Every once in a while the weirdness of North Korea crosses our radar. The world’s pariah loves to engage in some good old-fashioned cyberattacks, steal footage from Call of Duty, or engage in GPS jamming. But this weekend, Kim Jong-un—or if you prefer, the Great Successor—apparently visited the “May 11 Factory” in Pyongyang to witness the production and manufacturing of North Korea’s first mobile phone.

The phone, named “Arirang” after a popular folk song, appears to be an Android phone of some kind. No word is yet available on what its precise specifications are.

“I’m sure it’s a real phone,” Martyn Williams, a tech journalist for IDG News Service, told Ars. Williams also runs North Korea Tech, one of the first websites to report the story. “It's almost certainly on sale through Koryolink, but I doubt it's made in the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea).”

When President Obama announced a series of intelligence reforms last Friday he called for the creation of an independent advisory group made up of "outside experts" who will review controversial surveillance programs. But based on a memorandum issued today by the White House, it's not clear how independent the effort will be. The president has directed the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, to establish the "review group" that will be responsible for issuing a report about how surveillance programs "impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy." The review group is intended in part, as the president said last week, to "maintain the trust of the people" — so why did the president put a man at the center of the spying controversy in charge?

While Clapper may be technically well-suited to direct a review group given the intelligence community's unique need for secrecy, it may be difficult to sell the process to the American people with current skepticism about his accountability. Earlier this month, lawmakers concerned with the government's broad surveillance efforts said that Clapper should resign for lying to Congress. "[Clapper] was here in March and unambiguously lied to Congress," Rep. Thomas Massie (R, KY) told Democracy Now. "And I believe he was under oath. And it really sets a bad precedent for the whole organization to let him keep his post." Several other lawmakers including Rep. Justin Amash (R, MI), who led a charge to curb the NSA's telephone surveillance program, echoed the call for Clapper's resignation.

Tech titans may be involved, but the review group is still largely a mystery

There's still a lot we don't know about the review group, including the process for appointing members and who those members might be. President Obama and Director Clapper may solicit advice from notable figures in the technology industry; the president reportedly met with several leaders last Thursday, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google VP Vint Cerf. But with both Apple and Google implicated in some level of cooperation with the government under PRISM, the government may need to solicit input from a broader coalition of stakeholders. President Obama suggested the government may tap such a coalition last Friday, noting that "it makes sense for us to go ahead, lay out exactly what we're doing, have a discussion with Congress, have a discussion with industry... have a discussion with civil libertarians, and see if we can do this better."

Regardless of who is selected to participate in the program, the results may not become part of the public debate. Last week, President Obama merely suggested that more details about government surveillance may be publicly disclosed. Furthermore, the review group will not directly report to the public or to the president; the memorandum notes that the president will be briefed on both the interim report and the final report and recommendations through Director Clapper.

The praise of professional critics hardly matters to the book-reviewing readers at Amazon.com. A compilation of the best of the worst… about the best.

The following are excerpts from actual one-star Amazon.com reviews of books from Time’s list of the 100 best novels from 1923 to the present. Some entries have been edited.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987)

“Morrison’s obviously a good writer, but truly, her subject matter leaves a LOT to be desired in this book. It’s raunchy beyond belief. People do things with farm animals that they shouldn’t. I couldn’t get through the first two chapters without vomiting. Some things you just shouldn’t put in your head.”

The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1927)

“Basically all that happens is five people die on a small bridge and then the author goes on to discuss these people’s lives. What a BORE. Unless you’re some philosophical nerd, you will not enjoy this book at ALL. If I was the author of this book I’d tell myself to get a grip on the real world.”

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)

“Obviously, a lot people were smoking a lot of weed in the ’60s to think this thing is worth reading.”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)

“So many other good books…don’t waste your time on this one. J.D. Salinger went into hiding because he was embarrassed.”

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1963)

“In the first 20 pages, Alex and his lackies beat a guy senseless and rob him; they steal a car and trash it, they get into a vicious gang fight; they attack a couple at their home, destroy the husband’s life work (his book, A Clockwork Orange), beat him and his wife senseless, and rape the wife. This really ticked me off.”

The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron (1967)

“My great-great-grandfather is not gay! I don’t know why this William Styron is trying to lie on my great-great-grandfather. Needless to say I am a descendant of Nat Turner and it bothers me that this author is trying to lie to make this book more interesting. I cannot say for certainty that my grandfather was not gay or that he didn’t like white women and neither can this author but I can say that Nat Turner was married and had children and I am a descendant of that union! Other than that idiotic portrayal the book was good.”

Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin (1953)

“Go tell it on the mountain was an extremely frustrating book. While the themes and some of the events were good (i.e., racism, abuse, religion), the way it was written made the book unenjoyable for me. I found that the way the book was written made it this way for others as well. I don’t think this is just a coincidence. If the book was written differently I probably would have found it enjoyable.”

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)

“Well, it’s a girl’s world. The world of Gloria Steinem and the popular feminism, as distilled on TV (including CBC shows, not all fundamentalist Hollywood garbage) of my youth is GONE. Now the girls run the show. You’re not allowed to call them sluts. And it’s impossible to call them virgins. They’re all doing Rhett Butler. So what are they? Idiots… Hope you like the Gangstas. It’s what you deserve.”

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

“While the story did have a great moral to go along with it, it was about dirt! Dirt and migrating. Dirt and migrating and more dirt.”

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1973)

“When one contrasts Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five with this book, it’s like comparing an Olympic sprinter with an obese man running for the bus with a hot dog in one hand and a soda in the other.”

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

“It grieves me deeply that we Americans should take as our classic a book that is no more than a lengthy description of the doings of fops.”

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950)

“I bought these books to have something nice to read to my grandkids. I had to stop, however, because the books are nothing more than advertisements for “Turkish Delight,” a candy popular in the U.K. The whole point of buying books for my grandkids was to give them a break from advertising, and here (throughout) are ads for this “Turkish Delight”! How much money is this Mr. Lewis getting from the Cadbury’s chocolate company anyway? This man must be laughing to the bank.”

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

“1) I’m bored. 2) He uses too many allusions to other novels, so that if you’re not well read, this book makes no sense. 3) Most American readers are not fluent in French, so to have conversations or interjections in French with no translation is plain dumb. 4) Did I mention I was bored? 5) As with another reviewer, I agree, he uses a lot of huge words that just slow a person down. And it’s not for theatrics either, it’s just huge words mid-sentence when describing something simple. Nothing in the sense of imagery is gained. 6) Also, to sum it up, it’s a story about a pedophile.”

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1955)

“I am obsessed with Survivor, so I thought it would be fun. WRONG!!! It is incredibly boring and disgusting. I was very much disturbed when I found young children killing each other. I think that anyone with a conscience would agree with me.”

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)

“The book is not readable because of the overuse of adverbs.”

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)

“The only good thing to say about this “literary” drivel is that the person responsible, Virginia Woolf, has been dead for quite some time now. Let us pray to God she stays that way.”

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs (1959)

“I’m a Steely Dan fan so naturally I wanted to read the book they thought compelling enough to name their band after an element of.”

Native Son by Richard Wright (1940)

“Well…someone who murders anyone…out of panic (which is a really stupid, irrational reason) does not deserve any sympathy. I felt the book was mainly about black people hating white people…as usual. Now, tell me anyone…if there was a book about a white person facing discrimination in Africa…or being killed because stones are thrown at them, then everyone would look down on them. Poorly written.”

1984 by George Orwell (1948)

“Don’t listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between “serious” works of literature like this one and allegedly “lesser” novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are “better” than any others, and the concept of a “great novel” is an intellectual hoax. This book isn’t as good as Harry Potter in MY opinion, and no one can refute me. Tastes are relative!”

On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)

“This book gets my nomination for the most overrated book in American Literature. It is trite, saccharine and false. The themes and insights it contains are not even good enough to be third rate. Moreover, as a prose stylist, Kerouac was probably fourth rate. In short, I despise this piece of [garbage] and would advise all of its hipster doofus fans to lose the tie-dye clothes and throw away their bongs. Maybe then they will read something good for a change.”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962)

“I guess if you were interested in crazy people this is the book for you.”

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

“In the novel, they often speak of a planet called Tralfamadore, where he was displayed in a zoo with a former movie star by the name of Montana Wildhack. I thought that the very concept of a man who was kidnapped by aliens was truly unbelievable and a tad ludicrous. I did not find the idea of aliens kidnapping a human and putting them in a zoo very plausible. While some of the Tralfamadorians’ concept of death and living in a moment would be comforting for a war veteran, I found it relatively odd. I do not believe that an alien can kidnap someone and house them in a zoo for years at a time, while it is only a microsecond on earth. I also do not believe that a person has seven parents.”

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)

“This book is like an ungrateful girlfriend. You do your best to understand her and get nothing back in return.”

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)

“Here’s the first half of the book: ‘We had dinner and a few drinks. We went to a cafe and talked and had some drinks. We ate dinner and had a few drinks. Dinner. Drinks. More dinner. More drinks. We took a cab here (or there) in Paris and had some drinks, and maybe we danced and flirted and talked sh*t about somebody. More dinner. More drinks. I love you, I hate you, maybe you should come up to my room, no you can’t’… I flipped through the second half of the book a day or two later and saw the words ‘dinner’ and ‘drinks’ on nearly every page and figured it wasn’t worth the risk.”

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

“I don’t see why this book is so fabulous. I would give it a zero. I find no point in writing a book about segregation, there’s no way of making it into an enjoyable book. And yes I am totally against segregation.”

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)

“This book is one of the worst books I have ever read. I got to about page 3-4.”

In Businessweek today, Elon Musk revealed plans on Twitter for his much-anticipated Hyperloop, an innovative transportation system that would move passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in less than 30 minutes. According to the plans, the Hyperloop would transport passengers in aluminum pods traveling up to 800mph, mounted on columns 50 to 100 yards apart, mostly following the route of California's I-5. Musk will be giving further details on a conference call at 5pm EST.

Musk announced earlier that he has no immediate plans to build the device, citing commitments to his Tesla and SpaceX businesses, but wanted to follow through on his promise to publish the designs. As he tweeted in July, "critical feedback for improvements would be much appreciated."

Ah, Apple origin stories. We've heard about the Swiss railway company behind Apple's Clock app, the inspiration for the iOS Calculator, the voice of Siri, and now, we know about the unlikely inventor of the omnipresent "tri-tone" alert sound popularized by iTunes and the iPhone.

"I was looking for something simple that would grab the user's attention."

In a blog post, media producer Kelly Jacklin explains how a friend once asked him to write a short, declarative, alert tune for SoundJam MP, an MP3 player for Mac. "I was looking for something 'simple' that would grab the user's attention," writes Jacklin, who was tasked with composing a melody for when the app finished burning a CD. Jacklin used Macintosh Common Lisp to experiment with various three and four-note sequences until he settled on one ascending note sequence he had made using the marimba, an instrument he had become fascinated with. The result was the tri-tone we've come to know — but not quite yet.

SoundJam MP was subsequently acquired by Apple in 2000 and became the basis for iTunes, which launched in 2001 featuring Jacklin's melody. Apple later used the tri-tone to signal when an application finished installing in OS X, and when a text messages arrived on iPhone. Only then did Jacklin begin to understand the implications of his work.

He posted a minute's worth of variations on the tri-tone at the bottom of his post, which is definitely worth a listen.

Although cosplay has been present for decades within the comics, anime, and sci-fi/fantasy fandoms, social media has played an integral role in the thriving communities of costuming that exist, such as Cosplay.com and the Superhero Costuming Forum. Over the years, the cosplay community has evolved into a creative outlet for many fans to establish and showcase some impressive feats of homemade disguise, craftsmanship, and sartorial superheroics at conventions. In honor of the caped crusaders of the convention scene, ComicsAlliance has created Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), an ongoing collection of some of the most impeccable, creative, and clever costumes that we’ve discovered and assembled into a super-showcase of pure fan-devoted talent.

WANT TO CONTRIBUTE?

Do you have a stellar cosplay that you would like to submit for Best Cosplay Ever (This Week)? If so, please submit your cosplay photos HERE (or email fashiontipsfromcomicstrips[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject line “Best Cosplay Ever”). Don’t forget to include cosplayer and photographer credit and links.

Mera & Aquaman, cosplayed by Tenleid & megamarines

Merida (Brave), cosplayed by GreatQueenLina, photographed by Kucheruk Elena

Elizabeth (BioShock Infinite), cosplayed by Aicosu

Chun-Li, cosplayed by Abby Darkstar, photographed by Robbins Studios

Revanche (X-Men), cosplayed by darth-kaoru, photographed by Hana-chan

Tali (Mass Effect), cosplayed by magpielaughs, photographed by Minty and Minty

Psylocke, cosplayed by Vampy Bit Me, photographed by Andrew H Photography

Pepper Potts & Iron Man, photographed by austinspace

Elastigirl (The Incredibles), cosplayed by Jessica LG, photographed by Chris Gomez Photography

Cruella de Vil (101 Dalmatians), cosplayed by Annissë Damefatale, photographed by Kevin Fung

Batwoman, cosplayed by y-o-s-s-i, photographed by darkagesun

Wolverine, cosplayed by IAmYourHeroes, photographed by Adam Jay

By John Walker on August 12th, 2013 at 9:00 pm.

Papers, Please is a pretty effective way of having you take a look around yourself, and feel damned grateful for what you’ve got. Unless you’re reading this in a country for which the dystopian themes of Papers Please’s oppressive border controls and poverty-stricken workers are all too familiar, in which case please have some of my Western guilt. You’re a border guard, and your job is to either let or not let people through. And that really is it. Which makes it kind of weird that it’s so utterly compelling that I’ve overworked today by three hours so far, and don’t seem to be stopping. Here’s wot I think:

Set in 1982, in the fictional Soviet-like nation of Arstotzka, this is a game of bureaucracy, cruelty and poverty. And stamps. And paperwork. And secret underground operatives who woo you into their dangerous world of spies. Although only via paperwork. Its lofi graphics and static setting join its focus on mundanity and repetition under pressure to suggest something that sounds about as far away from “game” as you might imagine. And yet remains an engrossing, creeping affair, almost rogue-like in its grip on you to last longer, work faster, abandon principles more freely, and compromise integrity with ever-more consummate ease.

You play in days, each racing past at a terrifying rate. You’re paid per person processed, so speed is essential if you’re going to be able to keep your extended family safe under your roof, with food, heat and medicine, and maybe even birthday presents. But as each day passes, the bureaucracy grows, the required observation and effort on your part increases, and the complexity of correctly scrutinising the papers of every entrant to the country becomes always more elaborate. It is, in short, difficult.

A couple of weeks in, if you manage to keep your job for that long, and indeed keep your family alive, things might go like this: Man arrives, offers his passport, entry permit, work pass and identity supplement. You need to check his name against the permit and work order, then his passport number against the permit, along with the expiry dates for all four against today’s date. And his photo with his face, obviously. And his gender – if that doesn’t look like it matches up, it’s time for a scan, which will show him or her naked. Check his weight and height against the measurements listed on the ID supplement, as well as the short description listed there. Then you need to make sure the reason for entering and duration he states matches up to those listed in the paperwork, spot if his date of birth is a real date, check that the issuing town listed on the passport really issues passports according to your rulebook, and that the symbols on everything match up to the official ones. Oh, and make sure his face is not on that day’s Most Wanted list, and ensure he’s not someone you’re supposed to illegally let through if you’re willingly helping the secretive organisation.

For each person.

And if you’re not processing around eight or so in the extremely brief days, you’re in trouble. And you’re definitely in trouble if a terrorist breaks through and causes the whole place to be shut down early. No savings? No food that night.

So why is this interesting, even entertaining? It’s partly just down to the very basics of puzzles. From spot-the-difference to intricate logic problems, such data matching is an intrinsically satisfying process. Noticing an anomaly triggers a reward mechanism in your brain, and you feel on top of things. And it’s partly down to the desire to find out what’s going to happen next, what are these illicit actions gaining you, what will change in the relations between Arstotzka and its neighbours? Will your son survive his illness to see his next birthday?

It’s also deeply grim. Papers Please explores that intriguing space between what you’ll do to see a narrative progress, and what you’re just too uncomfortable to do even in fiction. Will you allow a resident trafficker back into the country, after an appeal from a girl who knows he plans to enslave her into prostitution? No? Will you do it because if you don’t it will cost you 5 moneys in fines, and you won’t be able to feed your children as a result? When you’ve got the choice between sending someone away with their faked documentation, or having them arrested by your clearly horrific government, which way will you go? And is it the same way once a guard offers to cut you in on the profits of detaining more people, such that you can put the heating on that night?

It’s all excellently put together, perfectly paced, and ridiculously gripping for something that is, after all, paperwork. But it’s not until you play a second time that you realise the game’s shortcomings.

And play a second time you’ll want to, because of that not-quite-rogue-like element. Fail and you’ll know there was so much further to get, and while the game lets you pick up from any of the previous days, there’s a good chance you’ll be in so deep a hole that you’ll prefer to take another run at it from the start. Do this, and you discover just how much is – seemingly needlessly – scripted. While most of the people who walk through your booth are randomised, their discrepancies different each time through, a surprising number of the plotted encounters are discovered to be fixed in position. The same person, on the same day, with the same note, for the same character, at the same time.

It seems odd that these important plot points (which are removed entirely if you’d prefer to play the high-score driven Endless mode instead) couldn’t be slightly randomised themselves. Appear on a day either side, or feature different names to look out for. The amusing gentleman who attempts to get through with a hand-drawn passport has his own cute little arc, but it’s the same arc each time, on the same days, in the same way.

It’s not a massively serious issue, and being able to pick up after the first week or two means cutting out repeating a lot of it, but it really does seem like a missed opportunity to mix things up a little and create something more desirably replayable.

At £7, Papers, Please is unquestionably something unique. (Queue comment about the Amstrad CPC game that came out only in Cyprus.) It is, undeniably, a paperwork sim. And perhaps that’s enough to put some off it entirely. But it’s definitely worth getting past that (otherwise entirely sensible) prejudice in this case. It’s peculiarly engrossing, darkly ominous, and a fascinating exploration of morality versus progress. And you get to ker-chunk the big DENIED stamp, and that’s always fun.

"Near death" experiences are controversial to say the least. A recent Newsweek cover story on one such experience claimed to offer "proof" of the afterlife, only to be widely criticized by scientists for sensationalist and unscientific claims. But now comes scientific proof that for some animals — rats in this case — conscious brain activity does continue at least for a few moments past the point when they've been declared clinically dead. "This study, performed in animals, is the first dealing with what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain," said Jimo Borjigin, an associate professor of physiology and neurology at the University of Michigan who led the led the team behind the discovery.

Borjigin and her colleagues looked at the electrical activity in the brains of nine rats who had been anesthetized and had heart attacks artificially induced. Even after the rats' hearts stopped beating, and the flow of blood to their brains halted — the conditions needed to declare a mammal clinically dead — the researchers observed "highly aroused" brain activity consistent with that of a living, conscious rat, for about 30 seconds, according to the University of Michigan. The researchers published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, and are hopeful they could be used to study the human "near death" experiences that are reported by 20 percent of people who have survived cardiac arrest.

Financial services company American Express is set to reveal a line of credit cards decorated with scenes and characters from Riot Games' multiplayer online battle arena League of Legends, the company announced today.

American Express will launch the cards on Wednesday, which are part of partnership between the company and League of Legends developer Riot. Included in the partnership is a line of prepaid debit cards that reward cardholders with Riot Points, the developer's in-game currency, for making real-world purchases.

Cardholders will receive 1,000 Riot Points for signing up with the card, and can earn an additional 1,000 Points for adding $20 to it. An additional 1,000 Points will be earned after the first 10 purchases using the card and 10,000 Points will be awarded for linking the card to a checking account. Users can rack up additional points for every dollar spent after linking the account. Signing up for the card does not require a credit check, minimum balance or an activation fee. Once linked, the card will continue to work like a regular debit card.

American Express general manager for online and mobile in the United States Stefan Happ told The New York Times that the partnership was established to "expand our traditional reach beyond the mass affluent." According to the report, League of Legends' 32 million-strong player base and a "staggering one billion hours of game play a month" were American Express' primary reasons for teaming up with Riot.

"It gives you a sense of how deeply engaged the players are in playing this game," Happ said. "We are about loyalty, we are about contact and long-lasting engagement. This is an ideal fit from an audience perspective."

A dedicated American Express website explaining the card will launch on Wednesday.