Political battles will be taken to a whole new level this Good Friday, with a Progressive Labour Party MP and One Bermuda Alliance Minister set to face off in a sumo wrestling match. The Minister of Community, Culture & Sports Wayne Scott will test his sumo skills against Opposition MP Lawrence Scott at the PHC Community […]

The Bermuda Golf Association, alongside The Bermuda Golf Foundation, has launched the Operation 36 program at Ocean View Golf Course. A spokesperson said, “The Bermuda Golf Association [BGA], the National Sport Governing Body for golf and The Bermuda Golf Foundation [Charity #141] are delighted to announce the launch of the Operation 36 program at Ocean […]

Solstice and OUTBermuda will be hosting a special preview showing of ‘Inside OUT 2’ on Thursday, June 13th. A spokesperson said, “Solstice, Bermuda’s leading mental health wellness center, is thrilled to announce a heartwarming collaboration with OUTBermuda, the island’s prominent LGBTQ+ community charity. Together, they invite families, teens, and allies to the highly anticipated preview showing […]

The Bermuda Health Council has issued a public advisory regarding social media posts “disseminating false information purportedly originating from our organization.” A spokesperson said, “Bermuda Health Council is issuing a public advisory concerning recent social media posts disseminating false information purportedly originating from our organization. “It has come to our attention that accounts not affiliated […]

The Bermuda Police Service [BPS] has issued another warning to residents about fake social media adverts that use the likeness of local public figures and mimic local news outlet designs. A police spokesperson said, “The Bermuda Police Service [BPS] reminds residents to be wary of fake social media adverts promising quick financial gains or other […]

The Bermuda Economic Development Corporation [BEDC], in partnership with Amrita Bhalla of Performance Solutions, is hosting a webinar titled “Social Media Mastery: Elevate Your Brand on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn” on July 11th, from 12:30pm to 2:00pm, online via GoToWebinar. A spokesperson said, “This event is designed to equip entrepreneurs with the practical tools to […]

The Department of Transportation is advising the public of a social media scam “promoting a three-month smart pass” for the bus and ferry. A Government spokesperson said, “The Department of Public Transportation advises that an advertisement promoting a three-month smart pass has been circulating on various social media platforms. “Please be aware that this is […]

Trinidadian soca superstar Destra Garcia, known for her electrifying performances and boundary-pushing music, spoke to us exclusively about her love for soca, her diverse heritage, and her return to Bermuda for “Soca in the City”, happening on Saturday, June 15. A Special Connection With Bermuda Destra’s connection with Bermuda is not just about the performances […]

Minister of Transport Wayne Furbert recently met with senior British Airways officials in London to “discuss partnerships and strategic initiatives aimed at strengthening the longstanding air connection between Bermuda and London.” A Government spokesperson said,  “Joining the Minister in the meetings were Lester Nelson, CEO of the Bermuda Airport Authority [BAA], and Aaron Adderley, President […]

The government is expected to announce that a $100 monthly personal allowance to cover the cost of personal care items will be added for people on financial assistance and the Ministry of Transport will reduce the number of vehicle inspections required in the first five years for a new vehicle. In advance of tomorrow’s reading […]

The police have released their 2021 Official Statistics Report, noting that “while total crime was reduced, the Covid-19 regulations that were in effect throughout the year, limited gatherings and social activities, and so impacted crime patterns.” Mr. Darrin Simons, Commissioner of Police said, “The Bermuda Police Service [BPS] has released its Official Statistics Report for […]

Bermudian stylist Shiona Turini helped legendary musician Usher “create a show-stopping wardrobe” for his ‘Past Present Future’ tour. A Vogue story said, “For his tour, Usher turned to stylists Yashua Simmons and Jeremy Haynes, as well as costume designer Shiona Turini, who styled Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour, as consultant to help him create a show-stopping wardrobe. […]

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced that its captive and alternative risk transfer solutions subsidiary, Artex, has acquired Bermuda-based Frontier Financial Services Limited. A spokesperson said, “Frontier is a management firm specializing in consulting, recruitment, business services and immigration services to reinsurance and insurance-linked securities clients in Bermuda. Peter Brodsky, Derek Winch and their team […]

BermudAir is celebrating Cup Match with special rates, saying that “the sale runs from now through to August 1st 2024, with 20% off all Economy class flights and 30% off all Business class flights.” A spokesperson said, “BermudAir is celebrating this year’s Cup Match with the community by offering special rates for the rest of […]

James Acaster explores his love/hate relationship with standup by relinquishing control of his set and accepting a healthy dose of audience interference - aka heckling.

It's beginning to look a lot like ch-aos. Ben Stiller stars in "Nutcrackers," premiering November 29 on Hulu.

The one-hour special will premiere on November 19 on Prime Video.

This true crime docuseries examines the murder of Annie Mae Aquash - a Mi'kmaq woman from Nova Scotia, Canada, a mother of two daughters, a teacher, and a revolutionary who fought for Indigenous rights in the 1970s and whose death went unsolved for almost 30 years.

Troubled Musicians: Bands/Groups (Not open for application) The following fanlistings are scheduled for removal on November 14, 2024. If your fanlisting is listed below, please fix the problem/send in a finished form and reply to the troubles email! Pending Removal – Overdue SR-71; Wallflowers, The

Upcoming Musicians: Bands/Groups D’espairsRay; Kagrra,; Loona; Rentrer en Soi; Rise Against; tripleS Finished Musicians: Bands/Groups SR-71; Wallflowers, The Moved Musicians: Bands/Groups No moved forms have been received since the last update. Closed Musicians: Bands/Groups (Open for application) No closed forms have been received since the last update. Overdue Musicians: Bands/Groups No overdue fanlistings. Overdue: Temporary […]

The CIA from the very first days of the Trump administration, even before he was inaugurated, devoted themselves to sabotaging the administration because Donald Trump questioned just a few of their pieties. And that can't be done in Washington. Whoever does that must be destroyed. And so the CIA and the Deep State operatives became heroes of the liberal left, the people who support the Democratic party. They're now in a full union with the neocons, the Bush Cheney operatives, the CIA, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street. That is the union of power along with mainstream media outlets that are fully behind the Democratic party, which is likely to at least take over one branch of government, if not all of them, with the coming election, and that is a very alarming proposition because they're authoritarian, they believe in censorship, and they believe in suppression of information that exposes them in any kind of a critical light. Continue reading →

THE SECURITY STATE HAS EXISTED SINCE THE END OF WORLD WAR II. THEY'VE BEEN OPERATING IN SECRET AND WITH NO DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY FOR EIGHT OR NINE DECADES NOW. DWIGHT EISENHOWER WHEN HE LEFT OFFICE WARNED THE COUNTRY ABOUT THE DANGERS THAT THEY POSE. Continue reading →

The government is instructing social media companies what should and shouldn't be allowed to be on the internet, these are the people least competent to judge what is misinformation. Continue reading →

FBI CIA NSA are not only spying on American citizens but also are illegally unmasking their identities to journalists who support our fascist government Continue reading →

It’s time for our annual reminder that we love Halloween! Our Halloween Project Archives is a great resource for inspiration and ideas. Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and … we’ve organized dozens of our Halloween projects into categories: costumes, pumpkins, decor and food.

I have been busy this month! I took my mom to Pit Ed a couple of weeks ago to show her the ropes and I got to see some of my special old Bad Rap friends.

I had a "dog sitter" experience this month, too. This man and lady called Aunt and Uncle came and stayed at my house while my family went away for a couple of days. At first I wasn't sure I was going to have fun with them, but once I saw that they had my magical purple leash I figured they must be great. Here I am wrestling with Uncle.



This is my friend Gordon. He belongs to a lady called Grandma. He's 15 years old and can't play much anymore so we lick each other's faces and sniff stuff on short walks. I really like him.



This is my neighbor, Cooper. Even though he is only 9 months old, he is giant. I kind of like him. He has good manners. I think he has potential. Here we are having some down time, but Cooper told me his dad's command for this is "chillax".



So, that's my report on my social life lately!
Grace

During the early reign of King Charles III (Charles the Simple) in West Francia, the area was besieged by Viking invasions, while the memory of the previous and frequent Saracen incursions was still fresh in the minds of the general populace. The Saracens were Muslim - mostly Berbers from Africa – and had only let up on the Franks because they’d been pushed back by the Vikings. The local nobles were left largely to fend the Vikings off on their own.

In Paladins of the West Kingdom, players assume the role of these unnamed nobles (most likely Dukes), working to keep the region safe and spread their faith (historically: Christianity).  I really enjoy this theme, and in fact, playing the game nurtured my interest in the historical kingdom of West Francia.  That’s why I can tell you that while the rulebook notes that the King lends his Paladins to the nobles to aid them in their quest, I’m giving all the credit for the loan to the designers, Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald.  Paladins are a fictional group of knights in French lore (think of them as similar to the Knights of the Round Table in British lore),  or alternatively, a translation of the Frankish royal title of Palatine Count, which was a noble that focused mostly on judicial and governing matters and was not known as a knight.

I’ve won a few and lost a few games of Paladins. It’s a worker placement game that incorporates card drafting.  At the beginning of every round, players draw the next three Paladin cards in their deck and choose one to play for the round, one to put back on top of their Paladin deck to draw during the next round, and one to put at the bottom of their Paladin deck. Each Paladin boosts faith, influence, or strength (usually more than one of these), and also provides a special benefit. If you’ve got players prone to analysis paralysis, this is where they may get stalled, especially in the first few rounds. After Paladins are selected and put into play, workers for the round are selected by each player and put into their personal resource supply. You have many stations on your player board to place your workers during the round,  and when you do so, your moves are independent and walled off from your opponents (they cannot tamper with your player board or placement of your workers on it). However, there is one area on the general board (the King’s Favour card area) where you can also place your workers and those spots are competitive. Also contributing to player interaction – some of the stations on your player board where you place workers allow you to move resources (monks and outposts) from your player board to the main board, consuming a competitive spot that provides a placement reward. And all the resource cards on display around the main board – the townsfolk you can hire, the walls you can build, the outsiders you can attack or convert, the tavern cards you draw workers from, and the suspicion cards you gain $$$ from, are all lucrative items for which players must compete. So we’ve got a good mix of independent action and player interaction in Paladins.  There are not a lot of opportunities for  “take that” behavior in this game, other than perhaps timing your draw of suspicion cards to trigger an inquisition when you know your opponents will suffer a penalty and be forced to take on more debt.

Giving the game more intellectual weight, worker placement on your board and the actions workers trigger often have additional requirements beyond number and types (i.e., colors) of workers. The actions triggered by worker placement may be constrained by your strength, faith, or influence level. And some spots or actions triggered by placing workers in those spots require money or provisions. All of these prerequisites can be gained as rewards from prior actions triggered by various worker placement, so much of the game is finding the most efficient ways to obtain prerequisites associated with the series of actions you’d like to take as the game progresses. I worried this decision making would be a weak point for analysis paralysis (I’m a pretty good candidate for testing potential AP, as I’m prone to it) and while there can be a bit of that during the game, nothing excessive was logged during our plays.  

The artists (Shem Phillips on graphic design and Mihajlo Dimitrievski on illustrations) have printed helpful indicators next to each placement location on boards and cards to identify any prerequisites as well as rewards. It’s an example of how the designers have worked with the artists to layer meaningful game information into the layers of artwork. In fact, all of the symbols implemented across the game components are really quite helpful. Bonus: once you familiarize yourself with them in one of the West Kingdom games, you’ll have learned them for the entire series as the artists reuse the same symbols in all three titles.

Beyond the iconography, the illustrations and other artwork are lovely. As with the iconography, the same style of artwork is implemented across the entire series and it carries the theme well. There was a good mix of cisgender representation, but not a lot of racial diversity, especially as would be suggested by the historical setting of the game (for example, Berbers in the area had skin tones ranging from light to to dark brown).

The components for Paladins of the West Kingdom are well made.

There are wooden meeples, an assortment of foldable boards constructed from cardboard, and various plastic coated card decks. We found the rulebook to be clear and direct, and there weren’t any items we had to look up online. It would have been nice if the designers included a player aid in the components, but I was able to compensate for the oversight by downloading a detailed player aid another user uploaded to the forums on BoardGameGeek.com.

Paladins of the West Kingdom is my favorite game of the West Kingdom series. All of the worker types and available actions make sense within the context of the theme, the mechanisms (worker placement, card drafting) integrate tightly with the scoring system to provide opportunities for building a victory point engine, and the game is complex and interesting yet still accessible for new players. The game is also a great value at its price point (approx $50) given you’ll get dozens of multiplayer games in before even a hint of same-o same-o creeps in. Many games with comparable replayability and complexity are double the price of Paladins. There’s also a solo play mode, which provides an additional way to explore the game.

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

Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Players: 1-4 (We played with 2)
Actual Playing Time (vs the guideline on the box): About 2 hours per game
Game type: card drafting, worker placement
Retail Price: $50

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.

1. ASX falls as banks drop; MinRes sinks, James Hardie rallies  The Australian Financial Review
2. Wages growth slows, CBA logs flat first-quarter profit, ASX falls — as it happened  ABC News
3. Markets today: ASX slides as ‘Trump trade’ peters out on Wall Street; miners, banks fall  Sydney Morning Herald

1. NSW nurses strike heaps wage pressure on Minns government  The Australian Financial Review
2. Hundreds of elective surgeries cancelled as 10,000 nurses and midwives walk off job in NSW  ABC News
3. Nurses took to the streets after ‘insulting’ pay offer. Next stop, court  Sydney Morning Herald
4. Almost 700 surgeries cancelled as 12,000 NSW nurses strike for better pay  9News

1. Elon Musk’s job as Trump’s bureaucracy buster could be just the start  The Australian Financial Review
2. Elon Musk tapped for ‘government efficiency’ role by Donald Trump  Sydney Morning Herald
3. Evening News Bulletin 13 November 2024  SBS News
4. Donald Trump wants Elon Musk to slash regulations as he reveals his role  ABC News

This is a story we've been following for well over a decade (see "Selected readings").  Improbable as it may seem that the Korean alphabet might be adaptable for writing an Austronesian language of Indonesia, there are some promoters of this idea who continue to push it enthusiastically: "An Indonesian Tribe’s Language Gets an Alphabet: Korea’sThe […]

Great Britain's men's ice hockey team receives a grant from the IOC to help in its bid to qualify for the 2014 Winter Olympics

Just back from the Texas Library Association Conference in Houston! 

As always, it was great to see fellow authors and illustrators, as well as the librarians who've supported our books through the years.  And I always enjoy seeing what's new at the publisher booths.

We had a great time for my panel Tuesday afternoon, "What's New with Texas Middle Grade and YA Authors," organized by Susie Kralovansky, featuring Jessica Lee Anderson moderating, and fellow panelists Paige Britt, Cory Putnam Oakes, P.J. Hoover, Cynthia Levinson, Liz Garton Scanlon, Jennifer Mckissack, and Joy Preble.  Conversation was entertaining and enlightening.  

Many thanks to everyone who puts in the work to make TLA the best state library conference in the country!

Here are some pics:

Een maand niet klaarkomen, is dat écht gezond: uroloog over de ‘No Nut November’-challenge  Provinciale Zeeuwse CourantHele verhaal bekijken via Google Nieuws

We've been seeing these Bernie Sanders memes practically everywhere on the internet lately, and they don't appear to be stopping any time soon! Here's our last gallery in case you missed 'em. 

We sincerely hope you're not sick of political memes yet, because we've still got far to go before the 2020 presidential elections, so buckle up!

The Swedish government has proposed to give social services a greater role in preventing young people from joining criminal gangs by changing the confidentiality rules between public services. Before the summer, the Swedish government presented a new Social Services Act, which, among other things,…

The Spanish government will propose to the European Commission to amend the post-COVID reconstruction plan to redirect unused EU funds to the 'reconstruction and revitalisation' of the areas most affected by the recent torrential rains and floods. ‘We are going to present an addendum to the…

Japan's Mizuho Financial Group will take a 15% stake in Rakuten Group subsidiary Rakuten Card for 165 billion yen ($1.06 billion) in a further deepening of the two companies' strategic alliance, they said on Wednesday.

One expert says Australia is "on the verge of reclaiming childhood after it had been stolen for 15 years."

In This Article: TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Mizuho Financial Group will take a 15% stake in Rakuten Group subsidiary Rakuten Card for 165 billion yen ($1.06 billion) in a further deepening of the two companies' strategic alliance, they said on Wednesday. The share transfer is planned for Dec. 1,…

Iranian, Russian Card Payment Systems 'Officially Linked': Tehran Via The Cradle Iranian and Russian card payment systems were formally linked this week, coming as the two nations have been working together to circumvent economic sanctions imposed by Washington and the west. The announcement…

The post Creating the Mad Tea Party in PowerWash Simulator’s Upcoming Alice’s Adventures Special Pack appeared first on Xbox Wire.

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