Viking dreams of grandeur: Knut the Great

Knut was born in 995, the son of King Svein Forkbeard of Denmark. Knut (also known as Cnut or Canute) was brought up as a royal Dane, with martial training. His brother, Harold was the expected heir to the throne. Whether Svein favored Knut over Harold is not known. A contemporary of Knut wrote that he was tall, fall, and had a hooked nose.

Public Safety and numbers

Numbers are important in Public Safety. First of all, every agency, whether the department is based in law enforcement, firefighting, or  emergency medical services, relies on statistics.

Why?

Statistics guides the Administrators when it comes to budgets. Let's face facts folks: everything comes down to money. Next, statistics guide Admin in determining staffing. Today, there are software programs and systems status management programs that assist supervisory personnel in placing field units in the areas with the highest 'likely' calls volumes. When it comes to Communications Centers, stats determine which days and shifts have the biggest amount of Dispatchers on duty at any given day - hence, 'dogwatch' (or, nightshift) traditionally having the smallest number of Dispatchers while second shift (swingshift) has the most.

Responding to work-related surveys: are they really relevant?

Have you completed a work-related survey recently? I’ve participated in a number of them in recent years – most dispatcher-specific. In fact, while researching for my book, I had one posted on my blog and a few other dispatcher websites.

I have come to the conclusion that most of the surveys are developed by those who don’t know or understand our profession at all.

A quest for his lady's love: Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein. The real knight's tale

In 2001 Director Brian Helgeland brought his version of A Knight’s Tale to the big screen. The story was part of The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer (played by Paul Bettany in the film).  In Hollywood’s take of the classic medieval story, a tradesman’s son, William Thatcher (Heath Ledger) is apprenticed as a squire by his father to a knight. When the knight dies during a tournament, William takes his master’s place. He wins and assumes a new identity: ‘Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein’. As he and his companions travel the mainland, ‘Ulrich’ keeps gaining experience and winning accolades. At one event, he runs into Jocelyn (Shannyn Sossamon), a noblewoman and his nemesis – Count Adhemar (Rufus Sewell). Through adversity, and some compassion from Prince Edward, the Black Prince, William earns his true spurs and his love. All this takes place with hip music and great jousting scenes (even if the continuity messed up by allowing a horse to magically change colors in the middle of a joust run).

Of course, that not what really happened.

Getting medieval on the silver screen

It’s time for the annual review of the silver screen’s portrayal of the medieval world. This year is a plethora of television and movies for the history enthusiast. Let’s begin with the big screen.

The Highway to Hell

Let me warn you ahead of time: this is not a PC post.

Spend any amount of time in a communications center and chances are your ears will begin to catch fire. We’re not known for our ‘pc’ nature. In fact, dispatchers tend to vent – a lot. We have to. It’s not healthy to keep the anxiety we face every shift bottled up inside.

The plague of the medieval century: the Black Death

The death of feudalism was brought about the great equalizer in the mid 14^th century: The Black Death, or Black Plague. What was the Plague? Where did it come from and what was the true impact of this deadly disease?