RPG Rules Sell Better Than Adventure Modules
Posted by Martin R on May 13, 2013 Role-playing games of the Dungeons & Dragons variety come in the form of books that are functionally analogous to computer software. You get your operating system (core rule book) and then you can buy update packages (rule expansions), programming libraries (campaign settings) and application programs (adventure modules) for it. In this analogy, the computer that…
Gaming at LinCon
Posted by Martin R on May 12, 2013 
Junior and I went for two days to LinCon, the annual gaming convention in Linköping (est. 1984). There was a fine crowd of geeks, all ages and with a good gender balance, many in steampunk finery. I said to Junior, “Look at them closely, son. These are your people.” Here’s what I played. All good…
800 Hidden Plastic Jars
Posted by Martin R on May 9, 2013 The other day somebody hid a geocache a short bike ride from my house at a spot where, I now know, an orienteering-themed fraternal order was founded in 1930. Today I rode out and became the second person to log the cache. And coming home I realised it was my 800th find since I started…
Recent Archaeomags
Posted by Martin R on May 4, 2013 Current World Archaeology #58 (April/May) has a seven-page feature on the 8th century mass graves in ships at Salme on Saaremaa in Estonia. This astonishing find interests me greatly as the ships and the dead men’s equipment are Scandinavian, and so I mentioned it here back in 2008. One of the sword pommels is an…
April Pieces Of My Mind
Posted by Martin R on May 1, 2013 I’m not very bothered by archaeological interpretations that are proven wrong. I’m afraid of those ideas that have become accepted even though there is no way they can ever be tested. “… it was common knowledge that local witches had killed old Mayor Niels Iversen Scribe by means of performing their bodily functions at his…
Depeche Mode Meets Tom Lehrer
Posted by Martin R on April 30, 2013 In your room Where time stands still Or moves at your will Will you let the morning come soon As we dance to the Masochism Tango I ache for the touch of your lips, dear But much more for the touch of your whips, dear There’ll be times When my crimes Will seem almost unforgivable…
On My Mind
Posted by Martin R on April 23, 2013 I’ve got a lot on my mind. Bronze Age deposition book: visiting some sites on Friday, data collection almost done, have started doing stat analysis and writing interpretations, need to write gazetteer entries while I remember details of how I’ve managed to pinpoint find spots. Also time to decide what my next project will be!…
New Paper On The Wreck Of The Rikswasa
Posted by Martin R on April 22, 2013 
A few years ago I did some fieldwork at Djurhamn, a peripheral naval harbour of the 15th through the 17th centuries (and blogged much about it: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H, and published a paper on it in an anthology). Now maritime archaeologist Jonas Wiklund…
Talking To Stubbornly Angle-Pushing Journalist About Vaccine
Posted by Martin R on April 21, 2013 
As part of my duties as chairman of the Swedish Skeptics, earlier tonight I took part in a studio discussion on Swedish TV4 about Gardasil, the vaccine against human papilloma virus that is offered to all 12-y-o Swedish girls. It was a pretty silly affair. The TV people had decided on the angle that the…
Transparent Recruitment Charade
Posted by Martin R on April 17, 2013 2009. University of Lund publishes the PhD thesis Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning in Created Agricultural Wetlands, dealing with biological diversity and ecosystem services in ponds in the agricultural landscape (and commented on here). 2013: Same department advertises a post-doc in the field “Biological Diversity and Ecosystem Services in Ponds in the Agricultural Landscape”. Because in…
