QotD: Golden Gate
Из того же благословенного источника, что и про мотивационное вуду.
A study of one hundred consecutive autopsies of Golden Gate jumpers found 44 percent female, 56 percent male. Age range was 15 to 86 years, with an average (mean) of 31.5 years; 97 percent were white, 2 percent black, and 1 percent Asian (spurring claims of racial discrimination and a short-lived demand for affirmative action by the California legislature).
Оттуда же, про тот же прекрасный мост.
After official number (of Golden Gate suicide attempts) 499 in 1973, ghoulish TV stations (is this redundant?) set up twenty-four-hour-a-day cameras hoping to catch the numerologically significant number 500 on film. Police patrols were increased. The first fourteen applicants for the role (one wearing a T-shirt bearing the number 500) were all stopped or talked out of jumping, but number fifteen, twenty-six-year-old Steven Houg, evaded rescuers and leaped to his death.
The cameras missed it.
In June 1995, as the official number approached one thousand, similar charming media and popular behavior reappeared; for example, a radio station offered a case of Snapple (any flavor) to the family of number one thousand. Since the California Highway Patrol stopped public reporting of jumpers after 997, I don't know if they ever paid up.
Пил я ваш Снэппл, гуно гуном.