Black Skull Island is a quick playing 2-9 player card game from Strawberry Studio (now under the publisher Board and Dice).

I was sent a review copy of the game and it only seems to make it onto the table when we need a filler game to serve as an appetizer before a meaty Euro. The gameplay is extremely simply: each player gets 2 pirate themed character cards and selects one of them to play during a round, keeping the other one in hand. Every card is numbered from 0 to 15. All players reveal their character cards simultaneously and then the actions on the cards are executed by the players who hold them in sequential order of the the card numbers. Most actions focus either on (1) drawing booty (treasure cards or coin cards), (2) stealing or deactivating other players’ character cards, (3) stealing or swapping booty cards  from/with another player or (4) an order for all players to pass a character card to their left or right. Over successive rounds, booty cards worth 0-4 coins build up in players' hands and as soon as a player acquires their 7th booty card, the game is over. At that point, whichever player has the most coins in their booty collection wins the game.

Black Skull Island  is a lot of luck mixed with a little take-that and honestly, it all feels very random by the end, regardless of what cards you’ve played. I couldn't muster up anything but apathy for the outcome as I felt it was completely divorced from my actions.

The components consist of 109 well-constructed cards (no sleeving is necessary as the cards are coated unless you play very frequently), with cutesy artwork that I'd deem adequate but unremarkable.

That's really the best way to summarize the entire game - unremarkable. If you're into take-that filler games, there are much more compelling and entertaining options out there and likewise if you love point collection card games, there are many I'd recommend over Black Skull Island. The saving grace for this game is that it's kid friendly, so if you need an easy and accessible game to teach to your little ones and give them something to do with their friends, you could pass this their way. An inexpensive birthday gift for a tween perhaps or the kind of thing you might bring to a secret Santa exchange. Otherwise, meh.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Publisher: Strawberry Studio
Players: 2-9
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 10 minutes
Game type: point collection, take-that
Rating:

Jenni’s rating scale:
OUI: I would play this game again; this game is ok. I probably would not buy this game myself but I would play it with those who own it and if someone gave it to me I would keep it.
OUI OUI: I would play this game again; this game is good. I would buy this game.
OUI OUI OUI: I LOVE THIS GAME. I MUST HAVE THIS GAME.
NON: I would not play this game again. I would return this game or give it away if it was given to me.

When I made this Mad Max tribute video I made it to only 1 and 2. I've always thought of Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome as a seperate movie all unto itself, I like the third movie, but it lacks the same feel as the first two

If you haven’t heard of this movie, don’t worry you’re not the only one, I only recently found out about it after going to Blockbuster and seeing it there a couple days ago.

Black hat SEO, if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a general term that covers everything that’s considered unethical or “cheating” to get your site ranked in the number one spots in the search engines. In the short term many of these tricks do work at getting your site the number 1 spot, in the long term however your site will be penalized, pushed down in search engine rankings, or your domain may be completely abandoned by them. And if your website is about trying to make money, or is part of a business this can have a serious impact. So how do you know what’s considered black hat seo if you’re brand new to the whole website or blogging game? Here is a list of 14 black hat seo tricks to avoid.............

1. Astronomers find closest black hole to Earth yet to be discovered  9News
2. New black hole discovered - and it's the closest to Earth ever found, say scientists  Mirror Online
3. View Full coverage on Google News

  Clusterfuck Nation For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Had enough excitement yet? At least the stock markets are following an established script: the bubble pops, the elevator drops, for a while it stops… and then investments sink to the deepest sub-basement, where they linger for a long, more »

The post Black Swans, Dead Cats, Live Bats, and Goodbye to All That appeared first on Kunstler.

As scientists continue to weigh in, one thing is clear: the "monster black hole" discovered in 2019 doesn't exist.

Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other institutes have found the black hole that is currently the closest to Earth. The aforementioned black hole lies just 1000-light years from our planet, and is closer to our Solar System compared to others found to date. What’s more, it is part of a triple system that can be seen with the naked eye.

They say this system could just be the tip of the iceberg, as many more similar black holes could be found in the future.

"We were totally surprised when we realised that this is the first stellar system with a black hole that can be seen with the unaided eye," says Petr Hadrava, Emeritus Scientist at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague and co-author of the research.

More details about this finding over at ScienceDaily.

(Image Credit: JohnsonMartin/ Pixabay)

By Luis Prada  Published: May 07th, 2020 

Old man winter has decided to take up residence in my neck of the woods and boy is he hungry! To satisfy his craving and keep him warm I decided to treat him to a pot of Craftylittlmonkey’s Black Eyed Pea and Squash Soup. I can feel good making this dish when I use vegetables […]

I have finally seen The Black Hole for the first time in probably 25 years. No, make that 35 years. I don’t know, it’s been awhile, which is kind of weird for such an iconic, formative movie. Don’t laugh, you know it’s true — there’s a whole generation of us who saw this while we […]

Posted by: beatrice_otter

Fandom: Star Wars
Characters/Pairings: Mace Windu/Cody, Anakin Skywalker, Shaak Ti, lots of Jedi and clones
Rating: Mature
Length: 202,217 words

Summary: Plo has an idea. Mace agrees, and everything snowballs right into hell from there.

(Or: Mace and Cody get married in order to give the clones citizen status. Before they can focus on that, though, they're going to have to deal with ancient Sith artifacts, evil prophets, plots to overthrow the Supreme Chancellor, lost planets, monsters warped by Sith alchemy, inconvenient feelings, and Darth Sidious turning his eye on a potential new apprentice. Just...not in that order.)

Why is it the BEST THING EVER: Besides having a really unique idea for a fixit, I love the way the characters are written, and the development of Mace and Cody's relationship is wonderful, and the action is engaging and well-written.

Fanwork Links: hunting toward heartstill

comments

This paper investigates the effect of a large negative agricultural shock, the boll weevil, on black-white inequality in the first half of the twentieth century. To do this we use complete count census data to generate a linked sample of fathers and their sons. We find that the boll weevil induced enormous labor market and social disruption as more than half of black and white fathers moved to other counties following the arrival of the weevil. The shock impacted black and white sons differently. We compare sons whose fathers initially resided in the same county and find that white sons born after the boll weevil had similar wages and schooling outcomes to white sons born prior to its arrival. In contrast, black sons born after the boll weevil had significantly higher wages and years of schooling, narrowing the black-white wage and schooling gaps. This decrease appears to have been driven by relative improvements in early life conditions and access to schooling both for sons of black fathers that migrated out of the South and sons of black fathers that stayed in the South.

Audio recordings of two 911 calls placed moments before Ahmaud Arbery was killed confirm that at least two people were concerned that a black man was running in their Georgia neighborhood.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his 34-year-old son Travis have been charged with murdering Arbery.

Marvina Robinson was inspired to create Stuyvesant Champagne, named after Bedford-Stuyvesant where she grew up, while drawing up plans for a champagne bar set to launch in the neighborhood later this year.

At Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the city’s most selective public high school, only 10 black students and 20 Latino students got admissions offers, out of nearly 800 students accepted, data shows.

The proposal comes as city officials announced that only 11% of students admitted to specialized schools this year were black or Latino, compared to 70% of all city students, a figure virtually unchanged from years past.

Audio recordings of two 911 calls placed moments before Ahmaud Arbery was killed confirm that at least two people were concerned that a black man was running in their Georgia neighborhood.

That's plenty sketchy-ish.

New Zealand Rugby has confirmed that Sam Cane will take over from Kieran Read as All Blacks skipper.

The LIGO and Virgo observatories appear to have picked up gravitational waves from a first-of-its-kind astronomical observation.

A pair of physicists think it’s possible that a tiny black hole left over from the universe’s early days lurks in the outer solar system.

The algorithm was based on the faulty assumption that health care spending is a good proxy for wellbeing. But there seems to be a quick fix.

Former USC quarterback and Green Bay Packers safety Willie Wood, one of the first college football players to break the color barrier and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, died Monday at age 83.

Being born black in America means facing the likelihood of poorer health outcomes over a lifetime.

Reader Marvyn Lindsey found it "bizarre" that a long piece of black tape was blocking part of the book review he wanted to read.

Spectrum reached an agreement to carry SportsNet LA, the Dodgers' television home, on AT&T video platforms, including DirecTV, AT&T TV and U-Verse TV.

After six years of the Dodgers willingly allowing more than half of Los Angeles to sit in the dark, Spectrum Networks has reached a deal to end the blackout.

That's plenty sketchy-ish.

Audio recordings of two 911 calls placed moments before Ahmaud Arbery was killed confirm that at least two people were concerned that a black man was running in their Georgia neighborhood.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and his 34-year-old son Travis have been charged with murdering Arbery.

That's plenty sketchy-ish.

Barbara Neely's novels pushed past mystery and explored racism, class boundaries and violence against women.

Some women are giving their hair a break, while others are learning the basics.

Looking at photos of the shooting at Kent State, I'd always wondered: Where were the black students?

"Hair Love" filmmakers Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver discuss their animated short, which is nominated for a 2020 Oscar.

Cynthia Erivo, Jamie Foxx, Louis Gossett Jr., Lena Waithe and HBO's 'The Wire' cast were honored at the 2020 American Black Film Festival Honors on Sunday.

After two years in Hollywood Hills, former Laker Tarik Black has put his three-story home on the market for $2.195 million.

The Dianne and David Stern Foundation philanthropy included a number of Jewish causes, according to Inside Philanthropy.

EVEN the best part of a week on, the incredible arrogance and disrespect towards the Queen from the Sussexes continues to reverberate.

TEXTILES: brace yourselves. We have a new hate crime on our books.

IS THERE any topic in the entire world that Britain is incapable of turning into a matter of class?

MY mother was born in 1928 and grew up in Kent.

WEEK TWO and we're all going feral. And we're facing challenges that would not have even occurred to us 10 short days ago. And one of them is this. In order to stop us from going actually insane under lockdown, we're all being told to host parties online. Here are a few hints.