FW: Darwin Award

["Mercado, Don" <don.mercado@lmco.com>]

Hmmmm....  Anyone heard more on this? Urban legend? How about it neighbors
to the north.....

> AND THIS YEARS DARWIN AWARD WINNER IS.....
> 
> THOMPSON, MANITOBA, CANADA.
> Telephone relay company night watchman Edward Baker, 31, was
> killed early
> Christmas morning by excessive microwave radiation exposure.
> He was
> apparently attempting to keep warm next to a
> telecommunications feed-horn.
> Baker had been suspended on a safety violation once last
> year, according to
> Northern Manitoba Signal Relay spokesperson Tanya Cooke. She
> noted that
> Baker's earlier infraction was for defeating a safety
> shut-off switch and
> entering a restricted maintenance catwalk in order to stand
> in front of the
> microwave dish. He had told coworkers that it was the only
> way he could stay
> warm during his twelve-hour shift at the station, where
> winter temperatures
> often dip to forty below zero. Microwaves can heat water
> molecules within
> human tissue in the same way that they heat food in
> microwave ovens. For his
> Christmas shift, Baker reportedly brought a twelve pack of
> beer and a
> plastic lawn chair, which he positioned directly in line
> with the strongest
> microwave beam. Baker had not been told about a tenfold
> boost in microwave
> power planned that night to handle the anticipated increase
> in holiday
> long-distance calling traffic. Baker's body was discovered
> by the daytime
> watchman, John Burns, who was greeted by an odor he mistook
> for a Christmas
> roast he thought Baker must have prepared as a surprise.
> Burns also reported
> to NMSR company officials that Baker's unfinished beers had
> exploded
> 
> 
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