Remember the post regarding 1954's Computer of 2004?

Click Image to Enlarge

Well I got a rather enlightening email today regarding it:

Hi.  The computer is in the foreground.  The thing in the back is the control panels for a nuclear submarine.  The left panel (with the wheels) is the Steam Plant Control Panel.  The wheels are the throttles (large is forward, small is reverse).  The middle panel is the Reactor Plant Control Panel, and the right is the Electric Plant Control Panel.

I'm not sure why Rand (the AF research org at the time) would have that, though.  I'm willing to bet that they were showing the thing in the front, not what was in the back.

Thanks for the info, Marc!  That makes a lot more sense, if less funny.

I almost forgot the annual Turkey photo!  That was a close one!

Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Back in the 90's, there was this game called Pirates! Gold for the PC.  Ian and Brandon and I used to play it quite a bit, where you'd have a pirate ship and sail around the caribbean, attacking ships, wooing the governors' daughters and sacking Curacao, Cartagena and the like.

It's back.  And it's awesome (if you like the original).

They were smart about implementing the new version, keeping the core of the game much the same while enhancing the graphics, details (like ship upgrades and a bit of a plot revolving finding your family), and gameplay (such as the fact you see other ships on the screen while sailing now instead of getting random encounters).

Considering how the original Pirates! was ranked the number 3 PC game of all time by IGN, I'm glad they didn't completely rework a good formula.

So Google News picked up the following news story as it's top story last night via its automatic pickup, prompting quite the double-take:

Click to See the Full ScreenGrab

Turns out it was a satire piece...  Here's where it links to:  http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14050.shtml

And it turns out that today Germany *is* charging Rumsfeld and Tenant with War Crimes over Abu Ghraib.