An interesting time in history - the late Middle Ages to the Age of Discovery. People often think there are these bright lines that divide human history, but that’s not really whats going on at all. The transitions are all happening at once. Nothing stays constant. Humans are always trying new things to improve their life. For instance, the Norse pressed forward from Scandinavia to Scotland and the Faroes, then to Iceland, Greenland and North America all before the 14th century. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, shipbuilding was improving and soon they would have oceangoing vessels.
This book is the story of the Zen brothers. Merchants from Venice who supposedly traveled to the northern lands of Iceland, Greenland, and perhaps even Baffin Island in North America. The author traces their path through their largely forgotten journals and exams the impact they had leading into the golden age of discovery.
I enjoyed the story. Itâs short and worth a read for armchair historians. You will learn something new about a time when the maps and charts remained largely blank.
Still struggle with Micro.blog. Looking at alternatives . . again. . . but constant switching is not good either. Think I will give a go again. At least the people here are nice and decent.
I like that.
Daily Art.
Such a great app.
30 years ago . . . going back soon.
Current situationâŚ.
Word of the day: cog
A single-masted sailing vessel, clinker-built, with steep sides and a flat bottom. One of the primary trade vessels in the High Middle Ages
Started reading Irresistible North by Andrew Di Robilant. It is about the Zen(o) Brothers and the family’s claims in the late Middle Ages that their grandfather had been lost and accidentally traveled throughout the North Atlantic to Greenland and perhaps beyond in the late 14th century - before Columbus first trip to the New World.
This is my second book in a row about the late Middle Ages. Every now and then I get focused on a particular time period and place in history that I find fascinating. For a while it was the United States in the late 19th century (read Nothing Like it in the World (Transcontinental Railroad), In the Kingdom of Ice (USS Jennette voyage) etc . . ). The last book I read was The Faithful Executioner, a story about an executioner in Germany in the 16th century. Late last year I read Enemy of All Mankind about a pirate at the end of the Age of Discovery.
Irresistible North is really about the dawn of the Age of Discovery and the Italian City State of Venice in particular. So far the books is well-sourced with primary material from Venice.
Through reading the story, I am also learning a ton about ship building and types, especially as the voyages transitioned from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Longer trip required a different type of vessel.
Enjoying the book so far. Its about a tike period and location that I know little… and want to lean more.
Our current financial markets have the nationalization of loss and the privatization of gain. This will not end well.
ââThere is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea we are now afloat.
And we must take the current when it serves.
Or lose our ventures.â
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
I simply love this …
Facebook just de-platformed Australia.
If that doesnât show you who is in charge (at least for a while) nothing will.
Word of the day: exhausted
Nuff said
Pandora - I love it.
Fantastic for music discovery.
Glad the Super Bowl is over.
Now the Chiefs can keep talking about all the rings they are going to win.
So I got my parents an internet connected photo-frame for Christmas. Amazingly, they set up all by themselves and have even loaded a few photos into it. The point was for my wife and I to be able to upload photos directly to them and the frame through the internet. So on the phone last night I asked for the serial number so I could identify the frame and connect to it remotely. My Dad says, “let me go get it.” After a few minutes he comes back:.
Him: “I got it. Do you have something handy to write this down?”
Me: “Ready to go, Dad”
Him: “7… 2…. 3…. 4”.
Me: <sigh>
Mother: “That cant be it.”
Him: “Well, it was the number that it gave me. It told me to write it down
Mother: “That cant be it.”
Him: “It was the number that it gave me. It gave me that number. It told me tow write it down!”
Originally published in 1978. Presented without comment.
âIf you wish to keep slaves, you must have all kinds of guards. The cheapest way to have guards is to have the slaves pay taxes to finance their own guards. To fool the slaves, you tell them that they are not slaves and that they have Freedom. You tell them they need Law and Order to protect them against bad slaves. Then you tell them to elect a Government. Give them Freedom to vote and they will vote for their own guards and pay their salary. They will then believe they are Free persons. Then give them money to earn, count and spend and they will be too busy to notice the slavery they are inâ.
- Alexander Warbucks
Word of the Day: Establishment
People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.
- Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
P.S. - I am probably on some watch list now. So it goes…
