My wife swears that MSG gives her headaches. Frankly, my wife gives me headaches when she starts whining about the level of MSG in her Chinese food…because for all the noise generated about MSG’s supposedly harmful effects, nobody has been able to definitively determine that MSG – eaten in normal amounts – causes any physiological problems. Despite this, many people [...]
The Shan family in Shangdong province, China have been forced to choose a new family name – thanks to computers which can’t render the character necessary to spell their name. The residents had no problem when identity cards, driving licenses and other documents could be handwritten, but now they have to be printed using computers, and their name is so [...]
My brother’s chief problem with RPG’s, or at least the one he always brings up when we talk about videogame RPG’s, is the lifeless townsfolk you deal with. Shopkeepers tend to be flesh-covered vending machines eager to turn your hard-earned gold into swords and potions. So how about this: a Japanese indie RPG in which you play the shopkeeper selling [...]
According to Aint It Cool News, John Woo is planning to return to World War II with a proposed film about the legendary Burmese Flying Tigers squadron. I can’t think of a single post-Hong Kong Woo film that moved me in any way, and I don’t imagine this will be any different…but the Flying Tigers are definitely worthy of a [...]
If you listened to the last podcast, you’ll remember my hackneyed ‘announcement’ about Death Frenzy, the chambara card-based RPG I’m working on. Well, here’s a link to the game’s development site where I’ll be posting updates and details as the game progresses. You’ll also find details of the other game design project I’ve got on the burner. I’m working on [...]
Yes – it looks different! I’m updating the theme, so things’ll look a little weird for a day or two. (Yes – I know we’ve got a huge thingie that says ‘AD BLOCK’ over to the right…) Sorry for the inconvenience…
Being Yellow Menace’s resident ‘Asian Design Major’ (as Greg likes to call me), I found this interesting… What Do I Do With Those Damn Anime Kids? Excerpt: Introductions were made, and more chitchat was had about the problem at hand, namely, the Damn Anime Kid. “They just wanna draw the same stuff over and over again. The big eyes, the [...]
Brian Dunning tackles the Yonaguni Monument (aka ‘Japan’s Atlantis’) on this week’s episode of Skeptoid. As usual with Skeptoid, if you tune in expecting to hear about verified evidence of some lost culture off the coast of Japan you’ll be disappointed. About 25 meters beneath the waters off Japan lies a stepped pyramid. We don’t know who built it, or [...]
I don’t have time to properly eulogize him, but I was shocked to learn via Twitter that anime director Satoshi Kon (Paranoia Agent, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika) died today at age 47. Rest in peace, sir…
Following it’s previous forays into social media (Twitter and Youtube, respectively), North Korea has now established a presence on Facebook. Registered under the username ‘uriminzokkiri’, North Korea hopes to use the popular networking site as a means of pushing propaganda to the West and their friendly neighbor to the south (that would be South Korea, in case you’re geographically-challenged). A [...]
This week we welcome co-editor Gregory ‘Mazinga’ Harris, Patricia ‘AnaKhouri’ Correll, and Ed to put a cap on our Gen Con 2010 coverage. We also have some other convention news, I announce my in-development chambara tabletop RPG, and we pick apart Ghost in the Shell 2.0. (Note: If you dig the podcast, please take a moment to rate and review [...]
One of the most enduring images in William Gibson’s Neuromancer was Case’s oh-so-homey coffin hotel capsule – which became even cooler when you found out Japan actually had such things. Well, now that China’s economy has surpassed Japan’s, they’re looking to get in on the whole ultra-spartan living craze. But instead of being inhabited by weary sararimen who missed the [...]
China is opening a new front on the war against environmental degredation – disposable wooden chopsticks. While the ubiquitous eating utensils may seem harmless to you and me, in China they’re causing a huge problem. 130 million pairs of chopsticks are consumed in China per day, requiring 100 acres of trees to be ground up each and every 24 hours [...]
Swimmingly, according to this piece at MSNBC. Frankly I’m not sure how appealing a 3D skin flick would be – any kind of pornography that requires gear to enjoy seems a bit off-putting. Then again, when you factor in the segment of the population that dresses up as cartoon animals to have sex – maybe this isn’t all that wierd. [...]
Our favorite despotic dictatorship, North Korea, is now on Twitter. I’m not sure how North Korea plans to use it’s newly found communicative ability, but I can’t wait to hit the ‘Follow’ button. I bet all kinds of crazy Tweets are in our future – except I don’t read Korean, so that might be a barrier to enjoying the crazy. [...]