Posted : October 2013
Author : Kashif Masood
The Darwin Awards are a tongue-in-cheek honor, originating
in Usenet newsgroup discussions circa 1985. They recognize individuals who have
supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of
the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own (unnecessarily foolish)
actions. The project became more formalized with the creation of a website in
1993, and followed up by a series of books starting in 2000, authored by Wendy
Northcutt. The criterion for the awards states, "In the spirit of Charles
Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by
making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners
eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving
our species' chances of long-term survival.
-Wikipedia-