Thursday, October 31, 2013

Article about Bitstrips

I wrote an article about bitstrips.com

Please share it with everyone you know.

It contains the story of the Empires and Generals Ad on The Pirate Bay

http://paulyhart.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-artist-and-internet-or-why.html

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Laughing in the face of History - Telephone stock

"A man about 43 years of age giving the name Joshua Coppersmith has been arrested for attempting to extort funds from ignorant and superstitious people by exhibiting a device which he says will convey the human voice any distance over metallic wires. He calls the instrument a ‘telephone,’ which is obviously intended to imitate the word ‘telegraph’ and win the confidence of those who know the success of the latter instrument. Well informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over wires, as may be done by dots and dashes and signals of the Morse Code. The authorities who apprehended this criminal are to be congratulated and it is hoped that punishment will be prompt and fitting, and that it may serve as an example to other conscienceless schemers who enrich themselves at the expense of their fellow creatures."

– Boston newspaper, 1865, quoted by Edison’s assistant Francis Jehl in Menlo Park Reminiscences, 1937

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Sacred Grounds Game 10-22-13

Playing E&G at Sacred Grounds Coffee Shop.

Trent makes a delightful cup o joe.

JB learns the ways of the force.


Monday, October 21, 2013

10/21/13

the more and more i learn about hallowmas and samhain, the more depressing it gets.

someday i will have the gumption to make some cards about these two opposing-yet-similar holiday feasts, but until then, the world can wait a minute.

i might work on greece tomorrow. maybe also couple of other things.

need to get a new drivers license for my new home state so that i can get a postal box so that i can give it to you so that you can send me a self addressed stamped envelope so that i can send you some bumper stickers.

need to also learn how to drive.


Sunday, October 20, 2013

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Laughing in the face of History - Cameleopard

The Giraffe 

The giraffe got its name from the Arabian word Xirapha, which means "Swift walker"

But to the Romans and Greeks, the giraffe was camelopardalis: part camel, part leopard.

"There are two other animals, which have some resemblance to the camel. One of these is called, by the Ethiopians, the nabun. It has a neck like that of the horse, feet and legs like those of the ox, a head like that of the camel, and is covered with white spots upon a red ground ; from which peculiarities it has been called the cameleopard. It was first seen at Borne in the Circensian games held by Caesar, the Dictator. Since that time too, it has been occasionally seen."

Pliny, The Natural History of Pliny, 77 AD

They could have borrowed words from other african languages. Like Zulu: "Indlulamethi" or Swahili: "Twiga".
Today it's name is still "Giraffa camelopardalis", even though it's been proven beyond any shadow of any doubt that it is NOT a camel, and NOT a leopard.

What the hell?

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

2013 Cards in Progress Video



This video contains most of Ancient Greece. If you do pull off cards from this video, understand that you are:

A) Pretty smart
B) Understanding that the cards will change eventually
C) Having to get permission before you start the game to use "Unreleased" cards from your opponents

GAME ON!


2013 Family Edition Video

Friday, October 11, 2013

Laughing in the face of history - Jean-François Gravelet



French-born acrobat Jean-François Gravelet made a name for himself by crossing the gorge below Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The rope was 1,100 feet long and 160 feet above the water, and he crossed it successfully on June 30, 1859.


Evidently this wasn’t hard enough, because he later repeated the feat with a series of hair-raising variations: blindfold, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, wearing stilts. That man on his back is his manager, Harry Colcord, who apparently concluded it must be pretty safe. Midway through one crossing, Gravelet actually sat down and cooked an omelette.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

10/3/13 - ten things ahead for 2014

2014 information!

1) i spent three hours this morning at my favorite coffeeshop working on my book: By the Gates of the Garden of Eden gatesofthegarden.com and things are looking up for me finishing the text by summer of 2014 and getting it off to editing then to publication.

2) i have recently released the full completion of the Act of God expansion empiresandgeneralsactsofgod.blogspot.com and that is done... finally. this will grow as i come up with new ways for people to suffer.

3) the next newsletter will be coming out pretty soon and i will be giving away some really cool ideas and asking for feedback on a couple of very important items. if you want in on this goodness, email me at empiresandgenerals@gmail.com.

4) i am also going to be launching a kickstarter campaign with a friend of mine very soon on one of my other games. (more information to come in the newsletter).

5) still working on ancient greece empiresandgeneralsancientgreece.blogspot.com. hope to get this finished and polished off way before 300: rise of an empire comes out... so you can tell your friends that the spartans really weren't like that at all.

6) still working on the prince empiresandgeneralstheprince.blogspot.com. so far it's just tactics, but that will change.

7) still working on the great plague empiresandgeneralsthegreatplague.blogspot.com. i am probably 3/4 of the way done with the initial cards.

8) also, working on ANOTHER expansion that is sure to tickle the fancy. just compiled the starter list today of the possibilities.

9) also, to compliment #8, i am working on yet another expansion that i feel will help piece some mysteries together

10) the special edition will be undergoing some tweeks. i feel strongly that i need to separate historical fact with mythical lore. there are many game elements that should be introduced but not necessarily in the way that i wanted to introduce them.

thanks! again, if you want to be part of the loop then sign up for the newsletter!

Laughing in the face of history - Being kind to rats

A faded and somewhat droll survival of ecclesiastical excommunication and exorcism is the custom, still prevailing in European countries and some portions of the United States, of serving a writ of ejectment on rats or simply sending them a friendly letter of advice in order to induce them to quit any house, in which their presence is deemed undesirable. Lest the rats should overlook and thus fail to read the epistle, it is rubbed with grease, so as to attract their attention, rolled up and thrust into their holes. Mr. William Wells Newell, in a paper on ‘Conjuring Rats,’ printed in The Journal of American Folk-Lore (Jan.-March, 1892), gives a specimen of such a letter, dated, ‘Maine, Oct. 31, 1888,’ and addressed in business style to ‘Messrs. Rats and Co.’ The writer begins by expressing his deep interest in the welfare of said rats as well as his fears lest they should find their winter quarters in No. 1, Seaview Street, uncomfortable and poorly supplied with suitable food, since it is only a summer residence and is also about to undergo repairs. He then suggests that they migrate to No. 6, Incubator Street, where they ‘can live snug and happy’ in a splendid cellar well stored with vegetables of all kinds and can pass easily through a shed leading to a barn containing much grain. He concludes by stating that he will do them no harm if they heed his advice, otherwise he shall be forced to use ‘Rough on Rats.’ This threat of resorting to rat poison in case of the refusal to accept his kind counsel is all that remains of the once formidable anathema of the Church.

– E.P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, 1906

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Laughing in the face of History - Isaac Newton and the counterfeiter

(By Judy Dutton)

The science titan wasn’t used to being outsmarted. But after two years of trying to shut down English counterfeiting, one underworld kingpin was still getting the better of him.

Back in 1695, England’s Royal Mint discovered a serious problem: A massive portion of the circulating currency was phony. As counterfeiting methods grew increasingly clever, the Mint turned to England’s brightest mind for a solution. Isaac Newton was appointed Warden of the Mint, a one-man army who waded through London’s underbelly to restore the currency’s integrity. Most counterfeiters were easy prey for Newton, but William Chaloner, a shadowy kingpin, kept eluding his grasp.

Chaloner had trained as a nail maker’s apprentice, but he found a more lucrative application for molten metals: coining 30,000 guineas. The counterfeiter’s self-made wealth enabled him to pose as a gentleman and gave him an ego to match his intellect.

Newton wanted nothing more than to destroy Chaloner, and the feeling was mutual. Chaloner appeared before a parliamentary committee, where he insinuated that Newton was incompetent and blamed Mint employees for the epidemic of phony coins. Enraged, Newton intensified his efforts.



When Chaloner set up a coining facility in Egham, 20 miles outside of London, Newton sensed an opening. He began studying Chaloner’s sophisticated casting method—which involved pouring molten metal into brass molds before filing down the molds’ faces, resulting in much sharper images on the phony coins.

By September 1697, Newton had enough evidence to lock Chaloner up—but not for long. Working through intermediaries inside the prison and out, Chaloner bribed the prosecution’s star witness into fleeing to Scotland. Chaloner was released and accused Newton of framing an innocent man.

This attack on Newton’s integrity was the last straw. If Chaloner was going to play dirty, then so was Newton. Acting more the grizzled sheriff than an esteemed scientist, Newton bribed crooks for information. He started making threats. He leaned on the wives and mistresses of Chaloner’s crooked associates. In short, he became the Dirty Harry of 17th-century London.



After nearly two more years of relentless pursuit, Newton’s extreme measures had gathered enough evidence to put Chaloner away for good. This time, the charges stuck. On March 3, 1699, the counterfeiter was found guilty of high treason. The next day he was sentenced to hang. In the days before the execution, Chaloner wrote Newton a long, rambling letter proclaiming his innocence. The condemned counterfeiter begged his old rival for mercy, writing, “O dear Sir nobody can save me but you.”

Newton felt no pity. He snubbed his rival by not attending the hanging. As Newton had written during Chaloner’s first trial, the counterfeiter had formed “a confederacy against the Warden.” Chaloner could have lived a long, honest life had he “let the money & Government alone.”

With Chaloner dispatched, Newton torched the records of his investigation, likely to cover up the murky steps he took to help save the pound. In 1703, he gave up crime fighting and returned to academia as president of the Royal Society. England’s currency was once again safe from scoundrels like Chaloner, and criminals and thinkers alike had learned a valuable lesson: You don’t mess with Isaac Newton.

Free Stickers

Get your free stickers!

TWO Empires and Generals Stickers!

And one never before released Playing Card Signed by me!

FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!


Just send a SASE to:

Sorry, the Stickers are all gone.

And soon you will have TWO stickers to do whatever you want to with!

Total weight of stickers is 5 grams.

Have fun and GAME ON!

-Pauly Hart

Also include a tiny note saying hi and why you like the game.


What is a S.A.S.E.? (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) ?

To make a SASE that works, check THIS out.