VIDEO: THE BERLIN FILE KOREAN MOVIE A MUST WATCH

The Korean movie industry seems to have to have found its next mega-hit. The action blockbuster “The Berlin File,” compared by local critics to the Jason Bourne movies, drew more than 2.24 million viewers in five days after opening, thanks to the 1.53 million tickets sold during the weekend alone.

Despite moviegoers flocking to the new release, “A Gift from Room 7,” is showing staying power in the box office standings. The comedy that follows the story of an intellectually-challenged man wrongfully imprisoned for murder and his interaction with the inmates, garnered 4.2 million viewers in its first 12 days of release. It finished second behind “Berlin” over the weekend after 1.36 million watched it.

“Berlin” is a spy flick directed by martial arts devotee Ryu Seung-wan and features an A-list cast led by Han Seok-gyu, Ha Jung-woo, Jeon Ji-hyun and Ryu Seung-beom, the younger brother of the director.

The early audience figures has producers wondering whether the attendance records held by 2006 hit “The Host” could be within striking distance.

“Berlin” and “A Gift from Room 7” accounted for more than 80 percent of all tickets sold at 897 cinemas across the nation on the weekend, the Korean Film Council said.

The Korean film sector is coming off a record year when it sold nearly 200 million tickets. Movies have been emerging as a key consumption area during the economic downturn as consumers look for cheaper ways to spend their leisure time.

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TOXO CAUSES BRAIN-MANIPULATING SUACIDAL DISEASE

What happens to a fearless mouse facing a cat? Death.

The mouse must be crazy to be that casual in front of the potential killer which is 20 times bigger than it is. Something must be off.

In this case, it really is. The parasite, Toxo, is the answer.

It manipulated the mouse’s brain into feeling what-are-you-going-to-do kind of suicidal attitude.

A Czech evolutionary biologist Jaroslav Flegr found this out a few years ago.

Since then, it became infamous among scientists. The shocking survival mechanism was the reason.

The mouse jumped from one cat to another by infecting rats.

The infection got rid of the crucial responses for survival.

All that was left of it was death by complacency.

Flegr discovered infected humans also exhibited the same behaviors.

They knew it was Toxo, but they couldn’t figure out how.

The mystery was solved two months ago.

It was found out by Antonion Barragan and his fellow researchers at the Center for Infectious Medicine at Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

The key was white blood cell. To travel to the brain, Toxo hijacked them.

The very cells designed to fight foreign invaders were doing the exact opposite.

It was just like a Trojan horse.

Toxo also turned the white blood cells into tiny chemical factories.

The infected mouse was left with the following symptoms: reduced fear or anxiety, lethargy.

Dr. Barragan and his team draw the conclusion by examining the Toxo in mice’s blood.

Toxo usually lives in cats. But humans can’t be complacent.

Contact with litter boxes, contaminated water, or undercooked meat infects people.

The parasite can be disregarded most of the time.

Pregnant women, however, are the exception.

If infected during pregnancy, they face increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention explained.

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REAL LIFE BARBIE CLAIMS TO BE AN ALIEN

When pictures of Ukrainian living doll Valeria lukyanova emerged on websites last spring, people questioned if they are genuine or made out of clever photo editing.

Some felt them bizarre and frowned over her obsession with turning herself into the splitting image of the iconic blonde Barbie doll. Yet, she has more than 668,000 “Likes” on her Facebook page and portrays herself as “the most famous Russian woman on the Russian-speaking internet,”

Surely with her incredibly thin waist, plastic-like skin and eyes and an unrealistic body proportions did she rise to a global stardom. But, what is less known is that she doesn't belong to this planet.

In a report with The Sun, her friend and lookalike Olga "Dominica" Oleynik said,"Me and Lera (short for Valeria), we come from the constellation of Pleiades. There, such looks are normal.”

She lives on a liquid-only diet and is planning to drink only water. In a series of video blogs for her fans, she furthered to say that her “ultimate goal is to be powered only by solar energy”. She believes she will rely on “prana”, which in Hindu tradition means life

solar energy”. She believes she will rely on “prana,” which in Hindu tradition means life force, to nourish her

She wasn't always like what we see her now. The daughter of a former DJ and builder dad and a mum who works in the military sector, Valeria spent rather ordinary teenage years, less interested in turning herself into human Barbie and more interested in drinking and smoking.

She studied architecture at college and holds a masters degree in architecture and urban planning. However, she confessed she always had a fixation with dolls, and as she grew older that fixation, she gradually started to dress up as a living doll.

As for the “unrealistic” comments of the public, Valeria said she took them as compliments. Because, her look is hard earned from daily gym visits, starving herself and a boob job. She also added that she had the operation only once to increase her breasts by two sizes, but everything else is natural.

This former Miss Ukraine contestant claimed to have mastered the art of time travel through space. She told fans: “I also teach people to leave their physical body and travel in the endless expanses of the universe.”

Worryingly, the petite model is fearful of putting on weight despite being slight. She said: “I am afraid that I am gaining weight.

“Now I’m 45kg, although before I was 42kg. With time I will learn to adjust the weight in my mind.”

When asked how many plastic surgery ops she has had, she replied: “Only one — to increase my breasts by two sizes.

But Lera does not bat a cartoon-like eyelid at the criticism. She said: “It’s hard work but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists.

Her interests include travelling and “esoterics and meditation.”

And in true beauty pageant speak, the former Miss Ukraine contestant also says her mission is “improving the world.”

She believes beauty really is only skin deep, and that is why she is so interested in her cosmic side.

In a series of video blogs for her fans, she said her “ultimate goal is to be powered only by solar energy”. And she claims to have mastered the art of time travel through space.

She told fans: “I also teach people to leave their physical body and travel in the endless expanses of the universe.”

But there have been dark moments in Lera’s life as well.

At 14, she tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose of prescription pills. Her desperation was apparently down to a boy.

Before, Valeria Lukyanova used to like drinking and smoking

Now she is happily married to Dmitry Shkrabov although it is not clear whether her view of an “open relationship” is simply about honesty or monogamy.

“Dmitry is always on my side,” she said. “He loves and supports me. He likes me with make-up and without. He became a strict vegetarian even earlier than I did.

“He is fond of mountains — he conquered Mount Elbrus. We were on Everest, went to Nepal and the Himalayan mountain range. In general we support an open relationship.”

Lera does not want kids, because that is not what they do in her universe. “I don’t feel the desire and the capacity to be a mother,” she said. “I’m from another universe.

“There, everyone is asexual — in our dimension there’s no such thing as children.”

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EXTRA TERRESTRIAL DISCOVERY WILL BE IN 10 YEARS

“ET discovery could happen within 10 years” was among the agenda at the World Economic Forum, or WEF, in Davos, Switzerland recently.  ET, or extra-terrestrial, along with economic and political issues, did make its way on that list. "The possible social consequences of contact with alien life" is one issue that Earth may soon face, according to Nature, the international science journal. It all happened, thanks to NASA's Kepler spacecraft. NASA launched the “Kepler mission” to identify Earth-sized planets. Operating for only three years, it has found thousands of candidates, including one the size of Earth, according to the WEF report. Technology developed rapidly. “It was only in 1995 that scientists first found evidence that other stars also have planets orbiting them. Now, thousands of 'exoplanets' revolving around distant stars have been detected.” The report also stated, "Given the pace of space exploration, it is increasingly conceivable that we may discover the alien life or other planets. In 10 years, we may have evidence that Earth is not unique, and that life does exist elsewhere in the universe." Human philosophy and religion might be questioned, the report predicted. "The discovery of even simple life would fuel speculation about other intelligent beings and challenge many assumptions that underpin human philosophy and religion." The Voice of Russia noted that the WEF team urged the global elite to prepare themselves and their nations for such discovery. The scientists said that new funding and new brain power will be needed to overcome the challenges that humanity will face as a result of its encounter with an extra-terrestrial civilization."

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CHINA UNLIKELY TO SUCCEED IN DISSUADING PYONGYANG IN NUKE TEST

BEIJING – While the Chinese government has reportedly been engaged in painstaking efforts to persuade North Korea to forgo its planned nuclear test, most analysts say such efforts will fall eventually upon deaf ears. “North Korea will definitely go ahead with the nuclear test,” said Zhang Liangui, an influential expert on the North at the Party School of the China Communist Party Central Committee in Beijing. “North Korea needs the test as part of its long-term nuclear weapons program that requires multiple tests for upgrades. So, it doesn’t matter if the international community is opposed to it. The recent U.N. sanctions against North Korea won’t make a dent either,” Zhang said. Diplomatic sources in Beijing told South Korean daily the Chosun Ilbo, Wednesday, that the Chinese Foreign Ministry summoned North Korean Ambassador Ji Jae-ryong twice and the deputy chief of the North Korean mission, Park Myong-ho, once to tell them to drop the test, which experts say is ready to be conducted at any time. China is North Korea's only real ally and is widely seen as the only country with any leverage over Pyongyang. However, it has long been blamed by the international community for “shielding” the North despite the latter’s various belligerent acts, because Beijing perceives Pyongyang as a useful “buffer zone” against the U.S. and its allies – a mentality that goes back to the Cold War period. Yet this time China’s attitude is seen very differently. China spoke out much more openly against North Korea’s “satellite launch” in December than it has against most past North Korean violations and it supported U.N. sanctions too. China’s Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai also reaffirmed Beijing’s disapproval about Pyongyang’s nuclear test when he said this week in Hong Kong that China “resolutely opposes” the move. Analysts say there are a few reasons why the attitude of China is making unusually strong gestures against Pyongyang’s planned move. “A nuclear test is special. It’s different from a missile test. China takes it seriously,” said a North Korea analyst with a state-run think tank in Beijing. “China’s persuasion may fail. North Korea sometimes listens to China. Sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. He requested anonymity because he often travels to Pyongyang and doesn’t want to jeopardize his career by discussing the sensitive topic with a foreign media. Beijing is also making an effort “to form influence over North Korea’s young new leader,” he said. “If it were Kim Jong-il, he wouldn’t listen to China. But we think his son may be different, especially because he received a Western education and may be more open-minded.” If the young leader is persuaded by Beijing this time, it is likely that he can be persuaded next time as well, the logic goes. “That’s part of the reason why China is making that effort.” “We still don’t know much about the young leader. We’re testing him out. If we succeed, then we also think that there is more chance that we can persuade him to become North Korea’s Deng Xiaoping, rather than another Kim Jong-il,” he said. For the last few days, the world has been also wondering whether China has finally lost patience with North Korea, as the rift between the duo deepens over the nuclear test. The state-run Global Times warned Pyongyang that there would be a “heavy price” if an imminent nuclear test goes ahead. It also threatened to cut off aid. Yet analysts say the ties between the duo wont’ be affected in a major way even if Pyongyang goes ahead with the nuke blast, which they think is likely to happen in the end. “China will join the U.N. to condemn North Korea and we will have a cooling-off period. But after some time passes, the ties will be back on normal track. We need each other strategically in East Asia. Besides, North Korea also badly needs Chinese economic investments now, more than at any other time,” a China analyst said. By Sunny Lee

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PS4 RELEASE DATE, RUMORS AND NEWS

The PlayStation 4 exists and it's coming to a living room near you – and since you're reading this, possibly even your own.

No one has seen it yet. No one has felt its smooth edges, and no one has smelled its new console smell. But we know that developers are working on games, and on February 20 Sony has scheduled a big reveal where we're likely to get official confirmation of everything we already know through various reports and links.

PS4: Hardware specs

For a long time it was rumoured that the PS4 would be powered by AMD hardware in both CPU and GPU form. Leaks from a multitude of sources have confirmed these rumours, which means we know a surprising amount about the PS4's innards.

The PS4 will back the same CPU as the Xbox 720 but will have more powerful graphics. The beating heart of both consoles will come in the form an AMD processor based on its forthcoming Jaguar CPU architecture. The chip packs eight cores (yay) but is clocked at a measly 1.6GHz (boooo). The main benefit of a setup like this is that the console will be very power efficient, meaning less draw and quieter operation, i.e. no need for any mahoosive, loud and invasive cooling fans.

The drawback of this CPU - and it's a real biggie - is that it is, frankly, an incredibly mediocre chip in this modern age. It's third-tier tech even by AMD's standards, and thus is absolutely no match for even budget Intel processors. The current batch of eight core Intel Xeon processors are simply in a different universe.

To put this performance gap into perspective, the current AMD Bobcat cores - which is the tech the Jaguar platform is based on - are roughly 1,400 per cent slower than Intel's £250 3770K Ivy Bridge Core i7 chip. Yeah, we know.

Graphics power

So the processing power is nothing to write home about, then. The graphics, meanwhile, are also provided by AMD - specifically a Radeon GPU with 18 GCN units. That may sound a like a lot of techy mumbo jumbo but what it essentially means is that the GPU packs 18 processing clusters, each packing up to 64 cores. That provides a lot of parallel processing power, and will thus handle the majority of the PS4's grunt work.

It's a lot more impressive than the Jaguar CPU but still no match for the latest gaming PCs, and that's a shame. It should be enough, though, to make a big step up from the current graphics in PS3 games and so while it may not be as spectacular as we'd like, we think most people won't be disappointed in this regard.

Memory

Current PS4 dev kits come packing just 4GB RAM - though we've heard whispers that the retail units will sport 8GB - of the super-fast GDDR5 variety. That's lovely, and should lubricate the machine to ensure speedy operation and game-loading.

It has been reported that the PS4 will pack around 1.84 teraflops of overall raw computation power. Frankly, though, that's a meaningless number as far as we're concerned and we wouldn't get too excited or disappointed about it if we were you.

But if you want to know how this stacks up against the Xbox 720 (clue: PS4 is more powerful) - check out our comparison of PS4 and Xbox 720 specs.

Will the PS4 be 4K capable?

Yeah, the PS4 will almost certainly be able to exude some kind of Ultra HD output. It's unlikely to be capable of native 4K gaming, but there will certainly be enough graphics grunt to upscale Full HD content to 4K resolution. And with Sony heavily invested in 4K from a content and hardware perspective, it would be a huge surprise if PS4 failed to join the 4K bandwagon.

PS4 release date

Sony has scheduled a big PS4 reveal in New York on the February 20. We expect to find out what the console looks like, what it will actually be called, what the specs are, what the launch titles will be and how much it will cost, among other details.

The PS4 release date is highly likely to be Christmas 2013 for Japan and North America, but we'd be very surprised if the UK and Europe gets their PS4 release before Jan/Feb 2014. This is pretty much what happened with Sony's previous consoles and backed up by various leaks and rumours. At least you'll have plenty of time to save up if you live outside of Japan or the USA.

PS3 price: how much will it cost?

Again, this is based on various rumours from a collection of sources but it looks currently as though Sony has a price point of around $400 in mind for the US launch. That translates to around £255 so you can expect the UK price to be more like £299.

Backwards compatibility

When the original PS3 unit shipped, it contained a chip that gave it the ability to play PS2 games. Subsequent iterations of hardware omitted this chip and so the backwards compatibility was condemned to death.

Current rumours suggests that the PS4 will completely ignore the possibility of backwards compatibility and focus firmly on the next generation. So if you want to continue playing your PS3 games, keep hold of your PS3s, kids.

Second hand games on the way out?

More rumours suggest that Sony is going in the same direction as Microsoft in that it wants to kill off the second hand games market. Current industry wisdom suggests that future PS4 games might be tied to your Sony Entertainment Network account and will thus then have no resale value. That's a similar approach as used by PC developers using Steam so we reckon this is a likely development. Doesn't mean we're happy about it, though. But again, perhaps will find out more on this side of things on February 20.

The PS4 controller

Rumour has it that the PS4's control pad will be similar in shape and size to the current DualShock 3 pad, only with a Vita-like touch-sensitive surface where the Select/Start/Analogue buttons currently reside. We imagine the pad will include a host of more advanced motion-sensitive components, too.

PlayStation Move

We understand that the PS4 will launch alongside a new PS Eye camera for improved motion control gaming. This will so-say be compatible with current Move controllers, but the exciting part is the potential for Kinect-like full-body gaming.

What will the PS4 actually be called?

The internal codename for the PS4 is Orbis, but we'd be hugely surprised if the PS4 doesn't launch as… the PlayStation 4. Stranger things have happened but we think PS4 is a safe bet.

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VIDEO: GODS AMONG US - BATTLE

"Gods Among Us" debuts as a bold new fighting game franchise that introduces a deep, original story featuring a large cast of favorite DC Comics icons such as Batman, Cyborg, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Deathstroke, Solomon Grundy, Superman, Lex Luthor, The Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Bane, Catwoman, the Joker, and more. Set in a world where the lines between good and evil are blurred, players will experience heroes and villains engaging in epic battles on a massive scale.

                                                                    BATMAN VS BAIN

                                                 WONDER WOMAN VS HARLEY QUINN

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VIDEO: AGE OF ULTRON

This March, enter the darkest days of the Marvel Universe from the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch in AGE OF ULTRON #1. Evil has triumphed over good and leading this new age is none other than Ultron, the deadly sentient robot created by founding Avenger Hank Pym who turned on his creator to achieve his twisted  objective: the utter destruction of humanity. Now, it’s up to the few remaining heroes to band together and find any way to topple their new monarch. Can Wolverine, Emma Frost, Invisible Woman, Taskmaster, Beast, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, and Moon Knight turn the tide? With the robotic revolution in full force, no fan can miss how Age of Ultron will ultimately change the Marvel Universe leaving no hero or villain unscathed!

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