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

[BobG]

I used to be a mason's assistant, hauling blocks, bricks, and mortar around housing construction sites. One of the sites we were building a basement at had turned into a total quagmire due to several days of rain. We had wooden scaffolding planks we could lay on the ground and wheel the wheel barrows on and walk on to keep out of the worst of the mud, but the planks soon became so slick it was safer and easier to just slog through the mud with buckets of mortar than to risk dumping an entire wheel barrow full of mortar and falling even further behind. Horrible day, complete with the alcoholic boss suffering from a hang over taking it out on the help, that couldn't move fast enough through the mud.

Late in the morning, a representative from the construction supplies store stops by to see how much more material we're going to need. He's not dumb enough to slog through the mud when there's planks to keep you out of the worst of it. But... he is dumb enough to wear pants too tight for a body that must have just recently gone overweight and dumb enough to think he can still jam his hands into his pockets. Sure enough, while laughing at a joke, he loses his balance, slips, and falls face first into the mud with his hands trapped underneath him inside his pockets. Funniest thing I'd ever seen.

Watching him try to keep his face out of the mud and yelling for help brought a much needed ray of sunshine to an otherwise miserable day. (He who laughs at the misfortune of others understands the meaning of life.)

 

[humanino]

In chronological order :

7 years old : a team of masons was working at school. They left a pack of beers. On the evening, I had my first drinks with my buddies. I sabotaged the swing, but forget it and fell in my own trap.

12 years old : I was a mess in high-school. We set in fire the classroom photographs on the wall, that dated back maybe to 30 years or so. Luckily, the entire school did not burn.

Same year : I was a real mess at that time. We threw a bench through the window from the 7th floor. Landed on a Ferrari or another expansive car. Nobody ever found us out.

15 years old : I steped back on my grandma's pet (some kind of small thing, a mouse or... don't know the english word) Still feel guilty.

19 years old : I decided to be nice and help out a little for the homework. Made a washing machine. Ruined half of my girlfriend's clothes. Do not feel guilty anymore

 

[Entropy]

When I was four I we were looking in a house being constructed and I drank a can of paint cleaner that was in an orange soda bottle. I went up to my mom and said "this tastes nasty!" She smelled it and realized it was paint cleaner and freaked out and rushed me to the hospital. They did x-rays and all this other stuff found out I was fine. Thats the only really stupid thing I can remember, but I'm sure there are others I just forgot about.

 

[humanino]

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Shorties: Stupid Human Tricks: Robert, 37, shot himself while explaining gun safety to his wife in Glendale, California, when he placed a .45-caliber pistol he thought was unloaded under his chin and pulled the trigger.

No way ! It is good to see that we are not that dumb guys. Poor poor Glendale

A guy in France tried to commit a bank robbery. He dared asking for a transfer on his account.

Another guy, another bank robery (I don't remember where) : forgot his hat in the bank, with name and address printed in it. The cops were already waiting for him at home by the time he reached the place.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

So as not to embarrass the poor fellow any more, I will refrain from using his name, but the person of interest is a Chemist [I think] at a world class university. This poor guy decided to appear on the Regis and Cathy Lee morning show, so I decided to watch what turned into a very painful ten minutes for all concerned.

He went the Mr. Wizard route with demonstrations suitable for kids, but in front of an adult audience. So he began with some lame [for the setting] demos of things that produce large quatities of foam...in your mouth for example. So, after he got done foaming all over Regis's $400 shoes, and after messing up the stage, both of which had Regis quite po'd already, our poor chemist began his grand finale - another rapid [explosive] foaming demo, but this time using a mixture containing Potassium Permanganate.

This show was taking place in a park in the San Francisco Bay area.
It was windy
We have a live audience
We have Potassium Permanganate

Anyone see the problem coming...

He pours one beaker into the other which then fires the foam all over the audience ruining everyone's clothes.

It was so pitiful. I felt so bad for the guy.

 

[jimmy p]

I held the record for jumping chairs in college (no-one else was stupid enough to try), and after conquering a line of 7 chairs, I was on top of the world. So I went for 8. Took the required run up, and mistimed my jump, caught my foot on the first chair and supermanned over the rest... into a table leg. All this went on whilst the Head of Year was on the phone with an important person on the other end. So he is screaming and shouting at me while I'm crumpled on the floor in a mangled heap with a trail of destruction behind me.

There are more stupid things I've done but I wouldn't want to dominate the thread

 

[Nietsnie]

Chemistry prof

Probably not the dumbest, but the funniest thing that springs to mind: While busy with a chemistry prac earlier this year, my experiment wasnt working. We hade cyanide and conc hydrochloric acid which looks the same. I got the 2 mixed up. So my chemistry prof methodically goes round to distinguish between the 2, BY TASTING THEM! It takes the HCl, tastes it and says :"Thats acid alright." And even after knowing that the other solution is cyanide (by process of elimination) goes on to taste it anyway. Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the floor. Afterwards he told me never to do what he did. I sure as hell didnt disagree with that.

 

[ShawnD]

"Thats acid alright." And even after knowing that the other solution is cyanide

I've done a LOT of stupid stuff.

-a few days ago, I almost mixed concentrated sulphuric acid and acetone together (hey, I was tired)

-I put isopropyl alcohol in the microwave then lit the vapour with a lighter... I lost all the hair on my arm.

-I used a car battery charger in an unventilated garage to copper plate an iron rod soaking in a very concentrated salt solution. I left the charger going at about 5 amps, then I went shopping. I came back to a garage that stunk like hydrogen gas...

-I cut aluminum foil into very small pieces, and placed them in a bucket, then I added methanol, then I added hydrochloric acid, then I lit the fumes on fire. That hydrogen sure gives the fire some kick.

-I stored hydrochloric acid in an old oven sitting on the patio. Now the patio has huge rust stains.

-I put finely cut pieces of aluminum foil in a wine bottle then added hydrochoric acid. The large amount of gas billowing out of the wine bottle went straight for the kitchen window of a neighbor who was down wind from me.

-I cleaned a beaker that contained concentrated sulphuric acid by putting tap water in it. I knew there was a problem when the beaker started steaming.


btw I'm a chem student. Wanna to be my lab partner?

 

[The Bob]

I did 1 + 1 on my calculator.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[humanino]

The Bob, you must be lying here

 

[The Bob]

The Bob, you must be lying here

Nope, I was doing a stream of problems on my calculator and then I was on automatic pilot. I just used it for all of the problems, because they needed it. Then I came across 1 + 1 and suddenly my fingers just type it in the calculator and I hit 'equals' and there is my answer 2. I then hit myself for being so stupid.

The Bob (2004 ©)

 

[jimmy p]

Nope, I was doing a stream of problems on my calculator and then I was on automatic pilot. I just used it for all of the problems, because they needed it. Then I came across 1 + 1 and suddenly my fingers just type it in the calculator and I hit 'equals' and there is my answer 2. I then hit myself for being so stupid.

The Bob (2004 ©)

This is like deja vu. Me n The Bob have had this conversation before. We are both guilty of the ol' "calculator to work out 1+1" folly