Hear that extraterrestrial North Korean jig?

While one member of the erstwhile “Axis of Evil” may send satellites into space to promote monotheism, the purpose for another is to…play music.

“The satellite is transmitting the melodies of the immortal revolutionary paeans ‘Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung’ and ‘Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il’ as well as measurement data back to Earth,” [Korean Central News Agency] said, referring to the country’s late founder and his son, the current leader.

I think tracking pirates is a much more worthwhile endeavor.

(hat tip: Nathan Hodge at DangerRoom)

NATO drills (and cameras)

(cross-posted at Dispatch)

Kudos to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband for calling Germany out on its sexist gifts to delegations at the NATO summit in France:

The German government are taking every opportunity to fight the downturn.  The large box in my (French) hotel room at the NATO summit was a Bosch drill (with extra drill bits).  But traditions die hard: women Foreign Ministers were given a Leica camera.

Better than DVDs that don’t work, I suppose.

(image from flickr user Glenn Zucman under a Creative Commons license)