The Null Device

2001/4/29

FBI subpoenas logs of visitors' IP addresses for miscellaneous subversive media website Indymedia; the intent being probably to build up lists of subversives to wiretap/Carnivore. Mind you, like the insane scofflaws they are, Indymedia published the order (including the clause prohibiting publication of it). Mind you, I'd be surprised if they didn't have Echelon or something similar tracking who visits this site and quietly increasing their "terrorist quotient" or whatever.

0

The French government sez: wear a pro-marijuana T-shirt, go to jail. The T-shirts apparently violate laws against "portraying in a favourable light and promoting or inciting the consumption of any product classed as a banned substance".

censorship drugs france marijuana 0

"I'm not dead yet!" the Communist Party of Australia is making a comeback, with young people flocking to its web site, inspired by S11 and the rise of punk-lifestyle Nu Marxism. (Weren't there about 4 Communist Parties in Australia once, with at least one taking orders from the USSR and one being mostly a club for intellectuals like Philip Adams and Manning Clark?)

0

The street finds its own uses for things: First there was the Sony Aibo robot dog, then a number of imitators joined the market, and now a Japanese company has turned a robot dog into a sex toy. The Vibe-inu is built on the chassis of an existing robot pet, and fitted with a vibrating, elongated snout; you can guess the rest.

Comfortably seated behind the two-way mirror, Shukan Jitsuwa's reporter describes a young woman in her early twenties, obviously fond of animals, who beckons Vibe-inu to snuggle on her, er, lap and burrow in. Soon she is emitting purrs of delight.

0