A woman died from participating in a contest trying to win a Nintendo Wii for her kids.

This sucks. First, the lengths that people will go to to "win", including putting their live's in danger. Second, we learn that there is such a thing as drinking too much water, particularly if you are not going to be also regularly going to the bathroom to purge your system.

I hate to pass judgement on the dead, but this lady would still be alive if she had chosen to save up for the Wii (thus teaching her kids are more valuable lesson about sacrifice). Instead, they learned that their mother sacrificed her life for something as useless as a Wii (not a new car=transportation or even grocery gift cards or something more useful).

Sadly, this is also true that there is no such thing as a free lunch. You pay one way or another.

It was interesting to hear Howard Stern open his show this morning talking about the death of the radio contestant in Sacramento. He was pretty subdued about a genre he basically helped invent, lamenting what people would do for a $300 video game console.

And then, he plugged his own upcoming contest, "It's Just Wrong," in which mothers will be undressed by their sons for $5,000. [1]