What is the dumbest thing you have done or seen done?

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Discussion Overview

The thread discusses various personal anecdotes of perceived foolish or reckless actions taken by participants. The scope includes humorous, dangerous, and absurd experiences, reflecting on moments of poor judgment or curiosity in everyday life.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants recount dangerous actions, such as shorting out power to a hospital or attempting to create nitroglycerine, expressing amazement at their survival.
  • Others share humorous stories, like throwing a hen from a balcony repeatedly or laughing uncontrollably on a train, highlighting the absurdity of the situations.
  • Several anecdotes involve physical risks, such as jumping off a moving car or using a metal fan inappropriately, with participants reflecting on the recklessness of their actions.
  • One participant mentions a failed attempt to make a ruby laser due to financial constraints, while another discusses a risky kayaking experience without proper equipment or skills.
  • There are also light-hearted comments about personal mishaps, such as injuring oneself while playing soccer or walking into a sign while distracted.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally share a consensus on the humorous nature of their stories, though there is no clear agreement on what constitutes the "dumbest" action, as each story reflects individual experiences and perspectives.

Contextual Notes

Some anecdotes may lack context regarding the motivations behind the actions or the specific circumstances that led to these decisions. Additionally, the discussions include a mix of serious and light-hearted tones, which may influence interpretations of the actions described.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those looking for humorous or cautionary tales about reckless behavior, as well as individuals reflecting on their own past experiences with poor judgment.

Ivan Seeking
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I shorted out the power to an entire hospital once.

I saw someone tell his five year old son to look down into a failed fireworks cone to see why it's not going.

I drove over 140 mph once. At times I could turn the wheel without causing the car to respond! I will never know how I survived adolescence.
 
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I caught a hen and threw it out from a balcony (about 8-10 meters above the ground). After landing, it went back to its nest and I caught it again, and threw it out from the balcony, and the hen went back to it's nest, and...it survived!

After being attacked by a cock, I took revenge by throwing stones to it, hitting it by a long rod, and throwing it out from the balcony. I went to its nest at night, with a rod in my hand, switched on a light... and the cock crowed(at about 8:30pm)!

Once I saw a guy laughing in a train while he was looking at some photographs. He's all by himself. He laughed continuousely for at least 15 minutes! Everyone in the train stared at him at least once coz he laughed out really loud.(perhaps he's sick) I found the scene pretty funny and I laughed too...oh I'm a normal person!
 
Dumbest thing? That's easy:

1/ Injecting myself with dental anaesthetic using a makeshift needle - to see what the effects were when it entered either a muscle or vein.

2/ Trying to create nitroglycerine one time in chemistry. But I used concentrated acids, instead of dilute, and they began to react violently, exactly where the glycerine was about to come through and form a highly dunstable high-explosive. I literally threw the lot over the bench into another sink and dropped to the floor. Nothing happened. But it killed my interest in explosives when I realized the damage I could've done to myself.



I, too, am amazed I survived adolesence.
 
rigged the door on my microwave so I could run it with my hand inside to see how it felt.

several times: drove my car into the desert, then everyone would get out of the car, we'd put it in gear and let it take off. We'd just stand there watching it drive away, then someone would yell "MacGyver!" and we'd all take off and try to catch it.

several times: accidently dropped an X-acto knife and stuck out my foot to stop it before it hit the floor.

several times: focused the sun with a magnifying glass onto my finger to see just how fast and how hot it was

too many times: slept with someone's drunk wife

Clamped hemostats onto a piece of flesh (earlobe, finger, nose, etc) Really hurts, and you have to squeeze it even tighter to remove them.

attempted to pick up a policeman's dropped night stick- while handcuffed. I just got my hands on it and the cop freaked out and jumped on the stick, pinning my fingers to the ground.

Called my ex girlfriend a "bi***" while she was holding my laptop.
 
Originally posted by tribdog
rigged the door on my microwave so I could run it with my hand inside to see how it felt.

several times: drove my car into the desert, then everyone would get out of the car, we'd put it in gear and let it take off. We'd just stand there watching it drive away, then someone would yell "MacGyver!" and we'd all take off and try to catch it.

several times: accidently dropped an X-acto knife and stuck out my foot to stop it before it hit the floor.

several times: focused the sun with a magnifying glass onto my finger to see just how fast and how hot it was

too many times: slept with someone's drunk wife

Clamped hemostats onto a piece of flesh (earlobe, finger, nose, etc) Really hurts, and you have to squeeze it even tighter to remove them.

attempted to pick up a policeman's dropped night stick- while handcuffed. I just got my hands on it and the cop freaked out and jumped on the stick, pinning my fingers to the ground.

Called my ex girlfriend a "bi***" while she was holding my laptop.

All understandable except that last one.. WTH were you thinking?
 
i started using the internet
 
I once read a very long and boring post which mysteriously disapeared of the forums, and i forget who that person is.
 
'they' made u forget. maybe ure one of them. who can i trust?
 
Originally posted by cmdr_sponge
'they' made u forget. maybe ure one of them. who can i trust?

NO! 1?

("Dumb" thing to do...)
 
  • #10
Turned down dramamine on an 8 hour boating trip in the choppy San Francisco Bay...I became friends with the handrail that day.
 
  • #11
Walking down the street so engrossed in a conversation, with two friends, I walked right into a "No Parking" sign's Steeel PoleOYE*
 
  • #12
I once saw someone whiz on an electric fence.

eNtRopY
 
  • #13
While walking home from a friends house, I had to walk about 1/2 mile through the woods in the middle of the night. I happened upon about a 10' deep ditch which of course I could't see. As I fell in the hole, I hit the opposite edge with my chest and knocked myself breathless. So there I lay in the dark, at the bottom of a ditch, in the mud, gasping for my breath, and wondering why I didn't bring a flashlight.
 
  • #14
I started to close the garage door while half way backed out of it, I tried to be slick. I didn't realize that my dad's car was parked crooked in the driveway so I had to slow down not to hit it. I turn back around and see the garage door just about to hit my hood and there was nothing I could do. Two years later and the damage is still there :(
 
  • #15
Once I've injured my thigh playing soccer, so I decided to put some ANTIPHLOGISTINE on it. I put some too high on my thigh so my intimate part burn for some time. one of my friend did not believe the story so he decided to put some ANTIPHLOGISTINE directly on his family jewels. He belived me after that.
 
  • #16
i once got my private parts caught in a metal fan.[b(] No I am teasing. I once jumped off a moving car going 35 mph, very stupid!
dx
 
  • #17
Shoot, in five years I'll be 22 - I'll be the intern you neglect, haha.
 
  • #18
Originally posted by eNtRopY
I once saw someone whiz on an electric fence.

eNtRopY

Dang, can't believe I forgot that one. Do I know you?
That was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. Couldn't stop peeing.
 
  • #19
Originally posted by tribdog
Dang, can't believe I forgot that one. Do I know you?
That was one of the most miserable experiences of my life. Couldn't stop peeing.

ROFL...

"You stupid idiot! How many times must I tell you? DON'T PISS ON THE ELECTRIC FENCE!"

ren and stimpy fans?
 
  • #20
Oh Yes!

I watched trainspotter at the MOVIES!

movie

Dx
 
  • #21
I tryed to make a rail gun and used a 150A power supply, if I had touched the rails...
 
  • #22
I tried to make a ruby laser once, but I couldn't afford the rod..
 
  • #23
Originally posted by Zantra
I tried to make a ruby laser once, but I couldn't afford the rod..

Oh come on Zantra, I'll bet you've got a better one than that.
 
  • #24
Tried to go white water kayaking in a swollen creek after a week of torrential rain. We had two crap kayaks, no spray deck, bike helmets, no Flotation jackets, and most importantly, no skill.

I managed to come out of it unharmed, but only because my friend fell out before me and was washed downstream behind his kayak, so I jammed myself into some bushes until I knew what had become of him. He came back up about an hour later bleeding from his knees and elbows, with no kayak.

We got the kayak back a couple of days later smashed right through the middle.

It was great fun!
 
  • #25
Originally posted by Dx
i once got my private parts caught in a metal fan.[b(] No I am teasing. I once jumped off a moving car going 35 mph, very stupid!
dx

Well, at least you'll always have an interesting story to tell to your adopted children.

eNtRopY
 
  • #26
I performed a scientific experiment to see if water would boil in a paper cup by placing the cup full of water in a pan and put the pan on the electric stove and set it on high. It worked! Didn't even set the cup on fire, singe it or anything.

However, (here is the stupid part) I took the pot off the stove and placed it on my parents' kitchen table. It put a nice round burn mark right where I put it down. (Here is the really stupid part) I then proceeded to cover it up by setting the table and carefully placed a plate right over the burn!

I guess I was planning to set and take away the dishes from the table for the rest of my or my parents' lifes, and keep them somehow from looking at it at any point in between. They found it that morning. :frown:
 
  • #27
My dad sent me this one and I think it takes the cake in stupidity:

TOP IDIOTS OF 2002

Number one idiot of 2002:

I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center.
Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter into the emergency room right away.

Here's your sign that you are stupid lady. Wear it with pride.
 
  • #28
I ate ants before! When I was very small, I caught ants from a wall and put them into my mouth. Luckily my mom didn't give me poison after that. I also chewed and swallowed small pieces of eraser and pulled hair out from my head and tried to swallow.
 
  • #29
While waiting for my car, I was once watching a guy who was changing a large truck tire. He stood with his feet pointed towards the tire which was lying on its side on the ground [deflated], and then took a full swing with a large sledge hammer to strike the tire - to break the seal between the rim and the tire. As he did, he slipped on the wet concrete and fell into the hammer as it recoiled from the tire, and dinged himself dead center in the forehead. He knocked himself out cold. He sustained a few additional head injuries as he fell into the metal rim with his face. That had to hurt!
 
  • #30
This is great! Today is the anniversity of this historic event: the flight of lawn chair larry.
http://http://www.markbarry.com/amazing/images/lawn-chair-pilot.jpg

From MarkBarry.com, a website on the guy..."On July 2nd, 1982, Larry tied 42 helium-filled balloons to a Sears lawn chair in the backyard of his girlfriend's house in San Pedro, California. With the help of his ground crew, Larry then secured himself into the lawn chair which was anchored to the bumper of a friend's car by two nylon tethers. He took with him many supplies, including a BB gun to shoot out the balloons when he was ready to descend. His goal was to sail across the desert and hopefully make it to the Rocky Mountains in a few days. But things didn't quite work out for Larry. After his crew purposely cut the first tether, the second one also snapped which shot Larry into the LA sky at over 1,000 feet per minute. So fast was his ascent that he lost his glasses. He then climbed to over 16,000 feet."

Read the whole story here:

http://www.markbarry.com/amazing/lawnchairman.html
 
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