- Wendy Northcutt
, although she was not the originator of the Darwin Awards concept.
According to the short biographies in her books and on her website, Northcutt completed a degree in
molecular biology at Berkeley, worked in aneuroscience research lab at Stanford, and later managed the protein purification group at a biotech startup developingcancer anddiabetes therapeutics.Interviews
In 2001, Northcutt was interviewed by Jamie Allen of CNN [1] : Northcutt stated that reservations over child cases caused controversy. She stated, "Before (the awards became popular), we were an insular community and we could make fun of people and those people (or their families) would never find out. But as it got bigger, I realized there was more and more danger of really hurting people." In the same interview Northcutt says "I've gotten several emails from people [who knew a deceased man who "won" a Darwin Award] , saying, 'This is horrible. It has shocked our community to the core. You should remove this.' But I can't. It's just too stupid." She also suggested that children who read her books were likely to become more careful with explosives.
Northcutt was also interviewed by Mark Emmons of the San Jose Mercury News. Emmons states that "...Northcutt considers herself a potential Darwin candidate. She describes herself as a
klutz ."When interviewed by Salon she said "If there are multiple stupidity genes, then having one or two might make someone creative, while having a dozen would make her a dangerous idiot."
In an interview with a blogger at UK hosting company 123-reg [7] , Wendy confirmed that running the Darwin Awards website now takes up all of her time. She said, “I always feel like I’m neglecting my audience, even though I work more than full time.” She also talked about how the Darwin Awards successfully made the transition from being an online publication to being an offline one. The interview mentions that "most publishers would only offer her a deal if she agreed to remove the stories from the internet."
Northcutt has been interviewed byCNN [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/cnn.html CNN.com interview by Jamie Allen] ] ,Salon.com [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/salon.html Salon.com: We're With Stupid by Carina Chocano] ] ,Jeep van Carr [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/jeepvancarr.html Jeep van Carr] ] ,the j.ello report [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/jelloreport.html j.ello | report] ] ,the Spokane Spokesman-Review [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/spokane.html Spokane Spokesman-Review "Darwin was Right" by Doug Clark] ] ,the SJ Mercury News [ [http://www.darwinawards.com/media/svlife.html San Jose Mercury News: SV Magazine Darwin for Dummies by Mark Emmons] ] ,and the 123-reg blog [ [http://inside.123-reg.co.uk/archives/pet-porn-rocket-cars-and-hand-grenades/ Inside 123-reg interview "Pet porn, rocket cars and hand grenades"] ]
References
Books
* 2000: The Darwin Awards: Evolution in Action, ISBN 0-525-94572-5 & ISBN 0-452-28344-2
* 2001: The Darwin Awards II: Unnatural Selection, ISBN 0-525-94623-3 & ISBN 0-452-28401-5
* 2003: The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest, ISBN 0-525-94773-6 & ISBN 0-452-28572-0
* 2006: The Darwin Awards IV: Intelligent Design, ISBN 0-525-94960-7
* November 2008: The Darwin Awards Next Evolution: Chlorinating the Gene Pool, ISBN 0-525-95085-0External links
* [http://www.darwinawards.com/ The Darwin Awards]
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