Natalie Haley, from Manchester High School for Girls, won a young scientist award for her study on the science of dominoes falling over.

She looked at spacing, inclines, and momentum. Among her conclusions (which aren’t mentioned), she learned “I don’t have a very steady hand – I kept knocking them over.”

(source)

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The celebrations for Scrabble’s 60th birthday continue. After auctioning an exclusive crystal Scrabble set, and displaying a giant Scrabble pieces on tour in England, celebrities got together to celebrate the release of the Diamond Scrabble edition.

Celebrities on hand included Jimmy Kimmel, Aisha Tyler, Rashida Jones, Dave Annable, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Sarah Chalke and Natalie Maines.

Memorabilia from the event will be auctioned off to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

(source)

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In our last post we noted that, owing to the IOC putting its oar in, all participants will have to undergo doping testing before sitting down to play board games.

Another holdover of the IOC rules is that men are only allowed to play men, and women are only allowed to play women. What a pity; just where the playing field ought to be level between the sexes, too.

All the delegations will be asked to bring water from their homeland for the opening ceremony. This will be mixed with the water brought from the other countries. At the end of the Games all delegations will return home with a small amount of the mixture, coming from all over the planet.

They have an official emblem, now, too:

Looks like the Candyland track.

(source)

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Robert C Kalajian of Tremorworks sent me news about upcoming products:

The first is an upcoming HDL RPG setting called LUCID, which is a dreamscape setting …

The second is an upcoming ElementaliS Expansion pack. This will contain professionally printed copies of the already released expansions (Creationists and Elitists, and Chaotia and Cultists), a brand new expansion (Guardians and Luminaries), and a full-color, updated version of the ElementaliS rules.

Thanks, Robert.

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A few weeks ago in Escapist Magazine, Ray Huling asked why ancient civilizations didn’t have role playing games, considering that they had access to basic writing instruments and polyhedral dice.

As if on queue, Christies has an ancient Egyptian d20 up for sale. It’s rather purty looking. Only $18,000 .

I wonder if they played Ra.

(information, hat tip)

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Blue Panther makes pretty wooden games, and is releasing three new games and an expansion at Origins at the end of June:

Nepal – a game of trade routes, maneuvering and the occasional conflict for 3-5 players.

Sudoku Tactics – some sort of strategy game based on the puzzle.

Duck Duck Boom! 2nd Edition – Looks weird. I don’t know the rules.

The expansion is a set of Sudoku boards.

(source)

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St Catherine, Jamaica: three men shot at a dominoes game. (source)

Chattanooga, TN: man stabbed after fist fight broke out during a dominoes game. (source)

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Gale Force Nine is producing new Power 3-D Effects accessories for WizKids HeroClix. Simply put, these are flight stands for your superhero collectible miniatures. Now you can more easily visualize when your hero has taken to the sky.

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