The Times: Tech column - A 'murder' confession/Political games/Saving Karen
By David Rowan
WHAT would you do if you saw an apparent murder confession on an online forum? It is not an abstract question - it happened to me last week. Browsing a lively community talk board at Kuro5hin.org, I was distracted by a mischievous discussion about revenge. Out poured painful accounts of bosses finding their chairs stinking of rotting shrimp, and of unfounded rumours that cost a love rival her job.
But it was message 117, posted by somebody called "Locked", that froze me. Locked had attended an unnamed secondary school in Cornwall where he suffered from bullying. One Wednesday afternoon after games, a group of the bullies was messing around in the road playing "chicken" with the cars - seeing how close they could run past them without getting hit - when one of the offenders, Paul, failed to move quickly enough. "Imagine my glee when Paul gets hit," Locked writes. "Paul hadn't died (damn) but was obviously in a bad shape. Ever the 'helpful Samaritan', I strode over to his body and pulled it on to the pavement: (I was) manhandling him roughly in a faux-clumsy attempt to put him in some sort of lying-down-with-head-awkwardly-resting-against-wall recovery position."
Locked kept doing this, he writes, until he believed he had broken the bully's neck. No one would know that this had not happened by accident. Paul later died - "his neck injuries killed him", Locked admits. "So, yeah, revenge can work well," he concludes. And with that, it has been left to the Kuro5hin community to debate the ethics of such a brutal death: whether the bully had been "taught a lesson", or Locked had revealed himself as a psychopath.
It is possible that Locked's claim is a hoax: that is what Kuro5hin's founder appears to believe. But if true, it would not be the first internet confession to murder (or would it be manslaughter?). Four years ago, Larry Froistad, a San Diego computer programmer, was jailed for 40 years for murdering his five-year-old daughter after a message in his name appeared on an online support group site for problem drinkers. "I murdered because her mother stood between us," the message stated, prompting another group member to alert the police.
I traced Locked by e-mail to a man in Newton Abbot, Devon, but although he admitted posting the message, he would not say if it was a hoax. Devon and Cornwall police were not aware of the claim, so for the moment, it seems, the matter rests. The consensus among community forums is that the message was probably a warped joke. Perhaps, but the internet has a strange ability to get us to admit things we would never say in the real world.
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IT is being suggested that one motive for China's hostility to the Google search engine is its ability to locate animated online games such as Slap The Evil Dictator Jiang Zemin. Such web-based games are the latest means for netizens to deliver political messages. Other favourites include Downing Street Fighter - eight politicians punch and kick to win Tony Blair's job. But this week the popular choice is New York Defender, on the website albinoblacksheep.com. It is a tasteless game in which you have to shoot down endless aircraft before they hit the World Trade Centre. The French designers claim its message is the futility of the war on terrorism: you cannot win the game. With a million players, its popularity suggests that subversive thought has found a powerful new outlet.
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Since Karyn Bosnak, a 29-year-old Brooklyn shopaholic, turned to the web in June for help to reduce her credit card debt, cash-soliciting sites have mushroomed. Bosnak's site, SaveKaryn.com, has attracted $10,374.04 towards her $20,000 debt. Her plight resulted from her obsession with Prada shoes and Gucci purses. So imagine what "Penny" could achieve with her site, HelpMeLeaveMyHusband.com. She wants cash to support her children through a divorce. In the first three weeks, Penny received $326.31. The strategy is not guaranteed - a 21-year-old "college girl" has netted just $9 at LendMeABuck.com.
(The Times, September 11 2002)
WHAT would you do if you saw an apparent murder confession on an online forum? It is not an abstract question - it happened to me last week. Browsing a lively community talk board at Kuro5hin.org, I was distracted by a mischievous discussion about revenge. Out poured painful accounts of bosses finding their chairs stinking of rotting shrimp, and of unfounded rumours that cost a love rival her job.
But it was message 117, posted by somebody called "Locked", that froze me. Locked had attended an unnamed secondary school in Cornwall where he suffered from bullying. One Wednesday afternoon after games, a group of the bullies was messing around in the road playing "chicken" with the cars - seeing how close they could run past them without getting hit - when one of the offenders, Paul, failed to move quickly enough. "Imagine my glee when Paul gets hit," Locked writes. "Paul hadn't died (damn) but was obviously in a bad shape. Ever the 'helpful Samaritan', I strode over to his body and pulled it on to the pavement: (I was) manhandling him roughly in a faux-clumsy attempt to put him in some sort of lying-down-with-head-awkwardly-resting-against-wall recovery position."
Locked kept doing this, he writes, until he believed he had broken the bully's neck. No one would know that this had not happened by accident. Paul later died - "his neck injuries killed him", Locked admits. "So, yeah, revenge can work well," he concludes. And with that, it has been left to the Kuro5hin community to debate the ethics of such a brutal death: whether the bully had been "taught a lesson", or Locked had revealed himself as a psychopath.
It is possible that Locked's claim is a hoax: that is what Kuro5hin's founder appears to believe. But if true, it would not be the first internet confession to murder (or would it be manslaughter?). Four years ago, Larry Froistad, a San Diego computer programmer, was jailed for 40 years for murdering his five-year-old daughter after a message in his name appeared on an online support group site for problem drinkers. "I murdered because her mother stood between us," the message stated, prompting another group member to alert the police.
I traced Locked by e-mail to a man in Newton Abbot, Devon, but although he admitted posting the message, he would not say if it was a hoax. Devon and Cornwall police were not aware of the claim, so for the moment, it seems, the matter rests. The consensus among community forums is that the message was probably a warped joke. Perhaps, but the internet has a strange ability to get us to admit things we would never say in the real world.
++++
IT is being suggested that one motive for China's hostility to the Google search engine is its ability to locate animated online games such as Slap The Evil Dictator Jiang Zemin. Such web-based games are the latest means for netizens to deliver political messages. Other favourites include Downing Street Fighter - eight politicians punch and kick to win Tony Blair's job. But this week the popular choice is New York Defender, on the website albinoblacksheep.com. It is a tasteless game in which you have to shoot down endless aircraft before they hit the World Trade Centre. The French designers claim its message is the futility of the war on terrorism: you cannot win the game. With a million players, its popularity suggests that subversive thought has found a powerful new outlet.
++++
Since Karyn Bosnak, a 29-year-old Brooklyn shopaholic, turned to the web in June for help to reduce her credit card debt, cash-soliciting sites have mushroomed. Bosnak's site, SaveKaryn.com, has attracted $10,374.04 towards her $20,000 debt. Her plight resulted from her obsession with Prada shoes and Gucci purses. So imagine what "Penny" could achieve with her site, HelpMeLeaveMyHusband.com. She wants cash to support her children through a divorce. In the first three weeks, Penny received $326.31. The strategy is not guaranteed - a 21-year-old "college girl" has netted just $9 at LendMeABuck.com.
(The Times, September 11 2002)
posted by David Rowan at Wednesday, September 11, 2002
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