2006_12_01_archive

Laser Blam

This looks pretty cool

It's the game that combines lasers with classic strategy. Players

alternate turns moving Egyptian-themed pieces having two, one or no

mirrored surfaces. All four types of pieces (pharaoh, obelisk,

pyramid and djed column) can either move one square forward, back,

left, right, or diagonal, or can stay in the same square and rotate

by a quarter twist. Each turn ends by firing one of the lasers

built into the board. The laser beam bounces from mirror to mirror;

if the beam strikes a non-mirrored surface on any piece, it is

immediately removed from play. The ultimate goal is to illuminate

your opponent's pharaoh, while shielding yours from harm!

They might have have lost me here, however

Yes, the game employs two class II lasers which are lower in power

than most laser pointers on the market, which are usually class

III. This means that although you still get the neat effect of

firing a laser to bombard your opponent's pieces, you will not get

the wow effect of seeing it melt or blow holes through the playing

field.

I wanted more blam.

# posted by Brian Dunbar : 4:18 PM

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None of your business

Via Russ Nelson, an article about unschooling - where you not only

check your kid out of public school but you don't have any structured

instruction

The United States Department of Education last did a survey on home

schooling in 2003. That study did not ask about unschooling. But it

found that the number of children who were educated at home had

soared, increasing by 29 percent, to 1.1 million, from 1999 to

2003.

Experts assume that the upward trend has continued, and some worry

that the general public is unaware of the movement's laissez-faire

approach to learning.

The horror - the public doesn't know! Someone, inform The Public!

"As school choice expands and home-schooling in general grows, this

is one of those models that I think the larger public sphere needs

to be aware of because the folks who are engaging in these radical

forms of school are doing so legally," said Professor Huerta of

Columbia. "If the public and policy makers don't feel that this is

a form of schooling that is producing productive citizens, then

people should vote to make changes accordingly."

Because 'The People' are much better at deciding how to run my life