Kevin's Watch

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual_deaths

I got a laugh out of more than a few of them.

For all those pedants out there! (I can be pedantic myself - must ease up a bit...)

270 BC: Philitas of Cos, Greek intellectual, is said by Athenaeus of Naucratis to have studied arguments and erroneous word-usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death. Alan Cameron speculates that Philitas died from a wasting disease which his contemporaries joked was caused by his pedantry.

415: Hypatia of Alexandria, Greek mathematician and philosopher, was murdered by a mob by having her skin ripped off with sharp sea-shells; what remained of her was burned. (Various types of shells have been named: clams, oysters, abalones, etc. Other sources claim tiles or pottery-shards were used.)

She was the daughter of the last of the "librarians" of Alexandria's Great Library.

I was given a book several years back called Death's Book Of Days listing the days of every day of the year and who died on it. There are a lot of strange deaths in there, and I saw a few of my favorites on this page. Though from running a search, I didn't find the one that on the death certificate, the reason of death was listed as "masturbation."

In that book was also listed one of my friends' friend, who died from a soda machine falling on him. He was a day away from graduating from college. When my friend told me about it, I started to smirk until I realized he was serious. This was the first I had heard about this type of thing at the time, but since have seen all the warnings.

1410: Martin I of Aragon died from a lethal combination of indigestion and uncontrollable laughing.[21]
1478: George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed by drowning in a barrel of Malmsey wine[22] at his own request.

Edit:

1649: Sir Arthur Aston ... was beaten to death with his own wooden leg

www.buzzhumor.com/videos/8943/Skydiver_ ... hute_Fails

Amazing.