According to The Independent (Golden Gate suicides: Deaths from San Francisco’s famous bridge ‘reached all-time high’ in 2013): The number of people jumping to their deaths from San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge reached an all-time high in 2013, according to a safety watchdog group. Public suicide rates at the California landmark are among the highest in the world, and campaigners have demanded that something be done after 46 people killed themselves there last year alone. As well as those deaths, police officers and members of the public intervened to save would-be jumpers on 118 other occasions. So why the record?  The watchdog group reporting the statistics, the Bridge Rail Foundation, attributes it to local authorities failing to install nets under the bridge. The argument for suicide preventing nets goes back at least to 1977. The most notorious advocate, then, was Jim Jones of the People’s Temple cult. An essay by...(Read Full Post)