Darwin Claims Another

[CollinLeon]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/3112761-418/hilling-lake-woytonik-bottle-anniversary.html

Come on... Jumping into Lake Michigan in December/January to retrieve a water bottle? And on top of that, he supposedly just barely was able to swim? Didn't it just perchance occur to him that the water temperature during that time of the year might be COLD ??? Oh, wait a minute... He was 19... Hmmm... 19... boy... girlfriend there... think? Nawh, not possible... One has to wonder how the species has lasted this long considering some of the stupid things that us guys do when we are younger... and older...

"Old enough to know better... too old to care..."

 

[John Baker]

It's a shame when young people die. My guess would be that his judgment was impaired by whatever he had been using to make it a more fun night.

John

 

[Gary F]

It's a shame when young people die. My guess would be that his judgment was impaired by whatever he had been using to make it a more fun night.
John

Unfortunately, similar drownings and other accidents are not terribly uncommon in the college town where I live. This is unsettling for me since I have one teenage boy and two in their early 20s. The kid was from a very small town in Upper Michigan and may have been caught up in all of the excitement of the big city. I also suspect that he might have been impaired, however just being under 25 is a risk factor for poor decision making.

A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2005Jan31.html

 

[TangoWhiskey]

You don't think the newspaper made a conscious decision to use THAT picture of him, do you? ;-) Sad to die over something that simple.

 

[woodstock]

Unfortunately, similar drownings and other accidents are not terribly uncommon in the college town where I live. This is unsettling for me since I have one teenage boy and two in their early 20s. The kid was from a very small town in Upper Michigan and may have been caught up in all of the excitement of the big city. I also suspect that he might have been impaired, however just being under 25 is a risk factor for poor decision making.

A National Institutes of Health study suggests that the region of the brain that inhibits risky behavior is not fully formed until age 25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52687-2005Jan31.html

In Zermatt, there is a climber's cemetery. Those who didn't make it back from the Matterhorn are buried there (or their memorial is there).

Biggest cohort? Males age 18-24. According to my unscientific survey of viewing headstones, anyway.

 

[RJM62]

Very sad. So young...

Someone once told me that testosterone is responsible for more deaths than any other chemical in the world. I think he was right.

-Rich

 

[CollinLeon]

Someone once told me that testosterone is responsible for more deaths than any other chemical in the world. I think he was right.

I've said it for many years... Up until 25, the leading cause of death for males is testosterone 'poisoning'... After 25, it is estrogen poisoning, but it is a SLOW and PAINFUL death...

 

[steingar]

Many people don't realize how cold water can be, and how quickly it can induce hypothermia. Quite the tragedy.

 

[Dan Thomas]

Someone once told me that testosterone is responsible for more deaths than any other chemical in the world. I think he was right.

That's the best bit of wisdom I've heard in a long time. Going to use it on my students. The girls are in the minority by a wide margin, but they don't break airplanes.

Dan

 

[CollinLeon]

Many people don't realize how cold water can be, and how quickly it can induce hypothermia. Quite the tragedy.

When I was up there back around 1980, we would routinely tie a string onto a 6-pack of beer and hang it overboard a couple of feet down to keep it cool during the 'summer'. The thermocline was about 2-3 ft from the surface which basically put it at your 'nads when you were treading water after having flipped your small sailboat...

 

[woodstock]

Many people don't realize how cold water can be, and how quickly it can induce hypothermia. Quite the tragedy.

This makes me think of that kid who flew across Lake Michigan in the winter and his plane went down. He stood on the plane in the water and called someone for help, but was never heard from again. I believe they did find his cell phone, I imagine the plane as well (?) and no idea about finding him eventually.

 

[jtheune]

I would agree about the people don't know about the cold except for this quote from the article

Hilling, of Upper Peninsula, Michigan was visiting Woytonik, who is studying fine art at Columbia College.

I would argue that anyone from the upper peninsula would have a idea of what the cold water would do.

 

[steingar]

To be honest, I'm from the North and really didn't know just how fast one could suffer hypothermia in freezing water until I was in my twenties. We knew thin ice was dangerous as all get out, but I don't remember learning the fact that you'd only last seconds in freezing water until much later. Possibly just me.

 

[Maj Geezer]

The water there IS cold. In my younger days I was a deck hand on the MV McGonagle, hauling iron ore up and down the lakes for a summer. We would cool our beer using the light bulb cage and a rope out the porthole. 3 minutes in Superior and the beer was cold. Fun days.

 

[dmccormack]

The water there IS cold. In my younger days I was a deck hand on the MV McGonagle, hauling iron ore up and down the lakes for a summer. We would cool our beer using the light bulb cage and a rope out the porthole. 3 minutes in Superior and the beer was cold. Fun days.

Probably since "The average temperature of the lake during the summer is about 40 °F (4.4 °C). "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior

 

[flyingcheesehead]

This makes me think of that kid who flew across Lake Michigan in the winter and his plane went down. He stood on the plane in the water and called someone for help, but was never heard from again. I believe they did find his cell phone, I imagine the plane as well (?) and no idea about finding him eventually.

That was N5360F - An airplane that is in my logbook. It went into the lake in April which isn't winter, but IS when the lake is at its coldest.

They found the plane using some kind of sonar imager (I saw the images, but don't know what exactly you call the gadget) - In fact, the coordinates given by Milwaukee Approach were good enough that they found the plane on the bottom of the lake on their second sweep - Very quickly.

When they went to retrieve the airplane, the diver had a helmet-mounted video camera. The airplane was in excellent shape. As he swam around just above the airplane taking a look at it, he looked past the left wingtip and there, on the floor of the lake, was the cell phone, still open (it was the clamshell variety that was popular at the time).

They never did find his body. He was a competitive swimmer and surely tried to head toward shore, but the water was too cold for him to have made it even halfway in, but he made it far enough from the airplane that they didn't find him. I guess he probably became lake critter food.

 

[Capt.Crash'n'Burn]

Hence the saying "Young, dumb and full of cum".