Darwin time
Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2006 7:14 amIn retrospect, it was an obvious error to make. Last January, Marko, a 55-year-old Croatian, thought up an 'ingenious' solution to the problem of cleaning his chimney. It was too high to push a broom up from the ground, he realised, so he decided to climb on to his roof and drop a brush down. All he needed was a nice heavy weight to make sure it did not get stuck and was pulled straight through to the grate below.
So Marko selected a nice convenient heavy lump of metal - which turned out to be a hand grenade. Not a great choice, though even then Marko might have survived the encounter had he not decided to connect the grenade to the brush by the use of welding equipment. The metal heated up, the grenade exploded and Marko was killed instantly. His chimney was untouched.
To all these individuals, the name of Marko and several other 2005 winners is now added as a tribute to the manner of their deaths. Among the newcomers is 21-year-old Nguyen, a Vietnamese youth who was drinking with friends in Hanoi in March last year when he showed his pals an old detonator he had just found. It was old and rusty, Nguyen announced, and couldn't possibly explode. His friends disagreed.
An argument ensued. So, to prove his point, Nguyen stuck the detonator in his mouth and plugged its dangling wires into a 220-volt electrical socket. The result was predictable - though at least Nyugen had little time to reflect on his mistake. He died almost instantly.
Others honoured include Christian from Rushinga, Zimbabwe. Elephants had been trampling his maize field and so he decided to fight back by raiding an old minefield near the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. By purloining a few landmines and planting them round his maize he would soon deter the elephants that were blighting his life, he reckoned.
Christian carefully dug up five mines that had been exposed by recent heavy rains, and began carrying them home. Unfortunately, he dropped one, again with fatal, instant results.
Closer to home there is the story of Geoff, from Wales, who removed himself from the gene pool in a different way. 'If Wales wins, I'll cut my balls off,' he told his mates while watching last year's England-Wales rugby match. Sadly for him, Wales won, but Geoff chose to keep his word, ending up in hospital in a 'seriously ill condition'.
So Marko selected a nice convenient heavy lump of metal - which turned out to be a hand grenade. Not a great choice, though even then Marko might have survived the encounter had he not decided to connect the grenade to the brush by the use of welding equipment. The metal heated up, the grenade exploded and Marko was killed instantly. His chimney was untouched.
To all these individuals, the name of Marko and several other 2005 winners is now added as a tribute to the manner of their deaths. Among the newcomers is 21-year-old Nguyen, a Vietnamese youth who was drinking with friends in Hanoi in March last year when he showed his pals an old detonator he had just found. It was old and rusty, Nguyen announced, and couldn't possibly explode. His friends disagreed.
An argument ensued. So, to prove his point, Nguyen stuck the detonator in his mouth and plugged its dangling wires into a 220-volt electrical socket. The result was predictable - though at least Nyugen had little time to reflect on his mistake. He died almost instantly.
Others honoured include Christian from Rushinga, Zimbabwe. Elephants had been trampling his maize field and so he decided to fight back by raiding an old minefield near the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. By purloining a few landmines and planting them round his maize he would soon deter the elephants that were blighting his life, he reckoned.
Christian carefully dug up five mines that had been exposed by recent heavy rains, and began carrying them home. Unfortunately, he dropped one, again with fatal, instant results.
Closer to home there is the story of Geoff, from Wales, who removed himself from the gene pool in a different way. 'If Wales wins, I'll cut my balls off,' he told his mates while watching last year's England-Wales rugby match. Sadly for him, Wales won, but Geoff chose to keep his word, ending up in hospital in a 'seriously ill condition'.
