tried it...but is it real? I wish there was a way to verify the Darwin Award winners.

Something about standard radial tires, body side moldings, windshields, etc, being able to withstand the acceleration from a JATO, up to 350 MPH and beyond, sounds fishy to me....

Then again, it would be fun to try

[Smokey]

Yeah the remains are a bit nasty, but otherwise it's kindof cool.

I wonder how he "obtained" that JATO though?

[jeana]

Hey Wiz,

You're confusing "Social Darwinism" with "Darwinism". Easy to do. "Social Darwinism" was a political and philosophical movement resulting from a misinterpretation of the scientific theory of natural selection (Darwinism).

I can't be _sure_ Darwin didn't ever say "only the strong survive". But, I do know that even the phrase "survival of the fittest" was not coined by Darwin, but by an English philosopher, Herbert Spencer.

All that Darwin really pointed out is:
(1)We notice that the forms of organisms have changed over time (evolved). Maybe this is how it happened:
(2)Individuals vary. Sometimes the environment favors individuals with certain types of variation, such that they can reproduce more. Then if the variation can be inherited, in the next generation there will be more individuals who have this variation. (the theory of natural selection)

Darwinism proper is just a description of _how_ organisms change, not how they _should_ change. It might be just as well phrased, "more of the shortest survive" if the environment favors short individuals; or "only the meek survive" if the environment severely punishes aggressive behavior.

"Social Darwinism", among many things, made the disturbing assumption that:
(1) "Natural" = "morally good"
Therefore they assumed that social policy should allow the weak and unfit to fail and die, and that this is not only good policy, but morally right. Therefore, the enhanced survival of rich Victorians was a good thing that should not be interfered with by social policies, welfare, or charity towards the poor.

Eugenics went even further. Some people assumed that we were supposed to _create_ an environment where only the strong survive. By artificially creating a harsher environment than actually exists, we could thus trim the deadweight from society and create a trouble-free world (populated with big beautiful rich supergeniuses!)

You can see that neither of these assumptions is at all a part of Darwin's theory of natural selection. You could as easily add the assumption "since weakness or unfitness is determined by the environment, and we have the ability to change our own societal environment, we should change society so that fewer people can be considered weak" and get a different view of how society should be run.

Darwin, by the way, is reported to have been a very gentle and patient man. He delayed the publication of his theory of natural selection for over 20 years both to save the feelings of his creationist wife, and also because he was a perfectionist. No doubt he would have been horrified by the murders and enforced sterilizations that the eugenics movement committed under his name.

Just wanted to defend the name of a guy who can't do it himself, being dead and all.

Professor Jeana



[This message has been edited by jeana (edited 03-19-2000).]

[Wiz]

Very true Jeana, i should have specified that i did not mean the way animals evolved to adapt to their surrondings.

To add even more to it, there is such a thing as neuro-darwinism, where scientists have killed small amounts of brain cells off

...the human brain can operate only as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, we all know, kills off brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker cells, constantly making the brain a faster and more efficient machine.

Now beer is good for you!

LOL, we could go one about variations for hours =]

[Warthog]

Cool story but it would be impossible for a guy who wasn't in a flight suit or securely strapped into the car (like a fighter pilot) to withstand 8 or 9 times the force of gravity. And the car! No way could a car hold up to that!!

I have to say, it was a funny story.

Warthog

[Wiz]

A person could live with that much G force, they'd just pass out due to blood rushing to the back of the body.

[Richard_Cranium72]

Yea, I didn't get someone to do the math to figure the g's, you can be sure 5 or more knocked him out.. The de-celeration was a bit rapid don't ya think, one report had his speed at 315mph and this one at 350. Either one is too quick for a Chevy to be airborne.

[jadison]

What A way to go, in a blazin ball of fury...

I'm not sure the story is practical, I have a few friends in the Air Force and I'll check it up with them,
I agree how did he obtain that JATO??

[Toadman]

Last time I heard it, it was a drunken Marine who stole one from the airbase and strapped it on his car on a bet. LOL Urban legends, I tell ya...

[chipbgt]

Lets get Navy_dood in here and see what he has to say...

[Richard_Cranium72]

Well, this story was checked out by my employer, Southern Energy, and presented to us a few years ago. Target, I cannot verify the accuracy of this incident, but I for one have seen enough folks who would try this to find it plausible.. I'll see if it can be verified.. Did anyone check the links I posted to other "Darwin Award winners" ? Some are really funny.. in a grotesque kind of way.. DrVette

[Richard_Cranium72]

bump^