Hermit Kingdom

Today's story in The New York Times, "The Internet Black Hole That Is North Korea," appeared with a beautiful map of the global Internet constellation, in which North Korea appears only as a dark, information void in which distributed networks of computers and even cell phones are forbidden.

This Internet blackout is ironic, given the fact that the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea website does provide some national content of its own, including an overview of its IT industry (illustrated above) and their E-shop. Given their policy on mobile telecommunications, the official state ringtones seem to be a particularly odd product to be hawking.

Unfortunately, you probably missed this month's celebration of the 80th anniversary of the "Formation of the Down-With-Imperialism Union." Luckily, tour operators assure intrepid travelers that the Mass Games will probably still be held as scheduled next year.