Ms. Kim Joo-ri (김주리), 21, was crowned Miss Seoul at the Sejong Hotel this Tuesday. Korea Times photo doesn’t do her justice. Nuff said.

[photos: Chosun]

Says the lead story in the Chosun today, the bang bang guns featured in Silmido, the true to life story about a secret commando mission to off the North’s Dear Leader, Kim Il-Sung (Jong-il’s daddy), were not prop M-16 or AK-47 rifles after all. (more…)

Geeks are abuzz over a new search engine that might be the harbinger of the Singularity, or not. Check out the Wolfram Alpha engine here, and test out how smart it is by asking it the toughest question you’ve got. We were especially impressed with, “What is the weather in Seoul?” But then again, most of us can look out the window faster.

[WSJ]

The government’s not a fan of hit count manipulation. In the aftermath of the Minerva fiasco, one might say they are trying to provide a little redress to the squelching of critics such as Minerva. Members of the cyber crime division at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency have begun investigations of four individuals, who unlike Minerva, actually supported the government online –albeit through the alleged manipulation of public opinion by boosting hits on their posts. (more…)

The Chosun reports a plastic surgeon in Seoul has found the ‘ideal korean male’ face from combining composite images of the top male stars in entertainment, and he has come up with… Kwon Sang-woo’s little brother. Over-simplifying the beauty tenet of “averages,” Dr. Rhee Seung-chul, the head of plastic surgery at Hanil General Hospital, combined the faces of male leads such as Kang Dong-won, Kwon Sang-woo, Bae Yong-joon and others using a sophisticated computer program called Balanced Angular and Proportional Analysis (BAPA), or otherwise known as What Celebrity Do You Look Like? (picture inside…)

Tourism Queensland calls it the Best Job in the World, and since January this year they were taking applications for one lucky finalist to become their island’s caretaker for six months starting July (here’s the job description).

In exchange for becoming Queensland’s answer to the late Steve Irwin (a.k.a. Crocodile Hunter) benefits include a resort-style villa called the Blue Pearl which overlooks the Coral Sea and a salary of AUD$150,000. Oh, and then there are lots of stress-inducing perks like snorkeling, frolicking with sea turtles, and endless white sand beaches. (Find out who lost inside…)

The idea blurted out three weeks ago by Kwak Seung-jun, the head of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, was an ‘ambitious plan’ to crack down on hagwons who operated after 10pm. It created nothing short of its own firestorm from all sides, which left the Lee Myung-bak Administration with no other option than to distance themselves from their over-exposed pointman on education policy.

Now, the Korea Times reports:

Police will not be allowed to crackdown on private institutions providing middle or high school students with courses after 10 p.m., the chief policymaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said Monday.

Rep. Yim Tae-hee told reporters that the party’s key post holders vetoed the plan to introduce a bill aimed at setting a curfew for hagwon operating hours and using police to crackdown on private institutions violating the regulation at a meeting with education ministry officials.

This is a vehicle that requires little explanation, but it definitely needs a caption. Write your caption in the comments section! If no one wins we will donate this van to Homer Simpson.

HT to reader

For a rainy day like today, waterfalls and bikinis seem so far away. Maybe next weekend? Everland Resort’s Caribbean Bay, located in Yongin-si, has an English version website if you’re interested in joining the festivities.

[photos: Chosun]