Mission 1: The sinking of the Lexington combined with the decoding of the Special Weapons Development communiqué is the final straw for the Allies; MI-13 make the decision to clear the caves under Gibraltar and disable the Doomsday Device before it is too late.
The Lucky 7th are deployed to reconnoitre the caves prior to an all-out assault, exploring quickly before the enemy are aware of their presence……
Richard Powers recently shared some information that I found to be somewhat fasinating. The following are his words, recorded here for your reading pleasure. Enjoy.
For centuries, dance manuals and other writings have lauded the health benefits of dancing, usually as physical exercise. More recently we’ve seen research on further health benefits of dancing, such as stress reduction and increased serotonin level, with its sense of well-being.
Then most recently we’ve heard of another benefit: Frequent dancing apparently makes us smarter. A major study added to the growing evidence that stimulating one’s mind can ward off Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia, much as physical exercise can keep the body fit. Dancing also increases cognitive acuity at all ages.
You may have heard about the New England Journal of Medicine report on the effects of recreational activities on mental acuity in aging. Here it is in a nutshell.
The 21-year study of senior citizens, 75 and older, was led by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, funded by the National Institute on Aging, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their method for objectively measuring mental acuity in aging was to monitor rates of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The study wanted to see if any physical or cognitive recreational activities influenced mental acuity. They discovered that some activities had a significant beneficial effect. Other activities had none.
They studied cognitive activities such as reading books, writing for pleasure, doing crossword puzzles, playing cards and playing musical instruments. And they studied physical activities like playing tennis or golf, swimming, bicycling, dancing, walking for exercise and doing housework.
One of the surprises of the study was that almost none of the physical activities appeared to offer any protection against dementia. There can be cardiovascular benefits of course, but the focus of this study was the mind. There was one important exception: the only physical activity to offer protection against dementia was frequent dancing.
Reading – 35% reduced risk of dementia
Bicycling and swimming – 0%
Doing crossword puzzles at least four days a week – 47%
Playing golf – 0%
Dancing frequently – 76%.
That was the greatest risk reduction of any activity studied, cognitive or physical.
Quoting Dr. Joseph Coyle, a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who wrote an accompanying commentary:
“The cerebral cortex and hippocampus, which are critical to these activities, are remarkably plastic, and they rewire themselves based upon their use.”
And from from the study itself, Dr. Katzman proposed these persons are more resistant to the effects of dementia as a result of having greater cognitive reserve and increased complexity of neuronal synapses. Like education, participation in some leisure activities lowers the risk of dementia by improving cognitive reserve.
Our brain constantly rewires its neural pathways, as needed. If it doesn’t need to, then it won’t.
Aging and memory
When brain cells die and synapses weaken with aging, our nouns go first, like names of people, because there’s only one neural pathway connecting to that stored information. If the single neural connection to that name fades, we lose access to it. So as we age, we learn to parallel process, to come up with synonyms to go around these roadblocks. (Or maybe we don’t learn to do this, and just become a dimmer bulb.)
The key here is Dr. Katzman’s emphasis on the complexity of our neuronal synapses. More is better. Do whatever you can to create new neural paths. The opposite of this is taking the same old well-worn path over and over again, with habitual patterns of thinking and living our lives.
When I was studying the creative process as a grad student at Stanford, I came across the perfect analogy to this:
The more stepping stones there are across the creek,
the easier it is to cross in your own style.
The focus of that aphorism was creative thinking, to find as many alternative paths as possible to a creative solution. But as we age, parallel processing becomes more critical. Now it’s no longer a matter of style, it’s a matter of survival — getting across the creek at all. Randomly dying brain cells are like stepping stones being removed one by one. Those who had only one well-worn path of stones are completely blocked when some are removed. But those who spent their lives trying different mental routes each time, creating a myriad of possible paths, still have several paths left.
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine study shows that we need to keep as many of those paths active as we can, while also generating new paths, to maintain the complexity of our neuronal synapses.
Why dancing?
We immediately ask two questions:
That’s where this particular study falls short. It doesn’t answer these questions as a stand-alone study. Fortunately, it isn’t a stand-alone study. It’s one of many studies, over decades, which have shown that we increase our mental capacity by exercising our cognitive processes. Intelligence: Use it or lose it. And it’s the other studies which fill in the gaps in this one. Looking at all of these studies together lets us understand the bigger picture.
Some of this is discussed here (the page you may have just came from) which looks at intelligence in dancing. The essence of intelligence is making decisions. And the concluding advice, when it comes to improving your mental acuity, is to involve yourself in activities which require split-second rapid-fire decision making, as opposed to rote memory (retracing the same well-worn paths), or just working on your physical style.
One way to do that is to learn something new. Not just dancing, but anything new. Don’t worry about the probability that you’ll never use it in the future. Take a class to challenge your mind. It will stimulate the connectivity of your brain by generating the need for new pathways. Difficult and even frustrating classes are better for you, as they will create a greater need for new neural pathways.
Then take a dance class, which can be even better. Dancing integrates several brain functions at once, increasing your connectivity. Dancing simultaneously involves kinesthetic, rational, musical and emotional processes.
What kind of dancing?
Let’s go back to the study:
Bicycling, swimming or playing golf – 0% reduced risk of dementia
But doesn’t golf require rapid-fire decision-making? No, not if you’re a long-time player. You made most of the decisions when you first started playing, years ago. Now the game is mostly refining your technique. It can be good physical exercise, but the study showed it led to no improvement in mental acuity.
Therefore do the kinds of dance where you must make as many split-second decisions as possible. That’s key to maintaining true intelligence.
Does any kind of dancing lead to increased mental acuity? No, not all forms of dancing will produce this benefit. Not dancing which, like golf or swimming, mostly works on style or retracing the same memorized paths. The key is the decision-making. Remember (from this page), Jean Piaget suggested that intelligence is what we use when we don’t already know what to do.
We wish that 25 years ago the Albert Einstein College of Medicine thought of doing side-by-side comparisons of different kinds of dancing, to find out which was better. But we can figure it out by looking at who they studied: senior citizens 75 and older, beginning in 1980. Those who danced in that particular population were former Roaring Twenties dancers (back in 1980) and then former Swing Era dancers (today), so the kind of dancing most of them continued to do in retirement was what they began when they were young: freestyle social dancing — basic foxtrot, swing, waltz and maybe some Latin.
I’ve been watching senior citizens dance all of my life, from my parents (who met at a Tommy Dorsey dance), to retirement communities, to the Roseland Ballroom in New York. I almost never see memorized sequences or patterns on the dance floor. I mostly see easygoing, fairly simple social dancing — freestyle lead and follow. But freestyle social dancing isn’t that simple! It requires a lot of split-second decision-making, in both the lead and follow roles.
I need to digress here:
I want to point out that I’m not demonizing memorized sequence dancing or style-focused pattern-based ballroom dancing. I sometimes enjoy sequence dances myself, and there are stress-reduction benefits of any kind of dancing, cardiovascular benefits of physical exercise, and even further benefits of feeling connected to a community of dancers. So all dancing is good.
But when it comes to preserving mental acuity, then some forms are significantly better than others. When we talk of intelligence (use it or lose it) then the more decision-making we can bring into our dancing, the better.
Who benefits more, women or men?
In social dancing, the follow role automatically gains a benefit, by making hundreds of split-second decisions as to what to do next. As I mentioned on this page, women don’t “follow”, they interpret the signals their partners are giving them, and this requires intelligence and decision-making, which is active, not passive. This benefit is greatly enhanced by dancing with different partners, not always with the same fellow. With different dance partners, you have to adjust much more and be aware of more variables. This is great for staying smarter longer.
But men, you can also match her degree of decision-making if you choose to do so. (1) Really notice your partner and what works best for her. Notice what is comfortable for her, where she is already going, which moves are successful with her and what aren’t, and constantly adapt your dancing to these observations. That’s rapid-fire split-second decision making. (2) Don’t lead the same old patterns the same way each time. Challenge yourself to try new things. Make more decisions more often. Intelligence: use it or lose it.
And men, the huge side-benefit is that your partners will have much more fun dancing with you when you are attentive to their dancing and constantly adjusting for their comfort and continuity of motion.
Dance often
Finally, remember that this study made another suggestion: do it often. Seniors who did crossword puzzles four days a week had a measurably lower risk of dementia than those who did the puzzles once a week. If you can’t take classes or go out dancing four times a week, then dance as much as you can. More is better.
And do it now, the sooner the better. It’s essential to start building your cognitive reserve now. Some day you’ll need as many of those stepping stones across the creek as possible. Don’t wait — start building them now.
Before I really start hammering away at my Protectorate of Menoth models, I have a couple more Weird War models to finish up. Here is a the short list of models I am working on right now.
First is the naughty miniature put out by BTD Miniatures. Actually, the model is not that naughty at all. It is a miniature of Adolf Hitler designed for use in World War 2 miniature games. I comment that it is naughty because of the fact that it was banned from being sold on eBay due to it being considered “Nazi Propoganda.” Read more about that bit here in an article by the Sun.
The second is a miniature from the same company as above of Blood and Guts General Patton. I figured that Patton can be a special character in my USA fire teams. I believe I will ejoy painted this little dude.
Third, I have Sergeant Mack Torrey from Reaper Miniatures. Sculpted by James Van Schaik. This model is going to be my version of Sgt. Rock, using the stats of a USA Sentinel of Liberty. That’s one of the cool things about Secrets of the Third Reich. It allows for the introduction and use of Super Heroes into the ix of the game. They already have stats for Captain America and Bucky, clevery disguised as characters called Liberty and Buck Holt.
Then, just because I need to have a Vampire to toss into the mix of my Axis Zombies, I picked up The Hungarian Ambassador from Euerka Miniatures. He’s a little cheesy as a Vampire, but that’s why I picked him up. I love this miniature.
Also, I picked up these sickly looking zombies from Euerka Miniatures USA. I will enjoy painting these guys.
And the last two are two miniatures that I managed to pick up from What The? miniatures. These are Weird War versions of Captain America and Bucky. They are limited editions, and you can only get them (right now) on eBay. Here are the painted examples of the models below. (Mine will not look as awesome, but I will give it a good try!)
Captain America!
So that’s what I am working on right now. After I get these guys finished, I’m going to focus on getting my Menoth stuff put together with the hopes of getting a chance to throw down with some of the local guys on Club night.
As always, keep rollin’ sixes!
Plasticville makes some very nice O Scale buildings that can be used in miniature wargaming on the 25mm – 30mm range. This particular building is The Diner. It was given to me by my Father-In-Law in a large, dusty box that he had stashed in his outbuilding shed. He said that the box had a collection of models that he and his brother had used when they were growing up. He thought I might get some use out of them in my miniature games … and he was right.
This is what The Diner looks like normally:
And this is what I did with it:
I wanted the Diner to look like it might have been a train car at one time and now was converted into a place to sit and eat.
Everyone likes rivets, right?
The backside, complete with graffiti.
I’m pretty happy with how the building turned out. And I’m very grateful to have a cool Father-In-Law that keeps my hobbies in mind when he’s sorting through his shed.
Keep rollin’ sixes, folks!
Well, I got some more painting done today on my US soldiers from the Brainwurst set. Really all I need to do now is select a basing material to use, and glue on some flock.
Español: Bandera de Jericho (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This soldier is ready to Rock and Roll.
These guys look like they are about ready to start hunting Axis Zombies. What do you think?
One model in the Squad can be upgraded to a medic but must trade in his weapons to do so. But that’s okay because he’ll be using his Actions to treat wounds anyway. And if things get bad, he can always pick up a weapon from one of his fallen buddies.
These guys will follow the A1 Command Section rules for the USA Armored Infantry Platoon listed on page 111 of the Secrets of the Third Reich book. They will be a 7 man Fire Team squad outfitted with hand grenades, smoke grenades, and Garand AR-1 rifles.
The seven man team includes: Lieutenant, Staff Sergeant, Corporal, and 4 Privates. They cost 6 RP.
The special rules for Fire Teams is listed on page 47 under “Infantry Special Rules.”
I’m looking forward to getting these guys on the table, and playing through the Brainwurst scenario. Although the Axis player appears to have a serious advantage in the scenario due to the sheer number of zombies on the table, I think that using grenades at key points in the game will make all the difference for the Allied Forces.
When I get these guys all flocked up, and finished … I will post an update.
Until then, enjoy Memorial Day … and keep rollin’ sixes!
≈
I am working on some of the miniatures from the Secrets of the Third Reich: Brainwurst Zombie Onslaught set. I decided to start with the United States Armored Infantry Squad. Although the miniatures included in the set are intended to be used as two squads of four soldiers, I decided that I would just assemble them as a single seven man squad, saving the eighth figure to convert into “Wild Bill Donavan” a special character.
I assembled all of them wearing their gas masks. I really like the look of the gas masks. Six of them have been outfitted as troopers and one is a medic. I have to admit that I didn’t get all the mold lines because there were so many on the figures. I have to admit that I have become spoiled by Privateer Press and their miniatures because PP models rarely have mold lines. I cut some of the lines off, but since these guys contain lead, I figured that I wouldn’t hack on them too much. ( That was the explaination as to why I was able to buy the rather expensive Brainwurst set at such a good price: the models contain lead and are being replaced with ones cast of “white metal.” Apparently the UK is not so anti-lead crazy but marketing in the USA aparently requires some changes to the materials used … that’s the story I got anyway.)
I’m painting them using mostly p3 paint colors. Bone for the shirts, Traitor Green on the pants, Khador Red on the lenses of the gas masks. Boots and gloves are Bloodtracker brown, and the wood on the guns are Gun Corps Brown. I used Oiled Steel from Reaper Miniatures paint line for the masks themselves and the steel on the guns.
I have included a few pictures of my WIP:
This guy is holding his weapon like it’s a guitar.
This soldier seems to be ready but at ease.
Medic in the front of the squad.
This soldier has a bit more of an action pose.
The bases included in the set are bascially identical to the ones used by Privateer Press. The models fit into the bases fairly well with only a little bit of clipping or fiddling around needed for it to slot in correctly. The main problem seems to be that the tabs are usually too deep and extend past the slot in the base, making the figure stand on wonky on the table.
I will post some updates later on this weekend as I made progress. I’d like to have these fellas done before my In-Laws arrive on Saturday.
Until then, folks, keep rollin’ sixes!
This is the cool WotC “Zombie Hulk” miniature from D&D Miniature Game that I would use to represent the Zombie Hulk during games!
This is their rules for a Zombie Hulk:
Hulk
Hulks are enormous, misshapen zombies who are possessed of enormous strength. They are able to soak up ridiculous amounts of damage and are startlingly swift.
Hulks are always encountered on their own.
Movement: 8″/Turn
Starting Troop Quality: d10
Maximum Troop Quality: d12
Awareness range: 8″
Bonus Defens Dice/Unit: +6
Bonus Assault Dice/Unit: +6
SPECIAL RULES
Hulk Crush: Hulks can tear up huge chunks of tarmac, trees, cars, whatever and throw them at any Living unit it has detected. It will make this attack when it spots the Living and immediately follow it up with a charge into Close Combat. The attack has a range of 8″ and has a “Firepower” of 6d.
Find out more about Ambush Alley at their website, and discover more of their Special Type Zombies by reading this article.
Ambush Alley Games is “your ultimate source for tabletop gaming action.”
They are the creators of the original Ambush Alley modern combat miniatures rules; Force on Force, its successor covering all modern conflicts; Ambush Z (zombies); and Tomorrow’s War, rules for fighting the wars of the future today. And there’s more coming, either expansions or completely new subjects.
So take a look around, but keep your head down…you’re in the thick of the action with Ambush Alley Games!
Keep rollin’ sixes!
English: George Orwell in Hampstead On the corner of Pond Street and South End Road, opposite the Royal Free Hospital. The bookshop has long gone. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“Thoughtcrime does not entail death; thoughtcrime is death.”
That quote is from George Orwell’s classic book, 1984. After CISPA passed in the House of Representatives, the Senate is doing what it can to make Orwell’s dystopian world a reality with the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. The legislation would have technology companies sharing your private data with the government. That’s information like your browsing history, web searches and even gaming habits.
Take a moment to learn more and send a message that they’re overstepping their reach again.
There is a need to update laws to allow for better cyber security, but this legislation is vague and not focused enough. I mean, how many hours and what maps you play on Call of Duty really matters when it comes to national security? Not only are the doors wide open as far as what companies can share with the government, the legislation isn’t very specific as to who they’re sharing it with and what it’ll be used for. Once again Congress is writing legislation about technology they don’t understand.
It’s 28 years too late, but it feels like 1984 now. Take the 30 seconds and write your Congressman today and help spread the word.
Happy gaming,
Jim and John Bailey grew up mowing down evil orcs in Dungeon & Dragons and Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but something was missing from all those years of imaginative tabletop combat. A void only zombie soldiers and armored troopers could fill.
Enter Incursion, a two-player warfare/horror board game that turns traditional World War II combat into a tense monster mash of mechanized Allies and supernatural Axis.
