First, civilization is collapsing around him as most humans have been turned blind after watching an alien meteor shower.

FORBES: 'The Day of the Triffids' to Get a Remake?

Sid Meier's Gettysburg , the first original Sid Meier game since 1992's Civilization and the first title from Firaxis Games , promises to continue Meier's tradition of innovative, brain-stretching games.

FORBES: Brain games

But centuries before intercontinental carbonation or the rise of the European coffee house filled with intellectuals with brains sharpened by caffeine, the first beverage which marked civilization's improvement upon nature was beer.

NPR: Looking at the World Through Beer Glasses

It embraces the comforts and pleasures of modernity, while shrugging off the basic sacrifices that built our civilization in the first place.

FORBES: The Case for Natalism is the Case for Immigration

He remarks that the Western civilization is the first one to construct a science, a knowledge and description of nature that negates the sacred altogether.

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Knowing we'd be turning our backs on civilization, we first visited Cape Lodge near the Margaret River (see box, p. 172) to soak up as much five-star nourishment as we could.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Knowing we'd be turning our backs on civilization, we first visited Cape Lodge near the Margaret River (see " A Taste of Luxury") to soak up as much five-star nourishment as we could.

FORBES: Where the Outback Meets the Sea

The site, with its monumental structural remains, street pattern, covered drains, baths, wells and all necessary features needed for sanitation and administration, is known as the first urban centre of the Indus civilization.

UNESCO: Safeguarding Moenjodaro

But first, a few minutes devoted to the subject of beer and civilization.

NPR: Looking at the World Through Beer Glasses