I don't want to befoul my blog by reproducing the article in it, so please click on the link above.
DJs Turn Callous Ear to Warnings
First, this article is not in the opinion section of the paper, nor otherwise labeled as editorial, which is an egregious error, as it is clearly an opinion piece. Even though the opinion in question (that morning radio show idiot jackasses are, for lack of a better description, idiot jackasses) is so obviously an opinion most firmly rooted in fact, it's still an opinion, not a news item. But I digress.
Second, while I hesitate to speak ill of the deceased, there was absolutely no intelligence of any kind involved in this contest. The idea was stupid (and had tremendous risk, but negligible possibility of reward), the organizers were stupid, and the participants were stupid. All but one of them (so far, anyway) survived the stupid exercise and will thus be able to pursue other stupid exercises in the future. And, quite sadly, they may also reproduce, if they haven't already done so, and the cycle continues. C'est la vie. Stupidity in this form is neither humorous nor entertaining. This was a competition in which contestants goal was to drink as much water as possible without going to the bathroom. A "not-pissing" contest, if you will. Even for entertaining the dullest of the unwashed masses, this is pretty lame.
Lame, but deadly. And there is really just no excuse for "lame, but deadly." If an avid skydiver's parachute malfunctions and he (or she) doesn't survive, at least their family members can console themselves knowing that he died doing something he loved. That he put himself at risk because the adrenaline rush (or the view, or the feel of the air, etc) was something he valued. Firefighters risk death all the time, but they also do things like pull small children out of burning buildings. The same goes for other adventurous and noble pursuits, for which there are risks, but there are also worthwhile rewards. The second-place contestant in the urine-holding contest died from drinking a bunch of water because she wanted to win a Nintendo. She and her fellow competitors risked death because they wanted to be rewarded with a Wii, and to prove to the world that they could drink water and postpone urination. Hardly the same thing as winning a gold medal in the Olympics or reaching the summit of a tall mountain. I LOVE drinking water, A LOT, but even I'll admit that it isn't exactly the same kind of accomplishment as slaying a firebreathing dragon. And while I never have consumed enough water to put myself at risk of water intoxication, I do know that such a condition exists. Even if not everyone knows the proper medical term for it, hyponatremia is hardly esoteric. Common sense tells us that guzzling quantities of water well in excess of our stomach volumes is probably not a good thing. Common sense won't tell us the exact mechanism that makes it bad, but it does serve as a warning, at least to those of us not blinded by a desire for electronic goods and public humiliation.
It's possible that criminal charges may be brought in this case. Whether or not this is a good thing is hard to say. The cackling morons are certainly guilty of inviting and encouraging people to put themselves at risk, then failing to intervene and further encouraging them, even after being warned of the dangers and seeing the signs of distress. But the harebrained contestants willingly participated in this stupidity, and continued it even after it wasn't fun anymore, illustrating a total unwillingness to assume responsibility for their own health or safety. Truly a sad state of affairs.
1:12 PM
