Japanese superstar Shokotan in a hazmat suit. Terror chic?

More on Shokotan, from her Wikipedia entry:

Shoko Nakagawa born May 5, 1985 in Tokyo as Shiyoko Nakagawa is a Japanese idol and tarento (an actress, seiyÅ« (voice actor), illustrator, and singer)…. Her nickname is Shokotan. (In the blog by Mika Kaneda, who appeared with her on “ÅŒsama no Brunch”, she is called Shokotasu).

This is a beautiful image, but also quite chilling, especially if you remember the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack by Aum Shinrikyo cult members on March 20, 1995. This memory must be even more acute for people in Japan who encounter the source of this image, a Norton Symantec billboard advertisement at the west exit of Shinjuku subway station in Tokyo:

Norton Symantec billboard at the west exit of Shinjuku station. (Click to enlarge.)

And if the image is unsettling, the text hammers the point home:

"I am in danger. You are in danger. Japan is in danger. Protect yourself with yellow." (Click to enlarge.)

Unfortunately, as nasty as computer viruses can be, they’re nothing compared to a chemical or biological attack on people, so it seems kind of flippant to trade on the fear of human suffering to sell protection against technological trauma. But it does make for great advertising, and using a current pop idol helps sweeten the medicine a little.

Haruki Murakami wrote a great book about the Tokyo subway gas attack, Underground, comprised mostly of interviews he conducted with people connected to the attack in one way or another. [Shokotan source: Pink Tentacle]

Sadly, the two pilots were both killed; fortunately, nobody else was killed or injured. [Source: YouTube, via Gizmodo]

Saginaw Bay, Michigan -- ice from Lake Huron is on the move.

The last few days have seen a strange and rare occurrence in Saginaw Bay, Michigan: wind-driven walls of ice coming off Lake Huron and plowing into beachfront homes. Apparently, this strange phenomenon occurs every few decades. Here are some vintage photos of a 1946 event that Life magazine published on March 25, 1946:

Life magazine published images of the 1946 ice damage in its March 25, 1946 edition under the headline "Terror on the Bay: Weird Michigan ice mass runs amok."

[Source: mlive.com]

Nah, on second thought, better take the bus. C’mon Japan, WTF? Hentai as a form of city planning, or just trying to “cute up” old Godzilla’s image? For those of you who are (even more) confused, Wikipedia can bring you up to speed:

Hentai (変態 or へんたい) is a Japanese word that, in the West, is used when referring to sexually explicit or pornographic comics and animation, particularly Japanese anime, manga and computer games (see Japanese pornography). In Japan it can be used to mean “metamorphosis” or “abnormality”. The word “hentai” has a negative connotation to the Japanese and is commonly used to mean “sexually perverted”.

Yep, I think that about sums it up. No idea where in Japan this is from, or even if it still exists (or ever did, for that matter). Still, if you see it, run for cover, and report back to us. [Source: BuzzFeed]

UPDATE: Here are a couple more images of this oddity.

See Ananova – Photographer criticised for the complete sequence of three photographs, and to find out why the photographer was criticized.

To actually read what’s going on in each of these incidents will cost you $99/year for a subscription. But at least there are free options to view US hazmat, forest fire and Amber Alert incidents.

For your bemusement, here’s the highly abbreviated version of the story:

A Russian woman in St Petersburg killed her drunk husband with a folding couch…

… the man’s wife, upset with her husband for being drunk and refusing to get up…

The couch…folds up automatically…The man fell …

The woman then walked out…an unusually quiet sleeping husband.

Police refused to comment.

…sawing away the side panels…a man in his underwear lying headfirst between the cushions.

… the man died instantly.