Sharks, Serial Killers, and Forum Lurkers

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I was reading about the parallels that have been drawn between great white sharks and human serial killers. Apparently, the way they hunt is very similar. Great whites will observe their prey from a distance before attacking, will attack discretely from an unguarded angle, and will attack when there are no other sharks around for competition. They also learn from previous attacks and improve their hunting techniques with time. To me, that just sounds like simple, smart hunting, survival of the fittest and all that - the fittest are the ones that adapt and strategise. Now, it's easy to see how a serial killer "hunts" in much the same way, except for the matter of motive (which was brought up in the original article).

My take on this? Serial killers are malicious, sharks are not. Sharks need to eat. Serial killers... they may think they need to kill, but it's not a necessity in the way that food is - life would go on with or without murdering someone (well, if someone was murdered, life wouldn't go on for them...). No, no; the shark's actions made me think of a forum lurker more than anything else.

I'm not saying that a shark acts more like a lurker than a serial killer. It just seemed to me that there are quite a few similarities. Hanging around in the background, just waiting for a good time to kill (post), studying the way things work before jumping in, being very very careful...

The only thing that really bothers me about this shark-serial killer-lurker thing is that from here I can't say that forum lurkers are like serial killers. It'd be jolly good fun to point out all the similarities and draw amusingly illogical conclusions, but I could also point out how puppy dogs are similar to con artists. How about no.

So, I won't say that lurkers and serial killers, I'll just leave you with this thought, and I do hope you dwell on it: how do you know that your friendly forum lurker isn't a serial killer, hmm? That's right. Think about it.

Obama and the Fly

How on Earth is it that people are murdered every day, interesting things happen every day, and yet what made international news last week? Obama killing a fly, that's what. How incredibly ridiculous. Does the US have the rest of the world so whipped that now we all hang on every movement their president makes?

I'm done the rant now. This is the fun part; PETA! They say that now they'll be sending President Obama a humane bug catcher, so that in the future if he has any fly problems, he won't have to resort to killing it. That's People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who reportedly euthanises 97% of the animals that end up in the organisation's care (2 209 animals last year according to petakillsanimals.com). The irony is just too much for me.

To be fair, I have to point out that PETA has written about their euthanasia program, and why they do it. They basically say that it's all to stop animal suffering, and the animals they put down were in dire straights (That's from the PETA blog, but be careful: there are graphic pictures in there). That's all very noble, but last year the Drug Enforcement Administration was investigating PETA for their poor conduct with euthanised animals' corpses, and how they euthanise animals. Of course, the employees took the fall for the corpse-in-the-dumpster fiasco, but I can't help but question whether PETA as a group didn't condone this.

PETA has always been a bit of a sore point for me, because I don't know what to believe. The PETA blog is biased - oh, probably - and petakillsanimals.com is biased in the other direction - I'd say so. A lot of the other sources I looked at sited those two as their sources. Lovely.

But, one things is definitely nuts, and hilarious - the Obama fly thing.