Shall we play a game? (and other news)

"How about Global Thermonuclear War? " - WarGames (1983)

Any '80s pop culture lover or person who grew up in the decade remembers this Matthew Broderick movie about a high school student who, through a computer simulation, sets off a possible nuclear apocalypse.

Well, South Korea, amidst all the tension from their hat (the North), has launched its own computer war simulation.

"The South's 655,000-strong military, backed up by a 28,500-strong US contingent, faces off against the North's 1.2 million-member armed forces."

While the article calls the simulation "defensive in nature," it's always interesting to see how countries in a tense military climate keep themselves prepared. The program has been run since 1995, and this year's version kicked off today. So as of now, there's not yet a declared winner.

Check the article here.

In other news that is also seen as controversial, South Korean customs officials will get more help in the form of cloned drug-sniffing dogs. The six dogs were all cloned from one highly skilled Labrador retriever.

I think this is actually pretty cool. If they can clone one great dog, and the clones all possess the same skill, it would seem to me that a lot of energy and money would be saved through the training process.

The only part that causes me to roll my eyes is when I read about the puppies' names. But knowing the South Korean tendency for combining English words in stupid ways to evoke thoughts of the future, I shouldn't have been so surprised.

"They are part of a litter of seven born in 2007 through cloning a skilled drug-sniffing canine in active service. They were all named "Toppy" — a combination of the words "tomorrow" and "puppy" — but one dropped out of training due to an injury."

Just so ridiculous.

Check out the full article here.