Tuesday, January 06, 2009
A professor at Northwestern Michigan College has discovered what appears to be a site of Stonehenge-like standing stones 40 feet under Lake Michigan. One seems to have been decorated with the carving of a mastodon
More on the Lake Michigan Standing Stones.
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Monday, October 13, 2008
Lego Aircraft Carrier. More photos here.
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Saturday, August 23, 2008
On Saturday (August 23, 2008), we took a trip to Jackson, Michigan, to attend their 24th annual Civil War Muster. Held on the grounds of Cascade Park, it’s the largest and longest-running Civil War event in the Midwest.
This year, the muster featured a recreation of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the original of which took place in Missouri on August 10, 1861. In addition to the battle re-creation, there also were infantry, artillery and cavalry drill demonstrations and a large encampment area where participants were more than willing (sometimes too willing) to tell you about life in the Civil War.
Later that night, the Muster featured period dance instruction, a military ball and a night fire artillery demonstration.
In addition to the camps and battle, there were a dozen or so large tents selling everything you would need to get started in Civil War re-enacting: muskets, uniforms, hats, boots, accessories and so on. Some of the tents also carried framed art (Mort Kunstler was everywhere), books, and Civil War DVDs. And there was, of course, food and drink. The boys each got a root beer in a pseudo-period blue glass jug with a cork-and-wire spring top.
You can see photos of the camp and battle here.
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Jack Kirby is my by far my favorite comic book artist. I grew up reading his Marvel works—and especially Captain America, my favorite title. As far as I’m concerned, he’s an artistic genius on the scale of the “great masters.” I sincerely believe that there will come a time, a hundred years from now when he is recognized as such.
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology Review
Blitzkrieg 2 is a fun, fast-paced historically flavored game that takes you through several theatres of World War II.
Gameplay is what you’d expect of a real-time strategy game. You issue orders to your units, and them watch them peform on the screen. Battles for me often evolved into a furious clickfest, giving orders to one unit, and then sliding the screen across to issue new ones to a unit that had finished its mission.
The campaign game consists of a series of connected scenarios. Each starts you with a set of units—infantry, armor, artillery and what-have-you—and a set of objectives to meet. The objectives consist of either moving to, or defending a certain location.
What’s missing from the usual real-time strategy formula is the resource gathering. Instead, each scenario comes with a set number of reinforcements. When they become available, you can select from a list that varies from scenario to scenario.
While the game is set in World War II, I wouldn’t call it historical. While the units are recognizable, the mix of units available and their performance often defies expectations. Infantry, for example, is useless, getting mowed down in seconds by enemy units. When dug into a building, the enemy just brings it down around them. Infantry in a trench doesn’t fare much better.
Tanks, on the other hand, appear far too frequently, and are way too tough. Japanese armor strength—both in numbers and in individual toughness—seemed to me way too strong. And there were a couple of European scenarios where I can’t recall seeing a single German infantry unit.
The game is so armor heavy, that when you get reinforcements, there’s no reason to settle for anything less than the heaviest tanks available.
Still, the game is a lot of fun. It’s got that addictive quality where you keep saying to yourself: “just five more minutes.” And then before you know it, it’s 3 am and you realize you’ve been playing for eight hours.
As a casual gamer, I appreciated the ease of play—I ran through the tutorial scenarios and then was able to jump right into the game. There are a lot of “hot keys” available, but I didn’t have to remember any of them because there always are icons available.
A final word about the graphics and sound—aspects which concern computer gamers, but to me are secondary to gameplay.
The graphics are just right for the game: not overly intricate, but with a lot of flavor. You clearly identify each of the units, and they look quite a bit like the real-world things they represent. It’s a bit like watching little toy soldiers and tanks on the screen.
It’s also a lot of fun to watch the damage that the weapons wreak on the terrain Trees fall down, buildings degrade and then collapse, artillery turns ground into moonscapes.
The sound also is fine, but I turned the music off after a few minutes and eventually turned off the sound effects so I could watch television while playing.
In all, I thought the Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology was a huge amount of fun. It’s a nice diversion for those weekends where you can’t get together with your buddies to play with lead and dice.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
I just watched the American Film Institutes’s list of top ten westerns and was absolutely appalled. Here they are in as near an order as I can remember:
Cat Ballou
Stagecoach
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Butch and Sundance
The Wild Bunch
Red River
Unforgiven
Shane
High Noon
The Searchers (#1)
While I am not as big a fan of The Searchers as others, I recognize that it’s viewed as a classic of film—not just of westerns—so I suppose it deserves it’s spot. I also don’t have a beef with Stagecoach, Red River, Shane and High Noon.
I’m less certain of The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven. But I can see why some would include them.
But how, I ask, are Cat Ballou, McCabe and Mrs Miller and even Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid even considered for the top ten? All of those were tongue-in-cheek westerns, made with a 1970s “we’re smarter than you”, mocking the westerns type of mentality.
I submit that any of the following would have been better choices than those three:
The Magnificent Seven
The Tall T
Ride The High Country
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Rio Bravo
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
My Darling Clementine
The Big Country
The Violent Men
Dances With Wolves
Open Range
Here, then is my top ten list, counting down to #1
Open Range
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Magnificent Seven
The Big Country
Stagecoach
High Noon
Shane
The Searchers
Ride the High Country (#1)
What’s yours? Leave a comment below:
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Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
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