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If you want to explore the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, there’s an app for that

If you want to explore the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, there’s an app for that

For everyone dreaming of the chance to visit North Korea, you’re in luck. There is now an app for that. 

The North Korea Travel app, released on Wednesday, promises to be the most comprehensive guide ever created for tourists to the Hermit Kingdom.

The app, which will be available through both the App Store and Google play, will feature information on over 350 locations throughout the country. Each location will feature “Tour Guide Tips” provided by Simon Cockerell, who works in the North Korea travel industry and has visited the country over 120 times.

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Spooky shots of the abandoned Fukushima disaster area taken with a drone

Spooky shots of the abandoned Fukushima disaster area taken with a drone

Japanese aerial photography company HEXaMedia flew a drone equipped with cameras through Tomioka, Japan, the largely abandoned town that played host to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

It edited together a number of spooky shots into a 7-minute video that you can watch here. Check out the most stunning shots in the gallery below.

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This gorgeous remake of the classic Nintendo System is like nothing you’ve ever seen before

The nostalgia of a classic Nintendo Entertainment system is like nothing else.

I remember when I first got a Nintendo. I didn’t get the bundle with the gun, so no “Duck Hunt” for me, but that didn’t stop me from playing “Super Mario Bros.” for hours with my friends. Then I’d go to their houses and play for hours more. It was the first real game system I had (before that I had a Commodore VIC-20 — don’t mind me as I date myself) in a long line of game systems that followed.

I think back on those games and that system fondly, but I never considered buying one today, or even one of the mods people have made, such as this one, called the Hyperkin Retro 5.

Usually it’s because the graphics on these systems is pretty weak compared with what we’re used to from systems like the Xbox 360, and especially newer systems like the PS4 and Xbox One.

Until now, that is.

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Oculus Rift will finally go on sale to consumers next year

An Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for consumers could go on sale next year, a company representative told Business Insider at Facebook’s F8 developer conference today.

Management at Oculus VR, the Irvine, Calif.-company that Facebook bought for $2 billion earlier this year, will be “disappointed” if it doesn’t have a headset available at retail for ordinary people by 2016, according to an Oculus spokesperson.

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The man who has eaten at every Michelin 3-star restaurant says the ‘Jiro Dreams Of Sushi’ spot is not worth the hype

Last week, President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had dinner at Sukiyabashi Jiro, considered by many to be one of the best sushi restaurants in Tokyo, if not the world.

It’s certainly the most famous sushi spot on the planet thanks to the 2011 documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.” The three-star Michelin restaurant is located in the basement of an office building near the Ginza station, with a modest wooden counter and only 10 tables in the entire establishment. 89-year-old master chef Jiro Ono serves a tasting menu of roughly 20 courses, for a total of 30,000 Japanese yen (just under $300).

But some people question if the experience is actually worth the money.

While there’s no question that diners are eating some of the freshest and most perfectly prepared fish available, the meal is often rushed. The Michelin Tokyo Guide warns “don’t be surprised to be finished within 30 minutes.” That’s the equivalent of spending 1,000 Japanese Yen — or $10 — per minute.

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Burger King launches perplexing ‘PooPoo Smoothie’ in China

Burger King has raised some eyebrows with its latest menu addition in China, called the “PooPoo Smoothie.”

The drink as similar to a Taiwanese boba tea, or bubble tea, and has pulp-like “pearls” inside that are supposed to “explode in your mouth upon consumption,” according to the Daily Meal.

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Malaysia didn’t start looking for the missing plane until 4 hours after it disappeared

Malaysian officials have released a preliminary report about the Flight 370 disappearance that says the official rescue operation didn’t start until four hours after the plane vanished from radar.

CNN reports that Malaysian officials also noted it took 17 minutes for anyone to notice that the plane had gone off the radar.

The gist of the report — officials are still far from finding the missing plane.

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Rising sea levels could cause staggering damage to these cities

Sea levels may rise by about one meter by 2100 if carbon emissions continue unchecked, according to a recent survey of experts, and the effects on coastal cities could be devastating.

A 2008 report from the OECD ranked the most exposed cities, identifying areas that would be exposed if sea levels rose 0.5 meters by 2070 and there was a once-in-a-century storm, accounting for larger storms in some areas (raising water an additional 0.5 meters to 1.5 meters), natural and artificial land shifts, and urban growth.

Calcutta, India could be hit hardest, with 14 million people and $2.0 trillion in assets exposed in 2070 — and the problem could get even worse by 2100.

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8 ways Kim Jong-Un has blindsided the US

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guides a flight training of KPA Air and Anti-Air Force Unit 188, honored with the title of O Jung Hup-led Seventh Regiment on Monday, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency, April 22, 2014.

When Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011, many experts saw his ascent as an opportunity for the West to transform the last bastion of hard-line communism, believing that the untested leader would shy away from confrontation with the U.S. and even South Korea.

Instead, North Korea’s leader — believed to be about 30 years old — has “proved to be more ruthless, aggressive and tactically skilled than anyone expected,” Peter Sanger of The New York Times reports.

Here are a few things North Korea’s supreme leader has done in the past 18 months to surprise and unnerve the U.S.:

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America admits it has no idea what Kim Jong-un is doing

Almost all of the conventional wisdom from American intelligence agencies about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been wrong, Peter Sanger of The New York Times reports.

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There’s a restaurant in China where all the food is prepared and served by robots

The Robot Restaurant in China’s Heilongjiang Province is a conventional restaurant in every sense, save the glaring exception that the food is prepared and served entirely by an army of 20 robots with just a modicum of human oversight.

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Nissan has made a self-cleaning car

Nissan

Now that Nissan has revolutionized the rearview mirror, it has moved on to another problem: It is developing a self-cleaning car.

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Greenpeace tells Obama to make ‘more responsible’ food choices after meal at restaurant that serves endangered sushi

After President Barack Obama ate at a famous Tokyo restaurant that serves rare bluefin tuna, the environmental organization Greenpeace issued a statement saying he should have made more “responsible food choices.”

“As a role model, people will naturally follow you. The global appetite for bluefin tuna has destroyed this species, pushing it to the brink of extinction. It needs to be protected,” Casson Trenor, Greenpeace’s oceans campaigner, said in a statement to Business Insider.

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17 mouthwatering photos from the legendary sushi restaurant where Obama just ate dinner

President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe just finished a meal at Tokyo’s Sukiyabashi Jiro, one of the best sushi restaurants in the world.

Sukiyabashi Jiro is headed up by 89-year-old master chef Jiro Ono. In addition to his restaurant’s three-star Michelin rating, Jiro is widely regarded as the world’s top sushi chef and was featured in the 2011 documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi.”

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REVIEW: Sony’s new tablet is thinner and lighter than the iPad Air, and Android fans will love it

After receiving rave reviews for last year’s model, the Xperia Tablet Z, Sony has refreshed its flagship with a sleek waterproof design that’s just a hair thinner than the last.

It’s even just slightly thinner and lighter than the iPad Air.

Packed with a high-resolution screen and great battery life, the Z2 Tablet is among the best Android tablets you can buy today, although it doesn’t feel quite as premium as the iPad.

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How Microsoft created a virtual assistant that could blow Siri away

YouTube/calloftreyarch

Windows Phone is still a distant third to Apple and Android in the smartphone market, but Microsoft is hoping to change that with the introduction of Windows Phone 8.1— and more importantly its personal digital assistant Cortana.

Microsoft claims that Cortana isn’t like your average virtual assistant. She’s supposed to be a little wittier, more personable, and capable of learning more about you than Siri or Google Now.

After using Cortana for a week and speaking with Microsoft’s Marcus Ash, Partner Group program manager, it’s clear that the company’s got a lot riding on the success of its new virtual assistant.

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Here are the weirdest things you can buy on Alibaba’s English site

Alibaba, the enormous Chinese e-commerce company, is about to file for an IPO in the U.S.

The two most popular Alibaba websites — Taobao and Tmall — are Chinese marketplaces and rather inaccessible if you don’t know the language, but there’s also Alibaba.com, an English site for sales between importers and exporters in more than 240 countries.

Alibaba.com has been known to sell different types of well-disguised counterfeit goods. Not only that, but a lot of the stuff on the site is just straight up bizarre or oddly labeled (we found quite a few normal products that for some reason had the phrase “hot” or “girl” tacked onto them).

We dug around Alibaba.com, and here are some of the gems we found:

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The incredible isolation of North Korea — In one map

North Korea is often referred to as “The Hermit Kingdom” in the west — and one map demonstrates why.

The website MarineTraffic displays live data of cargo ships over 299 gross tonnage, and while South Korean ports of Incheon, Busan, and Ulsan are bustling with activity, shipboard cargo movement in the North barely registers, despite the country having eight major seaports.

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Honda’s little robot that acts like a human is something you have to see

Fourteen years ago, Honda introduced the first generation of Asimo, a humanoid robot designed to be an assistant to people with limited mobility. It was also something of a public relations push to get people interested in studying science and mathematics. You’ve likely seen it before — it looks like a short, all-white astronaut.

A lot has changed since its first unveiling. Honda just showed off its latest Asimo build on “Live with Kelly and Michael,” and we’re impressed by what we saw:

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With this robotics program thriving in public schools, it’s ‘cool to make mistakes again’

Joe Dixon is Chief Learning Officer of Teq, a professional development company for teachers that aims to “champion the continued evolution of the modern classroom.” Lately that means getting lots of robots into the hands of schoolkids.

Specifically, Teq is bringing the NAO robot, a small humanoid from Aldebaran Robotics, into the classroom for educational applications. The bot is already in widespread use as a development platform for roboticists, and Teq leads weeklong school programs geared for students of all ages in getting the robot to do interesting things.

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