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Do's and Don'ts in Playing Plants vs. Zombies 2
by Edward on June 28, 2019 0 Comments
Have you ever thought that plants can actually kill zombies?
While this idea sounds very far-fetched in real life, this is exactly the concept of Plants vs. Zombies. Since its first release on May 2009, this game has created avid followers. The concept of this video game is pretty simple – you would need to use a variety of different plants to prevent an army of zombies from entering your house and "eating your brains". Whilst the concept may sound easy, delivering this is absolutely quite complicated. You would need to create better strategy on how to position your plants and which particular plants to use to combat these brain-eating zombies.
The success of Plants vs. Zombies has paved way to launch its sequel – Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time. If you were used to the more-relaxed pace of its predecessor, it's time to up your game as It's About time is a faster gameplay and features several new zombies to defeat and new plants to master.
Don't worry though. Below are some of the simple tactics that you can adopt if you want to conquer the undead.
Wait Before You Attack
Do: Though your first instinct would tell you to strike the moment you see the first few zombies, it is better if you wait longer before doing so. The longer you wait, the more time that you will have to manufacture sun and prepare your defenses. Hold your reins before striking off the first few zombies. While you mass-produce your resources, use defenders like Wall-nut to delay the zombies. Remember, you can only go ahead and attack once you have established a better reservoir.
Don't: Go crazy and immediately hold your attack. The extra 10 or twenty seconds of waiting can go a long way. You can spend this time in preparing your sun for the entire level. This way, you can prepare multiple varieties of plants to stop those zombies.
Use Melee and Shield Plants Together
Do: Place melee plants behind defenders. Melee plants have high damage at short range however they can't attack from afar. Since they normally don't have much time to strike as waves of zombies are coming in, it's wise that you place a shield in front of them. With defenders like Wall-nut providing shield to melee plants like Bonk Choy, the vulnerability of zombies to melee attacks are increased.
Don't: Leave melee plants undefended or put them in the back of your row. In addition, don't use Snapdragon if you're employing freezing plants— the chill effect of freezing plants is removed by Snapdragon's close-range fire.
Use Boosted Plants on Hard Levels
Do: Grow plants in your Zen Garden, but save their level-lasting powers for harder encounters. It's pretty easy to obtain seeds, just replay any level and you'll gradually collect them. On tough levels though, use boosted plants to demolish your foes. One of the best boosted plants that you will find really helpful is the Sun-producers. You will have infinite resources with the huge amounts of sun that these plant foods provide. Now it's easier and faster to produce more variety of plants when the times are tougher.
Don't: Waste the bonuses on easier levels or ignore the Zen Garden. It's futile to spend the effects where you don't need them, unless of course you have seeds to spare. Also, don't use gems in boosting your plants – save them for things you can't obtain otherwise, like new units.
Use Sun-shroom
Do: As soon as you obtain Sun-shroom, use it for sun production. Sun-shroom costs half the price of Sunflower at 25 and eventually produces more Sun than Sunflower (75 compared to 50). Plus, it has a better Plant Food effect.
You may not be impressed with its initial 25 Sun production, however it will soon grow to produce 50, and again to make 75. Because of its affordability, it can come handy when your resources are already draining. You can use them as a cheap shield, slowing zombies as they devour him to buy you time. You can unlock Sun-shroom in the Dark Ages world.
Don't: Use Sunflower once you've unlocked Sun-shroom. Though more sun is produced with twin sunflower than a maxed-out shroom, the lengthier recharge times and larger price tag make shroom the superior unit.
Slow Zombies by Chilling
Do: Use plants that have chilling effect to delay the advancement of Zombies. Winter Melon serves well if you have extra Sun to burn while Snow Pea works great as a low-cost option.
Don't: Put two or more Delayer in one row. Though you want to use chill effect to slow down zombies, other plants can wreak damage faster. Also, multiple chill effects don't work when applied to the same zombie. However, you can compound other slowing effects with chill, like the Sap-fling's sticky projectiles.
Bring a Diverse Bunch
Do: Choose a varied team to maximize your effectiveness. You only have precious few slots to fill when selecting plants for each battle so having dozens of vegetation options available to pick from might just stall your time or confuse you. The table below shows a good example of plant to choose from each of the category.
Category Example
Sun-Producer Sun-shroom
Shield Wall-nut
Ranged Attacker (Low-Cost) Bloomerang
Ranged Attacker (High-Cost) Coconut Cannon
Melee Attacker Bonk Choy
Delayer Winter Melon
Insta-kill Cherry Bomb
Don't: Bring too many plants with the same basic function. Fire Peashooter and Repeater are both effective ranged units, but considering their similarities one should do just fine in any given level.
With these tips, you are now ready to face massive herd of zombies. You will never run out of new challenges to complete in this game – with its more than 300 levels, fun mini-games, ultra-challenging endless zones and daily Piñata Party events. It's time start your journey through space and time as Dr. Zomboss is waiting to take you on at the end of every world!
Read more tips on how to become a better strategy game player here.
Tips on How to Start Playing Crusader Kings II
by Edward on May 27, 2019 0 Comments
If there's one game that combines the element of war, intrigue, religion and politics, it's Crusader Kings II.
This grand strategy game which was developed by Paradox Development Studio is a sequel to Crusader Kings. Since its release last February 2012, the game has received worldwide positive acceptance. It has over more than 1 million copies sold only 2 years after its release.
For those that are not familiar with Crusader Kings II, it's a game set in the Middle Ages and you play as a medieval ruler trying to gain more influence, power and territory. To achieve success for your dynasty, you would need to have strategic use of marriages, war and assassinations among many other things.
As a player, your main objective is to gain as many piety and prestige points as possible in order to surpass the various historically relevant European dynasties in a fictional prestige ranking. Crusader Kings II is a game about people: your dynasty, your lovers, vassals, family members and enemies.
What makes this game so compelling is the personal element added to it. You are not in charge of an abstract nation; instead the fate of your family is in your hands. It follows the life cycle of human beings – marriage, having kids, death and then an heir will take over and the whole thing begins again. Developing a real personal connection with your characters is inevitable. You will cheer for every triumph they have and mourn their death.
How do you actually play Crusader Kings II?
Below are some tips on how to get started on this addicting game.
Start as an Irish count
This is probably the first tip every veteran Crusader Kings II player will tell you.
You can start as early as 1066 in this game, so go ahead and pick the Stamford Bridge start date then pick a Count in Ireland to play as. It does not matter which one, as long as you pick one that is not too old. Each county in Ireland is its own ruler in 1066. Choosing this timeline will let you learn the ins and outs of the game without having to worry that bigger nation will bother you and impose their rules on you. It's easy to work your way up from Count to Duke and finally on to declaring yourself as King or Queen.
Before moving on to the next step, pause the game and spend some time familiarizing with the user interface, especially the top left panels. Majority of your gameplay options are in this section.
Create a Family
Remember that in this game, you are not playing as a single character or as a nation, but as an entire dynasty. Crusader Kings II holds lineage and family as the most important things. You don't want to face defeat when your character dies without an heir to inherit your dynasty.
With this being said, the very first thing that you must do is to get married and secure yourself an heir. Rule for long enough and you can make some changes to succession laws to affect the type of heir you will have. Most likely though, first born sons are made as heir.
Fabricate Some Claims
Improving your realm is important if you want your dynasty to grow for your future generations. One way to do this is by raging wars, though you have to carefully assess if raging war against other dynasties is necessary.
Before you can raise your own troops, you would need to acquire a valid claim first. Though there are several ways that you can gain a claim, you would need to fabricate one during the early stage. This is where your Chancellor can help you. You can find your council by clicking the first button to the right of your portrait in the UI. You should always have a full council, where each of them has three tasks that you can assign. One of those tasks is to fabricate claims.
Before jumping in though, make sure that you spend ample time in checking out the different map modes that are available in the game. Check out the De Jure Duchies view as well as which duchy your current county is part of. In Ireland, chances are you will be part of a two county duchy, so you want to fabricate the claim on the other county. Issue the order to your diplomat and wait until that claim comes through.
It's Time for War
Now that you have fabricated some claims, you are now ready to go to war.
A number of regular strategy gamers might find this stage disorientating. First, you need to remember that you don't specifically train troops. Instead, you are provided with levies by every county in your realm that you need to raise. You will be provided of the maximum troops that your own holdings can and you can build and improve buildings to increase the number of your troops.
You should create and maintain good relationship with your vassals as the troops that they are providing depends on the laws you set and how much they like you. If you want to know the number of troops that your vassal can provide, simply hover your mouse over your vassals troops counts in the military panel.
Once war has been declared, beat down your opponents with your raised troops then sit on his holdings to siege them. Winning the war enables you to expand your realm by claiming your neighbor as part of it. This is why playing in Ireland at the start of the game is a wise choice. You can easily claim yourself as Duke and raise your prestige, so long as you can raise the funds to claim the title.
Repeat stages 3 and 4 around the rest of Ireland until you can bring your supremacy to the entire country.
Strategy games like Crusader Kings II will certainly challenge your mind. If you're up for more games like this, click here to check out more tips about games under this genre.
Step-by-Step Guides on How to Play Burger Tycoon
by Edward on April 27, 2019 0 Comments
Do you want to experience being a business tycoon?
While you may find it quite challenging to rule the business world, it's not as hard as it is in the virtual world. If you want to have a feel on how to manage a burger establishment and make it even more successful, why not try playing Burger Tycoon.
This single-player online video game will not only fulfill your dream of being a successful businessman, it will also challenge your strategic and business skills. This game is not as easy as it sounds. It requires careful strategic planning as not being able to do so will have many pitfalls waiting. For instance, your cows will face their demise if you run out of soy. Using illegal substances to make your soy grow faster will result to being sued. Every single decision you made should be carefully thought of if you don't want to face numerous contingencies.
How can you get far in Burger Tycoon? Below is your step-by-step guide on how to play and rule this game.
Setting Up Your Farms and Restaurant
Starting this game in a correct pathway is very important. If you already have a game started and has not played it for long, it may be too late to save it and become profitable. Start with a clean plate instead and start a new game.
As soon as your game starts, pause it. Failing to do so will cause you to go bankrupt. Then build three soy fields on empty pastures. Select "soy" from the agriculture window and click on the empty pastures three times. Click another empty space and select the "Cow" option. Repeat until you have four. Click the Feedlot button found in the lower-left corner and click the scientific machine along the back wall and select the eyedropper option to enable hormones for the food.
Click the icon burger found in the lower-left corner to switch to the restaurant screen. Hire a single cashier and line worker. Once you have your cashier and line worker, switch to the corporate screen by clicking the McDonald's logo. Corrupt a health officer so that you don't get penalized for your poor meat quality. This option should remain enabled for the rest of your game.
Burger Tycoon is a free online game. You can click here to start your own game.
Now that you have finished setting up everything, it's time to start making money. Switch to the pasture view and unpause the game. Wait for two complete soy harvests and click the DNA button on the soy fields to remove the genetic modification from the field. Sell your soy to earn your money back.
Wait until your second cow harvest. After your second cow harvest, you are now ready to have your restaurant full staffed. Add two more assembly workers and two more cashiers. Activate the food pyramid and the third-world marketing options by clicking the marketing department in the corporate screen.
Your restaurant and your farm are now on its full production mode.
Maintaining Your Business
Make sure that you regularly check your cow pasture fertility. Your beef production on that square will stop if the pasture fertility degrades. How would you know when the fertility has degraded? The large blanks spots on the ground will be the indication. Sell off a cow pasture that is no longer fertile. Doing so will make the pasture blank and you can buy a new one again.
You would need to destroy the rainforest squares so that you will have more space on your farmland. Before doing so, make sure that you corrupt a climatologist from the corporate screen. Destroy two rainforest squares and allocate this space for your new cow pastures. With the two new squares and the two original squares that weren't being used, build your cow pastures again. Switch back and forth between the two sets of four open squares to build your pastures on and swap these pastures when they degrade.
An unhappy worker can greatly affect the productivity of your restaurant. As soon as you see that they become unhappy, give them rewards immediately. Giving them badges usually do the trick however it only works for a little while. Remember that discipline rarely works, so avoid giving unnecessary punishments to your workers.
You should know when to cut your losses though. If rewards can't seem to put them in a good mood, just fire that crew member and hire a new one. Before doing so, make sure that you corrupt a politician first from the front desk of the corporate screen. This will prevent backlash from angry employees.
Additional Tips
Once you have at least $50,000, you can bribe the mayor so that he will give you access to four additional land spaces that you can use in adding more soy fields and pasture. Just remember that you don't have to build all of them at once.
Never sell back a piece of land that you have outfitted. Doing so would only give you 50% of the money that you spent in acquiring it. Plus, you would need to pay the full price should you want to have the land back.
If you want to draw customers back, set up advertisements. As soon as you have accumulated $75,000, you can already set up an advertisement. Remember that you can only have one advertisement at a time because multiple ads can drain all of your resources quickly.
Always keep an eye on your profits. If you have noticed that they are starting to drop, evaluate what you may be doing wrong. Analyze every aspect of your business to point out where the problem is. There could be several factors that contribute to the decline of your profit – you could be using too many illegal substances in your soy, your employees could be misbehaving, or you may need to invest more in soy fields and cows. Remember that there may be times that you need to corrupt all four officials – climatologist, politician, health office and nutritionist.
Check out other computer strategy games here.
Best Strategy Games for your Kids
by Edward on March 27, 2019 0 Comments
Gone are the days where kids spend most of their time playing outside. It may sound depressing, but lots of kids would rather stay indoors and play video games for hours. A lot of them may have not even heard traditional games such as cat's cradle, marble and skipping rope.
Shall we blame technology for this?
I highly doubt it. Technology has paved ways to a better and more convenient life. Whilst our society is evolving along with the progress of technology, it's also important that our parenting techniques should also be in line with these changes. Don't feel too bad if you can't force your kids to play physical game outside.
Instead of being angry at technology, you can use it to your advantage. Your kids can develop their problem-solving and strategic skills by playing video games. Strategic video games, particularly, can be your aid in harnessing your kid's mental prowess.
Below are the best strategy video games for kids.
Endless Legend: Shadows
This 4X turn-based strategy game was developed by Amplitude Studios and published by Iceberg Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X in September 2014.
In this game which is set in the land of Auriga, players take control of a fantasy faction to establish an empire through conquest, exploration, research and diplomacy. This game allows you to level up your hero. It also presents vast options of customizing your empire and hundreds of research opportunities. Plus, you will have a very challenging AI which adds another level of element to the game. Not to mention the gloriously rendered combat that is as entertaining to watch as it is to actually participate in.
This game can be played online and offline. It has great customization features and your kid's strategy planning skill will be tested as they would need to create an effective plan in expanding their civilization. They would need to gauge if a certain situation calls for battle or diplomacy. As a parent, you must ensure that your kid's playtime is regulated. They could be potentially exposed to inappropriate content since players can text-chat with one another in this online game.
Legends of Eisenwald
Published by Aterdux Entertainment, Legends of Eisenwald will take you to the fictitious duchy of Eisenwald in medieval Germany in times of Holy Roman Empire. The main focus of the gameplay centers on the life of the youngest child of Baron Lahnstein who on return to his lands finds that the family castle is impossible to enter. Two separate single scenarios – Cursed Castle and The Masquerade – are separate stories happening in other locations of Eisenwald.
There are two main parts in the game. The first one is the global map interactions which includes completing quests, buying and selling weapons, potions, armor and other equipment and items which includes managing castles and other possessions, and equipping the army. The second part is the battles themselves.
Player chooses a hero then builds his army around that character. He can also take on corrupt land barons, brigands, pirates and outlaws while he's expanding his own army. The game allows players to either manually play out the combat or let the computer determine the outcome quickly. As you level up your armies, you can have key members specialize in different battle skills.
The graphics, as well as the background music, of this game are done skillfully. Becoming invested in the characters and the world is relatively easy. You can put some investment in your characters, training and equipping them for specific purposes.
You can use this game as a bonding and educational opportunity for your family to talk about medieval times. You can also discuss how important tactical combat is.
Offworld Trading Company
This game is set in a futuristic era where Earth is dying. Our planet is running out of resources to sustain our way of life. To resolve this problem, humanity must make their way beyond our home planet and start a new life elsewhere. Mars seems to be the perfect place to create a new civilization, with its vast supply of untapped resources.
Your role will be Mars' latest entrepreneur. You would have to supervise the mining and manufacturing of goods and services for the colonists who want to build a new home. Since everyone is on the lookout to make a profit, you would have to constantly develop the Martian marketplace. Creating deals to increase your money and put out competition are important to move forward in this game.
If you're thinking that a game without having to fire a shot or raise an army is boring, think again. This game offers fast, frantic-paced experiences where making a right business deal can more damage to your enemies than a battalion of tanks.
Just like with the most RTS games, you build your main base and harvest nearby resources. What sets Offworld Trading Company apart is that you start trading off with nearby colonist communities instead of using your hard-earned goods to build up a military force. You are affecting the marketplace on a global scale by buying, selling and trading with these communities.
In this RTS game that was released in 1998, players get to choose amongst these three species to command – the Terrans (humans), Protoss, and the insect-like Zerg. Each of these species carries their own unique tactics, weapons, units, technology and their own perspective of the overall story. Employing different strategies for each species based on these variables is absolutely essential.
StarCraft has gained a reputation as one of the most honored and coveted RTS games ever created. Despite being released 20 years ago, this game has remained popular up to this day and has never lost its appeal. Blizzard Entertainment created very accessible and compelling gameplay mechanics and produced exceptional pacing partnered with increasingly challenging yet achievable missions.
If your kids are crazy over video games, then it's best if you introduce them to strategy games. Click here to find other tips and information about this game genre.
5 of the Best Real-Time Strategy Games on PC
by Edward on February 24, 2019 0 Comments
If you want a game where you have full control of your army, then real-time strategy (RTS) game is perfect for you. In this game, you get to fill in a Commander's shoes in finding and managing your resources and building your empire. Teammate is also promoted in this game; you can create alliances with other playmates and think of strategies on how to defeat your opponents.
If you're looking for the best real-time strategy games on PC, we have made your lives easier. You can find on the list below which RTS is best for you.
This RTS video game franchise that was first developed by Westwood Studios is perfect for beginners. This PC game series has both a single player and multiplayer mode which are pretty much highly addicting. You get to build new structures, collect resources or train new units to fight one another.
The gameplay is pretty much simple. You are required to construct your base and acquire resources. These acquired resources are used for funding of any ongoing productions of various types of forces. You need to have strong forces if you want to rule in assaulting and conquering the base of your opponents.
The Command & Conquer series have been a commercial success with over 30 million Command & Conquer games sold as of 2009.It's also one of the highest ratings for a RTS PC game in existence. The series has acquired six world records in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008.These records include "Biggest Selling RTS Series", "Most Number of Platforms for an RTS", and "Longest Running Actor in Video Game Role" for Joe Kucan, who has played the part of Kane, the villainous mastermind of the series, for 15 years. Click here for the best Command & Conquer game.
Since the franchise of Age of Empires series started, it holds the title of being an RTS game that gives players the most choices for factions. A player has 14 different empires to choose from in Age of Empires III.
If you have a thing for geography and history, then you will find Age of Empires III quite interesting and enjoyable. Unlike other RTS games, this one features real life countries with actual historical military units like samurais. The game begins where you have to start off with a civilization that has to go through the dark ages. You need to research for technologies and then eventually opening up trade routes. From there, you'll build up a massive army to take over parts of Europe and Asia.
If you want a recipe of realism on your game, Age of Empires is the perfect dish. For every advancement to another age, a bonus system called "Politician System" is used. When you choose to advance to the next age, you will be presented with two or more "Politicians" accompanied with different bonus when you select them.
Age of Empires III won PC Gamer US's "Best Real-Time Strategy Game 2005" award. The game was named fifth-best game of 2005 by GameSpy. An 'honorable mention' in the 'Best Music' category was also given to the game.
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander is one of the best games in scale and zoom. Not only does it have an immersive gameplay aspect, it also has a full 180-degree aerial view. If you want to have a closer view or zoom out the entire map, you can just conveniently zoom in or zoom out. Others may find the game too unit heavy and intensive though.
Designed by Chris Taylor and developed by his company, Gas Powered Games, Supreme Commander is considered to be a spiritual successor to Taylor's 1997 game Total Annihilation, alongside the Spring remake. The game focuses on using a giant bipedal mech called an Armored Command Unit (or ACU) to build a base. You would then need to reach higher technology tiers by upgrading your units. The primary goal is to conquer opponents. You can command one of these three factions: the Cybran Nation, the Aeon Illuminate or the United Earth Federation.
The game has received high praise from many reviewers and players worldwide.
World War II has always had a soft spot in our hearts. Most of us are big fans of war movies because it reminds us how strong our brotherhood and love for nation is.
Company of Heroes is a 2006 RTS video game that is set during World War II. Your goal in this game is to capture strategic resource sectors located around the map. You use these resources to produce new units, build base structures and defeat your opponents.
This game has received positive acclamation and won multiple awards for the best strategy game of the year. Because Company of Heroes was a great success, a sequel Company of Heroes 2 was released in 2013.As of January 2013, the whole Company of Heroes series has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide film adaptation starring Tom Sizemore was even produced.
Star Craft II
StarCraft II is arguably one of the most popular RTS game ever created. It is a sequel to the 1998 hit game StarCraft.
This military science fiction RTS video game was developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It has its worldwide release in July 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game revolves around three species: the Zerg, a super-species of assimilated life forms; the Terrans, human exiles from Earth; and he Protoss, a technologically advanced species with vast mental powers.
The plot of the game is set four years after the events of 1998's StarCraft: Brood War. It features the adventure of Jim Raynor as he leads an insurgent group against the autocratic Terrain Dominion. The game includes both new and returning characters and locations from the original game.
Starcraft will always keep you on the edge of your seat, as it needs more time-sensitive strategically made decisions with the constant feeling of urgency. This is an excellent choice for you if you're up for a challenge and adrenaline-pumping game.
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Plague Inc: Tips on How to Become a Better Player
by Edward on January 24, 2019 0 Comments
Can a deadly plague really wipe the Earth?
While this has not happened in real life, Plague Inc. gives you an opportunity in creating and evolving pathogens to annihilate the world. This real-time strategy simulation game developed by Ndemic Creations will certainly get you hooked with its complex yet fun gameplay.
For those who are not familiar with the game, it lets you indirectly control a plague that has infected patient zer. There are different pathogens and various game modes that you can choose from. The objectives of this game include, but are not limited to: using a pathogen to infect and wipe off the Earth's population, use the "Necroa Virus" to convert the entire world into zombies or enslave the entire population with the "Neurax Worm".
Plague Inc is not an easy game. Aside from its complex gameplay, the factor of time pressure to complete the game will certainly put you on the edge of your seat while playing this game. Below are some tips on how to become a better Plague player.
Spread the Pathogens to Everyone Quickly
There are three ways for you to lose at this game. First, if your plague is cured by the world's renowned scientists before it managed to kill everyone. Second, your plague gets killed and burned itself out quickly in countries it infected. And lastly, your plague failed to spread on other countries resulting in condition one or two.
How do you avoid these three pitfalls?
Prioritize your transmission upgrades in the early game. If you want to increase the infectiousness of your plague, you would really need to spend all your early DNA points. After all, the component of this game is quiet simple – you need to infect everyone if you're going to kill everyone. Think of a strategy where you can infect the majority of people and nations before any serious effort starts to cure your plague.
Hold Out for the Holdouts
Limited accessibility and specific climates are some factors that make a nation hard to infect. Greenland and Madagascar, for example, are the worst offenders because of their very cold and very hot climates respectively. You will be having a hard time infecting Morocco too since it has road access only. If your plague gets too scary too fast, the Moroccans will just close their borders, kill all of their pigeons and livestock and wait out for the disease to subside. Try to infect these holdout countries before you can start the real annihilation.
Since most islands have contact with other countries through boat only, it's important that you should get at least level one of the water transmission upgrade early on in every game.
Keep an Eye on New Releases
One of the most recurring events in this game is the London Olympics. As long as your disease has at least level one drug resistance, has not manifested as too severe and has spread to at least two countries, you can use the Olympics to infect your plague all over England.
If you want to get ahead of this game, it's critical that you plan your disease upgrades accordingly. Are there more rain lately caused by global weather patterns? Is there a major bird migration coming up? Have doctors made a new progression in the cure, making your plague less effective? You should always take these factors into account when planning your strategy.
Pay attention to new releases. Are there any symptoms that doctors have acquired a new understanding of? The global cure gains a few percentage points automatically if you use DNA to grab that symptom. Keep your eyes open on these new updates if you are in a close race to beat the global cure effort.
Virus and Bio-Weapon Tips
Your disease has a mind of its own; it mutates the symptoms well before you'd like them to appear. Plague has a way of gaining its deadliness steadily even without symptoms in Bio-Weapon. With this being said, you find yourself always racing the clock when playing as a virus or Bio-Weapon.
Control the over eagerness of your microbes by using the special upgrades in the Ability section. You can use try to use their natural tendency to mutate deadly symptoms to your benefit. Let the plague mutations do some of the killing for you. Then, use your later DNA toward infecting those last holdout countries.
Parasite and Prion tips
Parasites and prion progress well under the radar. Parasites, more specifically, can silently infect the whole world before the effort of finding a cure begins. Both can give you serious challenges especially in the late-game though.
Compared to other plagues, parasites gain very little DNA in the later portions of the game. It can put you on a critical situation, especially if you don't have any DNA left. To avoid this from happening, don't spend too much of your early DNA on upper level Transmission upgrades. Let the infection spread at a slower rate. You can spread more havoc with your stockpiled DNA.
If there's a disease that is so subtle, it would be prions. Your plague can develop without being detected. Unfortunately, it takes a very long time to develop. Use techniques to stall as much as you can. Use the Prion's special ability, as well as The Walking Dead symptom combo, to confuse the brains of all those scientists you infected months before they can figure out what's going on.
Be Creative with the Disease Name
You can be as creative and spontaneous as you can be when creating the name for your disease. You may get it on top of your entire friend's leaderboards so your disease name should stand out. Obamacare, Beiberfever, Laughing Herpes, Duck Mouth and Dream Ears are just a few examples of disease names that don't just stand out but will tickle your sense of humor.
Learn more tips on how to become a better player in Strategy games by clicking here.
Tips on How to Rule Clash of Clans
by Edward on December 24, 2018 0 Comments
If you don't know Clash of Clans, then you might be from Mars. Since it was released last 2012, it dominated the world of avid gamers. And why not? This popular "freemium" strategy game is indeed addicting.
You find yourself spending more and more time building your townhall, upgrading your armies and looting resources from other base. Nothing beats the satisfaction when you hear gold and resources looted by your goblins and armies. You'd say that you will only spend an hour playing Clash of Clans but before you notice, it's already dawn and you have lost lots amount of sleep because of the game.
The reward of seeing your town expand and your troops stronger is definitely worth all the lost sleep and time that you spend on your phone playing this game. If you've decided to join the bandwagon and try your hands on this addicting game, below are some tips that you should learn by heart.
Understand the Mechanics of the Game
The gameplay itself is pretty simple. First thing that you need to do is to create your base. Then you add things to your base such as army camps, barracks, walls, gold mines, cannons, mortars and other various buildings. You need workers to build these buildings.
Build strong defenses by upgrading your buildings and your armies. Having stronger troops will make looting so much easier. Other players will be having a hard time attacking your base if you have stronger walls and higher level of defenses. How do you make your base and army stronger? Loot, loot and loot some more.
Take Advantage of the War
Defeat other players so that you can gain resources that you can use in upgrades. You need these resources if you want to upgrade your townhall, troops, walls, etc. Aside from gaining resources, you will also gain trophies and experiences. This will determine which league you will be in.
One of the best features of this game is Clan War. You join a clan, either made up of friends or co-workers or of total strangers sharing the same passion. Clan mates can donate troops and other resources. If you need more archers to attack, just simply ask and your clan mates will gladly extend a hand.
You can also rage war against other clans. Whoever wins the war will get the resources. Learn some strategies that you can use in clan wars here.
Know Your Resource
These are the resources that you need to upgrade and progress in the game:
Gold: Used primarily for upgrading your important buildings such as you town hall. It also costs you gold when searching for other players to raid for resources.
Gems: Highly valuable (costs real money to buy) and can be used to speed up waiting times on buildings and units, buy you more builders, and boost resources.
Elixir: Main resource for training and upgrading your troops spells.
Dark Elixir: Used to train and upgrade DE troops that are unlocked later in the game.
Use these resources to build a stronger base and troops. Be warned that upgrading takes time so make sure that you strategize carefully. You don't want to go to war without a king or queen just because you're still on the process of upgrading them.
Save Up Your Gems
Newbies, listen up! Never ever waste up your gems. Not only they are expensive to buy but they are also hard to accumulate. You can find these gems when you're cleaning off terrains. Save them up as they accumulate.
It's easy to spend them in expediting your upgrade or boost your production, but don't get tempted. If you really want to play this game without spending a dollar, use your gems wisely.
You Need to Pack Tons of Patience
In Clash of Clans, patience is definitely a virtue.
Why is that so? It takes lots of patience to look for other bases that you can raid. Upgrading can also take several days, especially if it's the town hall that you're upgrading. Not having patience can get you crazy waiting for 10 days while you're upgrading. You won't be able to use a troop that is being upgraded so it's best if you strategize which other troop can you use as a replacement.
First thing that you need to achieve is getting more builders. Aim in getting all 5.This way, building and upgrading will not take that much time.
Set Up a Solid Base
There are many ways that you can set up your own base. If you want a stronger base though, you can check out some of the strongest base in YouTube. This will somehow give you an idea on how to set up your base that enemies will find hard to attack.
Upgrade your town hall so that other resources and upgrades will be unlocked. Higher level of troops and amenities are only available on specific town hall level. Make sure that you make upgrading your town hall level a priority.
Do's and Don'ts in Raiding
Raiding other bases is important to advance in this game. It is through raiding that you will find the resources that you can spend on upgrading your troops and amenities.
Finding a good base to raid may sometimes take time. Either the resources available to loot are too low or the bases to attack are too strong.
If you feel that you've already spend 30 minutes looking for a base to raid and still can't find a good one, try lowering your trophies and league.
Joining an active clan war is also another way of earning resources. Here, effective war strategy is needed. You would need to plan which account will attack the opponent account. You can't just someone from your clan that has a town hall level 4 to attack an opponent with a town hall 10.If you want to win the war, you must think of better war strategy.
Reinforcing each clan member with stronger troops before the start of the war is also very important. Though winning or losing the war will get you a war bonus, you should always aim to win. Why settle for smaller war bonus when you can get more?
Are you fond of playing strategy games on your computer? Click here to know more tips on how to ace this addicting yet challenging game.
Everything You Need to Know Before Playing Endless Legend
by Edward on November 23, 2018 0 Comments
Endless Legend is a promising game for those that are fans of strategy games. It has a healthy amount of complex mechanics which will require you to level up your strategy skills if you want to get ahead in the game. Playing this game can sometimes be overwhelming, especially if you're a beginner.
Today must be your lucky day! We have compiled a list of guides for you to make your first game not just quite bearable but also fun.
Setting Up Your First Game
There are 11 available factions that you can choose from, each with their own unique characteristics including appearance, abilities, units and play-styles. It's best to choose the default "Wild Walkers" on your first game. These former forest dwellers are the most traditional faction. Ardent Mages or the Vaulters are also newbie friendly.
You can either play using the easy or newbie settings. The intelligence level of AI gets lower if you select a difficulty that is below normal. Choosing a newbie difficulty means that AI will more likely not declare war on you. This will allow you to explore the game at your own pace. On easy mode, war will be declared however the attacks will be weak.
A normal world size with shape Pangea is highly recommended for newcomers. You should also set your world difficulty to easy so that you won't be clashing into your neighbors.
Core Concepts of the Game
Now that you have started your journey in this game, understanding the important game mechanics is critical.
Faction controlled cities are used to generate resources, recruit armies and construct buildings. These five different key resources are important in order for your faction to acquire stability and growth.
Food – used to increase and sustain the population. More food is required for larger cities.
Industry – used to produce buildings and units. If a building construction cost 200 and you're earning 20 industries per turn, it will take 10 turns to complete the construction.
Dust – standard currency in Auriga. You use it to purchase heroes, strategic resource or pay maintenance cost on your armies and cities.
Science – used for research. This resource is important in quickly unlocking new weapons, building and advancement to new tiers of technology.
Influence – used for empire level actions, where you get additional resource gain or boosted attack on units. It is also used for diplomatic proposals with other factions.
Cities and Workers
Cities are units where you raise your armies. Armies are composed of individual units spawned by the player, each of these unit types have their own uses in combat and abilities. An action points system is used in moving armies. Each of these interactions and movements subtracts one action point until the counter hits zero. Once you've reached this point, you can no longer take any further action. Units are used for combat, exploration, questing and diplomacy.
Cities will automatically harvest any tiles in their range. This means that the city gains the income associated with those tiles. Every inhabitant in your city can be assigned as a worker and you can use these workers to boost any of your 5 resources.
Strategic Resources
Strategic resources are used to construct powerful armory and weaponry for your armies. For you to obtain these resources, you have to create a so called "extractors" on resource nodes. You can also build a city on top of your resource nodes which will act as extractor.
There are six types of strategic resources which are divided in three distinct tiers:
Tier 1: Glasssteel (yellow) and Titanium (blue)
Tier 2: Adamantian (orange) and Palladian (red)
Tier 3: Hyperium (purple) and Mithrite (green)
If you want to construct gears of superior quality, you must aim for higher tier resources.
Luxury Resources and Boosters
You should never miss out on the opportunity of acquiring luxury resources as they can provide exponential benefits to your empire.
Just like with strategic resources, luxury resources can also be harvested by city districts and extractors. Gathering enough luxury resources of the same type means that you can use it to spend on booster. Simply click on a luxury resource with a yellow square around it if you want to activate a booster. Boosters will be active for 10 turns.
Win Conditions
There are eight win conditions in the game:
Elimination Victory – you should annihilate all factions. Nothing should be left alive.
Score victory – you achieve this victory by having the highest number of overall points at the end of the 300th turn in a normal game
Expansion Victory – you should claim 80% of the map
Economic Victory – you should collect 555,500 Dust in a normal game
Diplomatic Victory – you should collect 3000 Diplomatic Points
Wonder Victory – be the first player to complete all of the quests and build the associated Wonder
Scientific Victory – you must discover five of six technologies in the 6th era
Supremacy Victory – conquer all capitals on the map
Additional Tips to Remember
Explore the vicinities with a hero – Take time to search for villages of minor factions and explore ruins. Explore your own area first, and then expand to the neighboring ones. You won't be able to accomplish anything if you don't have settlers.
Create units only when necessary – Avoid manufacturing units. Your initial set of army is capable enough of handling nearby villages. Manufacturing new set of soldiers will just hold back your production queue.
Up until turn 20, obtain at least 60 Influence Points – Obtaining at least 60 influence points will enable you to pick not just one but two options of empire development. This will certainly put you on the edge of the game.
Don't focus on villages of minor factions – Their units do not attack mines and your initial army is strong enough to deal with them. Put off pacifying them, especially if they don't offer any interesting bonuses.
Having an acquired knowledge of the components of this game will certainly prepare you for the long and challenging battle ahead. If you love strategy games like Endless Legend, click here to find out more interesting tips about games of the same genre.
6 of the Most Difficult Strategy Games
by Edward on October 23, 2018 0 Comments
Strategy games are unarguably one of the most difficult games. Puzzle games can make you think but nothing can use up all of your brain cells than the strategy games, especially those that are of difficult levels. Strategy games are not created equal. There are some that would really make you think twice while there are a few that can drain not just your mental capacity but emotional and physical aspect as well .Completing these difficult level would make you wonder if the developers created these just to make your life miserable.
This type of game genre is certainly not for the faint-hearted. You can't play these types of games if you don't have wit and higher strategy skills. If you think this game genre is hard enough, wait until you play some of the most difficult strategy games on the list below.
Frozen Synapse
Available for: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux
Frozen Synapse shows that indie strategy games are beyond generic and simple. This is a perfect example of a gameplay that is easy to learn yet difficult to master. Regardless if you are skilled or unskilled though, you will certainly find this game quite enjoyable and exciting.
How do you play this turn-based strategy game?
You control a unit of combatants and your goal is to eliminate all of your enemy units. If you think it sounds simple enough, sorry to say but you are mistaken. What's good about this game is that you have the ability to simulate the actions of your current turn, which allows you to see how it might play out. When you're satisfied, all turns are simultaneously resolved.
Your enemies have smart AI, making them a difficult opponent. If you're not challenged enough though, you can also play Frozen Synapse online against other high-skilled players. Frozen Synapse is a title that you should not miss out if you're a fan of strategy games. It's a game that will constantly put you on your feet.
Commandos 2
Available in: Mac, Windows, Xbox and PS2
Commandos 2 may be in the market for quite a long time, as it was released way back 2001, however it's still considered as one of the most difficult strategy games of all time. It is known for having the steepest learning curves of any games of its kind.
In this game, you get to control a squad of commandos. If you want to accomplish a number of objectives, you must rely on tactical positioning and advancement. Many people confuse this game with turn-based game or real-time strategy game. It actually falls under the category of "real-time tactics" game, which is something of a hybrid genre.
It's recommended that you play the PC version if you want to have the best experience on this game. The gameplay controls of this game are not really very intuitive in the console alternatives.
Available for: Mac, Windows, PS3, Linux, iOS, Android, X360
This first installment in the gigantic series titled UFO: Enemy Unknown debuted way back in 1994.It was a commercial success which led to a number of games have been released under the X-COM franchise up until around 2001. After several years, XCOM: Enemy Unknown revived the XCOM franchise. Fans did not mind the long wait as it was certainly worth it.
In this turn-based tactical game, you have to control a squad of alien-fighting soldiers. Your goal is to defend the Earth from an imminent invasion. You will undergo a series of missions which are interspersed with phases of development, research and expansion.
Critics consider this game as one of the most challenging tactical strategy games of this generation. Click here to check out other video games in the XCOM franchise.
Xenonauts
Available for: Windows
Xenonauts and the aforementioned XCOM series have a bunch of things in common. If you're wondering why that is so, it's because Xenonauts got its inspiration from XCOM series, though that doesn't mean that Xenonauts is a sequel. Despite the similarity of the gameplay and theme, it's not a remake or a clone.
The game is divided into two distinct components: a tactical element that involves turn-based ground combat and a strategic element that involves real-time air combat. There are playability improvements created, which includes a cover system in combat, starting combat formations, and alternative victory conditions.
Xenonauts received positive reviews from fans and critics alike. It has a score of 85% from PC Gamer and a 77% on Metacritic, based on 21 reviews.
Available for: Mac, Windows, and Linux
The Europa Universalis IV is the most advanced franchise in the Europa Universalis series of strategy games.
You will find a surprising amount of depth in this game, particularly when it comes to the variation of options and actions available during gameplay. It covers a wide time period ranging from the 1400s to the 1800s.
At the start of the game, you would have to explore and scope out the unknown world. You will then move to expand your territory, exploit resources from other worlds and finally exterminate your opponents. Europa Universalis IV is perfect example of a 4X strategy game. Compared to other 4x offerings though, this game has greater lean towards diplomacy and has lesser focus on direct combat.
This real-time 4X strategy game takes place in the future when civilization lives among the stars. You can advance your own empire by conquering various star systems though diplomacy and military.
What sets Sins of a Solar Empire apart from other games is its massive scope. The 3D environment, just like true space, is an entire ocean full of celestial bodies with which you can interact. What makes this game extremely difficult is the depth is all of its game systems and technology trees. There are plenty of things that you must do that it will take you more than hours to finish a single game.
Strategy games are not only a fun way to kill time but they are also an effective brain exercise. Click here for tips and information about other strategy games.
Reasons Why You Should Start Playing Civilization
by Edward on September 22, 2018 0 Comments
Civilization has always been an exciting topic.
Learning the culture, society and way of life of a particular area is indeed a pleasant experience. It's interesting to know how we have turned from primitive human being to civilized people. Learning is one thing, but how about having the first-hand experience of doing so? Would you believe me If I say you can build your own empire or civilization through a video game?
Yes, you have read it right. If you want to have an immersion in building civilization, play a strategy game called "Civilization". Created by Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley for MicroProse in 1991, the main objective of this game is to "Build an empire to stand the test of time". Civilization takes you back to 4000 BC and your role as a player is to attempt to expand and develop your empire through the ages from the ancient era until modern and near-future times.
If you aren't sold of this game, below are some of the reasons that should convince you why playing Civilization for hours is worthy of your time and effort.
It is a Global Learning Experience
This game is a global learning experience in two ways. First, you get to acquire tidbits of information regarding arts, science, culture and history. Second, you get to know different historical characters and unique cultures all over the world. You get to know more the world that you live in without even stepping out of your house.
Let's admit it; learning could sometimes be a bore. This game adds f-u-n to the learning experience. Voiceovers from renowned personalities such as Morgan Sheppard and Leonard Nimoy are featured in this game.
What's even admirable about this game is that it's been used by several academic institutions as their teaching tool in the classroom. This just proves that Civilization has a strong potential capability to educate. While many are contesting on the efficacy of these implementations, the series encourages students to do their own research about different civilization topics. If you've never heard of modern production methods, the technology trees featured at the end stage of this game will surely spark your interest on this subject.
Experience Building an Empire without the Stress
I can imagine how hard it must be for politicians to build an empire of community. It must be stressful to keep the community in order given that the residences have different type of personality and behavior. Civilization lets you experience the joy of building your own empire, albeit without the accompanying stress.
There is no doubt that empire-building games are indeed enjoyable and addictive. The lack of fast reflexes though is one of the reasons why some gamers don't feel the same enthusiasm. In Real Time Strategy (RTS) games, the demand for "clicking and dragging" and being super-fast with your keyboard can be overwhelming. Your empire won't even make it beyond the pre-historical era if you don't have this skill.
Civilization is a different story. Since it is turn-based, you won't need much of your reflexes. You can take as much of your precious time as possible to fiddle, contemplate and research before making a decision. Excellent strategic planning requires more time and deliberation and not how fast you can click and drag.
It Gives You a Taste of Real-World Grim Realities
This might scare off some gamers. After all, we play games to somehow escape from our real world and be transported to a world full of entertainment and adventure.
Yet, you will have far more memorable gaming experience if there is a right balance of fantasy and reality. Civilization got this balance right as the fantasy side of the game is somehow closer to the reality. These realities are presented in the form of diplomacy challenges and unhappiness. As the population grows, cities are suffering from increasing unhappiness. Each stage of the game presents a challenge to maintain the increasing population for economic and defense purposes, while doing everything possible to keep the citizens contented.
You must also handle diplomacy challenges well if you want to win the game. These challenges could be presented in the most unexpected moments. For example, a war can be suddenly declared by a total stranger. Your ally neighbor might turn against you because he was bribed.
These real-world crises could upset some gamers. However, you must understand that human race is very complex. This game does not only open your eyes to these complexities but it also teaches you to be strategic and patient.
It Features an Epic Music
Civilization is famous for its soundtrack. If you're into classical or ethnic music, your ears would surely experience a "soundgasm".
You will hear classical masterpieces by Brahms, Mozart and Dvořák in Civilization IV. These masterpieces accompanied the Industrial Age and Renaissance segments of the game. A more ethnic approach was chosen in Civilization V.
Playing this game will take you into an immersion experience in the world of music. Music lovers would feel that they are in a world festival, with different masterpieces serenading your soul
There is a Huge, Active Community of Mods
Some gamers would measure the worth of a game by the number of mods written by fans for it. With Sid Meier's Civilization, you can find literally hundreds of mods written on different platforms. Many of these are even expertly and elaborately scripted. The list could include additional civilizations, additional leaders, tech-trees, new battle units, wonders and improvements and so on.
Having a huge, active community of mods empowers incredible variety of playing the game. Just imagine, how many ways can you play the games with hundreds of leaders, each with unique personalities, weaknesses and strengths?
And who says you can't even make your own mods too? As long as you have the necessary skills, you can add your favorite world leader to the list and see how he would fare against other leaders. Every session has endless ways of becoming unpredictable and unique. This alone is more than enough reason for you to start playing this game.
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Patients with St. Louis encephalitis may have urinary tract symptoms when they develop manifestations related to involvement of the central nervous system. During 1976, 12 patients with St. Louis encephalitis were studied for the presence of antigenuria, and compared to controls. Although virus isolation attempts were negative indirect immunofluorescence, electron microscopy, and immune electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of viral antigen in urine. Further study of antigenuria in St. Louis encephalitis is needed to delineate the pathophysiology of the lower urinary tract symptoms and to determine whether this phenomenon might furnish the basis for a rapid diagnostic test for the disease.


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Ozzy and Out… With Rock Star Celebrity Academic Self-Parody Satire
March 22, 2019 coffilosophy, Popilosophyart, books, censorship, fake celebrity, fake news, humanity, Lorraine Kelly, media, parody, poetry, politics, Russell Brand, satire, self-parody, writingMarc Latham
I hope the mistYmuse helped you through the four darkest months in the northern hemisphere, and you all have a great eight months of spring, summer and early autumn/fall. Here's a bonus blog post from Facebook this morning. You can join me there or on LinkedIn, or contact me at greengrey@gmail.com. Hope to see you for mistYmuse 2019/20 on November 21st…
Self-Parody Satire Encore
I'm going to act like the proper academic I trained to be by studying a PhD: assigning myself 'eight months research leave'. Unfortunately without their full pay and a sexy secretary!
Possible 'celebrity' reactions to this new Osbournes video that you won't see on breakfast news, after Lorraine Kelly won a tax battle against HMRC by claiming her breakfast news appearances were an act: she said she plays the nice, happy role 'Lorraine Kelly' persona as dictated by her bosses.
I've been saying this for years, and been castigated for daring to question 'lovely celebrities', right up to princesses Diana and Meghan.
The NZ PM is the latest who looks very fake, but it is a role she has to play! Not that I support the shooting, or think she does.
I'm in line with the left-wing and Russell Brand's beloved Chomsky there: 'Manufactured News'; which I read a decade before Brand was lauded for repeating it, and calling for a real revolution, leading his followers on Westminster. The NZ shooting is what a real revolution looks like Russell, who's now enjoying life on Celebrity Bake Off!
Self-Parody Personas Reaction to Osbourne Children Video
A Lorraine Kelly 'paedo persona': sexy.
A Lorraine Kelly 'white supremacist persona': hope for the future.
A Lorraine Kelly 'animal rights persona': at least they're not biting birds' heads off!
The above is self-parody satire, and in no way reflects my real views. It's the kind of satire seen on mainstream television satire shows, so I don't think I'm out of line.
In my real view, I think the video is sweet, but don't know if it should be shared online.
I also hope Ozzy gets better soon, but stops promoting and celebrating the biting of bats and birds!
Yesterday I ended the season on fmpoetry by supporting poor Amber Rudd, castigated for using the term 'colour' recently by Diane Abbott and the media, after Gemma Chan used it to support herself playing white roles, after all the whitewashing debate in media studies over the last decade: a debate I was basically excluded from, for being too stale, pale and male!
Spring Equinox Here, in Northern Hemisphere: Free Vitamin D
March 20, 2019 Leeds, Sky, sun, sunrise, sunsetart, books, censorship, environment, equinox, Establishment, feminism, life, light festival, media, relationships, religion, science, sexism, spring, sun, women, workMarc Latham
The Spring Equinox is here, a day earlier than normal although not uncommon, in the Northern Hemisphere, as appropriately reported in The Sun, including a nice POP (PinkyOrangePurple) Stonehenge photo, and explanation that it's caused by the way planet Earth travels around the sun.
End of mYm1
So I can hereby declare the continuation of the closing ceremony for the first full mistYmuse (Midwinter Ideal Sunrise Times [November 21st to January 21st] – Midwinter Until Spring Equinox [January 21st to March 21st]) winter light festival.
It started yesterday on fmpoetry with some selfYsun-love art branding I did during the festival, and that have now just fully healed, after the last ones were done two months ago.
More Sun than SAD
I hope mYm helped those who suffer from SAD (Seasonally Affective Disorder) in the most challenging four months of the year, and entertained everybody.
The weather has been pretty average overall, a mild winter here, but as I've stated before, it's about light rather than weather anyway. Our light is predictable, whereas weather fluctuates. This has been proved true over the last month.
It seemed love was in the air in romantic Valentine February, as the sun shone bright and temperatures rose much higher than normal, but then March saw a return to wintry weather. Thankfully, sun and warmer weather have now returned.
New buds are opening, and there's a whole lotta photosynthesis going on!
Here's a few photos of the emerging spring:
Predictable Light
Whereas the weather has been unpredictable, light has continued spreading earlier and later in the day, as shown on the met office weather forecast:
It seems a long way from the midwinter December 21st ideal sunrise times of about 08.30, followed not long after by the sunsets of about 15.45.
That was captured for posterity in January (better late than never) on my fmpoetry website, with the sunrise and sunset at the bottom of the screen then; and a bit of an earlier sunrise and later sunset than their late December latest and earliest.
Both those weeks also have mostly cloudy weather, which inspired my Greenygrey original idea, putting a positive green land spin on the normally grey weather, also hoping to conserve green spaces and trees; and some sunshine, which was the main weather reason for putting the Y into the ascendency with the greenYgrey rebranding.
In human terms it was both to support blonde women and show I wasn't after non-blondes when the Establishment sent me to work in the 'multicultural' area of Leeds; or interested in seeing their hair, as some Islamists tried to make out my support for feminists fighting Islamist sexism was all about. Ironically, one of those women told me they don't like 'Jews' around there – probably trying to get Jihadi 'stripes' and impress her male controllers!!
At One Under the Sun with Native People
March 10, 2019 Sky, sun, sunrise, sunset, UKart, books, Cahokia, environment, henge, humanity, life, media, mental health, mind poems, mind poetry, nature, pagan poem, pagan poetry, poetry, religion, science, stars, sunMarc Latham
I don't need to travel the Earth
to be where I feel home
because I'm already
in a pagan state
pagan state of mind.
North American woodhenge sun calendar mirroring British ones and others.
Nice greenYgrey effect as they show how posts marked sunrise at different times of year.
Some great gYgPOP (greenYgreyPinkyOrangePurple) in this.
When the Earth was still clean and pure, civilisations either side of the Atlantic and Pacific worshipped the sun, moon and stars; using them to live with and amongst nature on Earth.
Unfortunately, they also did do some damage to nature, leading to them collapsing in the end.
We still haven't learnt the lesson!
Thanks to anybody reading this who downloaded my books on Smashwords last week, and anybody who's already read them.
Yorkshire: Pagan History and Alien UFOs
March 7, 2019 Sky, UKAlan Godfrey, alien, art, barguest, books, Brigante, Ilkley Moor, life, media, pagan, pagan Yorkshire, Parisii, religion, Rudston stone, Todmorden, Todmorden UFO, Travel, UFO, writing, X-Files, Yorkshire aliens, Yorkshire UFO, Zigmund AdamskiMarc Latham
Before the apparent extent of the child grooming scandals became apparent I would have joked about Yorkshire's biggest mystery being why it has such a high self opinion, as I did in Wales when I lived there; and that the mystery of why the Nora Battyish women want attention is explained by them growing up on Last of the Summer Wine. Compo was one of my favourite sitcom characters, but that doesn't mean I fancied Nora!
However, now I think 'local pride' is needed as a defence against invasive cultures, due to the combination of high immigration and a Multicultural Fascism politics and media policy over the last twenty years.
Mysterious Yorkshire by Rupert Matthews
While there is still a lot of greatness in Yorkshire, such as a couple of big lovely national parks, historic towns and villages, and a high-chalk-cliffs coastline including abundant seabirds Rupert Matthews explains why Yorkshire is so proud in his book on its mysteries.
In history, Yorkshire spread across the north to the west coast, so including the Lake District. It is already the biggest county in England if including its four geographical sub-sections together (separated in 1974), and was big enough to be a separate country in its historic form, as it basically was before England formed; and as many still want it to be today.
Pagan Yorkshire
Matthews discusses how the Yorkshire area was separated into tribal areas when the Romans invaded about 2000 years ago. The biggest tribe were the Brigantes, who worshipped one goddess, Brigantia, and controlled the north and west of the region; the Parisii controlled the east, and worshipped multiple 'pagan' deities. There are many stone circles and monoliths from that era, including the highest standing stone at Rudston.
Rome introduced Christianity, but after they left, paganism became the norm again after Germanic tribes; such as the Jutes, Angles and Saxons; settled into the vacuum left by the Romans.
After Christianity took hold again after a few centuries, the Vikings brought paganism with them when they invaded. Over the following centuries, Christianity became the norm again, through a mixture of preaching, war and bribery, but pagan beliefs and practises continued, and are still celebrated today. In fact, many 'Christians' seem to have more 'pagan' beliefs than mildly pagans like me; being more inclined to be superstitious etc.
There are chapters discussing many fairies, witches and ghosts sightings and experiences, and many are very persuasive. There is even a were creature legend known as the barguest (not greenYgrey though) said to roam Ilkley Moor, which also has a stone circle, and regular mysterious lights sightings.
Alien UFO Yorkshire
There was also a famous UFO/alien encounter there in December 1987 (when I'd left the UK!), with a policeman taking photos of 'something' (looking old-fashioned greenygrey itself, while the photo is overall greenYgrey):
There was an even stranger experience in the Halifax-Todmorden area in November, 1980 (around the time I had my distant UFO experience in Wales) with several policemen seeing UFO's; some close-up.
Moreover, one of them, Alan Godfrey, under hypnosis recollected being abducted, and had earlier that year investigated a man, Zigmund Adamski, who'd been found dead from shock, staring face-up at the sky on a pile of coal, after disappearing several days earlier.
The strangest and most convincing part was that Adamski had some ointment on him, as if it had been used to tend burn marks, that they still don't know the composition of; and there were also strange marks found on the body.
I have found out all that barguest/UFO information since writing my parody comedy X-Files fantasy fiction travel book featuring a vegetarian werewolf protagonist:
Free eBooks on Smashwords
March 3, 2019 Leeds, Skyart, books, fantasy, feminism, fiction, fun, life, media, mirror poems, parody comedy, poetry, politics, Travel, writingMarc Latham
My latest poetry book and second of greenYgrey fantasy fiction parody comedy Australia travel on Smashwords are free for this week as an ebook download:
Werewolf of Oz: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/325567
242 Mirror Poems and Reflections: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/321583
UFOs: UK Best 100 Cases Documentary
February 23, 2019 coffilosophy, Popilosophy, Sky, space, sunrise, sunsetart, books, fun, life, media, National Geographic, National Geographic UFO, photos, religion, science, Travel, UFO, UFO documentary, UFO UK, writingMarc Latham
Channel 5 in the UK had a good two hours collection of UFO videos called 100 UFOs Caught On Camera this week, available to watch until March 23rd, but just in UK I think. At least half were really good ones; crafts or lights moving at speeds and angles beyond known human capability, and some looking really big.
One of the best new ones for me, for its veracity; others were more spectacular, but seemed possible fakes or could have been planes, birds or insects; was a National Geographic one. I didn't even know they had a documentary series about UFOs. Here it is on YouTube:
If you can slow it down, it does really look like a classic big spinning disk with windows/lights.
The editor has commented below it, verifying it as well. Although National Geographic has a good scientific brand reputation, others have fallen below expected standards, so it could all be fake, but as far as I know and think, it looks and sounds genuine.
The Ocean Above: My Personal Theory of Space
Together with the rest of the cases in the programme and elsewhere I think there's definitely something happening in our sky, atmosphere and space, but don't know what. I think that's because it's currently beyond humanity, as far as I know, rather than there being nothing out there.
The same goes for inside the head, which I investigated a lot in my writing. Advances in science are now answering some of the old philosophical questions. I've included both, in greenYgrey and PinkyOrangePurple (POP) technicolour, looking for reflections in the folding mirrors:
Let it be Heard: I'm Not Finished with Amber
February 21, 2019 coffilosophy, PopilosophyAmber Heard, America, Aquaman, art, books, feminism, fun, humanity, letterology, media, Mera, relationships, Travel, women, wordplay, writingMarc Latham
While I'd like to work with or write a book about Amber Heard, or do something really weird, like live with her, I think this blog post will be the last for a while… unless there are new developments!
Mera Adds to Amber America Anagram Mystery
Sometime around investigating Amber Heard's Americanism for the last blog post; which included reference to her role as Mera in Aquaman, and introduced letterology as the exciting new sub-field of greenYgreyology; as she wore a great greenYgrey costume to its London premiere, I got to thinking about Mera being an anagram of Amber's four letters she shares with America's first four letters, which was the point of that last blog post.
By the way, soon after submitting that blog post I saw the news that Karl Lagerfeld had passed away, and I remembered him on fmpoetry.wordpress.com yesterday, along with a poem based on the anagram: indigo/I dingo.
So, if Amber noticed Mera sharing four letters with her, and being the first four letters of America, did they appeal to her because; I'll use a little list to make it look professional!:
Amber loves her name
Amber loves her country
Am-b-er has a b-complex – as it means her name doesn't match Amer perfectly.
B-Complex Wordplay
The third opens the wordplay door to mixing the dietary b-complex supplement (1 below) with a mental health condition (2 below).
From a Bing search (disclaimer: no influencing/advertising involved), b-complex: 'Referred to as vitamin B complex, the eight B vitamins — B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, B12 — play an important role in keeping our bodies running like well-oiled machines. These essential nutrients help convert our food into fuel, allowing us to stay energized throughout the day.'
From another Bing Search: psychoanalysis, noun, complex: 'related group of repressed or partly repressed emotionally significant ideas which cause psychic conflict leading to abnormal mental states or behaviour.'
#hasamberheard
Is Amber too American?
February 19, 2019 coffilosophy, Popilosophyadvertising, art, books, censorship, feminism, fun, humanity, life, media, Microsoft, photo, relationships, Travel, women, work, writingMarc Latham
Amber Heard couldn't have been more greenYgrey at the Aquaman London premiere.
The Stella Lagerwolf-Bruno in me thinks she has put this week's London Fashion show in the shade, winning top outfit of the year before the fashionistas could strut their funky stuff on the catwalk.
Amber American Letterography Study
However, in the wake of the Kate v Meghan controversy, some British greenYgreyliens wonder if Amber is too American for the greenYgrey role… when the greenYgrey trilogy eventually becomes a blockbuster superhero franchise… which must be imminent now!?
D.C. Comics Universe
While Amber Heard is mostly all American in a good way, she can seem a little over the top in an immature way at times, such as the fake apology with Johnny Depp about taking her dogs into Australia illegally.
I know I have been too immature for my age most of the time, and may be doing so again with this blog post; and especially for my doctor of philosophy title; although I would argue that this is a part of philosophy, and especially when paired with some of my more serious writing and poetry, such as yesterday's meeting with the sun prose and poetry shared with you for free on fmpoetry.wordpress.com (while admittedly advertising my books).
Blame the Parents
However, greenYgreyology letterography experts; the greenYgreyology version of lexicography; think they have worked out the reason why; Sherlock Holmes style.
If you study Amber's name for as long as they do, you will see that it shares the first four letters of Amer-ica(n), with only a b in the middle of Am-b-er dividing them.
Therefore, Amber Heard should not be blamed for being too American, and any fault lies with her parents, or whoever named her.
I hope that clears the way for Amber Heard to carry on greenYgreying (bringing back the Carry On franchise could be another option; that was unplanned unconscious spontaneous prose observation while travelling the writing road self-proclaimed genius!) all the way to the lead role…
P.S. The above contained mostly parody humour based on reality, whereas the last blog post contained mostly reality with a little parody humour.
Meghan Markle: Tim Burton Character
February 17, 2019 coffilosophy, XaW Files: Beyond Humanityart, books, censorship, Chelsey Davy, Cressida Bonas, family, feminism, friends, grooming, humanity, journal, June Sarpong, life, media, Meghan Markle, multiculturalism, race, relationships, religion, sexism, women, work, writingMarc Latham
June Sarpong's discussion point on Sky News's The Pledge this week was Meghan Markle: claiming the British media are negative towards her, and that it's mainly because of race. If I criticise either it will be put down to race.
June Sarpong So Wrong
The main thing I don't like about June Sarpong now is that a couple of weeks ago she laughingly admitted to claiming she was still vegan to get a big money media assignment – admitting fake news lying journalism with no hint of shame.
The second thing is that she always goes on about race; not the colour of her skin for me, although that is her big issue.
Now though, after fighting Multicultural Fascism for twenty years, and the terrorism and grooming that have benefitted from it, and that I've seen and experienced in Leeds, I wouldn't want a relationship with her.
The things I like about her is that she can be moderate, such as admitting the grooming epidemic did have a racial factor, and supporting Joe Root in the cricket homophobia row. Before I saw her on The Pledge I saw her on Investigation X; a series that included investigating UFOs at Area 51, my current main interest at fmpoetry.wordpress.com, that they concluded were human technology; so respect she was been a good investigative journalist in the past.
Meghan Markle: Bad Role Model
Watching the Meghan Markle show as I think she wants to be seen, I think she wants to be seen as a Tim Burton tragic fairytale; that's what she reminds me of anyway. I just saw that what I must have most been thinking of, The Corpse Bride, has one of its main taglines: 'Marriage as a vehicle to wealth and a higher social status.'
I think Meghan sees herself, and wants to be seen, as the heroine of the film, who from what I remember of it, beats the posh blonde expected bride: Cressida and Chelsy?
I don't know about Chelsy, but Cressida seems a much better role model for women, putting her career first: before becoming a princess with all that wealth.
Meghan the Merciless
Meghan seems more of an advert for ruthless women; the kind of career women you see on The Apprentice, bitching and backstabbing their fellow contestants (including other women) for a few dollars more.
She also hasn't criticised Prince Andrew at all, happily sharing a balcony with him above the common people, despite allegations by her fellow American young women – the main one was blonde, so maybe she doesn't count!?
Didn't Like Diana: Attempted Murderer?
For those who want to put my criticisms down to race or anti-Americanism, I didn't like Diana either. I watched a documentary about her step-mother Raine recently, and wasn't surprised to see Diana'd pushed Raine down a stairs, badly injuring her, after being horrible to her for years; which could be seen as attempted murder!?
Diana was treated badly, and did some good work for charity, as Harry and Meghan do, but it is expected of them, and they are well rewarded for it.
As I've said about the Queen, she has been a great one and person, but can never be as good as a poor person leading the same moral and virtuous life, while struggling with financial and social problems too; I'm not one of them!
Kate and Meghan: Angry Birds
While I prefer Meghan's animal welfare and environmental concerns, I think Kate seems the nicer person, or maybe it's just that she seems the more natural and sincere, because she's being herself, rather than an actress in another country and culture.
When I heard she'd bought a shotgun to shoot birds for the first time recently I thought it was probably to get back at Meghan, or feeling that she was being pressured by her, after reports of them arguing surfaced.
I think that's the kind of detrimental effect someone being too pushy can have, and why I try to keep my campaigning moderate. There was a pushy American character in a meal-ticket relationship that seemed to parody Meghan in the latest series of Cuckoo on the BBC.
When critics apparently say Meghan is no Diana, I think she does have a lot of similarities, but it's not a compliment!
Princess Kate – no matter how much Meghan annoys you, please give up the bird-killing; it doesn't become you!
Meal-Ticket to Mars: #hasamberheard?
February 15, 2019 space, UK, XaW Files: Beyond HumanityAmber Heard, art, books, Elon Musk, environment, family, feminism, fun, humanity, Ivanka Trump, life, Mars trip, media, parody comedy, relationships, Travel, women, work, writingMarc Latham
My plot to reach Mars has thickened, making me feel like one of those evil geniuses everybody seems to want to be these days; often using me as part of their ego/social media-building efforts!
Amber Heard and Elon Musk
When I saw a story about Elon Musk saying how much a ticket to Mars will cost, it inspired me to write 'If I can get closer to Amber Heard I reckon Elon will give me a free ticket!?' on Facebook.
Trump Wall could Disrupt Musk's SpaceX: Ivanka's Work?
Then yesterday I saw story about the Trump wall possibly going through Musk's SpaceX station, so I wrote with self-proclaimed genius self-parody: 'Ivanka must have heard about my plan to use Amber Heard as a meal-ticket to Mars, with Elon bound to give me a free ticket if I can get closer to Amber. Ivanka's got her dad to scupper my plans, desperate to keep me on this planet, in the hope that one day we'll be together.'
Sun and I Very Happy
In reality, back in the real world (or should that be solar system), the sun and I are very happy, and had a lovely first Valentine's Day together as a couple yesterday.
I don't think I really want to go to Mars anyway, as it's farther from the one I love: that great big bundle of life-creating fun, the sun.
#hasamberheard? #hopeamberhasn'theard
The reality behind the parody comedy is that some people are behaving like the above, and I've been trying to warn against it throughout my writing, from my first memoir and poems, through my fantasy fiction.
I did that after leaving university because they weren't interested in it, thinking it too politically incorrect and bad for business.
Hundreds or thousands of young people have since been groomed and/or committed suicide; many of them students. Many are now the perpetrators too though.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This article describes how to migrate from the Chat widget syntax to the unified Web Widget syntax.
The vast majority of the legacy $zopim.livechat APIs are aliased so they'll continue to work without the need to update any code. To see which APIs are planned or currently in-progress, see Planned APIs below.
In some cases, subtle differences might exist in how the APIs behave in the Web Widget compared to the Chat widget. For example, the Web Widget doesn't have any separation between its launcher and window, so if you call hide or setOffset the Web Widget applies it to the entire widget instead of just the launcher or window. Refer to the notes of each API below for more detail.
To read detailed descriptions for each API, refer to the Web Widget developer documentation.
* $zopim.livechat.set() currently supports the following APIs: name, email and language.
* All the position values supported in the legacy Chat Widget can be used except for tm (Top middle), and bm (Bottom middle). See the complete list of position values in the legacy Chat documentation. Also note that setting the position for mobile or desktop will affect both mobile and desktop versions of the web widget.
* $zopim.livechat.theme.setColor supports the primary color only.
* $zopim.livechat.theme.setColors supports the primary color only.
Below is a list of the $zopim.livechat APIs that are not supported in the Web Widget.
button.hide Button launcher is no longer supported. Previous button-related functions such as offset/position continue to work with badge.
getName Due to low adoption of these APIs in the standalone Chat widget, they won't be migrated over to the new experience. If this is blocking a use case for you, please let us know what you are trying to achieve in the comments below.


text:
McWicked to stand at Winbak of Ontario
Trainer Casie Coleman has announced on Facebook that 2018 Horse of the Year McWicked will be standing at Winbak Farm of Ontario in 2020. His fee will be $6,500 (Canadian). He is also being syndicated.
McWicked was retired from racing following the TVG Open at the Meadowlands on Nov. 23. His career earnings totaled $4.93 million.
McWicked's fifth-place finish in the TVG Open Pace championship at The Meadowlands brought the curtain down on the 8-year-old stallion's award-winning and record-setting career. The horse was honored in the Big M winner's circle, where owner Ed James, Coleman, and driver Brian Sears gathered in a light rain to offer their thoughts about the 2018 Horse of the Year.
"He's been a real special horse for me," Sears said. "He's raced against the best his whole career and brought us a lot of special moments, that's for sure. The last couple falls in Lexington, those were some great races, but he's done some tremendous things throughout his career. He'll be real hard to replace."
McWicked, a son of McArdle out of Western Sahara, won 40 of 110 career races. He is the richest pacing stallion in North American harness racing history and second to only gelding Foiled Again on the all-time money list.
This season, McWicked won six of 17 races and $1.03 million. It was his third million-dollar season, putting him in the company of Foiled Again as the only pacers with three million-dollar campaigns.
Last year at age 7, McWicked became the oldest pacer in history to receive Horse of the Year honors from the U.S. Harness Writers Association. He led the sport in earnings, with $1.57 million, and became the oldest horse in 43 years to top the money standings. He also broke Foiled Again's earnings record for a 7-year-old, which was $1.40 million in 2011.
McWicked's victories included two editions each of the Breeders Crown (at ages 3 and 7), Jim Ewart Memorial, Dan Rooney Pace, and Allerage Open Pace. He also won the Ben Franklin Pace, Max C. Hempt Memorial, William R. Haughton Memorial, Canadian Pacing Derby, Delvin Miller Adios, TVG Open Pace, Progress Pace, and Joe Gerrity Jr. Memorial.
He won the 2018 Allerage at Lexington's Red Mile in 1:46.2, which is the third-fastest winning race mile in history.
Throughout his career, McWicked battled throat and foot issues.
"He's tough as nails," Coleman said. "He just refuses to lose and gives everything he's got right to the wire every week. I've never been disappointed with the horse."
James, whose SSG Stables has owned McWicked since late in his 2-year-old season, made the decision to retire the stallion two days prior to the TVG, which was won by Always A Prince in 1:48.2. (with files from USTA)


I bought Celeb Luxury Viral Colorwash after adding purple streaks, & it made the color last Forever. Just colored again, & Will buy again. Smells good, & makes your hair soft.
not as bright as i hoped, but when mixed with other colors, changes those colors.
I Love Celeb Luxury Viral Colorwash product: After washing my white grey hair, I have a great lilac tint (I only do the ends).
Awesome concept and much cheaper than going to the salon. Pretty pink color!! I used this on my natural blonde hair, with no highlights and it worked. It will probably work better with freshly highlighted hair but it does still work in natural blonde, just not quite as strong.
Love Celeb Luxury Viral Colorwash product. Way better than other brands I have tried. My purple was almost all the way gone and after one use it brought my color back. Very pleased and will definitely keep buying.


text:
Q: Show that the set $\{x \in \mathbb{R}| \lim_{n \to \infty} \sin(a_n x) \mbox{ exists}\}$ has zero measure $a_n$ is a sequence of real numbers such that $a_n \to +\infty$. Show that the set $E = \{x \in \mathbb{R}| \lim_{n \to \infty} \sin(a_n x) \mbox{ exists}\}$ has zero (Lebesgue) measure.
The hint for the exercise says "Riemann-Lebesgue lemma and dominated convergence theorem". But for a start, I have no idea of how to show that $E$ is measurable (or of finite measure).

A: If $\lim_{n\to \infty}\sin (a_n x)$ exists on a set of positive measure, then by Egorov's theorem you can find a set $E$ with $0<m(E)<\infty$ such that $f_n(x)=\sin (a_n x)$ converges uniformly on $E$ to a measurable function $f(x)$.
Then by the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma we must have $\int _F \sin (a_n x) dx \to 0 $ for any measurable subset $F$ of $E$. But also, by uniform convergence we have $\int_F \sin (a_n x)dx \to \int_F f(x) dx$ for any measurable set $F\subset E$. Thus, $\int_F f=0$ for all $F\subset E$, which implies that $f\equiv 0$ on $E$.
Now, observe that $\sin^2 (a_nx)$ also converges uniformly to $0$ on $E$, hence
$$0 = \lim_{n\to\infty} \int_E \sin^2(a_nx) dx= \lim_{n\to\infty} \int_E (1-\cos(2a_nx))/2 dx = m(E)/2$$
because $\int_E \cos(2a_nx)dx \to 0$ by the Riemann-Lebesgue lemma.
However, this is a contradiction, since $m(E)$ was assumed to be $>0$.
Note: In fact, instead of using Egorov's theorem and uniform convergence, you can just use the dominated convergence theorem, since $\sin(a_n x)$ is bounded.

A: For any sequence $f_n$ of measurable functions, the set $\{x: \lim_{n \to \infty} f_n(x) \ \text{exists}\}$ is measurable.  For example, you can write it as
$$ \bigcap_{m \in \mathbb N} \bigcup_{N \in \mathbb N} \bigcap_{i,j>N} \{x: |f_i(x) - f_j(x)| < 1/m \}$$

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Verging on Pertinence: So, what's the Honey?
I've noticed that the traffic to this humble blog had picked up substantially in the last few weeks. Thinking it a minor blip, I've ignored any investigating. But, the traffic is still coming in, compared to previous months, strong. What's the draw? Wit? Insight? Emotional debacles?
Nope. Seems this site comes up as # 1, if you Google Borat Speedo and # 2 if you Google Speedo Borat. So, the aquatic clothing musings of a fictional character are the draw.
Some time ago, it used to be pics of Iceland that drew the Googling "mass" here (Specifically the amazing photographs of Layne Kennedy). Now, Iceland is a distant second. A shame; I'd much prefer looking at this than at this.
Perhaps, in time, the written entries will outnumber the photo-related ones, but I'm not investing in that stock anytime soon.
This seems to me equivalent to the discovery that if you lay down in the road a certain number of cars are going to run over you, per hour; and more at rush hour.


A tragic comedy about the union of two souls as well as two segments of the U.S. population, Red State/Blue State uses a rocky marriage between a conservative woman and liberal man as a metaphor for America's idealogical divide.
Robert Brustein, founder of American Repertory Theatre and famously political playwright, calls the Red State/Blue State "witty, trenchant, and moving."
Originally written as a one-act for political festivals timed to coincide with the 2004 G.O.P. convention in New York City, Red State/Blue State was selected for staged readings at Ensemble Studio Theatre, HERE Arts Center, and Bowery Poetry Club. Gregory played Don, the troubled husband of the relationship.
Subsequent revisions and the addition of a second act at Robert's urging have opened up the play's relevance, making it timely far beyond the current political moment.
Red State/Blue State was a finalist for the 2005 Tennessee Williams Literary Prize for Drama and the 2005 StageWorks/Hudson Play-by-Play Festival. That same year the 2nd Playwrights Showcase of the Western Region selected the play for workshop. In 2007, it made the finals of the New Jersey Playwrights Contest, and last year New York's Penguin Repertory Company produced a staged reading as part of its summer series. It was a semi-finalist in Washington, D.C.'s 2009 Source Festival.
Like modern candidates, the characters in Red State/Blue State pursue the politics of personal destruction, attacking vulnerabilities once considered too tender to touch. When unity finally seems possible, the compromises may prove too difficult to stomach.


Short documentary directed by Leonardo Blecher and Diego Contreras, at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de Cuba (Cuban film school). The film got a honorable mention in Ojo de Pescado Festival, in 2014, in Valparaíso, Chile.
her adversaries in the ring, she has to fight against sexism in her family.
The film got a honorable mention in Ojo de Pescado Festival, in 2014, in Valparaíso, Chile.


Silk Rugs are truly work of art and are moderate to very expensive. Your valuable silk rug possession requires a specific area of expertise within area rug cleaning with an acute knowledge of each rug's origin, silk quality, dyes and age of the rug. The common method of chem-dry process or dry-wash with foam and a sponge is not only the wrong way of cleaning your silk rug; it is a recipe for destruction of its fibers. The chemical residue or the foam will get absorbed by the silk fiber and the foundation of the rug (wefts & warps). This over time will dry up the silk rug and cause brittleness and cracking which destroys the rug and its value.
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Typically there are two problems for washing silk rugs. First, older rugs have been dried up due to the chem-dry process or lack of wash for many years and the fibers are very hard. The second issue is the new silk rugs, where the biggest problem is the color run upon exposure to water. We study each rug and determine the country of origin and the specific province where it was made. Accordingly, we decide the appropriate process to properly wash and treat the rug. For example, Persian silk rug is mostly made with 100% natural silk and requires extreme expertise when washed with water. Chinese silk rug can be natural silk too; however, most recently the new fibers are woven out of cotton resembling silk. It requires a complete different process than of natural silk or it will fade.
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