I noticed with some dismay that Google adSense served a banner ad for the Church of Scientology earlier today. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t offer tools to filter contextual ads, so I am unable to prevent these ads from showing up on the site.

For the record: I consider Scientology and its membership to be fucking lunatics - a filthy pseudo-religious cult populated by thugs, idiots, and con-artists. And those are their good points.

I understand this is not a unique position, but I want to make absolutely certain that everyone understands that we do not approve of these ads, or the organization they represent. Likewise, if you see any ads promoting political candidates or religious organizations, these are likewise an unfortunate side-effect of our adSense based advertising system.

As a matter of full disclosure, I (meaning me personally, not Yellow Menace) do support several atheist / secular humanist organizations, including the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and the Council for Secular Humanism. I refrain from running ads for these organizations, however, as I don’t believe they have any relevance to the subject matter of our website. So if you do see banner ads for these, or similar, organizations adSense will once again be the culprit.

Sorry for the mid-morning rant…

With a move to a new blog-based system, we’ve decided to bring on some new blood - specifically, we are looking for dedicated folk with a passion for all things Asian Pop Culture to join the Yellow Menace Staff. Don’t get me wrong, our existing staff is all fine and dandy, but every once in a while it’s nice to shake things up a bit.

The ideal candidate will be literate (meaning you have a basic grasp of the English language), familiar with Wordpress, and willing to post at least once a day. If you live in Asia or have contacts there, all the better. We’re not real big on scoops, but if you have something to say and can do it in an entertaining manner we’ll take that over scoop-ability every day.

The ability to write reviews is a plus, but we’re looking for someone who can blog. Feature articles (interviews, etc.) are also a possibility.

Interested parties should contact me at: musashi(at)yellow-menace.com

Just a reminder - a good portion of the site staff will be in Indianapolis from Thursday through Sunday for GenCon Indy (’The Best Four Days in Gaming!’). If you’re attending the con, let us know - we’ll be running about like mad for the most part, but I’ll be running a 4th Edition D&D game for some friends and of course there will be lots of other coverage, pics, etc.

Hope to see you there!

While I’m on the subject of GenCon, I should mention that Mazinga and I will once again be covering GenCon, which takes place August 14-17th in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although GenCon is ostensibly a gaming convention, the last three years have been decidedly Anime-riffic, with Funimation and the folk behind Robotech making big appearances. I expect this year to be much the same. Let us know if you’re attending and perhaps we’ll see you there.

AnaKhouri is likewise hitting DragonCon, in Atlanta, Georgia later that month, which I’m sure will be every bit as fun (and the genre-celeb attendee tally seems a lot higher, too…).

Hope to see you this Summer!

Hate to be a bummer with all the obits, but I just found out that Battle Royale II, Kamen Rider, and Sailor Moon actress Miyuki Kanbei died of heart failure at the all-too-young age of 24. Unless she was doing an Amy Winehouse, it sounds like something congenital. At any rate, it’s a damn shame.

From her Wiki entry:

She is best remembered for her role in the Sailor Moon musicals as Usagi Tsukino; other credits include Battle Royale II (2003), Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (theme songs, 2003), Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006) and the related movie Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Fighting Demons (2005).

Kanbe was cast in the role of Eponine in the Japanese production of Les Miserables, but was forced to give it up due to poor health in February of 2007. Since then, she had been in and out of the hospital until her death in Kawasaki City on June 18, 2008 at 4:08 am. The cause of death is cited as sudden heart failure.

Here’s a commercial of Ms. Kanbei shilling for - well, something or other…