Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Original Illustrated Yakuza Looters

Japan must be a very odd country. Found through Warren Ellis, apparently Yoshinori Watanabe has stepped down as kumicho, or chairman, of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest yakuza syndicate. Which, in itself, probably isn't that weird. What threw me about this was that the very public way he was able to announce it. In the article they talk about hundreds of Yakuza gang bosses gathering at Yamaguchi-gumi headquarters as police and media looked on. Do they have a sign up saying 'International Crime Headquarters' or something? To top that, there's speculation that he's stepping down because a recent Supreme Court ruling made it possible for him to be held liable in any civil cases been brought against the Yamaguchi-gumi. You can sue the Yakuza? I wonder do they have a website? Read more here.

Over at BoingBoing, a Flickr user has drew attention to two very similar photos distributed by two different photo wire services. One shows a young black man wading through floods, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, having looted a shop for groceries. The second shows two white residents wading through floods, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, having found bread and soda from a local grocery store. The black man loots while the white 'residents' find. That's handy to know.

Found through Drawn, The Original Illustrated Catalogue Of Acme Products - the only place to turn if you want to make an abortive attempt at catching a roadrunner or carrier pigeon.