Birds of Prey
By Michael Swaine
Turning and churning in the widening Web, the falcon loses its religion. There is no falconer to call us back, no home but the fragile nests we build ourselves. We gather twigs, GIFs, and the odd bit of string to assemble these tenuous and temporary structures, these home pages, whose unruly tangles or ruly weaves cradle such bright baubles as we may treasure. But we build not to last but to link: every nest is a doorway, a bramble of branches pointing always outward.
And out there, things just keep getting stranger.
Maybe it's El Nino, and will all dissipate as spring spreads its wings. Or maybe it's the Pokemon fits.
Last December, 573 people were hospitalized after becoming sick and disoriented while watching the animated Pokemon, or Pocket Monsters, characters on Japanese television. Symptoms included temporary loss of vision, irritated eyes, breathing difficulties, and memory loss. They had been watching the cyberspace-dwelling Pocket Monsters fight inside a broken computer using bright "vaccine bombs" and other flashy effects. Surfing the Web and tracking developments on and about the Web are two experiences not unlike watching Pocket Monsters duke it out with flashing lights.
It's Japanese TV out there. It's chaos in the cyberkitchen. What sane chef would serve up a meal of Java, cookies, and Spam? The most popular Internet provider ranks at the bottom of surveys on customer satisfaction.
The U.S. government continues to work to make the Net less free than other media.
