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• Position: Japan imposes export restrictions on Sony's PlayStation 2; other news items - Brief Article

Dangerous PlayStation

Japan has imposed export restrictions on Sony's new PlayStation 2 game, according to an article on the British Telegraphs web site: The Ministry of International Trade and Industry has decided that PlayStation 2 should be the first game console to join a list of 130 export-restricted items of Japanese computer technology.... The government's concern centers on a powerful processor responsible for the console's realistic graphics. Experts believe this could be converted for use in missiles that read visual information to home in on targets."

Spare the Hamsters

From an Associated Press story in The Washington Post datelined London on the tailor Gieves and Hawkes's decision to discontinue making hamster-fur jackets: "The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals expressed outrage at the use of the furry rodents--perennially popular children's pets--as outwear.... Backing down, Gieves and Hawkes said it had made only one hamster coat--sewn from the skins of 100 farmed animals--and would make no more." The coat had a price tag of $4,800.

Don't Mess with the DMV

From an Associated Press story in The Boston Globe datelined Reno, Nevada: "Robert Challender of Reno expected to be hit with a late fee when he showed up a month late to register his 1978 Datsun. But what he didn't plan on was a $378,426.25 bill sent to him by the Department of Motor Vehicles, including about $260,000 in late fees and penalties.... Challender apparently was billed for late charges accrued since 1900."

Coke's Automatic Price-Fixer

From an article in The New York Times on a new vending machine Coca-Cola is testing: "M. Douglas Ivester, the chairman, described how desire for a cold drink can increase during a sports championship final held in summer heat. `So it is fair that it should be more expensive,' Mr. Ivester was quoted as saying in the [Brazilian] magazine Veja. `The machine will simply make this process automatic.'"

The CIA Goes to Nasdaq

Gilman G. Louie is president and chief executive of In-Q-Tel, Inc., a venture capital fund set up to keep tabs on the latest computer technology for the CIA. He told The Washington Pose. "`We call this the Peace Corps, the information technology Peace Corps.'"

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