Remember the earthquake that shook Japan last week, killing ten people? This poor guy was crushed by his own manga collection. I suppose he was buried by what he loved, but it had to be pretty horrible at the same time.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-16/man-buried-by-manga-discovered-dead-after-quake

I tell ya, every time I defend a celebrities’ right to voice their political opinions I get proven dead wrong…and Sharon Stone stepped up to plate to offer this dime-store wisdom regarding the recent earthquake in China.

“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else,” Stone said Thursday during a Cannes Film Festival red-carpet interview with Hong Kong’s Cable Entertainment News. “And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”

As Christopher Hitchens has pointed out with regards to Hurricaine Katrina, natural disasters seem a mighty indiscriminate method for dealing with wrongdoers. As much as I hate to see the Tibetan people suffer at the hands of the Chinese, I doubt that nature itself is prepared to leap to their rescue.

While not entirely surprising, I found this BBC piece on the internet’s role in helping Chinese quake survivors connect quite interesting. Of course there are the requisite pleas for loved-ones to get in touch, but I also found it surprising to find a number of citizens criticizing Andy Lau for being a little cheap on the handouts…

Chinese media reports that NBA basketball player Yao Ming has given £37,000, while actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li have donated £735,000 and £74,000 respectively.

The main focus of anger is Andy Lau, a Hong Kong-based singer and actor who has given £7,400.