Today's story comes from Korea. A man standing on a bridge contemplating suicide was given a helping hand.

Quoted from This article on the incident: Chen Fuchao wanted to kill himself because he was in 2 million yuan of debt following a failed construction project.

After knowing the situation, Lai Jiansheng volunteered to talk with the Chen to persuade him. After denied by the police, he broken through a police cordon and climbed up to where Chen sat.

Lai first greeted Chen with a handshake, and then he pushed him off the bridge. Chen fell 8 meters onto a partially-inflated emergency air cushion, damaging his spine and elbow in the fall. (Video here and I can see the problem, looking at it the catch apparatus was full but it wasn't in position yet, though from the angle above it could've looked safe.)

Now at first I got a kick out of this because honestly there are times when you hear abut someone threatening it to a crowd (Chen did for five hours) and just standing there. Now I know me personally I would love to do to them what Lai did because that's just whining "Oh pity me life has shit on me and it stinks." Well yeah and everyone else, though they push that inconvenience out of their mind.

“I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interest,” Lai said.

I agree. I'm not talking about people who do commit suicide, but those like Chen who start then find the attention it brings. At that point the threat is almost always just for show.

A quote from this Reuters article on it Gives me another reason to support Lai in what he did.

Chen was at least the twelfth person since early April to threaten suicide at the same spot, the Haizhu bridge in Guangzhou. But none jumped and -- until Lian gave Chen a helping hand -- none was pushed.

12 people, in 7 weeks. Sorry but whatever his true intentions were hearing that it makes it look like this spot now is the "Hey look at me" point to go to when things get bad.

Don't get me wrong, I feel for Chen. That much money in a country like that pretty much ruins your life. It would make sense if it were me to end it all since getting out of it looks impossible. And yeah maybe after a while Chen would've come down on his own. But you know he had some little part, or not so little maybe, of him that just wanted to be the star. Why else would he choose that spot?

"Chen is currently recovering in a hospital; the fees are estimated to be very costly."

Well, he's alive, and who knows maybe this will give him a wake up call and in a few years we'll be hearing how this event shocked him into realizing that while its bad it can get worse so you just have to go with it. I hope so.

After the break I talk about a TV show that I think is just one of the best ever made, Batman the Animated series. Knowing a lot of you may think otherwise I give a list of episodes to back my case, all available for around two dollars on iTunes.

The man who killed Batman
Showdown
Almost Got 'im
The Trial
Mask of the Phantasm (movie)

Then I talk about what I think is one of the best tragic figures ever, Mr. Freeze. Episodes & movie below.

Heart of Ice
Deep Freeze
Subzero

Image of Lai found here.

Played

Placebo-Pure Morning (Picked because of the relevance between the video and Korean story)