DEATH BY STUPIDITY

A Catholic priest who died trying to set the world record for longest flight using regular old party balloons has won 2008’s Darwin Award, a prize which honours people who improve the gene pool by removing themselves from it in a particularly stupid fashion. The Reverend Adelir Antonio de Carli, 41, attached 1,000 helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair and prepared for his record-setting flight by packing a survival suit, satellite and GPS system. The only problem was that he didn’t know how to use the GPS and as the winds pushed him out to sea he struggled to explain to rescuers where they might find him while the battery on his satellite phone slowly died. The recovery of his body three months later ended the Reverend’s dream of using the money raised from the stunt to build a spiritual rest stop for truckers in the town of Paranagua, Brazil. At least he diied in a noble cause unlike the Darwin Award’s runner-up, a man who was killed by a train after somehow getting his Porsche stuck on a railway crossing and then running towards the train waving his arms in an attempt to save his car. (DarwinAwards.com)