There's a really interesting interview with Hiroyuki, the founder of 2-channel whom I wrote a feature about in the June issue of Wired, translated into English by Japan Today. Yes, he has attitude, but I believe his stance that the Internet is just a medium, not the source of evil, is rational. He's a lone warrior fighting against the mainstream paranoia that the Internet is breeding crime. Some excerpts and a link to the entire interview below:
The suspect in the Akihabara rampage has told police he killed people because his messages were ignored on 2ch.
That case has nothing to do with us. I don’t believe he killed
people just because he was ignored online. He says he doesn’t have
friends. But it’s not surprising people like him don’t have friends.
But that alone cannot be a reason for murder. It’s too simple to think
the Internet causes such crimes.
The Internet is just a tool
and all tools have side effects. Look at cars. Do you blame car makers
when accidents are caused by speeding? I have my own logic to justify
what I’m doing. People can submit information freely on the Internet.
Anti-Internet people are just afraid of the unknown potential of the
Internet which has a short history.
Link to interview (Thanks, Tim!)
Link to Hiroyuki feature on Wired
This woman's not crazy. Her teddy bear is actually a cell phone. The Teddy phone was introduced by Willcom at the 2008 Good Design Expo. It's a concept, but the idea is that you can insert a sim card in the bear and hug it against your ear to make calls. You can set the paws to speed dial people (one for each paw, so four total), and the tail is used as the TALK button. You can even set it on vibrate. The estimated cost for this handset (?) is $500. 
