26.8.11

An Increase in Suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/us/26bcjames.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

In case the title doesn't work as a link, the above link should and my title says it all. It may be the economy which means the money for constructing the barrier is needed more than ever.

1.8.11

Mean people suck revisited

A couple of weeks ago, 3 people who had stepped over a barrier at one of the waterfalls in Yosemite fell to their deaths. It's been in the media quite a bit, obviously.
Shortly afterward, my husband mentioned hearing it discussed on call-in radio shows. He listens to quite a lot of those on the way to and from work (long commute) and noticed that there were a lot of ugly comments of the kind left in the San Francisco Chronicle when the suicide barrier was being discussed.
What he found very interesting was the person calling in who said he had mentioned this story on his blog and, because commenters have to leave their full name, found that the comments were nowhere near as nasty as those in other places.
I think it's the same old anonymity bringing out the worst in people.
Here's the link to the article I posted back then:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821646,00.html
Still applies, obviously.