And now . . . this - June 3/05

Some jokes just write themselves

From the annals of dubious technological breakthroughs comes this story from Singapore - which, incidentally, is now my Reason #1 why you should never read news on the Internet when you're running multimedia at church if you don't want to make a spectacle of yourself:

Scientists have developed a system which enables people to stroke a chicken over the internet.

Users touch a chicken-shaped doll which duplicates the actions of a real chicken through a webcam link. . . .

Touch sensors on the doll send 'tactile information' over the internet to a second computer near the chicken.

This computer triggers tiny vibration motors in a lightweight jacket worn by the chicken, meaning the chicken feels the user's touch in the exact same place as the doll was stroked. . . .

Remote interaction could allow people who are allergic to dogs and cats to caress their pets remotely. Used in zoos, it may allow visitors to pat a lion or scratch a bear.

[Full Story]

Or even spank a monkey.

This story, along with the recent approval of the .xxx top-level domain, opens up whole new avenues for Web interaction previously unconsidered.