Randy | January 31, 2011
Every word in the following article is the personal opinion of its author, but every statement made within it can be supported with authenticating documentation. The author regards public safety and security as matters not to be trifled with in these troubled times, and sincerely hopes that the brutal honesty of this article will encourage […]
Randy | January 24, 2011
Of the known Icelandic sagas, both Grænlendinga Saga (The Saga of the Greenlanders) and Eiríks Saga Rauða (The Saga of Eirik the Red) speak of the discovery of Vinland – what we call North America – by the Vikings. They also make mention of Freydís Eiríksdóttir. Freydís was the daughter of Eirik the Red and, […]
Randy | January 17, 2011
In the course of my research for the Skrælingibók, I have turned up a number of excellently rendered documentaries, one of which I’m presenting here for your viewing pleasure. Made in 2004, the 40 minute documentary Vikings: Journey to New Worlds was directed by Mark Fafard, co-written by Mark Fafard and Jonathan Hock. My thanks […]
Randy | January 8, 2011
A thousand years ago, Viking expeditions out of Greenland made incursions into North America. Much of what we know of this time comes down to us from a pair of Icelandic Sagas that were written two hundred years after the events they describe, supplemented by archaeological examination of the failed Vinland settlement at L’Anse aux […]
Randy | January 5, 2011
Among the most famous folk stories ever written down are those that involve the people who live in the remote Polish town of Helm (sometimes spelled “Chelm”). Famous or not, there will still be some of you who have never heard of the place, let alone its impressive inhabitants, so I’m about to fix that. […]
Randy | December 30, 2010
Under the title New tobacco warnings unveiled, CBC News opened their 30 December 2010 article with, “The federal government has introduced new rules that force tobacco companies to include larger and more graphic anti-smoking warning labels on cigarette packs. The new anti-smoking ads will now cover 75 per cent of the pack, instead of the […]
Randy | December 27, 2010
Nature demands balance. She is neither wasteful nor inefficient, and She isn’t interested in the how of things so much as She is in finding the most efficient path to a necessary outcome. Life is an exercise in energy management, and there can often be more than one right answer to the same problem. This […]
Randy | December 19, 2010
Where Mrs. LFM and I call home, a lot of people live inside of antiques. Many of the houses hereabouts have passed their first century which makes them slightly older than me. One of the houses we are professionally involved with protecting from the Dread Prophet Murphy is a massive pile atop a hill in […]
Randy | December 5, 2010
One of the many problems afflicting the world is the blind acceptance of the legitimacy of what have come to be called “non-governmental organizations” or “NGO’s”. Where once were organizations we all recognized and understood – the Red Cross/Crescent, the Salvation Army, to name but a few – we now have a plethora of organizations, […]
Randy | November 20, 2010
“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon, 1942 ~ If you follow me here, then you know I regularly encounter subject matter that’s too big for one article to hold. Well, I’m at […]