People have reportedly self-immolated in response to Communist regimes in Romania and Hungary, taxes in Sweden, the kidnapping of children by Chilean police.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The plum market sector of 45-65 year-olds is now half regenerated, and every year that goes by the singed cynical private investors immolated by the crash of 2000 are passing out of the investment generation and replaced.

FORBES: Sharks, Sardines And 'The Year For Equities'

Would I avoid the worst, like these guys, or would I, when I finally stumbled ashore on the Japanese mainland, be immolated in one foul form or another, consumed by fire or rent apart by steel or crushed like a snail?

NEWYORKER: Rat Beach

It is no coincidence that on May 24th as reports of a massive voter turnout in Cambodia suggested that the communists were going to be defeated a huge demonstration was held in front of the Hue police-station in which a Buddhist monk self-immolated.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center for Security Policy | ��New Democrat�� Watch #3: Will Clinton Reward Hanoi for Its Latest Cambodian Power-Play?

The possible outcomes of a win by the plaintiffs in the O'Bannon case have been cast in doomsday extremes: If the NCAA loses, some say, the governing body will be immolated as athletes turn into cash-addled mercenaries and top-level conferences are bombed into the stone ages.

WSJ: College Sports and the Giant Albatross��Rachel Bachman