Panic in the Streets! It's Snowing!

When snow falls in Jerusalem, as it does 0 to 3 times every winter, panic ensues:

- Schools close

- Everyone goes home from work, even private businesses

- Disaster relief is put on emergency alert

- Hundreds of thousands of residents stockpile canned goods and rations

- The army deploys on full alert

- Someone in the municipality checks to see where they last put the city's one snow plow.

And so on.

It makes no difference that the amount of snow that actually sticks to the ground is barely enough to scrape together into a snow cone. A Jerusalemite's reaction to snow is something akin to a Republican's reaction to a looming cessation of a tax break for millionaires: shear panic.

Game News

Greg Costikyan positively reviews Fluxx, prompting Boing Boing to mention it, prompting voluminous discussion.

The Building Futures game is a game from RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects:

According to the RIBA, the game brings together up to 25 people 'in an informal setting…..encouraging debate about issues and aiming to reach consensus'.

Participants, such as designers, planners, policy makers and developers, are split into teams of four or five and are given 'statement cards' and 'proposal cards'. Each team has to come up with a proposal which is then debated by all players.

Friday Night at the ER is a game about hospital management, designed to help hospital departments to work together more efficiently:

The lessons were seemingly simple: Managers produce better results working collegially than when they care only about their own little piece of the system. Developing strategies is more effective than just handling a series of crises.

Played out over a simulated 24-hour day at a hospital, "Friday Night at the ER" graphically shows the downside of short-term thinking, faulty assumptions and an every-manager-for-himself philosophy.

The Indiana Tribune Star has an article about gaming, and whether it's in your blood.

Vancouver's 24 Hours pimps board gaming as a way to reconnect.

Ohio's Crescent also pimps board games.

XBL Arcade mentions board games that have recently been ported to the XBox and what's coming soon, including: Chessmaster Live (should now be available), Alhambra, Talisman, Lost Cities (and other Knizia titles), Ticket to Ride, and Puerto Rico.

Update: I didn't read the original article properly, as was pointed out to me by the first commenter. I'm sorry for that. Alhambra was canceled though it was one of the original three Euro titles announced together with Settlers and Carcassonne, which both thrive. Talisman is in limbo, and Puerto Rico appears to still only be in rumor stage.

Boylston Chess scoops a game of chess which took a violent turn this week.

Yehuda