Making the human race smarter, one idiot at a time.
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Darwin Award:  Fireworks Fiasco
4 July 2000 - New York

America's Independence Day celebration is a festival for pyromaniacs. People routinely lose fingers and eyes in the fireworks explosions, year after year, seemingly oblivious to the dangers.  And the bigger the fireworks, the greater the damage.
Keith, thirty-four, suffered partial decapitation when he peered into the mouth of a launching tube containing what he thought was a malfunctioning aerial firework.
The unlicensed pyro spectacular display was to be the grand finale of his party, and in his haste to correct the problem he placed his head directly over the opening.  After a short delay the fireworks exploded, giving both his head and his party an impromptu yet spectacular grand finale.

(Included in the rules for eligibility - "The candidate must be eliminated from the gene pool."  This means death or, less commonly, sterilization.)