Thank you again Penny Arcade! The game Sword of the Stars looks really, really cool. I just started browsing the SotS site, which is crawling due to the PA traffic, and I am pretty much sold on the game. Here are the official features of the game:

Features Overview

• A return to the action-packed roots of the 4X genre with some new twists, including a 3D starmap and real-time combat resolution in a 3D environment!
• 4 races - Human, Hiver, Tarkas and Liir - each with technology advantages and disadvantages.
• Each race has a unique mode of transport between star systems, creating very different styles of play, depending on what race you choose to control.
• Slider bar controls and simplified interface to avoid the confusion of other games without sacrificing depth of gameplay.
• Over 150 distinct technologies to research on a dynamic tech tree that changes from game to game. While the core technology of the tree is consistent, certain offshoots are random from game to game. There is no perfect path up the tech tree to memorize and exploit, because the path keeps changing!
• New technology reflected in detailed ship models, weapons and combat effects. Over 40 weapons from six different weapon classes, in various size classes, from point defence, turrets, and massive spinal mounts!
• Players can design and build ships from three size classes - Destroyer, Cruiser, and Dreadnought - by mixing and matching ship sections (command, mission, and engines), then outfitting them with armour and weapons to suit their preference.
• Up to 8 players can play against the AI and one another over LAN or online.
• Choose from a variety of scenario campaigns to play alone or with friends, each adding more colour and depth to the Sword of the Stars universe.

There is a lot of info, screenshots, and even some trailers for the game on their site. I totally want to get this game and I have only just read the above "Features" list, but I'm downloading the trailers as I am typing this. There is also a "desktop" that is totally LoGH! Check it out, those of you who know what LoGH is. ;)

Reading about SotS makes recall the games of Twilight Imperium that my friends and I used to play on occasion. I'm a turtle, and usually end up losing near the end of the game, but one time I got blitzkrieged by my friend Don and was suddenly out of the game after the first few turns. Thanks Don! That really pissed me off, funny as it was though.

First heard about this BBC article from Slings' site, but apparently a pack of squirrels attacked and killed a dog in Russia. Due to lack of food, and perhaps irritation, the Russian squirrels have been forced to take extreme actions and descended from the trees and attacked a "big" dog that was barking at them. I guess in mother Russia squirrel eats dog.

Hearing about voracious squirrels makes me think twice about all of the seemingly passive squirrels that probably continue to occupy the University of Wisconsin - Platteville campus. The squirrels were very passive and didn't seem to mind all of the people walking around, sometimes within several feet of them. On occasion, when few people were around to witness it, I would suddenly lunge at a nearby squirrel, just to keep them on their toes. But now, in lieu of the recent squirrel attack, lunging a squirrels probably wasn't the best idea.