A Card Game Even for Non Card Game Players?: A Review of Clubs ...

Game Name: Clubs

Publisher: North Star Games

Designer: Dominic Crapuchettes

Year:?2013

Players: 2 ? 6

Ages: 8+

Playing Time: 30 minutes

Retail Price: $14.99

Category: Family Card Game

Contents:

• One six-page rule booklet
• One two-page alternate rules booklet
• 60 cards
• 6 bonus cards

From the official press release: ?If you like Hearts and Spades, you?ll love Clubs!

Clubs combines trick-taking fun with a hint of risk. It?s simple enough for kids, strategic enough for adults.? The deck of 60 unique cards opens a new world of play for card game lovers.? The goal is simple: get rid of all your cards as fast as possible.? At the same time, you?ll want to take tricks with clubs in them, because they are the only cards that score points. But watch out! The last player to get rid of their cards scores nothing, even if they have a huge pile of clubs. Pick up Clubs?and win!?

I received a copy of this game in the mail and thought to myself, ?Oh, no, a card game!?? For some reason, I?ve never been drawn (pun intended) to traditional card games.? I play Go Fish or Uno with my daughter but that?s about it. Whenever someone pulls out a deck of cards at a party or gathering, I bow out and tell everyone that I?ll just watch. This isn?t because of some trauma due to a prior gambling addiction or I lost the title to my car in a card game. Traditional card games just aren?t my thing, I guess. However, as a trustworthy gaming contributor, I?ve got a job to do and so I examine the box. Nice.? The art looks appealing and family friendly; there?s not a toll free number to Gambler?s Anonymous on the back so that?s a good start.

I open the box to find 60 green cards in all four suits. The cards are numbered from 1 to 15 with no face cards. The cards have a nice coated feel to them and don?t feel cheap. The four cards numbered 15 each have different artwork. The club cards are assigned points. Alright, now I?m getting intrigued. I also find six orange Bonus Cards which are assigned 0, 2, 5, 8, 10, and 12 points each. Besides the nice sturdy box and the two small rulebooks that?s it.

So a few days go by and I haven?t worked myself up to play this game to review it. I do a little more research on North Star Games and find the company makes our current favorite family game: Wits & Wagers. Jeff reviewed this back in 2010 and if you haven?t played Wits & Wagers, you NEED to check this one out! You won?t be sorry. Following this my interest in Clubs became renewed and I immediately went back to the game box to read the rules.

The object of the game is to get rid of all your cards as quickly as possible in each round and win Tricks with clubs in them. I read on and find a word which troubles me: Meld. I think to myself if only I had only played more card games in my youth I?d know what the heck is a trick or a meld. Surely these terms have other definitions besides those pertaining to magic, illegal vice crimes, and Vulcans.? We?ll get to these terms in a bit.

Thankfully the game rules are limited to six small pages and I figure out how to play this game. The game is best played with three to six players. As you start the dealer shuffles the cards and gives each player ten cards. Depending on how many people are playing will determine which and how many bonus cards to lay face up on the table.

The person to the left of the dealer goes first and puts down one of five melds from the ten cards they?ve been dealt. The meld can be one of a kind (a single card), two of a kind (two cards with the same number), three of a kind (three cards with the same number), or a run: two, three or four cards by way of a standard poker straight, (Editor?s note: as Northstar?s Luke Warren pointed out the rules aren?t overly clear how a runs works but you can have anywhere from two to four cards in a run) Play moves to the left while each player must play the same meld until a trick is won. The melds are placed in the center as each person plays them.

Tricks are won when a player plays a meld with a card numbered 15 or when all other players pass consecutively. The player who won the trick picks up all the cards and keeps them. This is called winning the trick. As a bonus, this player becomes the new leader and decides what new meld to play.

Whenever anyone plays all the cards in their hand they then take the highest available bonus card. The other players, who still have cards, continue the round until only one person left with cards.? This poor chap is forced to take the zero bonus card. This marks the end of a round when players get points for each club they won during the round as well as points noted on the bonus cards they picked up. The game ends after any round where someone has scored fifty or more points. Yes, you?ll need to keep track of this with a pencil and paper, a memo on your cell phone, or lipstick and a napkin, or whatever method you like best.

You can still play with only two players but would only use the bonus card that grants five points.? Also, each round ends after the last trick is taken. There are other variations such as playing partnerships, making the 15?s wild and a game called Crazy Clubs. The instructions describe Crazy Clubs as similar to Clubs but with more bluffing and trash talking.

I have to say although the instructions were brief I did have to read them several times to figure out how to play the game. The introduction of unfamiliar terms (for me anyway) made it a bit confusing and it led to me not being initially enthusiastic about playing.? It helped a lot after playing through a practice round. After doing this it was much easier to figure out the mechanics of Clubs. Once you figure it all out I think you?ll enjoy this title.? The fact Clubs doesn?t take too much time to play makes it particularly good as a ?game appetizer? before you pull out the bigger and more complex games. Of course, it helps if someone figures the rules out first and then teaches everyone else.

A Card Game Even for Non-Card Game Players?: A Review of Clubs

Game Name: Clubs Publisher: North Star Games Designer: Dominic Crapuchettes Year:?2013 Players: 2 ? 6 Ages: 8+ Playing Time: 30 minutes Retail Price: $14.99 Category: Family Card Game Contents: One six-page rule booklet One two-page alternate rules booklet 60 cards 6 bonus cards From the official press release: ?If you like Hearts and Spades, you?ll ?

Score

70

Out of Ten

Summary : Pros - ? Short playtime ? Box and cards were attractive and sturdy ? Good for the entire family once someone learns and teaches the others *** Cons - ? The rules were a bit tricky and unclear at the onset ? The card art was utilitarian and lacked a bit of fun

70

Source: http://thegaminggang.com/2013/04/a-card-game-even-for-noncard-game-players-a-review-of-clubs/

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A cicada invasion 17 years in the making

It?s not a welcomed reunion, but after 17 years the cicadas are set to return to the East Coast.

Insect experts say that starting in mid April to late May, residents from North Carolina to New England will witness the emergence of billions upon billions of the singing insects. For them to emerge, the ground has to be a mild 64 degrees, notes retired Smithsonian entomologist Gary F. Hevel. That's how, even eight inches below ground, the insects know, "It's party time."

?In places where they?re going to be present, it?s going to be spectacular. There could be as many as 1 billion cicadas emerging per square mile,? Michael Raupp, a professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, told 1010 WINS. Translation: Ick!

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground. Near the end of their lifespans they emerge to climb trees, shed their exoskeletons, sing, fly and mate. Both females and males die soon after the females lay their eggs. The next generation will emerge in 2030 to repeat the cycle all over again.

Aside from the mess and the loud mating calls, these swarms of critters are harmless. But their homecoming in the last stage of their lives is unforgettable to those who experience it thanks, in part, to how they serenade whole neighborhoods with their loud chorus of chirping.

"Most people say it is like a science-fiction movie UFO sound,? cicada researcher Dan Mozgai wrote to Yahoo News in an email.

The East Coast, he added, should expect piles of the dead insects around their homes: "They can pile up like dead leaves."

Mozgai also pointed out that in areas where old trees have been removed due to storm damage or new housing developments, cicadas won?t be seen as they "live along the root systems of the trees and need them to survive.?

The cicadas about to spring from the ground are called Brood II, and are offspring from the last cycle that showed up in 1996, reports National Geographic.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/cicadas-coming-151907579.html

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Asthma ? A Respiratory Disorder | Mexico Health Insurance

Asthma is a respiratory disorder characterized by frequent wheezing, labored breathing, sense of chest congestion and frequent attacks of coughing and gasping. It is a disease of the respiratory system in which the airways narrow down often in response to a ?trigger? meaning exposure to cold air, exercise, allergen or emotional stress. These symptoms of asthma can range from mild to life threatening and can be controlled by drugs and separate lifestyle changes.

This disorder is a chronic inflammatory condition in which the airways develop increased responsiveness to various stimuli and are characterized typically by bronchial hyper-responsiveness, increased mucus production, intermittent airway obstruction and frequent inflammation.

Diagnosis of asthma

If you are suffering from any of these symptoms you should visit the physician for proper diagnosis. Asthma is strongly suspected if a patient suffers from eczema or several other allergic conditions and already has a family history of asthma.

However diagnosis of asthma involves the following factors:

§In children it begins with developed breathing problems, history of nasal stiffness [rhinitis], itchy eyes [allergic conjunctivitis] and eczema.

§For adults it involves listening to the lungs with stethoscope and examination of nasal passages.

§Blood tests and sputum studies are also great ways to diagnosis for asthma.

§Spirometry is breathing test, which measures the amount, and rate at which air can pass through airways.

§Exercise challenge tests and metacholine inhalation tests are also great procedures to evaluate airway responsiveness.

Asthma and pregnancy

Asthmatic women can face serious problem during pregnancy. If they do not take proper care, asthma can attack both the mother as well as the fetus inside the mother. Therefore uncontrolled asthma in pregnant women often lead to complications like premature birth, low birth weight and maternal blood pressure changes.

Following are brief ways pregnant women can take care of their asthma:

§The expectant mother should remain active and sleeping throughout the night.

§Pregnant women with asthma should do some regular exercises under the supervision of their physicians.

§The pregnant mother should avoid medications like iodides, aspirin or ASA products, tetracycline, sulfonamides and antihistamines.

Treatments for asthma

Asthma can be treated with two types of medicines that include quick-relief medicines and long-term control medicines. While quick relief medicines should be taken during the first signs of asthma, the long-term medicines are taken every day usually over long periods of time to prevent symptoms and asthma attacks.

Following are the various treatments for asthma:

§Children with moderate or severe asthma should know to use a peak flow meter to help keep asthma under control.

§Medicines are the best treatments along with inhalers. However, medicines like beta-blockers used for treating high blood pressure and glaucoma, nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs and aspirin should be avoided.

§Regular physical activity is important to reduce asthma.

You should manage your asthma to remain fit and healthy in life.

Source: http://www.nmfbihop.com/asthma-a%C2%96-a-respiratory-disorder

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Considering Convertible Debt? Don't Sell Yourself Short

Editor's note:?Patricia Nakache is a general partner at Trinity Ventures where she invests in early stage social commerce and entertainment companies. The prevailing wisdom among entrepreneurs these days is that they should initially fund their startups with a $1-2 million convertible note.?? The logic is that raising a convertible note, even a capped one (as most are), is less dilutive, and perhaps faster, than raising a priced round from an institutional venture capital firm that typically seeks a minimum ownership level.? But in many cases founders are shocked at the dilution they suffer when, after having raised a convertible note, they raise their first priced round.? Too late, some realize they would have been better off skipping the note and raising a full series A right off the bat.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/G04Rcmul1Io/

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When CEOs get demoted (by the companies they founded)

Karsten Strauss , Forbes ? ? ? 25 min.

With RIM?s recent launch of its Blackberry 10, founder and board member Mike Lazaridis may have felt he?d, in some way, seen his company to safe harbor. ?Safe? may be an overstatement, given competition in the mobile smartphone market these days and RIMs place in it, but let?s just say it gave him a positive event to step out on. He will retire in May.

But Lazaridis gave up CEO leadership at RIM over a year ago, some say due to shareholder pressure. It must be a surreal moment to be cast aside by a company you?ve founded. At best it must be like being dunked on by your own son, at worst like being shot in the knee by him. No wonder Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg took such a strong ownership stance with his company.

A number of founding company leaders have been dressed down by their own companies; some are stories of betrayal, some failure and some of redemption.

In 2007, Jet Blue?s David Neeleman was pushed out of the top spot by the airliner he?d founded eight years prior. The reason? Service difficulties and the notion that JetBlue could have been more profitable with different leadership. His step down did not help JetBlue?s share prices, however, which ended 2007 at almost $5, down from over $16 a year before. Without skipping a beat, Neeleman stayed with the company and founded another airline, Azul, in 2008.

Aubrey McClendon founded Chesapeake Energy in 1982 at the age of 23. He announced this past January that he will step down as CEO amidst allegations of self-dealing, questionable business practices and a spendthrift nature. FORBES profiled McClendon in 2011, calling him America?s Most Reckless Billionaire. Possibly responsible for McClendon?s ouster is billionaire Carl Icahn, an investor with a presence on Chesapeake?s board, who felt he wasn?t cutting costs.

In the wake of his departure announcement share prices have risen from under $17 to over $21. Without the responsibility of running the company, McClendon may have time to complete the still unfinished massive wine cellar he began building in Oklahoma City in 2008. Win-win?

Perhaps the most famous story of founder ouster is that of Steve Jobs. After hiring John Sculley as CEO in 1983, Jobs changed his mind about the former Pepsi President and conspired to have him removed. In a shocking twist, the Apple board sided with Sculley and Jobs was removed from his managerial role with Macintosh and resigned some months later.

Following a failed but inspiring startup, NeXT Computer, and the acquisition of what would become Pixar, Apple?s purchase of NeXT brought Jobs back to Apple leadership and the rest, as they say, is history. Jobs confessed that his ouster from Apple was instrumental in his education and allowed him to develop his creativity and leadership.

Related at Forbes:

The World?s Favorite Bosses

The 12 Most Disruptive Names In Business

The Best Places For A Working Retirement In 2013

25 Top Places To Retire Rich

Copyright 2013 Forbes.com

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a6e77d2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cwhen0Eceos0Eget0Edemoted0Ecompanies0Ethey0Efounded0E1C920A2531/story01.htm

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How our bodies interact with our minds in response to fear and other emotions

Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research has shown that the way our minds react to and process emotions such as fear can vary according to what is happening in other parts of our bodies.

In two different presentations on April 8 at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London, researchers have shown for the first time that the heart's cycle affects the way we process fear, and that a part of the brain that responds to stimuli, such as touch, felt by other parts of the body also plays a role.

Dr Sarah Garfinkel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Brighton, UK), told a news briefing: "Cognitive neuroscience strives to understand how biological processes interact to create and influence the conscious mind. While neural activity in the brain is typically the focus of research, there is a growing appreciation that other bodily organs interact with brain function to shape and influence our perceptions, cognitions and emotions.

"We demonstrate for the first time that the way in which we process fear is different dependent on when we see fearful images in relation to our heart."

Dr Garfinkel and her colleagues hooked up 20 healthy volunteers to heart monitors, which were linked to computers. Images of fearful faces were shown on the computers and the electrocardiography (ECG) monitors were able to communicate with the computers in order to time the presentation of the faces with specific points in the heart's cycle.

"Our results show that if we see a fearful face during systole (when the heart is pumping) then we judge this fearful face as more intense than if we see the very same fearful face during diastole (when the heart is relaxed). To look at neural activity underlying this effect, we performed this experiment in an MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scanner and demonstrated that a part of the brain called the amygdala influences how our heart changes our perception of fear.

"From previous research, we know that if we present images very fast then we have trouble detecting them, but if an image is particularly emotional then it can 'pop' out and be seen. In a second experiment, we exploited our cardiac effect on emotion to show that our conscious experience is affected by our heart. We demonstrated that fearful faces are better detected at systole (when they are perceived as more fearful), relative to diastole. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see -- and can guide whether we see fear.

"Lastly, we have demonstrated that the degree to which our hearts can change the way we see and process fear is influenced by how anxious we are. The anxiety level of our individual subjects altered the extent their hearts could change the way they perceived emotional faces and also altered neural circuitry underlying heart modulation of emotion."

Dr Garfinkel says that her findings might have the potential to help people who suffer from anxiety or other conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"We have identified an important mechanism by which the heart and brain 'speak' to each other to change our emotions and reduce fear. We hope to explore the therapeutic implications in people with high anxiety. Anxiety disorders can be debilitating and are very prevalent in the UK and elsewhere. We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is processed and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for these people, and also for those, such as war veterans, who may be suffering from PTSD.

"In addition, there is a growing appreciation about how different forms of meditation can have therapeutic consequences. Work that integrates body, brain and mind to understand changes in emotion can help us understand how meditation and mindfulness practices can have calming effects."

In a second presentation, Dr Alejandra Sel, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychology at City University (London, UK), investigated a part of the brain called the somatosensory cortex -- the area that perceives bodily sensations, such as touch, pain, body temperature and the perception of the body's place in space, and which is activated when we observe emotional expressions in the faces of other people.

"In order to understand other's people emotions we need to experience the same observed emotions in our body. Specifically, observing an emotional face, as opposed to a neutral face, is associated with an increased activity in the somatosensory cortex as if we were expressing and experiencing our own emotions. It is also known that people with damage to the somatosensory cortex find it difficult to recognise emotion in other people's faces," Dr Sel told the news briefing.

However, until now, it has not been clear whether activity in the somatosensory cortex was simply a by-product of the way we process visual information, or whether it reacts independently to emotions expressed in other people's faces, actively contributing to how we perceive emotions in others.

In order to discover whether the somatosensory cortex contributes to the processing of emotion independently of any visual processes, Dr Sel and her colleagues tested two situations on volunteers. Using electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the brain response to images, they showed participants either a face showing fear (emotional) or a neutral face. Secondly, they combined the showing of the face with a small tap to an index finger or the left cheek immediately afterwards.

Dr Sel said: "By tapping someone's cheek or finger you can modify the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex inducing changes in brain electrical activity in this area. These changes are measureable and observable with EEG and this enables us to pinpoint the brain activity that is specifically related to the somatosensory cortex and its reaction to external stimuli.

"If the 'resting state' of the somatosensory cortex when a fearful face is shown has greater electrical activity than when a neutral face is shown, the changes in the activity of the somatosensory cortex induced by the taps and measured by EEG also will be greater when observing fearful as opposed to neutral faces.

"We subtracted results of the first situation (face only) from the second situation (face and tap), and compared changes in the activity related with the tap in the somatosensory cortex when seeing emotional faces versus neutral faces. This way, we could observe responses of the somatosensory cortex to emotional faces independently of visual processes," she explained.

The researchers found that there was enhanced activity in the somatosensory cortex in response to fearful faces in comparison to neutral faces, independent of any visual processes. Importantly, this activity was focused in the primary and secondary somatosensory areas; the primary area receives sensory information directly from the body, while the secondary area combines sensory information from the body with information related to body movement and other information, such as memories of previous, sensitive experiences.

"Our experimental approach allows us to isolate and show for the first time (as far as we are aware) changes in somatosensory activity when seeing emotional faces after taking away all visual information in the brain. We have shown the crucial role of the somatosensory cortex in the way our minds and bodies perceive human emotions. These findings can serve as starting point for developing interventions tailored for people with problems in recognising other's emotions, such as autistic children," said Dr Sel.

The researchers now plan to investigate whether they get similar results when people are shown faces with other expressions such as happy or angry, and whether the timing of the physical stimulus, the tap to the finger or cheek, makes any difference. In this experiment, the tap occurred 105 milliseconds after a face was shown, and Dr Sel wonders about the effect of a longer time interval.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by British Neuroscience Association, via AlphaGalileo.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/9QgQ9vrQ8g0/130407211558.htm

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Update Galaxy Note N7000 to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean via SlimBean Build 3 ROM [How to Install]

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Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Saturday, April 06, 2013
Step-by-step guide to update Galaxy Note N7000 to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean via SlimBean Build 3 ROM ...

Source: http://www.ibtimes.comhttp:0//www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/454259/20130406/galaxynote-n7000-android422-jellybean-update-slimbean-build3.htm

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