Large Fierce Mammal

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 go out to Janson Media for this splendid offering.

Leiv Eriksson oppdager Amerika (Leif Erikson discovers America) by Christian Krogh (1893). Click the picture for a larger version.

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 Meadows which is located on the extreme northern tip of the island we now call Newfoundland.

Grænlendinga Saga (The Saga of the Greenlanders) and Eiríks Saga Rauða (The Saga of Erik the Red) tell the story of Erik the Red’s banishment to Greenland, and his son Leif Ericson’s serendipitous discovery of Vinland. While both sagas contain elements of fancy and tend to mutually contradict one another, a thread of truth can nevertheless be disentangled, aided in no small part by the archaeological evidence. What has been, up until now, the subject of conjecture and controversy is why a people known for their fierceness and indomitable fighting spirit succeeded in the settlement of Greenland but failed so miserably in the far more benign land of plenty that was Vinland. (more…)

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.

First off, let’s get the pronunciation down. To properly speak the name of Helm you need to pronounce the “H” correctly. If you do it like you’re preparing your throat to hawk a loogie, and then stick the “elm” on the back side, you’ll pretty much have it.

The citizens of Helm, who are referred to as Helmites, are so interesting because they believe themselves wise, and thereby commit an error in judgement that persistently blinds them to the fact that they’re actually world class idiots.

In the introductory chapter to his bottomlessly entertaining book The Wise Men of Helm & Their Merry Tales, which you can enjoy simply by clicking the title, Solomon Simon sets the stage for getting to know the Helmites better:

“There was that winter, for instance,a cold, bitter winter, when the Helmites had no fire-wood to warm their homes. They suffered much through the long months, and, determined that such a thing should never again happen in Helm, the very next year they built a high brick wall all around the town to keep out the cold.”

I invite you to explore the lore of Helm, and as part of the ride you’ll no doubt also enjoy the adventures of a Helmite named Shmendrik in the 1999 National Film Board of Canada production of Village of Idiots, a John Lazarus adaptation of a Jewish folk tale. Mrs. LFM and I particularly enjoyed Shmendrik’s direction finding strategy.

In another one of those moments of serendipity I’m famous for, a few days ago I discovered Aston, an Australian group that does incredible covers of pop songs using traditional classical instruments. This is NO circus trick! Not only are they unbelievably talented, they’re hot by every definition of the term, and make it obvious that they’re having one hell of a good time doing what they do. (more…)

The Mayan calendar stops where it does because you have to call it quits sometime.

Stephen McHattie, the way he might look before challenging me to a duel after reading this article.

Mrs. LFM and I first heard of the movie called 2012 in a conversation with actor Stephen McHattie at his cottage. I asked him what he was working on lately and he said his latest project was that one. Knowing the range of roles he takes on, and the quality of portrayal he’s capable of, I couldn’t help asking if his character was part of the solution or part of the problem this time around. He replied that he plays the captain of the ship that saves everybody so he supposed that made his character a hero. Let it be said that Mrs. LFM and I love steely eyed heroes, and the ones that look like Stephen McHattie best of all. (more…)

The source of this wisdom is {link:http://www.h34dup.com/artwork/typcut-are-you-happy/}here{/link}.

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 current 50 per cent requirement, Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said.”

Here’s more from today’s CTV coverage of the same story titled Doctors’ group supports cigarette warning update. Following are some choice portions with LFM observations thrown in – quotes from the article are in blockquoted italics while my comments are in regular type:

“Neil Collishaw, the research director at Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, says the current labelling system has been in place for 10 years and it is time for it to be updated.”

This means that 10 years ago the people promoting the present system were selling it as a sure fire way to attack the smoking demon.

“‘We do know that bigger warnings are better and that warnings need to be changed every once in a while,’ Collishaw told CTV’s Canada AM during a telephone interview from Ottawa on Thursday morning.”

You know that bigger is better, so after 10 years you’re making a giant leap from 50% to 75% coverage of a box I could hide under my left ass cheek? News flash asshole – a cigarette package is only so big. Why stop at 75% coverage for your gross out art? Why not demand LARGER PACKAGES? I’d say no smaller than the box a full size deep freeze comes in. Give yourself some room to work man! At least then, even if smokers are too blinded by their addiction to notice how disgusting the packaging is, we can at least incite non-smokers to kick the shit out of them when they suddenly find themselves unable to eat because they saw the box of smokes being carried through the parking lot to the cube van smokers will need to support the habit. (more…)

Jim Keating posted a link today that leads to a Blog called Golden Age Comic Book Stories, specifically its 21 December 2010 post featuring cover art drawn by Ed Emshwiller for assorted Christmas issues of  Galaxy Magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published between 1951 and 1961. (more…)

Peromyscus maniculatus, commonly called the Deer Mouse after the similarity of its colouration to that of the White Tailed Deer. Click the picture for a larger view.

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 is why it’s not hard to find examples where multiple species of flora or fauna evolve convergent strategies to fill a common ecological niche in ways that represent variations on a theme, all on the path to a common end.

Take, for example, the ubiquitous deer mouse which shares a critical position with many species of insect and marine life in that it exists at the bottom of a food chain where survival of any species built to fill such a niche requires its member creatures to be resilient, adaptable, and prolific. Terriers, ferrets, cats, owls, and some species of snake are highly effective and successful in preying on deer mice. Each brings a different bag of evolutionary tricks to the trade, but all lead to an equal result for the mice – dead is dead. Removal of predator induced mortality from the deer mouse life cycle equation will result in an explosion of population driven competition for resources until a critical point is reached after which starvation, parasites, and disease will start correcting the imbalance. Dead is still dead, and Nature will have balance.

Technologized human society  flatters itself with lethally ill conceived beliefs in human ascendancy beyond the reach of Natural laws. That somehow humans exist to conquer Nature and teach Her a lesson. That humans have somehow earned the right to declare themselves exempt from the one immutable law that applies rigidly and without exception to every other living thing on Earth – the stupid, wasteful, lazy, and otherwise ineffective are punished with death, and Nature prefers to pass sentence before the offender has muddied the gene pool with its offspring. Technology has cushioned Man from these grim realities, but it has not granted an exemption.

Nature also never hurries, and somewhere along the way humans have mistaken this for inaction on Her part.

Image by {link: http://comics.com/steve_benson/2010-12-10/}Steve Benson{/link}

I’ve been following the saga of Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, with great interest.  I support this kind of uncovering of government secrets. I think it will go a long way to helping keep people honest, a rarity in government.  Wikileaks does not post rumors, hearsay, opinions, just “classified, censored or otherwise restricted material of political, diplomatic or ethical significance”.

A few days ago, Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States, called Assange a “hi-tech terrorist” because he’s endangered people’s lives and occupations. Hmm. One might be sympathetic to that view, and those poor, poor people. Unless you take into account what Assange actually did. He uncovered corruption. Biden is also having a hard time conducting business because “World leaders now want to meet him alone, without accompanying staff members”. Gee, I wonder why.  Imagine a world where heads of government have some accountability! What a horrible tragedy. (more…)

Click the picture for a larger view.

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 Green Bay, Lunenburg County. First a family home, later a nursing home, and now once again a private seasonal dwelling, the place is only a little smaller than a Zeppelin hangar and has an interesting history.

The story goes that the house was built by a man who owned and operated a successful local general store, success made all the moreso by the fact that it was the only one for miles. The house was built much larger than needed because the man had married a woman with delusions of grandeur, and the continual additions and embellishments at her behest ultimately put an end to both the family fortune and the marriage. (more…)