The Ecology of Space Exploration: Second Look – Same Conclusion

| December 6, 2014

While the first landing on the surface of the Moon was motivated by international rivalries and political agendas, in its development, the fallout of space exploration has given us a host of technologies we take for granted and rely on every day. It was beneficial to society at large, and its legacy incalculable. Mars One, […]

Remembrance

| November 11, 2014

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” ~ Winston Spencer Churchill on the policy of Appeasement ~ I instantly recalled the derisive words of Winston Churchill while reading some spoken by the Ukrainian Prime Minister as quoted in a CBC News piece published 9 November 2014 under the […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 30: Home Invasions

| October 30, 2014

We of the LFM Clan reside in an antique farm house sitting atop a granite foundation that readily affords access to our basement by all manner of creatures. To the degree, in fact, that our basement stands as its own balanced ecosystem. Mice and Moles, for example, regularly pass through, as do the Minks from […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 28: Darkness – Literally.

| October 28, 2014

“Black as six feet up a Moose’s ass,” is a common term here in the Great White North, used to describe conditions so dark you can’t, as we also say, “See your glass in front of your face.” Things get that way in the bush when the moon is less than half full, but also […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 27 – The Last Word

| October 27, 2014

I was irrevocably estranged from my paternal grandfather by the time I was 16 years old. Clem Whynacht was a Master Carpenter who could build, finish and mend anything made of wood to a degree of perfection that was marvelous to behold. He was also an exceptional wood carver with a gift for turning out […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 26: The Baby and the Abyss

| October 26, 2014

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Aphorism 146, Jenseits von Gut und Böse (Beyond Good and Evil) (1886) I’m known to write of darksome things, That spring from man and […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 24: A Word from Ray Villafane

| October 24, 2014

“‘Darkness’, as it inspires me, isn’t limited to expressions of evil, mayhem, and bad outcomes. Something can also be considered “dark” if it is unknown, misunderstood, or incorrectly interpreted.” ~ The Book of Dark Sentiments The Artistry of Ray Villafane (sample above) and his fellow Artists Andy Bergholtz and Chris Vierra who together form the creative […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 22: In Case of Vampire

| October 22, 2014

The label above would have been included with one of the ornately turned out and beautifully boxed kits consisting of masterfully crafted weapons and accessories created for defense against, and if necessary the destruction of, vampires, that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Timing and anecdotal evidence suggest, although fall far […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 20: An Aside About Cannibalism

| October 20, 2014

Back in the early 1980’s, a young man came to work for a company I was consulting for, and it fell to me to train him in the arcane arts of installing and troubleshooting security and fire alarm systems. I befriended him in  a mentor kind of way, and learned he had spent much of […]

Dark Sentiments 2014 – Day 19: A Few Words from Terence Hanbury White

| October 19, 2014

The world is at war. With everything. The world of humans strives for unbridled growth, and in so doing either sheds all care, or cooks up justifications for its extravagance, to the peril of everything that isn’t us. Religion is still being used as a reason to kill everyone else who doesn’t belong to “the […]