Death in the National Park

TheFlyingCamera said:

I'm starting to think that somewhere in the metro DC area there is a secret Asshole Training Academy.

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I'm beginning to think the graduation test requires them to go to a shopping center, hit a nice car, and drive away. Mine has just been on the receiving end of its third hit and run while parked in seven years, in addition to getting sidewiped and rear-ended with me aboard. I'm starting to feel cursed. One more reason to shop by internet.

TheFlyingCamera said:

I'm starting to think that somewhere in the metro DC area there is a secret Asshole Training Academy.

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When it comes to drivers there is a not so secret breeding area in the metro detroit area. It is called West Bloomfield and the right of passage is held on a road called Orchard Lake Road.

Is it not anti Darwinian to try and protect every idiot from self harm?

Bruce Appel said:

Is it not anti Darwinian to try and protect every idiot from self harm?

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Survival of the fittest, and higher synaptic natural selection applies here.

Now that I put more thought into it I'm not so sure they're idiots. It takes a fair amount of thought, creativity and ingenuity to get past all the warning signs, safety barricades, etc., and still manage to kill yourself in a (supposedly) newsworthy manner. Maybe they're attention-craving suicidal geniuses.

If it's truly a natural selection thing, then it's certainly a shame that so many of them wait until after they've reproduced to complete the process.

Maybe that was mean of me - It's early, must have coffee...

Bruce

BruceN said:

If it's truly a natural selection thing, then it's certainly a shame that so many of them wait until after they've reproduced to complete the process.

Bruce

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[size=-1]Perhaps, if it is a "natural selection thing", this particular tourist is worthy of a Darwin Award.[/size]

No Darwin Award for the original tourist from the original post in this thread, so sorry. She'd already reproduced, so couldn't improve the human gene pool by removing herself.

Another one!

Last week a woman went over the cliff in Pictured Rocks Nat'l Lakeshore in northern Michigan. According to NPS records, in the 40-year history of NPS control, no one has gone over the cliff. There have been some drownings in Lake Superior, but no accidental swan dives. Apparently, she was wearing flip-flop sandals. It is a wilderness park, with only footpath type trails, and while the area she fell from is not particularly strenous, hardly appropriate footwear. It would seem a little common sense and care would prevent such tragedies. NPS will probably now put up more fences in dumb places to protect us all from the carelessness of a few. Already there are far fewer vantage points for sunset shoots then when it was under local control.

Bob

I wonder about additional fencing. In Yosemite, they have in some cases gone the other direction, removing old railings on some of the more remote vistas. It is not clear what the motivation was. Either they were concerned about deterioration (some were quite old metal railings), they considered them an instrusion on the wilderness experience, or felt that they inspired even more foolish behavior.

But the choice of shoes in many parks seems quite "accidental" if you pardon the pun. As I mentioned, in my own case, I discovered how slick leather soles were on pine needles. But even then, the footwear of choice in many cultures (ie. the high fashion of Brazil) leads some to wear what they comfortably don in urban situations into some more challenging terrain.

I was enroute to Vernal Fall with a journalist once, discussing just that. We'd stopped to catch our breath on the final ascent of the 700 wet granite steps adjacent to the fall. I was describing the amazing things you encounter on the trail, such as women in spike heels. He laughed at my assertion. Impossible!

Moments later, we witnessed a very attractive woman in spike heels making her way down toward us on those tall, wet, slippery granite steps. How she made it up the steps is a mystery, though I am guessing she was quite comfortable in those spaghetti strap spiked numbers. Coming down, she chose to err on the side of caution, sliding on her rump in skin tight white pants, from step to step. The journalist was dumbfounded.

Wyno

Here in Victoria, Australia, we're called the nursemaid state by all the other states. Anything that looks remotely dangerous gets a fence and a sign. Some of Victoria's best scenic attractions have now lost their appeal for me because of fencing that is now in the viewfinder. Fortunately for me I'm old enough to have taken pictures before the fences went up.
Some tourist places have actually been completely closed off because people have been killed there.

Pinholemaster said:

It's important to never overestimate the intellegence of people.


Similar to the drivers of Washington DC. If a street sign reads "No right turn on red" they do it anyway. Usually while talking on a cellular phone. I believe 80% of DC drivers don't know what the word "Stop" means on street signs. Not that they actually stop before making a right on red.

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Ummm.. Pinholemaster... you live in Westminster. I know a bit about your town, heck, I might even know you. I grew up on Old Manchester Road, on red hill just outside Mexico. If you know where that is, I'm impressed.

Anyhow, Carroll County drivers are just as bad as DC drivers. Too much speed, no consideration, passing on blind corners, the roads.. a mess. 140 with it's 45 stoplights in a three mile stretch... bad news. And the drivers... yech!

But we all in our younger days did dumb things. Mine was riding with a HS friend in his dad's Olds Delta 88... the big one. We were on one of those little roads off Bachman Valley and came over a small hill doing oh, 65 or 70. Road dissapears with nothing but cornfield in front of us. Dwight guessed right and turned left. the car did a couple of nasty swerves and I sit here writing about it... but it could have been different.

I fought Darwin and I won. *L*

tim in san jose

Pinholemaster said:

Similar to the drivers of Washington DC. If a street sign reads "No right turn on red" they do it anyway. Usually while talking on a cellular phone. I believe 80% of DC drivers don't know what the word "Stop" means on street signs. Not that they actually stop before making a right on red.

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Scary evidence of just how bad drivers are, especially in the DC area: http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/05/26/dumb_driver_states/index.html

Wigwam Jones said:

But they ALL pull over for a funeral procession. And they take off their hats and bow their heads as the hearse goes by - I kid you not. Just like Smokey and the Bandit, I swear.

Amazing.

Around here, everybody laughs when they tell the joke "What's the most common last words from a Southerner? - Hey, y'all, watch this!" But they live it, too.

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Hey Wiggy - here's one for you in NC:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/49761