In May 2000 many players of The Sims were outraged when their game characters died because of an infection contracted from a dirty virtual guinea pig.

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Porco Rosso, a hard-bitten veteran, insists that all the good fliers died in the Great War and suspects that God transformed him into a pig-man to punish him for surviving it.

NEWYORKER: Porco Rosso

Annie McVey, whose 15-year-old daughter Claire died from CJD in January, has already put herself forward to act as a guinea pig.

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