Darwin Award - when Journalistic stupidity runs into uncaring Reality - Granite Grok

Darwin Award – when Journalistic stupidity runs into uncaring Reality

It is has been a LONG time since I saw something worth posting from the Darwin Awards (it went semi-dormant and was on a bookmark list I haven’t used for a while) – a site proclaiming and reveling in how people can find so many ways to eliminate their genes from further participation in our gene pool.  Mostly, these acts of self-selection are a result of either ignorance, stupidity, or willful hubris.  This is one of the latter:

Newcastle Icicle

Investigative journalism reaches a new “low” when a reporter freezes to death while getting an inside look at the lives of those who sleep rough…

(31 March 2013, Newcastle, England) The UK homeless population’s numbers are difficult to gauge; the website Crisis.co.uk sets a low estimate at 2,300 homeless people per night.  Intending to advance his career, investigative journalist Lee Halpin, 26, decided to acquire background in the problem by pretending to be homeless. He borrowed a sleeping bag and, waving aside the concerns of friends and family, he set off into the streets alone. “I will sleep rough, scrounge for my food, interact with as many homeless people as possible, and immerse myself in that lifestyle as deeply as I can,” said the journalist–three days before freezing to death in a boarded up hostel.

Hypothermia is suspected and autopsy results are pending; meanwhile, two homeless men have been arrested on possibly-related drug charges.

Well, he slept “rough” and now sleeps “forever”.  Hubris never wins over winter “camping” – even if you are a journalist.  Stupidity can kill, and indeed, it did. It never ceases to amaze and stun me how many ways people can off themselves – mostly because they didn’t ask “Is this really a smart thing to try?” – the basis of the Darwin Awards.

 

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