Suburban Legends

Guardian Unlimited provides the quote of the day in their GTA uproar article Storm in a Hot Coffee cup:

"The inconsistent morality of many of Grand Theft Auto's critics has not been lost on the gaming community. As American games journalist Rob Fahey said, Cohen 'bought a 17 recommended game for her teenage grandson, featuring car theft, shootings, muggings, cop-killing, prostitution and plenty more, but now wants compensation because it also turned out to feature badly animated dry humping, which could be unlocked only by deliberately downloading a patch off the internet.'"

New Scientist has a great article on Why We All Need Pornography (reg required) that provides context for the GTA uproar as well as several cases floating through the court system:

"Consumers eager for a glimpse of skin, but afraid of being found out or of being spotted in a seedy blue-movie cinema, helped drive the demand for more of these technologies. In the process, they are making the internet a more hospitable place for those promoting racial, ethnic or religious hatred, or even organising terrorist attacks. But it will also help political dissidents and whistle-blowers, so technologies created to help porn enthusiasts today are the human rights' tools of tomorrow."

Here's a busted Suburban Legend from Snopes about carjackers that use rear windshield flyers. I am pretty darn sure that there is a high correlation between the people that are alarmed by dubious email warnings like this and people that are upset about the aforementioned blurry dry humping. And I hate to break it to you, Mrs Cohen, but your grandson has probably done a bit dry humping of his own, thank god the internet showed him some new techniques. Don't even get me started about your "lost cat" sign that's been up at the grocery store for 6 months.

Here's some real carjacking prevention tips. Unfortunatley there aren't enough tips about Government Nannies jacking emerging technology. At least there is EFF