(Part 2) Top products from r/civ

Can anyone help me out here? I didn't see a link on the main landing page, but I found these two:

BNW - Amazon - $14.99

G&K - Amazon - $14.99

I just bought vanilla during the last Steam sale (this game is amazing BTW)... what's the difference between these two expansion DLC's? Are there others? Is one better than the other? Do they both add different content, should I buy both?

Awesome reply, thanks. I'm currently going through Herodotos' "The Histories", so I'm looking forward to learning more about Hannibal after I'm through with it. Though it seems like I'd find even the "boring" parts of Livy's writings interesting.

I also just checked Amazon, and it looks like there's quite a few Penguin Classics books on ancient history available. If anyone is interested, here's a link to "The War with Carthage" on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Hannibal-Foundation-Classics/dp/014044145X/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0QZTSAH3TVKP89YTGGA7

China would have the highest score. The United States second. Great Britain third.

Just thinking historically; China has one of the greatest histories of any civilization. I'd say they're the great civilization in human history, but that's just my thinking.

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It's known predicted, however, that by 2050 China will have overtaken the United States' economy.

Edit: Predicted, not known. Whatever. Here are some sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/datablog/2012/nov/09/developing-economies-overtake-west-2050-oecd-forecasts

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/the-world-in-2050-when-the-5-largest-economies-are-the-brics-and-us/253160/

http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/12/worlds-top-economies-in-2050-will-be/

A couple of books to look at:

http://www.amazon.com/World-Out-Balance-International-Relations/dp/0691137846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396056968&sr=8-1&keywords=world+out+of+balance

http://www.amazon.com/No-Ones-World-Council-Relations/dp/0199325227/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396056994&sr=1-1&keywords=no+ones+world

Even this one, which argues that America can remain the global hegemon submits that the US will be unable to dominate economically or militarily by the middle of the century:

http://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Leviathan-Transformation-Princeton-International/dp/0691156174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396057062&sr=8-1&keywords=liberal+leviathan

The author's thesis is that the US can only continue to dominate diplomatically and culturally through spreading its ideology.

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Sweden and the Netherlands might be high on the list due to long histories and high quality of life.

Edit: I'd also throw Arabia into the conversation. Recent history has not been kind, but for a very long time Arabia was the height of science and culture in the world. Arabia also controlled nearly all of the Mediterranean at one point (8th and 9th centuries).

There's a Globe map in both, and it's the most fun map type I think. It gives the whole game a "what would have happened if..." feeling (to me at least).

On a related note, if you enjoy thinking about things like this, you might also enjoy The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson. It starts off with the black plague wiping out all of Europe in the 14th century, and builds up a whole alternate history.

Edit: I think I misunderstood the question, but whatever

Looks like your post got caught in the spam filter. Not sure why, since it isn't either of the usual suspects (shadowban, linking a url shortener). Might have something to do with the Amazon affiliate tag in your link.

I'm assuming you just copy/pasted the link from one of the review sites and the tag is theirs, but mind editing it out? You can cut everything after the ASIN, so the link would read:

http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-T100HA-C4-GR-10-1-inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B014854RGK

Sorry for the hassle, since you obviously put a good deal of work into the post! Just lemme know after and I can approve it :)

The Art of Not Being Governed In case you're curious about how much deeper Firaxis could go into the "Barbarian" mechanic. The Art of Not Being Governed takes a pretty deep look at how geography and the luxuries of the high ground and the fringe make for stateless states.

> Why did you suggest Zenpad ? It is an android tab, right ?

Yep, it's arguably the best 8" tablet right now (trades blows with the Mi Pad 2) and the base model can be had for very cheap (I've seen it as low as $160)

> My budget is quite low, and only Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 (windows version) seems to be in budget. I think I'll go with it

It's a nice device (USB Type-C and everything). Can be a bit hard to get though.

It also has some odd features missing (like GPS, microSD, and front facing speakers) and can be a bit small (8" is pretty small for a tablet. It's more of a reading device, and less of a gaming device).

If you're willing to lug around a keyboard, there are some cheap 10-12" devices that flip, or even some cheap devices that detach.

The ASUS Transformer Book T100HA in the $299 MSRP config has:

• A fully detachable 10" IPS tablet (only 1280x800 though)
  
• 64 GB of storage
  
• 4 GB of RAM
  
• Windows 10
  
• Intel x5-Z8500
  
• dual-band wifi
  
• decent camera (nothing crazy though)
  
• USB Type-C
  
• USB Type-A port
  
• MicroUSB
  
• micro HDMI
  
• microSD
  
• microphone/headphone jack
  
  PCMag, Trusted Reviews, and Notebookcheck all liked it.
  
  There are higher end models with 1920x1080+ displays for a bit extra.

Gonick also has a History of The U.S., by the way.

Van Lente and Dunlavey's Action Philosophers is also a candidate if you're into the history of philosophy. In fact, while I'm at it, let me recommend the "For beginners" series about different philosophers and philosophic traditions. Examples: Marx, Freud, Existensialism etc. For a preview of the series, check out Philosophy for beginners at Google Books.

Edit: They even have reddit favourite Noam Chomsky for beginners!

Since the link has a list of all the games on the sale, here are the individual Civ games:

• Civ V
  
  
• Civ V: Gods & Kings
  
  
• Civ V: Brave New World
  
  
• Civ V: Complete Edition (PC) and Civ V: Complete Edition (Mac) (NOTE: the other games/expansions have PC/Mac versions available to choose on the page, but the Civ V Complete Edition does not, so pick the link that goes with your system)
  
  
• Civ IV
  
  
• Civ IV: Colonization
  
  
• Civ IV: Warlords
  
  
• Civ IV: Beyond the Swords
  
  
• Civ IV: Complete Edition
  
  
• Civ III: Complete

With regard to history generally, no -- I was already interested in that. But with regard to particular histories, absolutely.


For example, Civilization V sparked in me an obsession about Venice and its history. Since 2014:

• I've read through a small library of related books:
  
  • Venice: A New History
    
  • City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas
    
  • The Lion of St. Mark: A Tale of Venice in the 14th Century
    
  • Venice: A Maritime Republic
    
  • The Genius of Venice: Piazza San Marco and the Making of the Republic (currently reading)
    
    
• Made over 100 Venice related memes, showcased on my meme page.
  
• Modded Venice into Civilization VI.
  
• Spent a day in the city itself -- not nearly long enough
  
  I could go on, but that that should suffice to illustrate how big an impact the Serenissima's inclusion in V has had on my historical interests.

This looks like a new scifi dystopia called 'The Wall', where a wall is built around the UK to keep out rising sea levels and refugees. It's dark.

edit:
link to the audiobook which is narrated by Will Poulter (a.k.a. that guy from
Bandersnatch).

link to the book

Please don't use a referral link. Change it to this instead:

https://www.amazon.com/Apple-iPad-10-2-Inch-Wi-Fi-32GB/dp/B07XL7G4H6

Totally. I am reading Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker which makes exactly this point.

start here

https://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1466216491&sr=8-4&keywords=mongolia

I would probably use a different book. My suggestion.

Mark Strage. He wrote a book about her: https://www.amazon.com/Women-Power-Times-Catherine-Medici/dp/0151983704?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

Can't find much about the man himself tho. He also wrote a book about the scramble of Africa.

1. I've read 1421, and at first I thought it might be true, but Menzies (the author) makes some of the most ridiculous leaps of logic in that book that pretty much all of his "proof" amounts to either baseless speculation or outright lies. For further reading, consider his 2012 book about how the New World wasn't discovered by China, but by Atlantis.
   
   
2. I'm going to go ahead and assume you mean Juan José Pérez Hernández for the next few points.
   
   
3. It's 'British Columbia,' not 'Colombia'. 'Columbia' is the term for the Americas, named after Columbus, and has since been adopted for many institutions and figures in English America. 'Colombia' is the Spanish version, and is the name of the Spanish-speaking country in Central America.
   
   
4. Juan Pérez sailed to the Northwest coast for Spain, not Britain. In fact, he was sent by the Spanish crown because for the past two centuries, the region had been claimed as New Spain, but the Spanish had neglected to explore and settle it. He was there to investigate claims that the Russians and British were active in the area, and better establish Spanish dominance over the region. These were the only two foreign powers that Pérez suspected had arrived before him.
   
   
5. Juan Pérez encountered exactly zero Chinese people on his expeditions to the coast of what would become British Columbia.
   
   
6. In his reports, Pérez does use Chinese words to describe local sea life, specifically a local variety of kelp which resembled the Chinese "porras," but that's the extent of his mention of Chinese fishing off the Pacific coast.
   
   
7. Pérez does mention the Chinese people in his journal, but not in the way you think. In this way, he mentions them only in terms of their hair, likening the beards and hairstyles of the Aboriginals he encounters to those of the Chinese, wearing "the hair tied ... a wig with a tail". That is where his mention of the Chinese people begins, and where it ends.
   
   
8. The structures in British Columbia are a fiction. Pérez makes no mention of any non-Aboriginal habitation at all. Menzies however, actually was able to identify a foreign structure, an enigmatic tower which he attributed to Zheng He's fleet but was actually a British windmill erected in the mid-17th century.
   
   
9. Did you read that link? Fu Sang was described in Chinese literature as an island in the Pacific in ~635. Solid evidence, until you dig a bit further and realize the claims were made by an explorer named Hui Shen who was relaying its existence from a story passed down by his father (already not a great source), the locals were described as having Bronze Age technology (which the 7th century Pacific coast Aboriginals almost certainly did not possess), and it was very specifically mentioned as being off the Chinese coast (no seasoned explorer could make a 9,000+ km mistake like that). Hui Shen also claimed the locals had domesticated horses and deer, and while the latter is simply historically inaccurate, the former is actually impossible, seeing as the horse had been extinct in North America for 11,000 years at this point.
   
   
10. The Métis are a distinct ethnic group today, but their view on pre-Columbian contact is going to be a bit muddled, seeing as the Métis were created from the intersection of Europeans and Aboriginals. The Métis literally couldn't exist until after Europeans showed up in the area.
    
    
11. Even ignoring this, how is it that the Métis, which are mainly concentrated in the Plains region (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba), have any oral tradition or history concerning Chinese showing up on their coasts before Europeans? How did the Chinese land their fleets in Saskatchewan and meet the Métis while ignoring the Kwakwaka'wakw and Wuikinuxv? Simply put, they didn't. No ethnic organizations which represent Aboriginals in Canada, especially not the Métis, purport that they met the Chinese before Europeans. This myth is only repeated by individual historical revisionists which have about as much credibility as Gavin Menzies. The author of the page you linked to, R.D. Garneau, is an amateur historian and if you read more of his site he's also very clearly a conspiracy theorist who is willing to stretch the truth to make his claims, as is the case with everyone making similar claims.
    
    
12. It would be a mighty impressive thing for the Chinese to establish a presence in North America considering the Hongxi Emperor put an end to naval exploration in 1424, and that even before that the treasure fleets only ever travelled along well-known routes, with a stop by Zheng He in Sri Lanka being perhaps the most adventurous thing done on these journeys.
    
    For a professional explanation of why Menzies and other pseudohistorians like him are wrong, here's a link to an examination of his work by an actual scientist. I'm sorry this got so lengthy, but there is no evidence of China discovering the New World before the Europeans, and after years of hearing these claims I'm not one to let them go uncorrected.

If you want to know more of what happened, read The Gates of Fire. The battle field was fought between the west gate and the Phokian wall in what is called the Narrows or Thermopylae and sits off the Malian Gulf. The closest city was Antheia, not Sparta. Sparta is no where near Thermopylae. In fact, it was several days journey for the Spartans to get to their destination.

Rhodesia was very much like South Africa during SA's Apartheid years. Whites running the country and owning all the land. I think SA decided that they didn't want the same bloodshed when the white regime finally and inevitably fell so they came to a totally different transition. Robert Mugabe lead Soviet backed forces to overthrow the Rhodesian government, renaming the country Zimbabwe.

http://biosurveillance.typepad.com/biosurveillance/2012/01/anthrax-in-rhodesia-during-the-front-war-1978-82-a-suspected-act-of-biological-warfare.html


When the anthrax letters were being sent to left wing figures in the US right after 911, one of the major suspects had lied on his resume and said he was a consultant with the Selous Scouts during a time when anthrax was running amok in Rhodesia. More people were dieing of anthrax each year in Rhodesia than normally caught anthrax in the entire world. It was suspected that the Selous Scouts were using anthrax to murder thousands of Rhodesians. The book Amerithrax goes into more details about the guy, as well as comparing and contrasting US vs Soviet strains of anthrax. The author never does it, but if you sit down with a piece of paper and consider who got anthrax mailed to them, who did not get anthrax mailed to them, and to whom is this distinction important, then you will realize it was a domestic terrorist and what kind. Makes you shake your head.

TL;DR - never lie on your resume.