The Darwin Award recognizes those individuals whose greatest contribution to the gene pool is removing themselves from it. Here's the blurb on one nominee, with a reminder that carbon monoxide isn't the only thing we might have to worry about next year as we hole up for Y2K...

NOMINEE No.5: [Bloomburg News Service] A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on his body, but an autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple of other things). It was just the right combination of foods. It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had his windows been opened, it wouldn't have been fatal. But the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom. According to the article, "He was a big man with a huge capacity for creating "this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick and one was hospitalized.

-- Don (whytocay@hotmail.com), June 09, 1999

Answers

Interesting that you'd compare that with y2k: it's an urban myth.

-- jxd (jxd29@hotmail.com), June 09, 1999.

Another Rense-clone surfaces! Don, meet Andy, you two have much to talk about.

-- Do You See (howstupid@youlook.com), June 09, 1999.

Don: Thanx for the belly-laugh (myth or not).

jxd: Are you really saying Y2k is an "urban myth"? If so, I nominate you for the Darwin Award.

-- regular (zzz@z.z), June 09, 1999.

Regular --

No. However, Bloomberg posted an article a while back about how false news stories have been attributed to it, this being one of them.

The connection I drew is that the article has been furthered through either (1) a misunderstanding, or (2) intentional disregard for its accuracy (but with the goal of getting the attention of readers). It is very possible that some tales of immanent year 2000 disaster (e.g., embedded chips) and other certain doom scenarios have been similarly propagated.

-- JXD (jxd29@hotmail.com), June 09, 1999.