# Lava lamps and the Darwin Awards **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 30, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256 "2004-11-30T01:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/1 "2004-11-30T01:44:08Z")
I nominate [this](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Lava%20Lamp%20Death) guy. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/2 "2004-11-30T02:07:06Z")
Weird. For those who hate to follow links, here is the first two paragraphs: > [@](#): > > KENT, Wash. – A 24-year-old man who placed a lava lamp on a hot stovetop was killed when it exploded and sent a shard of glass into his heart, police said. > > “Why on earth he was heating a lava lamp on the stove, we don’t know,” Kent Police spokesman Paul Petersen said Monday. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/3 "2004-11-30T02:16:05Z")
I’m sure he was heating it to melt the wax. Kinda like the light does, but faster. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/4 "2004-11-30T03:19:12Z")
I can’t wait to hear this one on the news tonight. This could only happen in Kent. Or maybe Renton. Then again, he could have been near where both towns meet up. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/5 "2004-11-30T03:22:39Z")
> [@](#): > > Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use. Except for that whole “being a moron” thing, which is sometimes caused by drugs or alcohol. OTOH, sometimes it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Rhubarb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/59ef9b/32.png) [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/6 "2004-11-30T04:03:34Z")
I expect we’ll be seeing this story featured in the Weekly World News under the headline “First Death from Lava in Pacific Northwest!” with a picture of Mount St. Helens in the background. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/7 "2004-11-30T04:21:23Z")
Sometimes I wonder if people who live in trailers are really aliens in disguise. This fellow certainly fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/8 "2004-11-30T04:42:09Z")
I’ve used an alternate heat source to melt the wax in a lava lamp before. It had been moved before it cooled, and the coiled heat conductor that is supposed to be at the bottom of the bottle was out of place, so the heat from the bulb was insufficient to get things going. That may have been what buddy was attempting to do. Of course, I was familiar with the concept of a “bomb,” so I was a little bit more careful than the late Mr. Quinn about the _amount_ of heat I applied, and consequently survived long enough to eventually realize that Lava Lamps are really, really tacky. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/9 "2004-11-30T04:52:45Z")
Don’t lava lamps contain a lot of plastic parts? You’d think the smell of burning plastic would be a pretty obvious warning sign. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/10 "2004-11-30T05:24:49Z")
He probably took the bottle off of the lamp-base. It just rests there, it’s not afffixed. [Here’s a picture of a dirty hippy holding a lava lamp bottle, off the base.](http://www.rdrop.com/~half/Personal/Gallery/LavaLamp.jpg) The plastic cap is just covering a regular bottle-cap, and isn’t actually attached to the bottle, either. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lava-lamps-and-the-darwin-awards/277256/11 "2004-11-30T05:38:37Z")
You see the potential for disaster [here](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Lava%20Lamp), don’t you? > [@](#): > > SOAP LAKE, Wash. – The Soap Lake City Council has reached agreement with Target Stores to move the company’s giant lava lamp from New York City’s Times Square to this Central Washington town. > > Target will dismantle the 50-foot lamp Nov. 29 for shipment, said Brent Blake, president and CEO of the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project. He figures the trip west will take about a week.