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…

Thai authorites are on the lookout for Lee Aldhouse, a British professional kickboxer who knifed an American tourist to death one week ago.  Aldhouse, who seems to have quite the reputation as a violent douchebag, provoked a fight with 23-year-old ex-Marine Dashawn Longfellow at a Phuket bar before following Longfellow back to his hotel and stabbing him to death. Aldhouse, [...]

Actually it was voice actor Peter Fernandez, who portrayed Greg ‘Speed’ Racer, in the American version of the seminal anime.  Hernandez also voiced Mark Venture in the U.S. version of Space Battleship Yamato, aka Star Blazers. Farewell, Peter – enjoy your final lap.

I’m a pretty die-hard rationalist, and when I hear of efforts in this country to shoehorn cintelligent designism into our schools or vaccination ‘skeptics’ freaking out about links between autism and potentially life-saving medical treatment it makes me cringe. But at least I don’t live in a country that frees rapists through ear exams. La Ngoc Tinh said the case [...]

English artist Sebastian Horsley, who gained infamy a decade ago by taking part in a Filipino crucifixion ceremony, died yesterday of a heroin overdose. To the Filipinos inflicting pain upon yourself is both an act of faith and a test of faith. Protection from pain is interpreted by participants as evidence not only of divine contact, but also of religious [...]

Another day, another dead Foxconn employee. Except this one didn’t take his own life – unless you consider working for Foxconn itself to be a suicidal act. Foxconn Employee Dies After 34-Hour Shift Yes – 34 hours on the clock. That’s the work schedule 28-year-old Yan Li was on when he croaked, presumably from being overworked. I’m not sure what [...]

Wow, if you think you have a hard time hauling your ass into work every day – at least you don’t work at Foxconn International Holdings, Ltd. Things have gotten so bad at the electronics firm (which manufactures iPods and other hitech goodies we take for granted) that management is asking the workers to sign ‘no suicide’ clauses to help [...]

Dio died. Yeah, it’s #3 in the recent series of famous people deaths: Frank Frazetta, Lena Horne, Dio. If you don’t know who Dio was, you suck. He was the second singer in Black Sabbath after Ozzy bailed (and guess what- he was better than Ozzy. Yeah, I said it) and the frontman for Rainbow.  And also Elf, but Rainbow [...]

The famous and controversial anime producer Carl Macek died Saturday of a heart attack. He’s best known of course for introducing Americans to Macross, in the form of Robotech, thus creating an entire generation of anime fans. He also helped to get a shitload of other stuff released here. Macek was a big deal back in the day; everyone loved [...]

Goddamn it – I just found out that Alex Chilton died. It’s probably more appropriate to post a video of Chilton’s own work, but for some reason it seems proper to send the guy out courtesy of The Replacements. Our younger readers will probably only be familiar with Chilton from the song ‘Through The Street’ which was the theme song [...]

Okay – man…I’ll admit to occasionally avoiding the wife and kids to hit up a little Mass Effect 2 once in a while, but godalmighty. After reading about this South Korean couple who ditched their 3-month-old to raise an imaginary one, resulting in said child’s demise, I feel like Dad of the Year. An autopsy showed her death was caused [...]

Way back in 1999 or so, a year or two out of college, I started poking around with website design – nothing major, just picking up a little HTML here and there and knocking together a string of really forgettable crap sites that hopefully will never be found on Archive.org’s Wayback Machine. After a year or so of fumbling around [...]

Actress Jessica Alba has expressed doubts about a Chinese woman’s decision to alter her appearance to mimc Alba in a bid to impress a former lover. “I think you should never have to change yourself like that,” Alba said. “If somebody loves you, they’ll love you no matter what.” Apparently the woman’s ex-boyfriend was obsessed with Ms. Alba, even going [...]