"Aegis Nova" anomaly series announced

Click here for the original announcement on G+.

• May 28^th, 2016
• Primary: Brookly, NY, USA
  - Satellite: Savannah, GA, USA
  - Satellite: Minneapolis/Saint Paul, MN, USA
• Primary: Rotterdam, Netherlands
  - Satellite: Cape Town, South Africa
  - Satellite: Padova, Italy
• Primary: Tainan, Taiwan
  - Satellite: Manila, Philippines
  - Satellite: Chiang Mai, Thailand
• June 25^th, 2016
• Primary: San Diego, CA, USA
  - Satellite: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
  - Satellite: Calgary, AB, Canada
• Primary: Moscow, Russia
  - Satellite: Dublin, Ireland
  - Satellite: Nice, France
• Primary: Sidney, Australia
  - Satellite: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  - Satellite: Hyderabad, India

Gold Hacker

Sooo... I know this one has not been fast compared to the world average... just trying my best despite spare time being very short. :)

Nearly one million!

It's clearly better to strike the iron while it's hot, so we proceeded right away to do "our preciousss one" again with a variation: we pushed the top corner farther North, thus expecting a remarkable increase in the M.U. count.

Checkpoint: 01:00 AM
Locations: Calafuria tower, Navacchio, Valle Benedetta, Gabbro, Castelnuovo della Misericordia, Rosignano Marittimo
Top side: ~27 Km (~17 mi)
Left side: ~14 Km (~9 mi)
Right side: ~31 Km (~19 mi)
Layers: 15
Total kMU: 800+
Other agents: @ToscJones (at Calafuria tower), @jakolo (in Navacchio), @Gasleo (cleaner in Montacchiello and Vicarello), @MATRIXIO76 (operator)

Excellent job! Great collaboration and syncronization! Fields were up just in time for 01:00 AM and also lasted enough to include the checkpoint of 06:00 AM!
It also allowed me to take an enormous step in the final rush toward the Black Illuminator and reach the first place at cell level.

Thanks everybody!

Back to fielding!

It's been a long time since the last time I participated in "our preciousss" operation as a fielder.

Checkpoint: 11:00 PM C.E.T.
Locations: Calafuria tower, Valle benedetta, Fauglia, Gabbro, Castelnuovo della Misericordia, Rosignano Marittimo
Top side: ~18 Km (~11 mi)
Left side: ~14 Km (~9 mi)
Right side: ~18 Km (~11 mi)
Layers: 11
Total kMU: ~250
Other agents: @Arjov (operator), @ToscJones (at Calafuria tower), @kauplast (in Fauglia).

[EDIT 2016/03/08 09:03]: fields have been up also for checkpoints of 04:00 AM and 09:00 AM C.E.T.

Black Sojourner

Action is what opens doors; costancy is what keeps them open.Unknown

"Our preciousss..."

We keep on doing "our preciousss" one, and it keeps succeeding!

Again, I was the cleaner of blue blockers.
7 layers, for a total of 490+ kMU: we've got an early upper hand in this cycle!

Embracing Elba

It's been a long time since the last time we fought for a cycle at the very end of the period, and that's how 2016.06 went.

A late-night operation encompassing Elba was completed in time for the checkpoint of 2 AM, securing the victory for us.

6 layers, for a total of 650+ kMU.
My part was destroying blue blockers, and the smell of burned resonator has never been sooo good.
The solid green view in front of my eyes when they closed was priceless:

Little new frogs grow...

Night action in Cecina to help new frogs @Viscido2000, @waltor02 and @hamza482 grow; @Viscido2000 also reached level 6!

Conquering Cecina to welcome a new frog

It's always a pleasure to welcome new Enlightened players. 

This time we're speaking about a frog from Cecina introduced to me by @DeathKillerITA, so, again, we thought we could welcome him by involving him in his first op in Cecina.

Welcome @Viscido2000!

The operation itself was nothing huge, but it was special in that it was actually something planned from scratch by our newcomer and, above all, he and @DeathKillerITA rode their bycicles up and down throughout Cecina at -2°C (28.4 °F) and without gloves!

This is dedication!

My part was some cleaning and creating the outer triangle: I was in my car and willing to drive them around, but at some point we needed to act simultaneously in different locations so they had to take their bikes.

Towns involved: Cecina (southmost area), San Pietro in Palazzi (suburb of Cecina), Marina di Cecina (suburb of Cecina)

Right side: 2.68 Km (1.67 mi)

Left side:  2.9 Km (1.81 mi)

Bottom side: 2.75 Km (1.71 mi)

M.U.: 957 + 1301 + 195 + 149 = 2602

Congratulations @DeathKillerITA and @Viscido2000!

"Obsidian" anomaly series announced

Click here for the original announcement on Google+.

• February 27^th, 2016
• Primary: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
  - Satellite: Madrid, Spain
  - Satellite: Hamamatsu, Japan
  - Satellite: Seattle, WA, USA
  - Satellite: Milwaukee, WI, USA
• April 2^nd, 2016
• Primary - Hong Kong, China
  - Satellite: Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Primary - Vienna, Austria
  - Satellite: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Primary: Orlando, FL, USA
  - Satellite: San Antonio, TX, USA
  - Satellite: Tucson, AZ, USA

Level 15

«puro e disposto a salire a le stelle.»
«pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.»(Dante, Purgatorio, c.33 v.145)

Thanks as always to the local Enlightened communities of Livorno and Pisa for support and supplies.
On my way now, regardless of what it takes: level 16, here I come.

Three years as an Ingress agents

Exactly three years ago:

To me, the beginning of a new lifestyle!

Gold Builder

What you spend years building, someone can destroy overnight: build anyway.Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Vanguard medal

In order to celebrate its year 3, Ingress issued the Vanguard medal.
Here is the official announcement by Ingress.
Tiers will be assigned depending on the level reached by December 1^st, 2015 as follows:

• Bronze: level 3+
• Silver: level 9+
• Gold: level 13+
• Platinum: level 15+
• Black: level 16

Ingress year 3

Happy 3rd anniversary, Ingress!

Original post by Miwa Komatsu.

Ingress in-game store

It was activated in my scanner yesterday night.

     

It encompasses a new series of items that can be purchased with Chaotic Matter Units (C.M.U.) which, in turn, can be purchased with normal currency (Google Wallet).

This store is neither a collection of items in a "stronger" version than those you'd get via hacks nor a faster way to unilaterally get more normal items, Ingress is not pay-per-win; they are a completely different handy-but-unnecessary set of tools:

• Portal frackers enhance the output of hacks for either 10 minutes or 150 hacks, whichever comes first, and they affect hacks by all players;
• Beacons temporarily project olographic pictures above portals;
• Key lockers are special capsules that can only contain keys for a maximum of 100; agents can have up to 5 key lockers.

Click here for the official Google+ announcement by Ingress.

Black Translator

The limits of my language are the limits of my world.Ludwig Wittgenstein

Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.William Gibson

One language sets you in the corridor of life; two languages open every door on the way.Frank Smith

High thoughts must have high language.Aristophane

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head; if you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heartNelson Mandela

I remember getting the Platinum one back in May, I already knew the path to the Black one would be steep. Or, well, extremely long.

We are not short on portals in my whereabouts, but we sure are out on L8 portals: 15-point worth portals are not that common, I can mostly rely on 8-point L6/L7 portals with multi-hacks on.

But that's OK: committing consistently (once or twice a day) to burn out all those L6/L7 ones and driving to the nearest L8 farm from time to time would work out pretty well.

That is dedicating late nights and some afternoons to hardcore glyphing up to the point to wake up one morning with my finger drawing CLEAR-MIND-OPEN-MIND in the air.

That was a clear sign that I was “maybe” taking it "a little" too seriously :D but it also indicated that I was on the final rush.

Last days were hectic, persistent heavy rain and wind made it veeery difficult to burn out farms in pedestrian zones by both holding the umbrella and properly completing glyph sequences: it felt as if the Elements were telling me "We will do so that you DO DESERVE that damn medal!".

Bring it on, it's a good aerobic exercise.

And, at last, here I am, as excited as ever. Achievements are always a good way to tell ourselves: "Way to go, do not stop".

I'm also attaching the screenshot of very first sequence I got on the day the Translator medal was introduced, the beginning of a long path; I remember I was here, it was Green and L7, owned by +David Jones and powered up by +Alex Banti aka @InsaneX and me.

Therefore I'd like to thank them and local communities of Livorno and Pisa for providing a good number of high-level portals to glyph-hack.

And, by the way, I used neither Glyphon nor any other similar "tool"; I'm a purist and I personally despise these tricks as I believe they make the final achievement less worthy.

"Way to go, do not stop": Black Illuminator and Level 15 await.

And, heck, maybe a Double Black Translator. :D

The adventure continues!

I'm enthused and enthralled as ever at this "game", thanks Ingress!

@MarcoCarrai1981 yeah! nice job!

— Ingress (@ingress) 29 Ottobre 2015

A quick-and-dirty one

I'm on a one-week holiday now so yesterday night, after my friends went home, I still had some time to spend, no hurry to go to bed.

I quickly checked the Intel map and I see I could slap together something; I reviewed the keys I had, went taking those I missed and completed this one little op: I'm getting close to level 15 so even the smallest steps are important!

Towns involved: Rosignano Marittimo, La Mazzanta, Cecina
Top-bottom distance: 9.19 Km (5.71 mi)
M.U.: 10000+

Sunday afternoon, waiting for friends...

While waiting for friends to arrive, there are those who idle on the couch playing Candy Crush and those who drive for kilometres.
I belong to the latter group.

Towns involved: Rosignano Marittimo, Cecina, Casale Marittimo, Bibbona
Top-bottom distance: 18.7 Km (11.23 mi)
M.U.: 7220

Yet another simple destruction night

Although the quintessence of Ingress lies in complex planning, cooperating and socializing, some fast "run-and-gun" destruction is good for relaxing from time to time, especially after an intense day at work.

So, yesterday night I teamed up with @ToscJones to raze to the ground a remarkable blue area in Livorno and stack some nice A.P.

Here's a little excerpt of our passage: