Woman arrested for murdering virtual husband

October 27, 2008 · Filed Under society · 1 Comment 

PCWorld reports:

The line between virtual reality and its flesh-and-blood cousin blurred a little this week as a 43-year-old Tokyo woman was jailed for murdering her virtual ex-husband’s avatar.

After she suddenly found herself divorced in “Maple Story“, a popular 2-D side scrolling MMORPG, the unidentified woman used her ex-husband’s ID and password to log into the game and kill him off. Call it Death by Deletion.

When the man discovered his beloved avatar was gone, he contacted authorities, which led to the woman’s arrest. “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning,” the woman told investigators. “That made me so angry.” The AP reports that the woman had no intention to carry out violence in reality.

The charges are “illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data,” which carries a sentence of up to five years in jail or a fine up to $5,000.

According to news reports, the estranged couple lived 1000 miles apart and have never met in the flesh.

Women are dangerous. Beware!

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All’s right with the world!

October 27, 2007 · Filed Under Nature, Poetry · Comment 

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Autumn leaves Maple autumn

The year’s at the spring,
And day’s at the morn;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side’s dew-pearled;
The lark’s on the wing;
The snail’s on the thorn;
God’s in his Heaven -
All’s right with the world!

~ Robert Browning in Pippa Passes

Pippa Passes was a dramatic piece, as much play as poetry, by Robert Browning published in 1841 as the first volume of his Bells and Pomegranates series.

Browning ends his poem with this verse:-

But at night, brother Howlet, far over the woods,
Toll the world to thy chantry;
Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods
Full complines with gallantry:
Then, owls and bats, cowls and twats,
Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods,
Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!

And what are “twats”, anyone?

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