Pixel Punishments

From www.guardian.co.uk …

The media today have been reporting the case of a Japanese woman arrested on Wednesday at her home in southern Miyazaki and taken over 600 miles (1,000km) to Sapporo^† because she hacked her virtual ex-partner's account on an internet game — MapleStory — after he dumped her. The (real) man behind the account hadn't met her in real life but had dumped her in-game and she took the unexpected 'divorce' so badly that she deleted his avatar (or 'murdered' it, according to some of the more effusive press!) This comes after a recent story about virtual theft in the Netherlands on Massively.com where two young boys — 14 and 15 — were convicted of stealing an amulet in Runescape. This latter case included a physical attack in real life on the article's previous owner, so completely correct that they are being punished, but the court's statement that "These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law) so this is theft." is something to consider carefully. Already various jurisdictions have made statements that they are considering whether in-game (totally virtual) transactions should be subject to (real life) taxation. Aren't we just going too far though? I see my time in EVE-Online and other games as a pastime not a job. ^† Sapporo is also the brand name of my favourite beer

0-1,050mph in 40 seconds

From news.bbc.co.uk …

When you see the boys on Top Gear going on about the acceleration of the latest cars as 0-60 in whatever few seconds RAF pilot Andy Green — who already has taken a car to 763mph — is now planning to go over one thousand miles per hour. In a car!. Rocket-assisted, the Typhoon-Eurofighter jet engine powered 'Blodhound' aims to shatter the current record in 2011.

Your chair, Sir

From www.telegraph.co.uk …

Sitting on Dartmoor in Devon is this 20 ft (6.5m) high "Giant's Chair". Built by artist Henry Bruce it is currently threatened with being demolished by the local planning authority as he didn't get planning permission when it was raised two years ago. Makes me recall the similar-sized chair by some Italian artist that spent the summer on Hampstead heath a few years ago …