Tate Collections

Turner Worldwide brings together online over 2,000 works by Turner held in public and private collections around the world. The project provides online access to these works alongside Tate’s own Turner holdings, creating a comprehensive online catalogue and rich central resource of information about Turner’s works outside Tate.

Independent's front page today:

A global search by the Tate gallery has unearthed 500 lost works by JMW Turner. Some have never been seen in public; others have not been displayed since the death of possibly Britain's most important painter.

While I'm here I must just mention a great game of Euphrat & Tigris I had at my place last Wednesday. I scored 12, against Dave's 9 and Simon's 8. Until the screens were removed, I had no idea that I was so far ahead. It had been a fairly bruising game, and I wasn't really expecting to win.

Over the last couple of weeks I have experimented a couple of times with playing The Lord of the Rings as a solitaire game. Frodo goes on his quest all alone, and gets 4 cards at Rivendell and at Lothlorien. He also gets the two cards for being the ringbearer at the end of each board. It worked very well - there was still a tremendous feeling of rising pressure from the events and the corruption track, even though all the decisions were down to me and there were no other players to throw spanners in. The first time I lost very early, on the Shelob's Lair board, but the second time I actually completed the quest and destroyed the ring - a new experience for me, even in playing multiplayer! Next time I'll use it as an opportunity to learn the rules for the Friends and Foes expansion which is waiting at home on the gaming table for its first outing.

Whit-Sunday

He loves Himself and every creature by the Holy Ghost, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost proceeds as the love of the primal goodness whereby the Father loves Himself and every creature.

Aquinas: Summa Theologica

Hmm. Blogger is back today, but it's making me nervous. Yesterday I got switched to "Blogger New" and was presented with a blank slate - all my posts for the last two years had disappeared! This sort of thing just makes me nervous. How long before they lose everything permanently? I think the problem is they just have one guy over there running the whole system. I can just imagine it - no test environment, making live changes on the fly, working all night to fix self-inflicted problems. I've worked in that sort of environment myself and it's not much fun for anyone, including the customers. Hopefully at some point the new owners will impose some sort of change control discipline. I suppose I shouldn't grumble, it's not as if I'm paying anything for this.....

Blake Haber's page pertaining to the subject of the game called "Baduk" in Korean, "Weiqi" in Chinese, "Igo" in Japanese, and "Go" in English. (via Mikko Saari)

Phil came over yesterday, on a brief rest & recuperation break from University. We had a great political argument over dinner, just like old times. I've been feeling a bit wobbly on the war recently, shocked I suppose by the levels of violence we had to employ to achieve our objectives in Iraq. Phil performed a valuable service by trotting out all the dumb conspiracy theories and knee-jerk anti-Americanism of the left, reminding me of how much I am repelled by the rhetoric of the peace movement. Thanks Phil!

Thanks to John for pointing me at The Geek Test. What a relief! I only scored 16.76%.

Chris Lawson provides an excellent set of expanded rules for "Lord of the Rings", and lots of other goodies as well.

And this article (pdf) from David Farquhar gives an insiders view of the game's design process.

We can now play Cosmic Encounter online! (via Terminal City Gamers)

I would love to be a writer - successful, famous, and (most importantly) popular with the ladies - but this sort of thing is just so difficult: 12 Exercises for Improving Dialogue (via Sashinka)

I am going through a bit of a Knizia phase, but in order to convince myself that this hobby isn't really that expensive, I have ordered Ra and Taj Mahal from Discount German Games at amazingly low prices. Slight drawback - these are the German versions, but shouldn't be too much of a problem....

Last weekend I walked the Clarendon Way between Salisbury and Winchester. It took me two days, with an overnight stop in Nether Wallop, to travel the 30 miles. Every morning I drive 45 miles in roughly the same direction to get to work. It's a weird feeling to pace out with aching muscles and blistered feet a stretch of country that usually slips past the car windows so effortlessly. Who says England is densely populated? - it doesn't feel like it when it takes two days on foot to get from one town to its nearest neighbour.

Lots of beautiful scenery, especially the heavily wooded, folded country near Tytherley. One highlight of the trip was finding a slowworm on the path (until he crapped on my hand). Another was the Wykham Arms at journey's end. They have a pot of HSB sausages behind the bar which they sell with mustard for 45p each. This is the ideal accompaniment for a pint - now I never want to drink beer any other way.

Xiangqi: Chinese Chess: Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess, is an extremely popular game in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is currently played by millions (or tens of millions) in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and other Asian countries. Xiangqi has remained in its present form for centuries. It is believed that both Xiangqi and Orthodox Chess derive from the original Indian game of Chanturanga.

Beat Simon at Euphrat & Tigris last night, thus avenging my humiliations at Hay. Dave dropped by to give me a bottle of wine, then John dropped by and drank it! It was interesting playing E&T with just two. It was a real knockabout game with lots of conflicts, much of it over one big kingdom, battered by catastrophe tiles and strung out along the board. A close result, 20/19 - much better than the 3 that I scored last time I played!

Isn't the internet wonderful? Going round Hay-on-Wye's second-hand bookshops I was looking out for a children's science-fiction novel I remember clearly from my early years, about a voyage to Mars made by a professor in a home made space ship launched from his garden. I had completely forgotten the name or author of the book, and have never met anyone else who knows the book. I can still clearly remember the beautifully drawn illustrations. It was one of those books that I desperately wished to believe was true.

Anyway, I finally got round to searching the web for this book - 15 minutes with Google last night turned up the details, thanks to David Drake for whom it is also an early literary memory. The book is "The Angry Planet" by John Keir Cross. David's description brought it all flooding back:

The Angry Planet is in form a typical children's SF novel of the period. A Scottish scientist builds a spaceship in his back yard. He and a writer-friend fly to Mars in it. Three children in their early teens, staying with the writer, stow away on the spaceship.

The atmosphere of Mars is breathable. The planet is inhabited by the Beautiful People--willowy, intelligent folk with a fringe of cilia which serve them as hands--who inhabit glassy cities, and their racial enemies, the Terrible Ones--massive, tentacled monsters; also intelligent but utterly evil.

The humans visit the Beautiful People's city; one of the children is captured by the Terrible Ones but escapes; and there's a climactic battle in which the humans aid the Beautiful People against the monstrous foes. The humans return to Earth.

The really strange aspect--for a children's book--is the theme. The Angry Planet is a clear story of the battle between Good and Evil. Evil wins.

Even better, thanks to AbeBooks I have tracked down a copy in Leigh on Sea for £5, and I now know that the talented illustrator was Robin Jacques. I wonder what else he did? Time for another Google....

This week's game of Euphrat & Tigris is looking less hopeful - maybe I will play Taj Mahal Online tonight instead. It looks beautifully done, and it's a chance to play before I purchase (as Taj Mahal is next on my insatiable game craving list).

And Chris Lawson's excellent Euphrat & Tigris FAQ - plus other stuff including the rules in English.

And Euphrat & Tigris page at BoardGameGeek, with loads of material, including some useful play-aids.