Gizmodo: darwin awards

This Is Why They Make Travel Adapters

Danny Allen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:40:00 EDT

Future Darwin Award nominee or desperate genius? Maybe both. But shoving things into what looks like a UK 220V outlet is probably not going to end well. Just ask the guy in this retro UK electrical hazards PSA:

[There I Fixed It]

A Tribute to Splendid Half-Assery

Danny Allen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:20:00 EDT

Misadventures in do-it-yourself home repair, or lateral thinking of McGuyver-esque proportions? We've all pulled something stupid like this in our time. Hey, I once tried to fix a waterbed with duct tape, big mistake.

But some deeds shouldn't go unnoticed, like this cardboard computer case, or the smelly sock fix to make RockBand drums a little quieter.

There, I Fixed It takes user submissions of the most inspired fixes-and the utter brain farts-and the result is a catalogue of impending disaster that's perfect for a few minutes of cyber-slacking. Get back to work. [There, I Fixed It]

Sad Ending: Flying Priest Found Dead in the Atlantic, God Positioning System Still Missing

Jesus Diaz — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Father de Carli, the flying priest who got lost last April, has been found dead in the middle of the Atlantic. In an effort to raise funds for a local charity organization, De Carli planned to stay for more than 19 hours up in the air using a thousand party balloons, taking a GPS with him to communicate his position in case of emergency. Unfortunately for the generous man, the trip ended in disaster.

His body was found yesterday by the Anna Gabriela, a tug working for Brazilian oil company Petrobras, 683 miles (1,100 kilometers) from Father De Carli's starting point. His trip started on April 20 after a mass, and his last contact was a desperate attempt to learn how to use his GPS and communicate his position as the wind took him deep into the Atlantic Ocean.

I need to contact someone who can teach me how to operate this GPS, so I can give the latitude and longitude coordinates, which is the only way that people on the ground can know where I am.

An Petrobras official spokesman said that "his clothes and shoes indicate that it's him." And now I don't know if I should say "Godspeed, Padre" or "this is another candidate for the Darwin Awards," so I would just say rest in peace.

[Editor's Note: I commend you for finding your way out of this world while trying to do some good for the rest of it. Rest in Peace, De Carli. -B.L.] [Bloomberg]