We were directed via @jmittell to Japanese writer Makiko Itoh‘s blog, where he has graciously translated filmmakerSatoshi Kon‘s parting words, composed not long before died, and later posted onto his blog by his family members.

As Itoh notes, the document is “rather long and rambling,” but it’s a moving portrait of a wonderfully talented and hardworking artist coming to terms with a death that came sooner than he had imagined.

Some choice excerpts after the break:

Tampa-based musician Nick Pittsinger (aka Shamantis) has made an earth-shattering discovery: The purpose of Justin Bieber‘s music has been to soothe the sufferings of humankind; we just didn’t know it yet. Pittsinger slowed down Bieber’s recent track “U Smile” by 800 per cent, running it through the “time-stretching” program PaulStretch. The result? An epic 35-minute, ambient song reminiscent of ocean documentaries and Sigur Rós.

Hear the heavens whisper after the break.

By now, the stirring trailer for “that Facebook movie” has burrowed itself deeply into the public consciousness. Though David Fincher’s upcoming film The Social Network isn’t released until October 1, well over 10,000 smug web users have already liked its fan page on Facebook, no doubt amused by the meta involved. It’s a testament to how effective the film’s marketing push has been (though by now we’ve learned to be cautious!).

Ever since, faux trailers about the rise of other successful web platforms have cropped up on the Internet. We’ve already showed you the YouTube parody, The Video Website. MySpace and, most recently, Twitter and eBay have also received the treatment. To help you along, we’ve published a guide to deconstructing The Social Network‘s trailer, so that any budding filmmaker can create their own spoof.

10,267 people, to be exact. In the city of Ordos, located in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China, the throng of people toppled over from seated positions, shattering the previous record held by 9,234 Singaporean students in 2000. It took them an hour to complete the entire domino chain.

What’s more, the group of human dominoes, divided into more than 50 groups, dressed in color-coordinated clothing that spelled the word Ordos in both Chinese and English. Even though they were bound to break the record, they made the effort to go the extra mile — impressive!

Tokyo-based crime reporter Jake Adelstein is no stranger to the Japanese criminal underworld. So when Boing Boing recruited him to pall around with three high-ranking yakuza friends for a little experiment, we were thoroughly impressed. After several rounds of cigarettes and whiskey in the reception area of a “real estate agency” — in fact a front company for the mob — the yakuza bosses were offering Adelstein their impressions of the Playstation 3 video game Yakuza 3, originally released in early 2009.

This morning, the world changed. It changed because within it, a smaller, more horrifying world was birthed out of the ooze — a Pop-Tarts World, to be exact. Food company Kellogg’s opened the snack food’s flagship Times Square location today at 8:30AM, a 3,000 square foot monstrosity filled with “interactive Pop-Tarts-inspired features.”

One of President Obama’s favorite pieces of rhetoric is reminding the American people that they’re entangled in “the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.” And just as the movie industry offered a holiday from reality in those trying times, today video games have taken on a similar role, buoying our economy more than we’d ever give it credit for. The Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report, just released by the Entertainment Software Association, verifies as much: Positive trends of employment suggest that video games have solidly contributed to the U.S. economy.

In a time when Pharrell names his company after Star Trek, Soulja Boy equates having “swagger” with watching anime (we weep), and one of Hollywood’s primary cash cows is the comic industry, we can safely say that geek culture permeates our everyday media. Contrary to what Gil Scott-Heron believed, the revolution just may in fact be televised (not to mention blogged, Tweeted, and open sourced).

Only in such an era can we enjoy rap music from Eugene Ahn, a.k.a. Adam WarRock: comic geek, longtime gamer, ex-attorney, and now, emcee. His music name-drops everything from Inception to #donaldglover4spiderman, from the final Scott Pilgrim comic to Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life. Geekosystem recently chatted with Ahn about his career, the concept of being a “geek,” and rap music.

Mark Ruffalo is a fantastic actor — most recently in Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right — but that doesn’t make his usurpation of Edward Norton‘s Hulk role for the upcoming Joss Whedon-directed adaptation of The Avengers any less unfortunate. In an interview with the NY Post, Ruffalo said, “We feel like it’s our generation’s Hamlet, and we’re all going to get a crack it.” As for smoothing any patches with his friend Norton, he noted, “We’re copacetic; we’re cool.” Looks like Ruffalo is already taking Marvel’s Shakespearean pedigree seriously. David Mamet provides an excellent definition and etymology of “copacetic” here. [NYP; pic via adherents]

No, actually, this is it: Weezer‘s upcoming album Hurley opted for the obvious — and also ridiculous — choice cover. After the Green Album and Red Album, this is clearly the natural progression. The record, due in stores September 14 on Epitaph, will employ the above image of Lost actor Jorge Garcia, who is grinning to have succeeded Jacob as the New Man in Charge.