Callifornia woman wins this year's Darwin Award

[voodoolily]

I know this sounds cold, but don't some people kinda ask for it?

a local college student who disappeared in June after partying with a convicted sex offender she met online

(emphasis mine)

[Ironwood]

 

[stray]

Not sure how she was supposed to know. People party with new people all the time. Surely there was an even more stupid person this year.

[voodoolily]

Google ftw. He was registered. I found out that one of the property owners I had to visit last summer was convicted of weapons charges with a very simple Google search.

[stray]

Very savvy VDL. No really. But you'd be surprised how many people wouldn't do that or would even know that they could. Probably the majority of people really..

[voodoolily]

Those people deserve to die in the California desert. Also, she met him online, so she knows how to use the intertubes.

[Nevermore]

Also, she met him online, so she knows how to use the intertubes.

Not necessarily.  Was she using AOL?

[stray]

Hell, I even wouldn't bother researching people. I like surprises though.

[Krakrok]

He had fake IDs. Even if she did find out his name beforehand it could have been one of his fake ID names. If it was from a personals site most of those sites have no identification verification. If it was from craigslist there wouldn't be any ID info at all.

She was 19 and he was 35. The article doesn't say what steps she took if any to mitigate the risks (like telling someone where she was going, taking her own vehicle (which she didn't), and meeting in a public place (which she didn't)). Doesn't say if that was the first meeting or not either.

She was probably more naive than anything else.

[schild]

We have to look up all the people who are at parties now? Who cares if they're registered.

Shitty Darwin award imo.

[Roac]

Not very many people are aware of SORs, and even fewer use them.  It may not have even mattered, what with having a fake ID.  Also, he was arrested for failure to register.  For three years (I dunno about Cali specifically, but most states require annual updates for anything but the most serious offenders).  It's very possible their SOR held an old record, but it's equally possible that if he was a new offender he never registered, so they had no information or only basic information (uncertain how CA-DOC submits information to their SOR... here, we get info from SC-DOC upon release, so we *should* always have basic info and a mugshot on release, but this wasn't always the case, and may not be the case for CA).

[voodoolily]

EXCERPTS FROM
MY REJECTED SCRIPT:
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR
SAVE CHRISTMAS.

BY BEN JOSEPH
- - - -

Page 7

INT. SANTA'S WORKSHOP

(SANTA oversees elves working hard to make toys. Nothing could possibly ruin this scene of Christmas magic.)

SANTA: Good work, everyone! Nothing could possibly ruin this scene of Christmas magic.

(Suddenly, the lights dim and everything shakes as a meteor streaks overhead!)

EXT. NIGHT THE NORTH POLE—LATER

(Two ELVES approach a smoking crater. RUFUS, a street-smart elf with "urban" flair, follows reluctantly.)

RUFUS: Yo, let's bounce. This ain't right.

ELF 1: But what if it's filled with candy?

ELF 2: Do you think it's weird we don't have names?

(Suddenly, two FACE-HUGGERS leap out of the crater!)

ELVES 1 AND 2: Ahhh!

RUFUS: Aw, hell naw!



Page 63

EXT. NIGHT THE CANDY CANE FOREST

(A red glow shines in the near distance. SANTA approaches it.)

SANTA: Rudolph? Is that you?

(PREDATOR decloaks, revealing the glow to be his targeting laser!)

SANTA: Gulp.

(PREDATOR fires, hitting an ALIEN right behind SANTA!)

SANTA: Maybe I can put you on the "Nice" list after all.

PREDATOR: Thanks, Santa. Also, I talk now.

(SANTA and PREDATOR shake hands.)

PREDATOR: Let's give these aliens what for.

(RUFUS pops out from behind a candy cane.)

RUFUS: Damn, son! This shit just got real!



Page 102

INT. SANTA'S WORKSHOP

(The workshop is now an alien nest. SANTA, MRS. CLAUS, and RUFUS are cocooned to the wall. Alien eggs sit in front of them. Nearby, PREDATOR wrestles with the ALIEN QUEEN!)

SANTA: Hurry, Predator! There's not much time!

(The QUEEN's got PREDATOR on the ropes, when—BLAM!—the ALIEN explodes in a cloud of goo. A SILHOUETTED FIGURE enters the room holding a smoking plasma rifle.)

PREDATOR: Jesus! Took you long enough.

JESUS: Sorry. Traffic was a bitch.

(JESUS throws a rifle to PREDATOR.)

JESUS: You ready to party like it's my birthday?

PREDATOR: Is Christmas considered a deadweight loss under modern microeconomic theory?

(The pair coolly cock their rifles.)

RUFUS: Now that's what I'm talking about!

- - - -

[stray]

Would have worked great on Robot Chicken

[tazelbain]

Rufus, the token black elf, deserves a movie to himself.

[voodoolily]

PREDATOR: Thanks, Santa. Also, I talk now.

That part made me lol.

[Sky]

Rufus, the token black elf, deserves a movie to himself.

[SnakeCharmer]

We have to look up all the people who are at parties now? Who cares if they're registered.

Shitty Darwin award imo.

No shit.

"Hey, I'm John, what's your name?"
"Sarah, nice to meet you!"
"No, I mean your full name, date of birth, last three previous addresses, myspace accounts, and Facebook names?"
"...."
"Creep..."

[voodoolily]

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

[schild]

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

I don't get it.

[stray]

This actually might be the first time we've picked on VDL. She'll get my sympathy for now. 

[SnakeCharmer]

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

So agreeing that it's a stupid fucking practice/idea equals cocksucking/asskissing?

Um.

Yeah.

[voodoolily]

This actually might be the first time we've picked on VDL. She'll get my sympathy for now. 

You're joking, rite? I guess you don't remember the good old days of my random bannings and grief avatars. Ahh, memories.

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

I don't get it.

Of course you don't, honey. S'okay.

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

So agreeing that it's a stupid fucking practice/idea equals cocksucking/asskissing?

Um.

Yeah.

Sigh. You don't know me at all, do you. 

[tazelbain]

I thought I knew you, but you haven't eaten you mate yet.  So I was wrong.

[Daeven]

Why the hell does Rufus sound like Chris Rock in my head?!? Make the hurting stop!

[Riggswolfe]

Why the hell does Rufus sound like Chris Rock in my head?!? Make the hurting stop!

I pictured him as Chris Rock in his Dogma role.

[Strazos]

Why don't you get schild's dick out of your mouth?

So agreeing that it's a stupid fucking practice/idea equals cocksucking/asskissing?

Um.

Yeah.

It's not stupid, in theory....though it would come off as very ODD.

It's like in Gattaca, a chick who just hooked up with some guy immediately goes and gets his DNA sequence and shit. Sure, you want to know that kind of stuff before bothering to form an actual relationship, but there's one way, and then there are extremely odd ways.


Personally, I would never think to Google someone I just met.

[Merusk]

Personally, I would never think to Google someone I just met.

It's pointless to.  The really slick people give fake names (as mentioned) and the clueless ones probably don't have a big web fingerprint.  Fuck, I've been on the internet since 1994 and there's ONE link to/ about me and that one's a 10 year old webpage I never deleted from my first ISP.

[Strazos]

The only things that pop up for me are an ancient Xfire account, and some silly Classmates shit.

I can't even remember why I would have done that Classmates stuff. I usually feign ignorance when I run into someone I went to school with anyway.

[Margalis]

I know this sounds cold, but starting a thread like this is more than a little cunt-like.

[Paelos]

I don't know. Revelling in people's deaths has always struck me as a kind of macabre activity. It's even worse when the person's death isn't even halfway funny. This doesn't qualify as funny.

If you actually knew the person you'd be horrified at the callousness. I know death happens all the time and it's a part of life, but this girl apparently just went out with a guy. That's not exactly like pissing on the electric fence.

[Margalis]

I have never been a fan of the Darwin Awards for the reasons you stated. Being dumb is not a capital offense, and this person wasn't even dumb anyway. Going out with people is not asking for anything except maybe a free dinner.

[HaemishM]

The Darwin Awards are fun.

This chick doesn't even come close. She went out with someone. Though he was a registered sex offender, short of making him wear a giant Pedobear sticker on the front of every shirt he owns, I'm not sure how you could assume people would know that. Expecting someone to look up those people they "party with" on the SRO before going anywhere with them is a bit much. Fuck, I'd be lucky to know the names of the people I partied with when I did that sort of thing.

We've likely all been potential Darwin Award recipients at one time or another if this chick is a winner.

[voodoolily]

For those of you born with a Y chromosome, this is why she was stupid:
1. She went out with someone she doesn't know without telling anyone.
2. She had him pick her up at her home instead of meeting somewhere public.
3. Even if he looks young for his age, she should've been able to tell that he was 14 years her senior even if he lied about his age.

Growing up in the Adam Walsh generation, we all know how to avoid sticky situations and how to read red flags.

And also fuck off for not getting that the joke was in the headline, and getting all "ur so mean y u hate so much?"

[Roac]

For those of you born with a Y chromosome, this is why she was stupid:
1. She went out with someone she doesn't know without telling anyone.
2. She had him pick her up at her home instead of meeting somewhere public.
3. Even if he looks young for his age, she should've been able to tell that he was 14 years her senior even if he lied about his age

1) No, she didn't.  He picked her up at her home, with her family present.  They went to a party at his house, where there were witnesses to her presence.  She even called a friend from the party.  People knew who she was with, and where she was.
2) Yes, but that's not where the trouble started.  He picked her up at home, and delivered her to the party without incident.
3) Has nothing to do with smart vs stupid.  Dating older men isn't a crime.

The main risk she took was in being alone with someone who was outside her extended social circle - no one she knew, knew him.  No one could vouch for him.  I agree she made some bad choices, but it's hardly either funny or unusual.   You were initially poking fun at her not having known the guy was a SO, which has nothing to do with any of the things you mentioned above anyway.  But even if it did, her probable death is still not funny.

[Triforcer]

As VDL says, this was unwise.  But I can't see it as Darwin-worthy- stuff like this happens all the time.  Wasn't there any guys trying to get gunk of a wallsocket with their penis this year?