Media

We all live with the consequences of our finest ideas.

Or the ones that seemed the finest at the time.

I am confident that when the fine minds at Square Enix created Hire Hitman they had a sense that it would prove popular with men who are boys and boys who think they are men.

After all, this little Facebook app -- launched to promote the no doubt very fine and possibly religious computer game Hitman: Absolution -- allowed you to peg a friend as the target of a virtual hit by the computer game's protagonist, Agent 47, and share a video of the friend's termination, which incorporated a photo of the friend from his or her profile. … Read more

If you ask the folks who had a hand in the creation of the Internet, odds are you'll get a very different read on a regulation idea likely to turn into a lightning rod for controversy at a highly anticipated meeting of the UN's International Telecommunications Union.

The conference was called to rewrite a 1988 treaty that governs international communications traffic, called the International Telecommunications Regulations (PDF).

But in the run-up to the conclave, which takes place this week in in Dubai, several technology companies and Internet free-speech advocates, as well as the European Parliament and the United … Read more

I have never robbed a bank, but some people find it invigorating.

Different people find different ways of expressing invigoration. So it may well be that one of them -- at least in the case of 19-year-old Hannah Sabata -- involves making a YouTube video boasting about how you've just robbed a bank.

Here, you see, is just such a video. Its contents allegedly fit comfortably with the facts of a robbery at the Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Neb.

Indeed, the Associated Press reports that it was posted the very same day that Sabata was arrested on charges of … Read more

When are rights inhuman? When are legal privileges exactly that -- privileges?

These questions might enter heads on learning of a convicted pedophile who believes Facebook should pay him for his alleged feelings of fear and distress.

The unnamed man demanded that Facebook remove a page called "Keeping our Kids Safe from Predators."

This page served to offer information about pedophiles in Northern Ireland.

He succeeded, only for a new and very similar page to emerge shortly afterward.

A British court held that the information on the original page constituted harassment of the man.

As the BBC reports, … Read more

When the pope speaks in public, it's a major event. That's why tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are sure to gather in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican in the hours before the pontiff appears there.

So it should come as no surprise that with the announcement today that Pope Benedict XVI has officially joined Twitter -- and will be live-tweeting responses to questions during an event on December 12 -- more than 187,000 people have already followed his account (@pontifex).

Consider it the digital version of massive crowds waiting patiently for His … Read more

Dear Children of the World,

I have a very important message for you.

A few days ago, a man in Kingston, Ontario, (look it up) turned up at the annual Santa Claus parade and began shouting that Santa doesn't exist.

I know, I know. He must have been a really, really mean man. Or just really crazy. Or he'd been at Dad's tequila.

You'll be pleased to know that he was arrested. However, I wonder if some of you might have lost a little sleep, scared that maybe Santa was really Uncle Jim in a silly … Read more

I have a friend called Shirley.

She is from very refined stock. One of the results of this is that she can eat corn on the cob with such speed and precision that what remains when she's finished is a perfectly smooth stick.

Not everyone can do this.

Which is why I was especially moved by a YouTube video that suggests a new way to eat corn if not with utter precision, at least with astounding speed.… Read more

In the throes of anguish, we make promises that if only the anguish can be removed we will be eternally grateful.

Now a court has decided that such promises are legally enforceable.

For here is the tale of Ryan Leslie, a Harvard-educated singer, songwriter, and producer (Booba and Cory Gunz are two acts whom he has graced), who had his laptop and an external hard drive stolen in 2010 from a black Mercedes in Cologne, Germany.

Leslie was in pain. He took to YouTube, where he offered $1 million for the safe return of the gadgets.

How bursting with joy … Read more

Technology is trying to take over the world with as much grace as it can.

Sometimes, though, its influence can seem overt, especially when it steps onto the hairy, scabby toes of traditional thinking.

Earlier this week, there were unconfirmed rumors that a baby had been named Hashtag.

But, even if true, this is likely a one-off.

What is more important are societal trends. So my epiglottis was temporarily blocked with excitement on hearing that more and more parents are naming their children after Apple products.

I gurgle with delight at the information offered by Babycenter.com that "iBabies&… Read more