Cosmic Encounters Expansion and Subtle Racism or Odd Coincidence?

Cosmic Encounter: Cosmic Conflict

Before I first opened up the box for this expansion from my latest game order, I was telling Ruthie and the kids that the space ship tokens are black and there are 20 new alien powers. We've played the game a few times as a family, and everyone likes it, so we're all familiar with the game.

I mentioned this in the car yesterday, and she was joking that black was the best color, but if black took a colony, the other ships would move away from the planet. We had a good laugh at that. For the uninitiated, given our ethnic backgrounds, we are pretty free with ethnic humor at times that may puzzle others. We're always respectful, but joking on such stuff is not verboten in the house, and if anything crosses the line we talk about it. It's not mean -spirited humor either.

Last night, I was reading the alien powers off the new alien sheets. One was Filth. And guess what? When the player playing Filth successfully takes over a colony, any allies move away to another planet in the same system. This was certainly a "whiskey tango foxtrot" moment.

I am not in any way a conspiracy nut, but it seems too coincidental to me that these were simultaneously released (the black ships & the Filth power). Sure, there are legit reasons for every stereotype, but if some moron at Fantasy Flight thought they were being funny, this would be offensive to me and goes beyond subtle humor (Kevin Wilson is listed as the designer, but who knows who contributed). Perhaps an endomorphic "muffin top", balding, self-important white guy with a bad goatee who is a big fan of Fox "news"? Oh, look; I am using my own stereotypes.

I hope I am wrong on this one. I do have the assumption this is more than just coincidence. If it was just that, did anyone review the contents of this expansion? Beuller..... Beuller..... Beuller..... Beuller..... I hate when people make every effort to use racism as an excuse to be bitter and a host of sad excuses not to be a better person, but I am not so naive to think it doesn't exist anymore.

New Retinal Implant Contains "Fertilizing" Enzymes

While I view new 'possibilities' as a cure or help for blindness and Choroideremia all the time, this one could amount to something, so I will be keeping an eye on this. Below is an article I copy/pasted from a listserv I am on:


New Retinal Implant Contains "Fertilizing" Enzymes.
by T Goodman, Inventorspot.

"Implant" is becoming more and more literal in eye research. Like a gardener removes the dead roots of the soil's former dweller, tills and adds fresh soil and fertilizer to make the ground replantable, and finally adds new seeds, researchers have developed an implant that clears out the scar tissue of diseased retinas and seeds new ones. This quickly evolving procedure holds hope for millions of persons with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).

Scientists from Harvard University, the University of California at Irvine, and Case Western Reserve University have been working on an implant to restore the function of photoreceptors in the eye so that the millions of persons blinded by RP and ARMD might regain their vision. RP and ARMD destroy the eye's photoreceptors, which convert light into electrical signals and carry them to the brain.

Recognizing that in order for retinal progenitor cells to grow, the scar tissue left by the degeneration of the photoreceptors must be replaced by "fertile soil," researchers created one implant that could disintegrate the scar tissue and plant the progenitor cells simultaneously.

The Case Western research team built a scaffold through a process called electrospinning, which uses electrical charges to spin and interweave biodegradable mesh fibers up to 1/1000th the width of a hair. Embedded in the fibers are special enzymes that migrate out and destroy the local scar tissue, while the progenitor cells, releasing from the surface of the scaffold, find "fertile ground" in which to seed.

The positive effects of the enzymes in clearing out the old scar tissue were witnessed by the survival rate of the retinal progenitor cells.

The implant structure that only contained progenitor cells was 16 times more effective at reaching the degraded retinal site, and the survival rate of the cells was 9 times more effective than simple injection of the progenitor cells. But when the scar tissue destroying enzymes were included in the scaffold, the number of progenitor cells that reached the site and survived reached 15 to 20-fold. In a mouse model that received the implant with the enzymes, progenitor cells were "taking on the form" of mature photoreceptors 14 days after implantation.

This study is published in the January issue of Biomaterials. But while scientific studies can take months to publish, researchers keep trying to perfect their outcomes, and this study is no exception. By the time it was published, the scientists had already reduced the size of the mesh implant, increased its flexibility, and made it more acceptable to the body so it would not cause irritation or inflammation.

Holy Cow

I usually like silly jokes, so various in office jokes were amusing today, and I pulled a prank of my own on a colleague for that celebration of immaturity, which I wholeheartedly embrace. Well, as my most recent posts have been on that game I still really like, Elements the Game, I got a silly little surprise today as part of April Fool's Day.

If you go to the Oracle today, you will get a free card (for the next match only) called Holy Cow. Yes it's silly, but I thought it amusing. It's ability was for 0 cost: Moo. Well, if you click the cow, it has a loud moo, and I found it funny. Then an infection killed it on the second turn. Salmonella, anyone? Moo-hoo....

Very Cool Improvements to Elements, the Game

As per my last entry, it should be obvious I am taken by the online game called the Elements. Well, some new spell-like cards have been coming out of late. Some are lame (the new Light spell), but others rock (Black Hole from Gravity). I have bought some (not real money, but online coins you earn by winning games), and enjoyed the newer cards.

Well, now there's a combo deal (and those who know my Magic stylings know I am mostly the Johnny-Combo-Player & a Timmy mixed in), where you can essentially have play-time acccess to these cards without having to put them in your deck.

This all starts with the Water spell, "Nymph's Tears" ( 8 Water to cast): "Turn one of your pillars into a Nymph. The element of the pillar determines the type of Nymph created". First do this to a Water (Sapphire) pillar to get a Nymph Queen, and protect that creature with Immortality immediately. Then look at the following list I compiled to get Nymphs that you want to create. The artwork is the same with miinimal changes, but this really opens up fun possibilities.

Change Water (Sapphire) pillar into a Nymph:
Nymph Queen. 1/1. Ability (4 Water): Nymph's Tears - Turn one of your pillars into a Nymph.

Change Earth pillar into a Nymph:
Earth Nymph. 0/5. Ability (4 Earth): The target creature gains +0/+20 but cannot attack or use skills for 6 turns.

Change Air pillar into a Nymph.
Air Nymph 6/2. Ability (3 Air): Generate Unstable Gas.

Change Fire pillar into a Nymph:
Red Nymph. 1/6. Ability (3 Fire): The target creature gains +5/-5.

Change Light pillar into a Nymph:
Light Nymph. 9/9. Ability (0): All of your creatures without an ability gain "bioluminescence".

Change Dark pillar into a Nymph:
Dark Nymph. 5/5. Ability (3 Dark): The target creature is now poisoned and its skill switched to "vampire".

Change Entropy pillar into a Nymph:
Purple Nymph. 3/2. Ability (4 Entropy): Invert the attack power of the target creature.

Change Gravity pillar into a Nymph:
Gravity Nymph. 1/4. Ability (3 Gravity): Absorbs 3 quata per element from the opponent. Gain 1 life per abandoned quatum.

Change Time pillar into a Nymph:
Golden Nymph. 7/9. Ability (2 Time): You can see your opponent's hand. Draw a card.

Change Aether pillar into a Nymph:
Turquoise Nymph. 7/2. Ability (3 Aether): The target creature is now immortal (untargetable).

Change Life pillar into a Nymph:
Life Nymph. 3/7. Ability (2 Life): The target creature attacks multiple times per turn.

Change Death pillar into a Nymph:
Death Nymph. 0/4. Ability (2 Death): Poison the target creature. If the target creature dies, it turns into a malignant cell.

Also, changing the generic Quantum Pillar into a Nymph yields a random element nymph. In this way, you can get the following:
Water Nymph. 1/2. Ability (4 Water): Turn one of your pillars into a Nymph.

Enjoy. btw, Muncher, what's your logon so I can look out for your deck if I see it in the top 50?

I Just Played with Myself Online, and Beat Myself

I have been playing a free online game called Elements since that bastard Ben Brenner told me about it (http://www.elementsthegame.com/).

If you play well enough (and often enough like me), you can make the Top 50. I am now in the Top 50 at most times during the day now (depends who is online at the time). I was greatly amused, as depicted in the screen capture to the left), when I got to play against myself online (my logon there is heymondo).

Initially I did well, but that other jerk of me crushed my quanta towers (like land in Magic) and at the end of the game, just as I was about to win, out came an Improved Miracle, resetting the life points to 199. I wound up decking myself (zero cards left = a loss):

And so the game gives you a screen afterward that tells you you may wish to improve your deck. Ah, the silly fun.

Rusty Blog

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I simply blame Facebook. It has been a mini-blog substitute, and has filled in for many of my thoughts. Any time you can get me to use fewer words at the same time, well, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Life is still good past the eyes, which are getting into bad parts of my practical vision. Family is good. David seems to be done with unexpected operations. I continue to have fun gaming. Job is still good despite being underpaid, and just enjoying life.......

Happy to Be Wired Again

Last Saturday, I attempted to install an old scanner (and by old, I mean almost as old as David). I should have known better, but I did anyway, assuming it would be OK, and if not, no big. Well, XP crashed during install, but the scanner worked OK so I thought all was good.

A *short* time later, XP was complainng about not being connected to the wireless router. To make a long story short, it broke something in XP; drivers, dll's, who knows. But after nearly a day of trying to fix, I called AT&T for help, along with calling/[estering my friend Tim. I even used the pay-for-services route, as I didn't want to rebuild XP. Well, there was too much afoul, and the tech could not help, but he did a decent job trying, so I ndo not begrudge the small fee.

So I rebuilt, and you would think I knew what I was doing. Initially I had trouble with the XP boot disk, as there is a very short window to press a key for setup, and Blindie didn't see it too well. So formatted c:, installed XP, then SPs 2/3. There were some broken items, but I had the original Dell Drivers CD, so putting most of those on was no big deal.

Once done with this, I plugged in the 2Wire wireless adapter, set the Windows Zero thing on, and it seemed to easily connect to the adapter and I had a good signal strength, but I couldn't get anything in Firefox to show up.

Well, back to AT&T free basic support, and I got lucky. I got one of the most patient, knowledgable, and pleasant base-level techies I have ever talked to. Despite me messig something up with a blindie mistake, and having him take me through the process again, in half an hour, I was good to go and connected.

Major lesson learned here: do NOT hit the reset on your router - it resets the PW to factory defaults. Bad idea. In my desperation to connect earlier, I had reset it in hopes that that was the reason it wasn't connectiung. If I want to 'reset' the router, apparently, just unplug for 30 seconds and power back up.

So thanks to the AT&T tech from last night, and Tim for bearing with me. I was surprised by how much it bugged me not to be able to connect from home, so the kids could look stuff up for homework, and personal stuff I do. Ah, life is a smidge better today.........