Posts tagged as:

Death


The Life and Suicide of Bill Zeller

by John P.

Bill Zeller was a PhD Candidate at the Center for Information Technology Policy, which is part of Princeton University‘s Computer Science program. Last Sunday he took his own life and left a detailed suicide note explaining his rationale. If you’d like to learn a little more about Bill, you can visit his personal site (for as long as it remains up), read his Twitter stream, and see his Flickr gallery.

Although the outward signs of Zeller’s life might seem normal enough, he was apparently battling a raging fire of torment inside caused by sexual abuse as a child. Something he shared with no one until his death. It goes to show you how terrible that kind of abuse can be, and what should be done to the perpetrators.

It also raises the questions about the morality of suicide. As Bill puts it:

“People say suicide is selfish. I think it’s selfish to ask people to continue living painful and miserable lives, just so you possibly won’t feel sad for a week or two. Suicide may be a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but it’s also a permanent solution to a ~23 year-old problem that grows more intense and overwhelming every day.”

Personally, I believe that people should be able to not only determine how they want to live their life, but also how they want to end it. It reminds me of the story of the elderly British couple who committed suicide together.

And now, the final message from Bill Zeller (set aside some time, its over 4,000 words):
[Click here to read more…]


British Couple Commits Suicide Together After 54 Years of Marriage

July 23, 2009

Just a few weeks ago my beloved dog Sandy came to the end of a long and debilitating struggle with kidney failure. My wife and I did everything we could to prolong her life and make her happy and comfortable, but none of us can cheat death, and eventually it was upon us. One of [...]

Parkour – The Most Acrobatic Sport on Earth

February 2, 2009

What is the easiest way to define Parkour? How about this. The world, is literally, your playground. Now, Wikipedia defines Parkour as follows: Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK) or l’art du déplacement (English: the art of movement) is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly [...]

Independent Comparison of Democratic vs. Republican Platforms

March 25, 2008

Folks, I’m neither a Democrat, nor a Republican. But my mom asked me to give her an unbiased, factual rundown on the political platforms – so what my mother wants, my mother gets! Here you go Mom… I’m making the presumption that the two candidates who are going to actually be running for President are [...]

One Man’s Weekly Links – November 2, 2007

November 2, 2007

News that shouldn’t be missed: Miniature Earth (Must see!) Crack Users Do More Time Than People Convicted of Manslaughter Five Years in Jail for Porn Spammers It’s Now Illegal to Feed the Homeless Scientists Invent 30 Year Continuous Power Laptop Battery Have a great weekend!

The Tasering Will Continue Until You All Submit!

September 17, 2007
Thumbnail image for The Tasering Will Continue Until You All Submit!

Tasers were developed as a non-lethal option to bring dangerous situations under control. But law enforcement officials are now using them with wild abandon in cases where simple diplomacy or a little hard work would otherwise suffice. In the past I’ve written about the police tasering of a UCLA student for refusing to show his [...]

The Opportunity Cost of War in Iraq

August 31, 2007

Cost of the War in Iraq (JavaScript Error) I was inspired by a fantastic article published by the Sietch Blog called Bending Swords Into Wind Turbines, so I decided to bring together some data to share on the opportunity costs associated with the ongoing war in Iraq. Just to be clear, I’m not espousing any [...]

OJ’s Confession Book ‘If I Did It’ Leaked! Here’s How To Get It…

June 21, 2007

Folks, this is breaking news. If you are going to try this I’d say you have to do so pretty quickly. If you wait too long the instructions here will probably not be valid. UPDATE: I’ve added the book here. You can download it below the video explaining that OJ is happy the book has [...]

Online Iraq War Simulator – Resistance is Futile!

May 5, 2007

Now here is something unique. A little game that allows you to hunt down insurgents in the streets of Iraq. The only catch is, you can’t win! You see, it starts out with a few terrorists running around amidst the civilians in the streets of Iraq. You’ve got your finger on the trigger and you [...]