Despite the .gov wrapping as much of the west coast in Nerf padding as possible in preparation for Gaia's predicted aquatic love tap, the forces of Natural Selection managed a small victory.
Apparently, hearing that the tsunami was approaching and people should get away from low-lying coastal areas, some dude grabbed his camera, went to the the mouth of the Klamath river, and waded right out into the gaping maw of Charles Darwin.
Good work!
So you're saying that survival of the fittest is alive and well!
ReplyDeleteMore like death of the dumbest.
ReplyDeleteGerry
bluesun,
ReplyDeleteIt's just survival of the "fit" actually, no "est" to it, and the fitness bar here was pretty low: "Stay out of the water", a feat which makes falling off a log look like it needs an instruction manual by comparison.
So we see that being free to do something doesn't make one wise to do it.
ReplyDeleteJim
And it's not even as if there was a failure to communicate. The dood obviously heard, but saw it as an opportunity, not a warning.
ReplyDeleteJim: Good point. But just because there are people stupid enough to do idiotic, self-destructive things, doesn't mean that they should not be free to do stupid, idiotic, self-destructive things.
ReplyDeletePreferably before they reproduce.
Glenn Reynolds linked to an article about some surfers who wanted to reproduce a certain scene from Lucifer's Hammer...
If you're gonna be dumb, you've gotta be tough.
ReplyDeleteWV = bubject. "When you're talking about some bubba."
Plot note: Surfer bank robber dude died on the giant wave at the end of Point Break. When even Patrick Swayze bites it, you're beyond the capabilities of mere mortals.
ReplyDeleteWait, Patrick Swayze DID bite it. Red Dawn, Ghost... real life...
Maybe I should have used Keanu Reeves as my example. But then he'd be dead inside, too.
vw: belyp (!!!) The noise Tokyo Power management made when they suddenly realized they should have just let the engineers run the emergency procedures the way they were written.
anon for obvious reasons.
Wow! The 1 solitary fatality in the US from this particular disaster. Way to leave your mark on history.
ReplyDeleteIt is here that I admit that when that F5 tornado came calling in the spring of '99, I went outside to meet it face to face, on the dubious basis that if it's going to kill me, it's going to do it in person, not by proxy by, say, dropping someone's roof on my head.
ReplyDeleteDumb as dirt? Probably. And the swath missed my front door, though not by a whole lot.
In Surf City NorCal, my former town Santa Cruz, some dudes got on their boards by the river to surf it in. They sit on top of it, and it's just they way the geography and hydrology work. The waves and big surf constantly curl around the tip of Steamer's Lane and head into the bay and pile up the channel.
ReplyDeleteThe yacht harbor got hammered real hard: the floating finger docks and boats were all lifted up and smashed against the pilings. There's a few ten-millions in sailboat insurance damages, and many that got sunk - but the bore coming up the harbor looked only about two feet tall - but it was a two-foot unstoppable locomotive with a million pounds pressure.
"...some dude grabbed his camera...
ReplyDeleteRecalls an interview with a guy who had been a combat newsreel photographer: He said it took a real effort to maintain awareness of what was going on around him while his eyes were glued to the viewfinder. The survivors figured it out, but there were several cases where people got wiped out while cranking merrily away.
His last thought being "Damn! I should have downloaded that Personal Flotation Device app to my cell phone."
ReplyDeletewv: "backs"
Nope, sorry. He won't be.
To quote Niven and Pournelle: "Think of it as Evolution in Action".
ReplyDeleteI'm told that the Coast Guard has a chck box next to "Cause of Death" that's labeled "being a dumb @ss".
ReplyDeleteI'm glad for what they do saving vessels in distress and all, but some folks could sure help them out by dialing back the dumb @ssery.
Well that town has one less person to dial 911 when they run out of Chicken McNuggets.
ReplyDeleteGunny Hartman would be proud.
ReplyDeleteNote that some counties in N. CA actually applied for Federal Disaster Relief, due to the tsunami from the earthquake 5000miles west.
ReplyDeleteOne idjit died, for which we should all applaud, yet they need disaster relief.
Meanwhile, the Nihongen are rolling up their sleeves and digging entire villages out from the mud, in hopes of finding more living.
We are not Winning. They are, just like the Imperial Sardaukar are a tougher breed, having been forged on Salusa Secundus.
You know, there's a lot of ways a person can exit this mortal coil, and many ways to speak of the departed.
ReplyDelete"That ol' dude sure put up a good fight . . . " might be the best.
There's certainly nothing wrong with, " . . . passed away quietly, surrounded by family and friends."
Even, ". . . died in an unforeseeable freak accident," is acceptable.
But "perished in an act of unfathomable stupidity" can only can only foster laughter amongst friends and strangers alike.
I don't know. I try and avoid the obliquely stupid, but I have a feeling, giving my love of speed and machinery, my tombstone is probably going to read "we buried all the parts we could find.".
ReplyDelete+1 to Brigid, I have a tendency to ride hard and to hell with the consequences, being a dad has slowed me down in the frequency of my idiotic adventures, but not the knumbskull attributes found therein. One of these days I likely won't make it home and to quote Dances With Wolves somewhere back East someone will be saying "now why don't he write?"
ReplyDeleteI always liked what Ron White said about tornadoes and such,
ReplyDelete"It's not THAT the wind is blowing, it's WHAT the wind is blowing."
Wait'll all those boat owners discover that their insurance doesn't cover damage resulting from a tsunami.
ReplyDeleteI'd bring up a heckuva lawsuit and sue the hell out of the State. Where were the "No Swimming" signs?
ReplyDelete