Action video games improve brains

Chocolate-covered-brocolli video games that improve brains!

Star Trek meets Settlers of Catan

Star Trek version of Settlers of Catan. Must have!

#startrekcatan on the #coffeetableofcatan at #genconhttp://instagr.am/p/OZEhTFyJJe/

RQ260

“Imaginary horror movie posters feature aliens, swamp things, mummies and more on this quilt fabric Eerie Alley Halloween collection designed by Pink Light for Robert Kaufman Fabrics. The Mummy poster is about 6 inches tall.”

–Product description. “Imaginary Scary Movies, Eerie Alley” by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. Creative Quilt Kits website. July 2012. Web.

RQ258

“Once in a generation, the Blood Moon begins its fell cycle, bathing the realm in a pallid light. Compelled by its sinister presence, the restless dead rise from their graves, vampires hunt for unwary prey, and witches engage in nocturnal rituals. Worse yet, the horrifying Werewolf prowls the night, seeking heroes with whom to share his curse.”

–Product description on the back of the box containing The Blood Moon Expansion for Talisman, revised 4th edition, 2012.

RQ253

“The Starveling Cat! the Starveling Cat! warm as a lizard! fragrant as a bat!”

–Snippet in Fallen London online game.  Web.

RQ250

“Art Deco Eleventh Doctor”

–Bill Mudron.  ”Art Deco Eleventh Doctor.”  Print.  For sale at http://mudron.bigcartel.com/product/art-deco-eleventh-doctor

RQ246

“Bumps on the head:

As usual, the cranial exploration students start taunting the phrenologists, and phrenological manipulation hammers are produced. Mayhem breaks out shortly thereafter, and the porters lead a charge of the hired help to break things up. You are in the thick of things, and suddenly you are surrounded by a coterie of second year students armed with cranial implements. You put up a sterling show of arms, but there are too many and you soon find yourself phrenologically manipulated into unconsciousness. You wake the next day, on an examining table. It seems that you have been studied.”

–Storylet result in Fallen London online game.  Web.

RQ239

“The Poet meets a skulking gaggle of suspicious figures. You observe the meeting from the shelter of a rat-ridden rubbish heap. He asks a great many excited questions. What are the latest outrages perpetrated by the Masters of the Bazaar? Are the heights of the Flit still safe from the Constables? What is the next target for the next bombing?

The Poet’s acquaintances are clearly anarchists, but they’re not telling him much. They’re more interested in the package he’s carrying. He hands it over. They open it to check the contents: pies. The Starving Poet has been starving himself to feed anarchists.”

–Storylet in Fallen London online game.  Web.

RQ234

“There is a slime mold known as Physarum polycephalum that lives in forests around the world. It feeds on various kinds of microscopic particles. As it forages for food, protoplasmic tubes of slime extend out and bifurcate like tree branches; whenever it happens upon a source of nutrients, it gathers into a bloblike formation. The whole thing — blobs connected by tubes — is a single organism, and the network serves to transport nutrients throughout its ‘body.’

An interesting fact about this slime mold is that it is highly intelligent — or at least it behaves as if it is. In locating food in its environment, it builds networks that have been shown to be optimally efficient in transporting the nutrients over the area in question. If placed in a maze, for instance, with a source of food outside the maze, the slime mold will discover the shortest path out.

The Japanese researcher Toshiyuki Nakagaki and his colleagues have demonstrated that the slime mold’s foraging behavior can be used to perform sophisticated computations, as long as the problems are represented spatially. Problems solved by the slime mold include not only the shortest path out of a maze, but also other complex mathematical challenges (like creating a Voronoi diagram and a Delaunay triangulation).”

–Andrew Adamatzky and Andrew Ilachinskin. “The Wisdom of Slime.” New York Times Sunday Review May 12, 2012. Web.

RQ223

“Small World is a fun, zany, light-hearted civilization game in which 2-5 players view for conquest and control of a board that is simply too small to accommodate them all! Picking the right combination of fantasy races and unique special powers, players must rush to expand their empires–often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline to ride a new one to victory.”

–Product description on the back of Small World game box.  Game created by Philippe Keyaerts.  Distributed by Days of Wonder. 2009-2010.