It makes me sad, especially when I think about the arcades in Japan and the massive Starcraft colosseums to the south. Not because of how old the machines are—a great game is a great game—but because of the poor condition they're in. I realize NK has much bigger problems, like starving people, but that doesn't change my gut reaction to these pictures as a gamer. Head over to UK Resistance to see the rest. [UK Resistance via BBG]

A flaked-out little man, legs akimbo (above right.) cRadia, who showed this off at Computex, is touting the Flex Mini as the smallest portable cooler ever. Let's hope they start exporting it as soon as is humanely possible. Less penis burn (or whatever the female equivalent is—minge singe? Apologies.) can only be a good thing. [cRadia via Aving USA]

Naturally, there is no word on when the Pet Pavillion will be released or how much it will cost. However, it will be on display to the public at the Koreannovation trade show in NYC from May 14th-15th. [Koreannovation via Gearlog]

[Ideaholic via TFTS]

The two ships, the MV Hounslow and MT Ann, were rounded up back in February by the UAE police and coastguard after Reliance Globalcom, the parent company of Flag Telecoms, whose snapped cables they were, provided satellite pictures of shipping in the area of the cables at the time they were severed.

The Korean ship was allowed to go over the weekend, having paid a rather large fine (thought to be around $60,000) to Flag Telecom, whose customers suffered two weeks of disruption to their internet services. Meanwhile, two crew members of the Iraqi boat have been arrested, and their boat looks nowhere closer to being released. [The Economic Times via National Terror Alert—thanks Mike Wahlman]

[Aving USA]

But millions of dollars? Seriously? Why was the kimchi endeavor so challenging? Scientists had to develop the food without its trademark mixture of bacteria, as they were worried cosmic rays could mutate the microbes into dangerous entities.

Yes, that line sounds straight out of a comic book.

According to astronaut Ko San, the national efforts were worth the price.

This will greatly help my mission. When you're working in space-like conditions and aren't feeling too well, you miss Korean food.

The E8 runs Windows XP, has an AMD Geode LX800 CPU under the hood along with a 40GB hard drive, and its seven inch screen has 1024 x 600-pixel resolution. It's also got stereo speakers, a single USB port, memory card slot (we don't know what sort) and apparently 3.5 hours of battery life. Sounding like quite a competitor for the little Asus, the E8 is available Februrary 29th for about $600. [Aving.net]

Rat Prankster: Remote Control RatA wireless remote control and a giant rat that responds to it will surely get you dumped, but hell, it's worth the laughs. Plus, she was way out of your league in the first place; she's bound to leave you at some point, it may as well be down to a $14.99 giant pest-joke. Verdict: At least the rat has a sense of humor. [Gagworks]

Rat Enemy: Rentokil Wireless Rat Trap SensorsWe heard about these Rentokil Pestconnect rat traps way back in 2005, but they are still the enemy! The rodent destroyers set traps all across your infested pad, once a successful catch is made an alert text message is sent to a designated mobile phone (email option also available). That can mean only one thing for our furry lil' buddy... Verdict: The rat perishes—oh noes! [Rentokil Pestconnect]

Rat Hybrid: Rat Heart Powered RobotsIt was only a few weeks ago when scientists in Korea managed to complete work on a crab-style microbot, which was smaller than the thickness of a fingernail. What was so special about this bot? It was powered by cardiac tissue from a rat. The researchers from Chonnam National University were able to articulate the robot's motion using contractions from the affixed cardiac muscle. The itsy-bitsy robot moved through a solution at a steady 100 micrometers per second, and it is hoped the project will give rise to faster, site-directed, clot-targeting microbots for the arteries of red-meat eaters. Verdict: The rat's got heart. [Discover]

Rat Royalty:iRiver MplayerThe Year of the Rat is also slightly less well known as the Year of the Mouse. As in Mickey. Since it's got a Disney partnership (at least in Asia), iRiver is commemorating this particular Chinese New Year with a gold-plated Mplayer. You'll only be able to grab one of these in China, so if a shiny Mickey MP3 player is all you have ever wanted, get importing or get a plane ticket. Verdict: The rat blings. [iRiver Mplayer]

Rat Rocks: Rat SpeakersThe USB Rat Speakers have a built-in amplifier, 6W total power output, volume control with blue LED indicator and retail for a rat-tastic $26.99. Sure, these speakers may sound mousy (ha!) but can you afford not to have their blue hue adding spirit to your cluttered desktop? Probably, but let's stay in the spirit of things, m'kay? Verdict: The rat's got soul. [Kleargear]

Traditionally, the rat is seen as a lucky character in Chinese culture, so we very much hope we have not come across as jackasses (any more than usual). We just wanted to find a Gizmodo way to say Gong Hei Fat Choy to y'all! And that's a rat, folks. (Sorry.)

We just cannot get over the price of this machine. Sure, it may be far off from an 8-core super beast, but given the spec, it is firmly in Everex's gPC territory. Given the price, it is firmly in a class of its own. We know the currency conversion rates mean even if it did come to US shores, (don't count on it), it would be priced a lot higher, but the tech per dollar bang would still be very impressive. Gosh, those lucky Koreans get all the cheap technology goodness. [Akihabara News]

While the military was tight-lipped about the attacks, Chosun Ilbo newspaper claims that the origin was China.

No confidential information was captured in the process, as these soldiers' PCs are only used for personal use (a.k.a., passing the time through Desktop Tower Defense and maybe the latest Victoria's Secret fashion show). And while South Korea boosts their spam filters, North Korea may begin sending out legitimate intelligence, just to spite their enemies. [smh via theinquirer]

Available in either grey or white, the NUUT costs $320 and has an optional soft cover available, at a cost of $25. Styling is very Jonathan Ives circa 2004, don't you think? [Nuutbook via AVING]

Multimedia player
1GB memory
MicroSD slot
Bluetooth
DMB
2 Megapixel camera

All this is a whopping $537. You could probably get Richard Clayderman to play something smoove in your home for less. [Akihabara News]

1280 x 800 resolution
Core 2 Duo CPU (2.4 GHz) T7500
2GB RAM
GeForce 8600M video card with 256MB VRAM
1.3-megapixel camera
WWAN
HDMI
1.6 kg
Price is around $2,785 — or its Korean equivalent. [Akihabara News]

"When I was going up the stony hill to set dynamite, I found a man lying down beside an electronic shovel," said his colleague. "He was already bleeding from the nose. He had a mobile phone with a melted battery in his left shirt pocket. His shirt had soot on it in the shape of the phone."

As well as playing music, the Murider's 4.3-inch LED screen lets you watch movies or DMB mobile TV, and check your photos. it charges via USB and gives you between three and four hours' worth of power, depending on what function you're using. Although it doesn't make clear whether there is any internal memory, you can load stuff via an SD card slot or its USB.

As well as spinning around, the Murider comes running when you summon it using the call button on the remote control, and you can get it to light up in time to the music. The unit will be available in Korea before Christmas in either black or white, and is said to be priced more competitively than the Rolly. [New Launches and Engadget]