New message from Zodiac killer was actually class project

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If the Zodiac killer is still alive (and not reincarnated as Ted Cruz,) then he (or she!) would have to be at least 65 years old, which kinda makes me doubt the ā€œand wellā€ part of that statement.

*waits

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Police in Tallahassee, Florida were on high alert

I stopped right thereā€¦

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Donā€™t feel so safe and secure:

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If there was one thing comforting about the Halloween episode of American Horror Story: Hotel it was the idea that the Zodiac killer really is dead.

Also Iā€™d like more details about the assignment. What was the intent behind ā€œwrite a message in a public forum, take a picture, and send itā€? Did this have something to do with studying copycats?

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Oh, I donā€™t. No such thing actually exists.

I just think my odds are really good against someone who is elderly and possibly infirmā€¦

*lolz

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Mental note: Do not accept fish from @Melizmatic.

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Wise man.

*lolz

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There was recently an episode of Snap Judgement that made a pretty strong case for who the original killer was (his son making the case).

It was an interesting episode. Some of the evidence was pretty strong (like the guyā€™s name appearing twice, unmodified, in the communications that the killer out).

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What could go wrong with a homework assignment like that?

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I sure hope to high fuck that wasnā€™t in a safe zone.

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Pretty sure Professor Nwachukwu hadnā€™t been considering the ā€œwhat if a student decides this message should be an explicit threat to murder someone?ā€ angle.

I just assigned one of my classes a packaging design project. It never would have occurred to me to explicitly state ā€œdonā€™t pull a ā€˜special delivery from the end of Se7enā€™ here.ā€

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It was a class on serial killers and drug cartels. The public message wasnā€™t going to be, ā€œkittens are cute.ā€

If it was the first time Nwachukwu taught such a class, then he should take this as a lesson in how to draft an assignment. Or maybe - since he is Nigerian - how to draft an assignment in the US.

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Yes, our students are unique! :wink:

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Iā€™ve had students complain about the damnedest things, and I teach math. When I teach topics with policy applications, such as rational choice or even statistics, Iā€™ve learned to be extremely circumspect in my choice of examples.

I honestly donā€™t know how faculty in other departments (especially English, like Nwachukwuā€™s class) get away with some of the things they do. I once taught in a classroom right after a Freshman Comp class, and the stuff that was still visible on the badly-erased blackboards often seemed to me an open invitation to Title IX complaints about hostile classroom environment. I admire the use of extreme subjects to get students engaged, but Iā€™m pretty sure that if I gave my students the problem of calculating the volume of a dildo using Keplerā€™s ā€œvolume of rotationā€ techniques I would get called on the carpet.

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Maybe, but I just looked through all the Spring 2016 course listings in FSUā€™s English department and didnā€™t see anything matching that description. I have to wonder how accurate the paperā€™s description of the class and assignment is.

He is teaching ENC2135, Research, Genre, and Context. I assume the specific course theme was his own creation.

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Yeah, sometimes itā€™s impossible to know what a course is really about from the catalog. Youā€™ve got to contact the instructor.

What are you, a teenager? Youā€™ve never met a healthy 65-y-o? I was talking to a guy 71 yesterday, who crawls under his buddiesā€™ cars to fix them.

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Iā€™m afraid some brilliant marketing genius is already working on that:

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