Favorite links: 

Fantastic video on how blind people really live and echolocation - Required viewing for anyone who knows a visually impaired person and for anyone at risk of losing sight

My personal blog - Arie Farnam "Outside the Lines"

Democracy Now - real TV news, real people, real stories, no BS

The European Roma Rights Centre - keep on keepin' on

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped - If I'm ever a famous writer, they should blame these guys.

PaganAid - an international aid organization devoted to assisting small-scale projects that both end poverty and protect the earth. Beneficiaries can be of any faith or none and share a concern for the earth. 

 

Media coverage of Arie Farnam and The Kyrennei Series:

The La Grande Observer and Go Northeast Oregon on The Kyrennei Series and author Arie Farnam.

For those who read Czech, here is an article about Arie Farnam and adoption in the Czech Republic.

 

Things that make the premise of the Kyrennei Series eerily plausible

 Police stop everyone on a particular road and do blood tests. No comment. Just run!

There are some strange historical documents that no one can read, such as this 15th century herbal that is written in an unknown script that expert linguists and code breakers have failed to crack.

Some stuff on Vikings. The whole Viking connection will be explored in prequels eventually. 

As many as half of the Viking warriors were women!

Some ideas about how one group of people could pass down a specific rare genetic difference since ancient times.

On the existence of something akin to the Addin... 

Well, I don't know if this writer is actually speaking from personal experience and it sounds a little sarcastic but this is a nice summary of the situation of the class of power in the real world. Now, tell me my villains are unrealistically entitled. 

Climate change deniers seem suspiciously brain dead and they are very concerned with controlling what other people think and say.

There's a secret group of millionaires and billionaires who are spending a fortune to keep you thinking that climate change isn't real. 

US Presidents are weirdly inbred and all seem to come from the same clan... or is it an association.

ISIS leader a confirmed CIA puppet - i.e. what if all these supposed wars were just faction play?

Another one like that. McCain admits he hangs out with ISIS members.

And historically... here's how Stalin cronies funded billionaires who are now behind the "anti-socialist" Tea Party

An intense documentary on the history everyone sort of knows but we collectively agree to mostly ignore

An American outpost under fire from Al Quaeda but somehow the reinforcements never came. 

Need I mention that the media isn't free. - Who are the good guys?

Military drops weapons to ISIS by "mistake." - If there are good guys,  we're still looking for them...

I'm not going to list any articles on Ebola here. For the record, let me say that Ebola is a real disease. It's tragic and there was no intention to capitalize on this tragedy for the sake of fiction. A doctor from Africa suggested to me that I use a form of Ebola as the premise for the story in January 2014 before the outbreak had become internationally known. He suggested it because he knew what a horrible thing it is and how it could scare the daylights out of the population until they agreed to anything, including the complete quarantine and disappearance of patients. Obviously, he knows his stuff. I will post links if a "disease" crops up which does not spread in ways that make any medical sense, but the current outbreak is just what it is.

Easy reference for dealing with climate change deniers

A solid review of scientific papers from 2013, showing 97 percent agreement among scientists that global warming is caused by human activities.

Herbal and natural home and health tips

Treating dry and brittle hair

Cleaning and cosmetics all using lemons

Tidbits for your enjoyment:

An article on runic protection symbols for home and family.