<i>They discovered that the scientist had converted his living room into a monitoring station for extra-terrestrial life: Six powerful computers were running a program that analyzed radio signals from outer space.</i><p>If that's SETI @ Home (as I believe) then in addition to being a "monitoring station for extra-terrestrial life", my living room is also a cryptography lab (PrimeGrid) and a quantum computing and AI laboratory (AQUA@home).<p>Who knew!
An interesting feature of this story is that the victim's internet friend was the one who reported him missing. 20 years ago, a guy like this would have had no friends at all, and, as the murderer intended, nobody would have noticed that he was gone for a long time.<p>Maybe she would have even gotten away with it, especially if she had taken the main part of his money, which she did not have time to get, and fled the country.
<i>They discovered that the scientist had converted his living room into a monitoring station for extra-terrestrial life: Six powerful computers were running a program that analyzed radio signals from outer space. </i><p>Not to make light of a tragic story, but I hope no police or news media ever have anything to say about my life.
Personally I think cases like this are a great example of when capital punishment is acceptable.<p>When a person shows that much contempt for the life and well-being of another human being, they really don't deserve to continue living...
"She said Willa Blanc just showed up and said she had a large dog in the trash can, and paid her dad $1,000 to help them burn it," prosecutor Smith said. "They took all night to do it. This was even weirder than we were imagining."<p>Seriously...why would anyone believe a lie like that? This story makes me angry.
"Prosecution is also more common thanks to surveillance cameras and other new tools."<p>A sadly ironic statement, considering the victim's struggles with paranoia.
There’s a common stereotype that to be “crazy” is to be dangerous, but as stories like this indicate, the mentally ill are more likely to be victims of abuse than perpetrators.
A relative of mine always used to say "just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me." Perhaps he was right.<p>Also, given the topic of his research, nuclear weapon design, it doesn't seem too unlikely that government agents would tamper with his vehicle. The article seems to sensationalize a lot about the man. Running SETI@home isn't exactly that strange of a thing to do. Isn't it built into the PS3.
A lot of engineers have similar mental health issues, so I'm sure we all know someone like this. It's hard to strike the right balance between respecting their privacy and looking out for them.