Someone in South Korea set himself on fire and managed to injure a couple dozen of other folks in the process. Apparently contrary to his wishes, he's still alive.

Quote of the day:

Saito, at the suicide hotline, warned that group suicides should not be blown out of proportion, adding that they make up only two percent of all Japanese suicides.

"The vast majority of suicides in Japan are by hanging," he said. "But that's not dramatic, so it doesn't make the news."

Remember that the next time you see some news story here in the West that features somebody verbally wringing hir hands about Internet mediated suicide pacts.

Yet another suicide pact has taken place in Japan. Body count:4

I'd like to thank Mr. Maggitti for reminding the world that sometimes the healthiest response to a situation is to mock it.

Quote of the day:

We know that the Internet can be an evil place and we believe that it is being used definitely for the wrong reason here," Evinger said.

It's no worse than the newspapers, and it's certainly no worse than the world as a whole.

In case you haven't heard (it's being covered by over 100 websites already), some guy in Oregon has been busted for trying to coordinate a 32 person suicide pact via the net. Apparently they wouldn't meet up, but were to all log in on Valentine's Day and suicide in front of webcams. The Authorities are now busy tracking down the rest of the people supposedly involved in the pact. Doesn't that leave you feeling warm and loved all over?

Nine more apparent suicides in Japan.

"If it Bleeds, it Leads"

That's supposedly one of the nuggets of journalistic wisdom that helps to decide which of the day's stories get top billing in a newspaper or other source of news. And it looks like many of today's English language news outlets subscribe to that adage. Want an example? How about the story about the guy who wrote what he thought would be his last words in his own blood? Within the past eight hours, that story has shown up on over 95 different English language websites that distribute news. Yeah, sure, it was awfully romantic of him, and with Valentine's Day less than two weeks away that's bound to strike a chord with lots of folks, but how much coverage do you think it would have gotten if he had done it with a felt-tip pen?