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Posts Tagged “
Suicide
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rumormonger
sad
Model Dies in Apparent Suicide
A 20 year-old model jumped to her death in Manhattan in an apparent suicide yesterday. "Ruslana Korshunova, 20, whose face has graced the cover of French Elle and Russian Vogue, apparently jumped from her ninth-floor apartment in her Water Street building in the Financial District just before 2:30 p.m. 'I heard what sounded like a gunshot or a bomb or an explosion,' said a stunned Con Ed worker talking to a cop nearby [...] Cops said there were no signs of a struggle in the one-bedroom apartment, where she lived for only two months. And the balcony from which she plunged had construction netting around it that appeared to have been deliberately ripped." More »
psychology
You Have Hopscotch To Live For
How many times have you gazed out on the subway tracks during your daily commute, wishing only for the sweet release that hurling yourself upon them would provide? Plenty of times; you're reading this site, so we know your job sucks. Some people do throw themselves in front of trains, which represents not only a wasted life, but also a hugely inconvenient municipal clean-up job. So Washington, DC has ordered up some stuff to keep your mind occupied while you're on the platform—games like Hopscotch and "I Spy." The slogan on the games reads "Life is fun. Keep on living. Use caution around the tracks." Perhaps hopscotch was not the wisest choice, then? And let's be honest—the slogan of this campaign should really be, "Anything to Momentarily Distract You From Suicidal Thoughts." After the jump (ha), one of the "I Spy" games. This would only cure a very minimal level of depression: More »
whoops
'GMA' on MySpace Suicide: "Someone Could be Hanging On Your Every Word"
Megan Meier was a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after bullying from a neighbor girl, abetted by the neighbor's mother. Because most of the bullying took place online, on MySpace, the story has a special appeal to the newsmedia—it's not just bullying, it's cyber-bullying. Good Morning America weighed in on the tragedy in a segment this morning. An excerpt appears above. It illustrates not only the importance of being careful "what you say online," but also the dangers of speaking extemporaneously on live television. Was "hanging on your every word" really the best choice of language there? CLIP »
paul tilley
Blogs Innocent Of Shoving Ad Exec To Death, Friend Says
The Times looked into the death of DDB Chicago Creative Director Paul Tilley and found that he probably jumped from an upper floor of the Chicago Fairmont hotel to his death, and does not appear to have been brutally pushed through a window by the Scary Internet Blogs as had been feared. Though Tillet faced potentially lethal "biting" "harsh criticism" on AgencySpy.com, the Times found an anonymous friend of Tilley's who said blogs had nothing to do with his suicide: More »
crime
Former AP Exec In Bay Ridge Murder Hotel Case
Yesterday we noted the death of Paul Mento, whose body was found gagged with duct tape in a bathtub at Bay Ridge's Best Western Gregory Hotel, site of another recent murder. We also mocked the fact that police were "investigating the death as suspicious." No shit, right? Well, it turns out that Mento's death was in fact a suicide. And that's not all—he was a former executive with the AP. More »
paul tilley
Ad Agency Boss Calls Bloggers Hateful Bitter Losers Over Tilley Suicide
The controversy over what role (if any) ad bloggers played in ad exec Paul Tilley's suicide is rising up the ranks pretty fast. Earlier today Nina Disesa, the chairman of the New York flagship office of huge ad agency McCann Erickson, left a comment on the Agency Spy blog that calls bloggers hateful failures, and their commenters "losers." This prompted AdScam's George Parker, an actual ad industry guy who takes a backseat to no one in cussing out said industry, to scoff at her, and add that "I happen to think the vast majority of the work that comes out of McCann is shit." The most incredible aspects of this controversy are, 1. The fact that nobody knows why Tilley committed suicide has not prevented a major agency executive from speculating on the cause, and 2. A major agency executive could be so tone-deaf when it comes to the blogosphere. The whole thing is getting nastier by the minute, without any real new information. Disesa's full angry comment is copied below. More »
paul tilley
Did Agency Spy Blog Drive Ad Exec To Suicide?
Paul Tilley, executive creative director of the major ad agency DDB in Chicago, jumped to his death from a hotel window on Friday. He played a key role in many familiar ad campaigns, including "Dude, you're getting a Dell" and the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign for McDonald's. But Tilley was often criticized on industry blogs, and in the wake of his suicide, some people are calling those harsh criticisms a factor in his death. Others are arguing just as hard against that interpretation. Below, a selection of the negative comments on Agency Spy, a blog that had criticized Tilley's management skills recently (and offered "heartfelt condolences" on his death): More »
webtards
90 Day Jane Not Killing Herself, Not As Hot As You Hoped
90 Day Jane, the blogger who promised to commit suicide in 90 days, won't. She made the site as an art project, figuring only some friends would see it because people usually aren't drawn to dramatic stories on the Internet. While Jane hasn't revealed her true identity, Radar Magazine thinks they found her at a blog named Void, running the photo and caption shown here. Anyway, after Jane outed herself on the blog, she shut the whole thing down. We saved the confessional post below, in which Jane thanks her readers for being "real and heartfelt" and gives props to all of you who asked her to flash some tit. More »
the saddest thing
In 90 Days, This Girl Will Kill Herself
"Please don't attempt to 'help' me," says the blogger known as 90 Day Jane. "If you want to truly help, please send me ideas on how to do the deed." Is that even legal? In three months (83 days now), Jane is going to commit suicide, and meantime she'll write a daily essay with an admittedly neat look at one aspect of suicide. On Day 90 she said she wouldn't change her way of life. On Day 89 she wondered why movie suicides shave their heads. Day 88 she figured she won't pack up her belongings for her family; Day 87 was reactions-to-the-thousands-of-readers day, and on Day 86 she shopped for a suicide dress. There was video. More »
breaking
Sleeping Pills Found Near Ledger's Body
"This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet," NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said today, addressing the suspected suicide of actor Heath Ledger at a downtown apartment. According to reports, the medication found around his naked body "appear to be over the counter" sleeping pills. WNBC's sources say two bottles of sleeping pills were found near the body, one containing prescription medication and that fire officials had said the 911 caller reported a man not breathing, with a "cold" body. TMZ reports that an autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow. UPDATE: One of Ledger's close friends tells US magazine his death was shocking, but not surprising. "We saw it coming. Heath has gone though a rough road of trying to get sober."
Suicide Suspected In Heath Ledger's Death
Police are now saying they suspect suicide in Heath Ledger's death today at a Manhattan apartment owned, says the Times, by actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Prescription pills were found around the actor's "naked and unconscious" body.
Police are now saying they suspect suicide in Heath Ledger's death today at a Manhattan apartment owned, says the Times, by actress Mary-Kate Olsen. Prescription pills were found around the actor's "naked and unconscious" body.
burnout
Study On Journalist Burnout Explains Why You Hate Your Job So %*&$#@ Much
You make crap for cash. Your achievements are barely noticed. Your company's idea of encouragement is not firing you. The last time you spent more than twenty good minutes with your kids or significant other was two weeks ago, give or take a month. Sound familiar? A former journalist who's now a professor at Indiana's Ball State University has turned your career malaise and the occasional desire you have to slap your editor really hard into a full-blown research study on journalist burnout. He draws his conclusions based on responses from newspaper staff nationwide. Also on something called a motivation-hygiene theory, which makes us giggle a little. What does the Ivory Tower think about how you're doing? Well, in a study whose main indicators are exhaustion and cynicism, probably not much. Who's the most miserable among your colleagues? How long will you last? If you promise not to kill yourself, then by all means, investigate the post-jump details. More »
sterile promontories
Britney Spears' Suicide Note Found, Contains "Lines from poems about death"
Human tabloid (humanoid, tablun?) Britney Spears wrote a suicide note, reports In Touch. It contained "lines from poems about death." She wrote it days before she was taken to the hospital. She left it on a bathroom counter. It was found by Sam Lutfi. It was "very sad." But more importantly what poetry does Britney Spears use to die with? If we had to guess, we'd say there was some G.K. Chesterton, some Shelley and even a little Yeats. After the jump, we take you inside the frazzled addled sad saddled muddled muddy mind of Ms. Spears. More »
dead can blog
The late Theresa Duncan is still blogging
Writer/artist Theresa Duncan, subject of a January Vanity Fair cover story (among plenty of other coverage), is updating her blog from beyond the grave. Cries for help: now available months after they'd be useful. Duncan—whose intentional overdose on pills last July led to the suicide of her partner Jeremy Blake a week later—had become, according to acquaintances and friends interviewed by Vanity Fair, increasingly erratic, paranoid, haggard, hard-drinking, and depressed in her last year or two. She was convinced that Scientologists were harassing her and Blake, trying to sabotage her stalling career (movie and TV projects that never got off the ground, including one that was supposed to star erstwhile friend of the couple and famed Scientologist musician Beck) and his ascending one (a scheduled retrospective of Blake's work at Washington DC's Corcoran Gallery ended up going on posthumously). So: what does a dead woman blog about? Dick Cavett, Sherlock Holmes, and T.S. Eliot. More »
Mental Health America, an organization looking to get mentioned in brief wire reports reprinted across the nation, released a study claiming that New Jersey is the third least-depressed state in the union. We're supposed to be shocked that some stereotype about Jersey isn't true but honestly, the sheer number of zillionaires inexplicably residing there guarantees a good placement. Jersey is depressing to the rest of the nation, who ever said they were self-aware about it? (New York ranked 19th because of its proximity to New Jersey.) [NYP]
N.Y.U. has more students studying abroad than any other U.S. college or university, says the Institute of International Education in a new study. Well, sure. Seems like a far more sensible option than the alternative.
unsurprising turns of events
