RIP (?) Unabomber Ted Kaczynski

[LionJim]

The “scary” part of Ted K’s “scary brilliant” personae is totally due to him being a psychopath. I’ve known my share of mathematicians more accomplished than TK who were pussycats outside the classroom. Maryland had a very friendly and supportive faculty who always could make you feel okay after a rough day. (As a student at that level you’re either brilliant yourself or else fighting like hell to keep your head above water. Took me eleven years, every day was desperation. The other day I was cleaning out my home office and I found my textbook for my first class at Maryland, I got a 25/100 on my first exam, realized that day that Maryland > Tennessee the same way Penn State Football > Buffalo, I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.)

 

[LionJim]

lol, one time I was working on this little thing, spent two or three weeks on it before mentioning it to my advisor. “Oh, that’s interesting, never thought of that before.” Ten seconds later: “I hope you haven’t been spending too much time on it, it’s not true.” Fast, he was.

 

[Lil Nicky Scarfo]

There was a Haiku competition one year and this one won:

Open your present
No, you open your present
Kaczynski Christmas

 

[Big_O]

The “scary” part of Ted K’s “scary brilliant” personae is totally due to him being a psychopath. I’ve known my share of mathematicians more accomplished than TK who were pussycats outside the classroom. Maryland had a very friendly and supportive faculty who always could make you feel okay after a rough day. (As a student at that level you’re either brilliant yourself or else fighting like hell to keep your head above water. Took me eleven years, every day was desperation. The other day I was cleaning out my home office and I found my textbook for my first class at Maryland, I got a 25/100 on my first exam, realized that day that Maryland > Tennessee the same way Penn State Football > Buffalo, I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.)

He reportedly was a paranoid schizophrenic. Unless you have spent some time with these type of individuals like I have (med school psychiatry rotation at a state mental hospital) you truly don’t really appreciate how these individuals think. They are really bizarre.

 

[MtNittany]

Is there a Unabomber display on campus in Ann Arbor like the old OJ display in SoCal?

 

[MtNittany]

If only Ted had the legal mind of one Todd Richard Branch at his disposal at the time of his capture. He could be eating chili out of a can in Montana right now. You could say he'd have "ubiquitous freedom" even.

 

[laKavosiey-st lion]

Ted Kaczynski had an estimated net worth of around $150,000 in bank accounts, plus a remote plot of land and a small cabin in Montana at the time of his 1996

 

[Navion N8865H]

Ted Kaczynski had an estimated net worth of around $150,000 in bank accounts, plus a remote plot of land and a small cabin in Montana at the time of his 1996

The cabin was in Lincoln, Montana. I've been there, there is no mention that Kaczynski lived there for obvious reasons.

 

[ApexLion]

Meh. So is Ted Cruz.

There’s smart and then there’s smart but insane.

 

[Thorndike2021]

He will be missed. A true Michigan man.

 

[BobPSU92]

The cabin was in Lincoln, Montana. I've been there, there is no mention that Kaczynski lived there for obvious reasons.

No football field named after him?

 

[MtNittany]

No football field named after him?

It will be named Connor Stalions Field at The Big House.

 

[pendal1]

Goo

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski dies by possible suicide in prison: Source

Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday morning, according to a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson. He was 81.

abcnews.go.com

Good riddance.

 

[CVLion]

And Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent who sold secrets to Russia for years, also died in prison a few days back.

It feels like these things happen in threes. I’m trying to think of another high-profile federal inmate who might be the next to go.

Boy does it burn me up when I read a post from a few years earlier and don’t immediately recognize it as ne f mine.

Forgetful AND Unobservant? Yeah, I am getting old lol

 

[CVLion]

On a different note… I’m actually somewhat surprised that all the angst about data centers and AI has not yet brought forth a Unambomber 2.0 somewhere