Ways in which Earth may win the '''Galactic Darwin Award'''. Background of Earth's version: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards)

* LHC decides to experiment with mini black-holes, which turns out don't stay mini.
* Elect Sarah Palin, and give her and her family inadvertent access to The Red Button.
* Differently-Staffed Repeat of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident
** (Thank You, Mr. Petrov! A true hero.)
** There have been other similar close calls. I don't know if we are lucky or a product of the AnthropicPrinciple.
* SETI or NASA probes notify galactic terrorists of our existence by sending a friendly "Hello".  The terrorists may be offended by nude images on Pioneer 10 or 11's "Hello" plate, or believe the Voyager song samples are "works of the devil".
* Some dumbass Sheldon-wannabe discovers in their garage that they can create a new universe out of a vacuum...with the side-effect of destroying anything within a few light-years.
* Inadvertently allowing AI to take control by using its own efficiency in R&D to outsmart us: TheSingularity

Non-Qualifying Honorable Mentions:
* LHC discovers that we live in a "false vacuum" by triggering the true vacuum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum
** Disqualified because if true, there would be no galactic authority left to hand out the prize
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See also: LessonsFromFailure
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CategoryWhimsy, CategoryFuture