Furbies in Mass Suicide Pact

Can the Antichrist be far behind?

A RADIO presenter is being accused of Furby mass murder after triggering what appears to be a suicide pact among the furry cyber toys.

Ocean FM, a Hampsire-based radio station, was inundated with calls from listeners complaining that their Furbies had "died" after taking part in an on-air experiment conducted by a disc jockey, Spencer Kelly.

He had asked listeners to put their Furbies next to the radio to see if they could communicate over the airwaves with, Lulu, his girlfriend's Furby in the studio. But within minutes Furbies across southern England seized up and "died".

Emily Adams, eight, was listening with her Furby, Coco, when it started making a "funny noise" and stopped. Coco was rushed to a toy shop but all efforts to revive it failed. "I was upset," she said. "Coco and I really liked each other."

Meanwhile, Kelly's claim that he is "an innocent man caught up in a strange kind of Furby suicide pact" appeared to be gaining credibility after a US station repeated the experiment with similar results.

In Rhode Island, two Furbies "died" on-air during the Mike Butts Morning Show on 92 Pro FM.

Ruth Hale, the producer, said: "It was very strange. They were chatting away then suddenly went dead. Personally I'd love to try this on a national broadcast. I think they're the most annoying things in the world."

Despite the commercial attractions of a self-destructing toy, the manufacturers, Tiger Electronics, denied that Furbies had been designed to commit suicide.

A spokesman for the Illinois-based company said: "It all sounds so bizarre. Furbies communicate with each other using infra-red, so can only do so face-to-face.

"We're very excited that people have taken such an interest in Furbies, but perhaps their imagination is running away from them."

The London Telegraph, Jan. 20, 1999

"Custom designed reality is a labor intensive product." [Dr. Science]

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 Spy Agency Bans Furbys As Threat

WASHINGTON (AP) -- First, they foiled thousands of weary parents, desperately scouring store shelves to buy their kids ``the'' holiday toy.

Now, the five-inch plush gremlin-like creatures are wanted again, this time by the nation's super secret spy agency: Furbys could pose the latest threat to national security interests.

The National Security Agency has banned the popular pets from its Fort Meade premises in Maryland. In an internal message to workers, the NSA issued a warning about the toy, which is embedded with a computer chip that allows it to utters 200 words -- 100 in English and 100 in ``Furbish.''

``Personally owned photographic, video and audio recording equipment are prohibited items. This includes toys, such as 'Furbys,' with built-in recorders that repeat the audio with synthesized sound to mimic the original signal,'' the Furby Alert read, according to Wednesday's editions of The Washington Post.

``We are prohibited from introducing these items into NSA spaces. Those who have should contact their Staff Security Office for guidance.''

The Furby resembles an owl, with tufts of hair between its huge pink ears.

Because of its ability to repeat some of what it hears, NSA officials were worried ``that people would take them home and they'd start talking classified,'' one Capitol Hill source told the Post.

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January 17, 1999

The Furby -- Hot Toy Turned Electro-Menace

As the must-have, can't-find toy sensation of the 1998 holiday

season, the Furby, a vaguely owl-like stuffed critter with an

electronic voice, seemed to be a threat to nothing but the wallets

and emotional equilibrium of desperately shopping parents.

Little did the world know: In a span of a few days last week,

Furbies were fingered as insidious menaces to both national

security and commercial aviation.

Made by the Tiger Electronics unit of Hasbro, the Furby speaks in a

mixture of incomprehensible "Furbish" and words it has "learned" by

recording odd snippets of its owner's speech.

This charming feature is what scares the National Security Agency,

prompting a ban on Furbies and anything else with built-in

recording capability at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Md.

Furbies' electronic innards also landed the toys afoul of American

and Canadian aviation regulators. The Federal Aviation

Administration and Transport Canada both decided to forbid use of

Furbies during takeoffs and landings of commercial passenger

aircraft -- times when their little owners might most need the

comfort of a favorite plaything.

Why? Like Gameboys, CD players and some other portable gadgets,

Furbies emit weak radio signals that can interfere with the

aircraft's own electronic gear.