A Brief aside from news from the Pacific Rim: Tragedy struck Mexico yesterday when twin midget wrestling stars Alberto and Alejandro Jimenez were found dead in a hotel room, apparently drugged and killed by members of Las Goteras–a gang of prostitutes known for robbing and poisoning clients. The dose of poison used to kill the [...]

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Before last night’s 7-0 drubbing at the hands of the Heroes the Lotte Giants had won six in a row, and the team has moved from last to 5th place in the standings. What does that mean? It means I’m back on the bandwagon, like any real fan.
When the team was struggling in last place, [...]

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I think I’m the last to report this, but this morning I had an interesting conversation with a friend from Korea who was actually in Philadelphia for the weekend for his niece’s wedding. He doesn’t read EWC, has no idea what a hipster is, but asked me if I’d heard about it. He said it [...]

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A post with the nickname alone would be of some value, but the backstory is fascinating as well. I got turned on to this via Marmot’s Hole — it’s a story about a Korean adoptee/”hipster grifter” in Brooklyn, NYC, who according to the New York Observer, bilked thousands of dollars from a number of unknowing [...]

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In recent weeks in Taiwan there has been a big to do about a disgraced Taiwan Government Information Office (GIO) employee getting sacked over a series of bigoted blog comments written under a pseudonym directed at Taiwanese people.
Kuo Kuan-ming–an employee of a Toronto TECO office (which serves as an embassy-like service abroad for Taiwan)–was [...]

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Manuel Benitez, a former child actor whose credits include Galactica, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Stand and Deliver, was shot to death by police in the back of a Chinese Restaurant in El Monte, California, ending a four-year manhunt for the 38-year-old.
Benitez’s 7-year-old son was injured as police used a flash grenade to get into the [...]

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Petty Theft. Murder. Assault. Is it the latest Portland Trailblazers road trip?
Not quite. According to a Daily Telegraph report, Japan is struggling with a crime wave perpetrated by a less likely group: elderly citizens. The crime rate among those 65 and older has more than tripled over the last [...]

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Here are a series of spoofs of Sanlu commercials. Sanlu is the  major Chinese baby milk company currently under fire for distributing tainted milk. According to Danwei this clip has already been taken off Chinese video sharing sites, but you can still find it on YouTube.
Even if you don’t speak Chinese (like me) you’ll still [...]

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From Korea Beat:
Hot Pants Slasher Behind Bars
On the 18th the 12th Court of Incheon sentenced a 20-year old named Lee to seven years in prison for seeking sexual gratification by slashing the inner thighs of women wearing short skirts or shorts.
Now why would someone have to take something as fun as hot pants and ruin [...]

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If you’re like me you’ve always had a keen interest in the pirates that scour the south seas, but other than the odd news report here and there, have never really learned much about them. Well, here’s a great summary piece by The Economist, detailing the trials and tribulations of dealing with the mostly [...]

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Good stuff and someone to keep an eye on here. This is written for the Washington Post by Jake Adelstein, who used to be a crime reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper. According to the story he moved to Japan in 1988 at age 19, spent most of college living in a Zen [...]

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