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A Nanjing Massacre survivor's story lives on digitally
On the morning of December 13th, 1937, Japanese troops pounded on the door of Xia Shuqin's family home in Nanjing, China. Thirteen people had taken shelter under this particular roof: Eight-year-old Xia, her mother and father, two grandparents, four sisters (one, four, 13 and 15 years old), and four neighbors. The Japanese army had ridden into the city on horseback that morning and faced little resistance; the Chinese army had made a full, chaotic retreat the prior evening, December 12th. When Xia's father answered the door, the Japanese soldiers immediately shot and killed him. They bludgeoned and killed her one-year-old sister. They raped and killed her mother. They killed her grandparents. They raped and killed her 13-year-old and 15-year-old sisters. And they bayoneted Xia three times in the arm and back.
Britons build working replica of the Turing Bombe
Just in case Al Qaeda or other "evildoers" du jour decide to start communicating in code via the WWII-era Enigma code -- we'll have the Turing Bombe on our side. This working replica of the machine used by British cryptologists at Bletchley Park, the epicenter of the counter-Enigma effort was unveiled at that site earlier this week. According to an article by The Register: "The Bombes used 108 electromagnetic spinning drums to test combinations of letters and reveal the likely keys to the Enigma code used in a particular message." The article goes on to say that Churchill ordered the 200 Bombes that had been built dismantled by the end of the war, and that it wasn't until the 1970s that the classified nature of these devices was lifted. Unlike the shrouded secrecy that its original was wrapped in, this replica will be open to the public -- from September 23-24, there will be a reunion of Bletchley Park veterans and a special demonstrations with war re-enactors in period dress. No word on who will play Alan Turing, though, but our own England bureau chief, Conrad Quilty-Harper, is a likely candidate.[Via The Register]
EA and Jeep go for a cruise
EA has signed a deal with vehicle manufacturer Jeep to feature one of the most recognizable icons of the Second World War, the Willys-Overland Jeep, in their upcoming title Medal of Honor: Airborne. According to a communications director at Jeep, the deal is designed to "celebrate [the Jeep brand's] history while helping to take this medium to its next level". We're a little confused by this deal. The way it looks to us is that either Jeep is planning to slap their logo all over the jeeps in the game (a blatant anachronism: "jeep" was just a nickname back in the war) and to lobby EA to place the term "jeep" in every other sentence of the script, or EA is taking Jeep for a ride. Surely Jeep could have just sat back and let EA do their marketing for them? It's nearly inconceivable that anyone could create a FPS World War Two game without the legendary Willys-Overland (which most people already call a Jeep). Marketing works in mysterious ways.
