Talk:Darwin Awards

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Vincentt (talk | contribs) at 09:31, 24 March 2006 (Website ad or cultural phenomenon). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Latest comment: 19 years ago by Greg Lindahl in topic Missing History?

I think this page has been greatly outpaced by Darwin Award. Should this become a redirect page?

I take that back. =) However, I would have liked for it to be discussed before DavidLevinson redirected it.

Website ad or cultural phenomenon

I don't really think it's appropriate to make this article be worded like one particular site created the term and is the experts on them, as they just rode a wave that was already in creation. We can link to the site as a main example, but this article reads more like a promotional service for one site that claimed to be the official one instead of discussing the topic itself more evenly. DreamGuy 23:31, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. It reads as if Ms. Northcutt wrote this page herself.216.120.133.250 14:38, 2 February 2006 (UTC)Reply

I agree, just marked it probably not having a neutral point of view.

Nature vs nurture

I removed the reference to nature vs. nuture, because the way it was presented, it was logically wrong. It said that Darwin Awards must assume that genetics affect intelligence MORE than environment. This is wrong, as natural selection can still work as long as their is ANY variation in intelligence due to genetics. (and of course there is, if not, intelligence could not have evolved in the first place....still, though, I left the sentence about the assumption)

More men than women?

I've noticed that there are only few female Darwinists. Why is that? Maybe it's due to the reason, that nobody cares that much about the death of a female human and nobody records the cases of stupid female self-killing...

Robbrown 20:52, 2 February 2006 (UTC)Reply

Missing History?

I think that there must be a great deal of the history of the Darwin Awards missing from this entry. The first mention of the Awards in Google's Usenet archive is from August 1985 and implies that that they had been awarded in the past. Does anyone know where they started and what happened between 1985 and 1993?

If I recall correctly, the Darwin Awards initiated with the Naval Safety Center and Rear Admiral Dirren, its director. I know they were circulated during my time in the service through Naval Safety Center message traffic. You might contact the Naval Safety Center and attempt to confirm this. I do not know for a fact that Admiral Dirren was the first originator, but heard that he was. Hope this helps. ElectricJoe 04:32, 25 February 2006 (UTC)Reply

What years were you in the navy? Greg 02:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC)Reply