I first encountered the Darwin Awards through e-mail. If by chance you haven't heard of them, these awards are bestowed on individuals who remove themselves, or their ability to reproduce, from the gene pool via the performance of an independently verified act that, in the words of Wendy Northcutt, "transcends stupidity." There are "honorable mentions" as well, usually bestowed on those who stop just short of unintentionally killing themselves. Northcutt, who invented the Darwin Aw