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Rupert Murdoch Publishes North Korean Flash Games
eldavojohn writes "You might recall back in June when it was noted that North Korea was developing and exporting flash games. Now, the isolated nation state is apparently home to some game developers that are being published by a subsidiary of News Corp. (The games include Big Lebowski Bowling and Men In Black). Nosotek Joint Venture Company is treading on thin ice in the eyes of a few academics and specialists that claim the Fox News owner is 'working against US policy.' Concerns grow over the potential influx of cash, creating better programmers that are then leveraged into cyberwarfare capabilities. Nosotek said that 'training them to do games can't bring any harm.' The company asserts its innocence, though details on how much of the games were developed in North Korea are sparse. While one of the poorest nations in the world could clearly use the money, it remains to be seen if hardliner opponents like the United States will treat Nosotek (and parent company News Corp.) as if they're fostering the development of computer programmers inside the DPRK. The United Nations only stipulates that cash exchanged with companies in the DPRK cannot go to companies and businesses associated with military weaponry or the arms trade. Would you feel differently about Big Lebowski Bowling if you knew it was created in North Korea?"
Same with China.
Rants on Fox over democracy and freedom, $ in reality.
http://www.slate.com/id/2184197/
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Frankly, I'm more concerned about News Corp than I am about North Korea.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
I can tell you what did not work for us here in Spain. I'm not old enough to have lived through it, but I sure am to remember how things began to change in the yeas following the death of our dictator and our transition to democracy. Isolation does not work for anybody except, perhaps, for extraordinarily clever (and, more often than not, iron-fisted) dictators.
You can contend that trading with an undemocratic country can strengthen the dictator. I agree with that. However, the basic needs of the people of the country are more important than the dictator, or lack thereof. First thing is food, health, education, a future; once you have all that, you can go with lesser important details like democracy. Democracy and dictatorship are equally as good if people is starving, or just have no future. However, when people is fed, healthy and working, democracy will eventually find its way. Look at history for a number of examples. It will be slow, but sure.
As is always the case with Rupert Murdoch, why be content just riling up people on one side of a conflict when you can just as easily be profiting from both side? He does this time and time again, yet people always seem surprised when he does it.
MEMO --
New ownership means new rules. Therefore:
- each bug found in production code, means a month of hard labor for the responsible engineers and their entire family
- no more internets for you!
- each comment in your code should contain a reference to our glorious leader
We hope these new rules will everyone more happy and more productive!
-- K. Jong Il, VP
It may not be as bad as the US paints it but its certainly a lot worse than the North Koreans paint it. Your "trip" to North Korea consists entirely of an agenda planned by the government specifically designed to show off the few good parts of North Korea and keep you as far away from ordinary North Koreans as possible. You are forced to bow to a statue of Kim Il Sung. If you go out wandering on your own or say something that could be considered critical of the North Korean government you will get kicked out of the country and your guide will be in for a LOT worse. No other country on the PLANET restricts travel this much. Obviously there is something really, REALLY wrong with North Korea.
It's obvious you have an anti-US sentiment but you shouldn't let that cloud your judgement of North Korea.They It's a really, REALLY shitty place for those not lucky enough to be born into a wealthy, well connected family(irony!). Famine killed at least 10% of the population in the 1990s, the # of refugees willing to risk their life to escape to China where they pretty much know they will be treated as a slave is staggering, so obviously that tells you how bad it is in North Korea.
Monstar L
No fuckwit, I don't watch Fox News, I actually read about the world and don't blindly say, "America lies all the time!". You know what, Fox News also complains about how bad life is in other countries where the reality is a lot different. As they say a broken clock is right twice a day. Fox News complains about how bad life is in Cuba, and yet in Cuba tourists can travel the country for themselves and you have a lot of INDEPENDENTLY verified information on the status of the country(which is not great, but not nearly as bad as a lot of other countries on the planet). Ditto for Iran, Iraq(before during and after the war) etc. Saddam actually let people into the country and they could move around with (general) impunity. The country was in better shape before than war than it was after it. You won't get that report on Fox News.
You CANNOT do that in North Korea, and I have read TONS of travel accounts(even the stuff on wikitravel) which concur, the only people that claim how wonderful North Korea is are either paid shills or just as fucktaded as you and are so convinced of how "evil" the west is that they will pretty much adopt any philosophy that opposes it, even if said philosophy is 1000000x worse than that of the west. North Korea suffered famine and still suffers severe food shortages, even the UN says that, but all but the most retarded of fuckwits, such as yourself, disagree.
Monstar L