Was Hugo Chavez a demagogic despot who cloaked his dictatorial tendencies in long-winded rhetoric about his love for the poor or a champion of an underclass who had spent too long in brutal subjugation to a wealthy elite who cared little and did less for them? Either way, he's dead now, which means his life must be recounted in cut-rate CGI from Taipei. This is the world in which we live.
After the day's earlier, rather depressing bear story, I think we could all do with something a little more lighthearted. And useful! This is definitely something you need to know in case you come into contact with a black bear. Thank you, Taiwan!
The folks at Next Media Animation pose an important question: Have we become a society of inconsiderate voyeurs? While the evidence in the proposition's favor may seem incontrovertible, I would suggest that we have always been inconsiderate voyeurs. We just have more impressive technology now with which to broadcast our inconsiderate voyeurism to our fellow inconsiderate voyeurs.
In case you've failed to keep up with the case of Cindy Mauro and Alini Brito—the two teachers in Brooklyn who were fired after allegedly doing sex to each other in an empty classroom—let our friends at Next Media Animation get you up to speed. Trivia buffs, take note: I am pretty sure this is the first use of the phrase "in flagrante delicto" in wacky Taiwanese animated news caption history.
This updated, Americanized version of the Nativity from our friends at Next Media Animation certainly says something about Jesus' origin story and the way certain parts of the world see us now. I'm not quite sure what, but it's something.
If you haven't been following the whole Transportation Security Administration body scanner/pat down controversy this ought to get you up to speed. I had no idea former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was working for the RapeScan corporation now. The more you etc.
This is actually a fairly decent summary of the issues involved in the current currency spat between the United States and China, so if you want to learn more about that subject go ahead and watch. Do be warned, though, that it feels a little racist. Against everybody.
It is very rare that I see something on the Internet that leaves me perplexed to the point of distraction, but it does still happen from time to time. Take this explication of what we are apparently referring to as "the war on pubic hair." I mean, I understand the symbolism of the lawnmower, and the meaning of the cats is easy enough to decode, but what on earth is going on with the French mime? Thank God the weekend is here.
It's been a while since we checked in with the folks at Taiwan's Next Media Animation, but here they are explaining the current situation regarding oil prices in an easy-to-follow (if difficult-to-listen-to) rap! Stick with it, you'll learn something. For more information on economist Arthur Cecil Pigou's concept of negative externalities, head here.
I had no idea things were so dire in Australia, but—actually, you know what? Prison Island is EXACTLY the kind of place where you'd expect millionaires to take nocturnal dumps in front of local restaurants. Still, thanks to the folks at NMA for bringing this to our attention.
If the great planetary die-off (which now includes hundreds of expired fish that washed ashore in New Zealand; "We initially thought 'woohoo a free feed' but they had really cloudy eyes and you could see the birds had been at them. Some of them had no eyes," said one witness) really does signify the coming apocalypse, it's nice to know that our friends over at Next Media Animation will be around to cover it. I bet their Rapture video is killer!
We did not much talk about the latest WikiLeaks document dump yesterday, mainly because I am not really sure what to say. As Tom Scocca puts it, "Which side is one supposed to be on? It is wrong for Wikileaks to have disclosed this, because the intelligence-gathering program was sensitive and secret government information. The Wikileaks disclosure is newsworthy because it is wrong for the government to have a program gathering people's sensitive and secret information. Either way, somebody's data gets mined, though, doesn't it?" But there are plenty of other voices in the debate, including (I'm guessing) Sarah Palin's. It's tough to sort out. Still, apart from [...]
Low-hanging fruit, to be sure, but this is almost certainly the first time Zach Galifianakis has gotten the Taiwanese animation treatment, right? Dude has finally arrived.
Those of you who have been less than obsessive about Conan O'Brien's return to television (which happens tonight, apparently) may find the Taiwanese summary to be all you need, information-wise.
Is Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder an asshole? If you ask our friends at Next Media Animation, the answer seems to be a pretty resounding "yes."
I had no idea that "yellow fever" (and its opposite syndrome, "white blood disease") had reached epidemic proportions! Thank God for the folks at New Media Animation, who have filed this very important report on the story. ("Sunny Tzu" is a nice touch, by the way.)
Man, everyone is taking shots at the troubled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark production. This clip is actually pretty comprehensive, although I think what would be even better is if there was a wacky Taiwanese animated news video that was itself directed by Julie Taymor. Although God knows what the budget for that would look like.
Oh, why not? I was about to wonder how we were able to depict members of the royal family vomiting in an age before we had Taiwanese animation, but I'm sure Hogarth or Gillray probably tackled it pretty well.
I had no idea things were so bad out there! Be careful, everybody. And just in case, you should probably review this guide from the mayor on how to stay safe in New York City. Will it work on giant roaches? Yeah, probably.
