Thursday, December 11, 2003

another research idea

From BBC News:
"The suspect and victim met in early 2001, after Armin M is said to have posted a personal ad on several websites and in chatrooms asking for 'young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter'...

The victim was a 43-year-old Berlin computer technician who had sold his car, written a will and taken the day off work to sort out what he called a 'personal' matter.

He then went to Armin M's home, where the pair reportedly agreed to cut off his penis.

The victim was then allegedly stabbed to death - still apparently with his approval - and cut into pieces."

Ick. Double ick. Still, I wonder if some conversation analyst will eventually do a project using this tape as data. $50 says yes, if the tape is made publicly available. Any takers?

Update, 3:30PM Friday: I've moved this up to Triple Ick, which is about as bad as it gets. It reminds me of the quote by Leo Rosten: "Truth is stranger than fiction; fiction has to make sense." (Although, setting the present case aside and just thinking about that quote in general, I think a more proper ranking would be: [1] bad fiction, [2] embellished truth, [3] truth, [4] good fiction.

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