tired fools

want to send someone a large file?
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fret not, “you send it” is here.
it’s all web-based and it works.

Another in our ocassional series on reasons to commit suicide. Today we have VLT addiction. That’s Video Lottery Terminal addiction. Apparently a bit of a problem in Canada, perhaps like the pokies problem in New South Wales. We used to call it gambling.

Four months before an addiction to video lottery terminals led 31-year-old Susan Piercey to commit suicide, she wrote a letter to the machines while at a treatment centre in her hometown of Corner Brook, Nfld.

“I sold my soul to play your game, you never judged me, ever ready to accept my money,” she wrote. “I have to let you go. You’ve hurt me more than anything or anyone in my life.”

That was in March 2003. Two months later, she took an overdose of pills and was dead in a week.

Surely action must be taken. Fear not.

Newfoundland announced a plan this spring that would reduce the number of VLTs in the province by 15 per cent over five years.

20% would clearly have been overdoing it, 10% not taking it seriously enough.

The other provionces wade in. Quebec moves 2,500 machines, that’s moves, not removes. Presumably hoping to confuse regulars. Ontario imposes a moratorium. There’s nothing like bringing in a bit of latin to clean up the problem. British Columbia follows suit, and Alberta sets a goal to follow Newfoundland. Halifax intends to do something, and Nova Scotia worries that a ban might lead to illegal gambling.

So far at least five VLT addicts have commited suicide.

Tags: suicide, vlt

I just knew there was some reason for my last post. Rather like always smoking far more on National No-Smoking Day, I blog suicide on the happiest day of the year. That is according to Cliff Arnall, a part-time tutor at Cardiff University.

He used the equation: O + (N x S) + Cpm divided by T + He, which takes six different variables into account.

The variables are O for being outdoors and outdoor activity; N for nature; S for social interaction; Cpm for childhood summers and positive memories; T for temperature; and He for holidays and looking forward to time off.

Increased outdoor activity, high energy levels and more sunlight have combined to create today’s good mood, Dr Arnall found.

I’ve got to admit it is a pretty good day here, 30C, lots of birdsong, nothing overly pressing to do.

If you’re intent on suicide then you could go searching the web for effective means of doing so. You might find that cutting your wrists isn’t very effective (it isn’t), jumping works (but make sure the building is at least ten stories high), pills take a while and guarantee nothing but a very bad time, etc.

However, in Australia such sites have been banned (enforcement?) with fines of up to A$550,000. Yikes.

In New Zealand it has been illegal, in reporting suicides, to reveal how they were carried out, or even to mention, in the headline, that the death was a suicide. This is now being reconsidered.

Trying to restrict information is generally not a good idea. Some recent research suggests that more information decreases the likelihood of suicide.

There is one site which takes photographic exhibits from coronor’s courts and posts them. If you want to see what someone’s head looks like after they’ve held a gun in their mouth and pulled the trigger, well, here you are. Or how about what you might look like after cutting yourself in two at the waist using a bandsaw? The idea is to show the reality, not the fantasy. None of the pictures are pretty.

If you do commit suicide, chances are that you’re clinically depressed (>95%). The vast majority of those who attempt suicide do not succeed (less than 1 in a 1000), and probably never intended to. People cut their wrists knowing that it’s probably not going to work. If someone really is intent on suicide, blocking a website is not going to stop them.

Finally, unless a potential sucide lives somewhere with a reasonably enlightened social policy, where help is available and marketed, the net can be a useful resource. So, given that someone who really does want to suicide may turn up here as a result of a google (as is the case judging from the queries that I get from time to time), they should probably go here.

There is more to say, suicide and the social means of discouragement / encouragement, but later.

Tags: suicide

I posted a while ago about a song lyric I came across, Lazyboy’s “Underwear goes inside the pants.” I’ve been looking to get hold of the song but itunes doesn’t have it. But I found the video. It’s good. Check it out.

I used to be an avid buyer of newspapers. No longer. Whereas I used to buy The Guardian or The Independent, I can now read both, plus The Australian, Washington Post, NYT etc etc etc all online and cost free. I am not alone:

More than one-fifth of people who read newspapers on the internet have all but abandoned purchasing print editions, a report has found.

A US survey by the research company Nielsen//NetRatings revealed that 21% of internet users who read daily newspapers have transferred the bulk of their newspaper reading to the internet.

There are, however, unforseen consequences. I broke a glass the other day and it still sits in pieces waiting to be disposed of. The trouble is that you can’t wrap broken glass in a web-page.

In a move reminiscent of Fight Club, artist Gianni Motti managed to purloin the Italian Prime Minister’s body fat after a liposuction at a swiss clinic and used it to make soap. He subsequently sold it for $18,000.

According to Motti, the artwork called Mani Pulite (which means “clean hands” in Italian) expresses opposition to corruption and mafia structures in Italy, as well as his personal opinion of Berlusconi’s policies.

boingboing

Well, bugger me. Condi Rice announcement in Egypt today:

“For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither,'’ she said. “Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspiration of all people.'’

Further:

“Liberty is the universal longing of every soul, and democracy is the ideal path for every nation,'’

One can almost hear the frantic tap-tap-tapping as Christopher Hitchens’ fingers fly across his keyboard, simultaneously writing at least four three-thousand word articles entitled “see, i told you so”.

It’s not clear what would happen if Egypt were to elect a theocratic government, still less so if the same should ever happen in Saudi Arabia. But we do have one indication of Bush’s reaction to a democratic government, in an oil-rich state, that exhibited policies not conforming to american interests. I’m thinking Venezuela, where a democratically elected Hugo Chavez was subjected to a US-backed coup attempt, foiled only by massive public protest.

So, we’ll see.

Eli Lilly have been testing a new anti-depressant. Screening out volunteers for those who suffered depression, the company tested their product on a “healthy” control group. Unfortunately one young volunteer, who signed up to help put herself through college, has just committed suicide. Eli Lilly were extrememly reticent to publicize the fact.

As the FDA admits, even a young woman’s death counts as a commercial secret in the world of pharmaceuticals.

Of course it does. EL stand to make up to $2bn from this new drug, Cymbalta. There have been at least four other suicides in similar circumstances while testing this product.

Tags:suicide

There are many ways to commit suicide, but this has to be a first. In Thailand a man superglued his nose and mouth, suffocating as planned. As a nice postscript:

Police indicate the man suffered a history of moodiness.

Tags:suicide, superglue