Just weeks before his latest show Treme debuts on HBO, TV writer and producer David Mills has died of a brain aneurysm in New Orleans at the age of 49.

Russian tabloids don't play. Life News has published photos of the severed heads of the two female suicide bombers who blew up the Moscow subway trains earlier this week. Do not click through unless you really want to.

The US government boldly protected kids recently by banning "flavored" cigarettes. Menthol, of course, is not a "flavor." So now an FDA scientific advisory panel is convening to study this menthol issue more closely. An impartial panel, okay?

A new Amnesty International report says China was far and away the world leader in executions last year, followed by Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and then the USA, with a measly 52 state murders. Europe had zero, though. Nerds. [Pic]

Eating dirt. Eating at the world's best restaurant. Eating, as a weapon of international cold war. What do all these things have in common? Science! And eating. And death!

Health food manufacturer and exponentially dimensionalized fulcrum of universal gravity PepsiCo is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to make America healthier, with things like "designer" salt crystals for Lay's potato chips. What else could they do?

Gawd, if you didn't know better you'd think that someone is trying to send kids a message not to smoke cigarettes. The federal government's going to start enforcing rules making it harder to market to kids. Is nothing sacred?

When you go to work out should you be all focused and intense and hardcore, or should you just be flipping through some magazine on the elliptical, while sexting? Well, look at it this way: Do you want to die?

A South Carolina beach jogger was killed by a plane landing on the beach. Dang.

The actor died without much money to his name. So his hometown, report People Magazine today, will cover the costs of his burial. Startifacts.com, a celebrity memorabilia website, say they will also contribute $20,000 for a tombstone and other miscellaneous expenses.

A Massachussetts gun club has settled with the parents of Christopher Bizilj, a child who lost control of an Uzi at a gun fair, while aiming at a pumpkin, and shot himself in the head. He died shortly afterwards.

Strollers are for savages who want to chop their babies' fingers off. Trendy parents today are all about the body-hugging baby slings. Which do something much worse.

Also in bleak news today: Douglas Schantz—the energy executive who disappeared after drinking on Bourbon Street early Friday morning—has been found, dead, in a river.

A janitor at Ohio State University was told that he'd be getting laid off. This morning, he shot two of his supervisors, killing one. Then he killed himself. Since no students were hurt, this incident will be quickly forgotten. [LAT]

Religious crazies now trying to kill another Muhammad-drawing European cartoonist. Hey, stop that.

Police arrested Andrew Grande (porn name Dustin Michaels) with a bag of weed in his possession, which he apparently tried to swallow. When he resisted arrest, they tased him, and he choked on the bag. A reality cameraman filmed it.

36 people died last year under Washington's assisted-suicide law. Good. That's what it's there for.

Did you know that the tragic death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was a direct result of ignoring the Scripture? Allow American Family Association Director of "Issue Analysis" Bryan Fischer to explain.

SeaWorld President Jim Atchison is holding a press conference to discuss the tragic death of a trainer killed by an Orca. Atchison's podium was set up right in front of the killer whale tank, because he does not fear death. Updated with video:

Earthquakes to destroy your city! Escaping ants invade! Planets ripped apart! It's not science fiction, it's just your daily science watch, where we watch the science—the real science, only!