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.