The Darwin Awards II - Unnatural Selection

Zusatztext “The Darwin Awards  is a riot to read. Deeply entertaining.”— San Francisco Weekly   "Delightfully funny!  The Darwin Awards ! taken together! constitute a delicious sermon in support of common sense."— The Baltimore Sun Informationen zum Autor Wendy Northcutt Klappentext The hilarious New York Times bestselling phenomenon and the perfect funny gift!The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection brings together a fresh collection of the hapless, the heedless, and the just plain foolhardy among us. Salute the owner of an equipment training school who demonstrates the dangers of driving a forklift by failing to survive the filming of his own safety video. Gawk at the couple who go to sleep on a sloping roof. Witness the shepherd who leaves his rifle unsecured-only to be accidentally shot by one of his own flock. With over one hundred Darwin Award Winners, Honorable Mentions, and debunked Urban Legends, plus science and safety tips for avoiding the scythe of natural selection, The Darwin Awards II proves once again how uncommon common sense can be. Chapter One Penance: Seven Deadly Sins The tree of life is self-pruning. Religions have long waged war against the seven deadly sins. Here's proof that evolution is fighting the same battle. Lust, vanity, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, and wrath: all are fatal when carried to excess. From sensual skunk play to the vanity of amateur liposuction, indulgence in the deadly vices leads to trouble. Discussion: Kismet, Karma, Destiny Are you superstitious?     We enjoy believing in abstract balancing principles. There ought to be a force that gives each what he's earned, call it kismet, karma, or destiny. And yet we also believe in the opposite—lucky slot machines and winning streaks. Don't you sometimes walk around a ladder, or kiss your exam paper for good luck? Superstitious beliefs are imbedded in our personalities.     The Darwin Awards celebrate another sort of religion—that of final justice according to the divine laws of nature. Darwin winners suffer a practical form of karma. They prove our theory that if you don't use your head to enhance your survival, you'll be fingered by the impartial hand of fate.     There is a solid basis for the "religion" of the Darwin Awards: Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. In a single lifetime one finds ample proof that natural selection leads to evolution. We've seen evolution happen before our very eyes. Broccoli, dog breeds, nectarines, and modern corn all resulted from random mutations combined with natural (or artificial) selection.     Weeds provide an example of evolution happening in your own front lawn.     Dandelions are ubiquitous and very difficult to eliminate.     A handful of wild dandelion seeds will grow into adults of assorted heights, which scatter their seeds far and wide to begin the process again. But weekly lawn mowing schedules are a new selective pressure! We created a new environmental hazard for dandelions. And they rose, or rather shrunk, to meet the challenge.     Regular cutting of lawns selects for very short dandelions, ones that hug the ground too closely to be slashed by mower blades, and send up flowers that seed within days to avoid the reaper's scythe. A new short dandelion variant is branching off the general dandelion population. Over time the lawn dandelions may well diverge from the wild dandelions, increasingly specialized for the modern lawn environment, and a new species—the lawnlion?—will dawn.     Because examples of natural selection are easy to come by, the "religion" of the Darwin Awards stands on firm scientific footing. The interesting and powerful mechanism of natural selection is a blindly omniscient tool to increase the long-term surviva...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Wendy Northcutt, Northcutt Wendy
• Editore: Plume USA
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 25.03.2003
• EAN: 9780452284012
• ISBN: 978-0-452-28401-2
• Pagine: 256
• Dimensioni: 130 mm x 188 mm x 20 mm
• Serie: Darwin Awards; Darwin Awards
• Categorie: Narrativa > Fumetti, cartoni, humour, satira; HUMOR / General, Humour