Some Of Us, Though, Do Tell Them Early. In The End It Works Out Better… 

Does the Lone Power have… an en-trophy wife?

With the new book being out and my never having read "A Wizard of Mars" I decided to pick up the New Millennium ebook editions. I'm getting close to the end of "So You Want to be a Wizard" and while I haven't gotten to the part where Nita reads from the bright book I know it's coming and I can already feel my heart breaking. It made me wonder: are Nita's and Kit's experiences with the Lone Power singularly unique? Do other wizards have opportunities like when Nita writes in the bright book?

Yes. And no. Except sometimes. In fact, always.(See also, “go not to the writer for advice, for she will say both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘wait two seconds while I come up with some proto-canonical material that I’ve never had reason or opportunity to mention to anybody before.’”)

Ordeals serve a number of purposes. Primarily they help the Powers that Be determine, in the simplest and most straightforward way, whether or not the wizard to whom they are potentially entrusting a lifetime of energy will actually commit to use that energy in moments of crisis. Equally primarily (if that phrase makes any sense at the human level, while remembering that from the Powers’ point of view, “all is done for each”) they routinely serve to solve or at least illuminate interior issues that the new wizard needs to get handled. This is besides actually solving a problem or concluding an intervention that some part of the local space-time continuum needs enacted / sorted out.

So you understand that no two Ordeals are ever alike, but every single time their effect is identical to that of saving the world — because when you save a part of it, even a very small part of it, “saving the world entire” is nonetheless exactly what you’re doing. Existence is, in this particular mode of analysis or expression, holographic: intimately interconnected at the quantum level, in such a way that — in what may be the best possible use of this phrase — “size doesn’t matter.” When (for example) instead of squashing a bug in the house, you get a glass and a piece of paper and catch it and put it outside, it may seem like nothing in particular… but on levels we are not even remotely sensorially equipped to perceive, when one chooses to spare life instead of taking it, existence quakes to its roots as living experience is kicked just a wee bit further into the Life direction. Choice always matters. And Ordeals are a particularly acute form of choice; both an expression of personality and a shaping of it – the iron in in the fire, submitting to the hammer, willingly. (And possibly, ideally, dragging the Lone Power into the fire with it, in just one more tiny little change.)

So the immediate answer is that all wizards have such opportunities. They may not look so earthshaking — but appearances deceive. One Ordeal or another may not seem dangerous, they may seem to involve very small changes in the local environment… But without fail, when passed, they are enough to convince the Powers that Be that the wizard in question is one who, for their definition of wizardry, is going to get the job done. And that’s what counts.

Hope that answer makes sense. :)

Do you think the Powers that be would ever offer Carmela the Oath even though she’s past latency?

I have to say that I don't see it as something the Powers would do, or indeed, need to do.

Some people, I think, are potentially far more effective without wizardry than with it. We are after all dealing here with a young woman who once shot the Lone Power point-blank (and snickered and said "Oops!" afterwards), and who stopped a violent alien insurrection with a block of Valrhona chocolate.

What we have to remember is that, in its way, wizardry's a bit of a kludge. If everything was working as originally intended, it wouldn't have been needed. But then the Lone One came up with that new and interesting concept It added to the worlds, and since the aftermath, all the greater Pleroma's code has needed constant tweaking. (eyeroll) After all, the addition of wizardry to the equation inevitably costs more energy... and the whole concept of things since the Lone Power's annoying addition of entropy has required saving energy. It's a pain to maintain the balance.

Doubtless there are some of the Powers—most likely the ur-demiurge we'd identify with Thoth, this seems like it'd be in Their bailiwick: code is after all language—who sit around tsk-ing at the mess the code's gotten into, and meanwhile side-eyeing with a certain dry satisfaction those creatures creative enough to intervene unusually effectively in the world without needing to have wizardry added on.

My image of the larger meta of this whole situation, therefore, is of the Powers standing around some kind of viewing instrumentality (why do I keep coming back to that pool in Jason and the Argonauts? Who knows) waiting to see what she's going to do next.

...And laying bets. :)

Kepler-62 Has Two Water Worlds Circling in its Habitable Zone

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered two planets that are the most similar in size to Earth ever found in a star’s habitable zone — the temperate region where water could exist as a liquid.

The finding, reported online today in Science1, demonstrates that Kepler is closing in on its goal of finding a true twin of Earth beyond the Solar System, says theorist Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who is a member of the Kepler discovery team.

Both planets orbit the star Kepler-62, which is about two-thirds the size of the Sun and lies about 1,200 light years (368 parsecs) from the Solar System. The outermost planet from the star, Kepler-62f, has a diameter that is 41% larger than Earth’s and takes 267 days to circle its star. The inner planet, Kepler-62e, has a diameter 61% larger than Earth’s and a shorter orbit of 122 days.

Kepler detected the planets by recording the tiny decrease in starlight that occurs when either of them passes in front of their parent star. Astronomers used those measurements to calculate the planets’ relative size compared to that star.

Continue: Worlds Apart

Astronaut tweets

Regarding Blank Check Wizardries

So I’ve been rereading SYWTBAW and I stumbled across something that I’d forgotten – it is Kit, not Nita, who suggests using the blank check wizardry. Nita actually worries about the ramifications of the spell, but Kit shrugs it off and says, “I don’t think the price’ll be too high.” Cue the Song of Twelve. Imagine how Kit must have felt when he realized that Nita’s looming death was payback for a gamble that he had made. Imagine the guilt crushing in, harsher and deeper than any ocean, as he clung to his fierce denial out of sheer desperation. Imagine how painfully he must have wished that he’d insisted on casting the blank check spell alone – which was his original intent – instead of letting Nita stubbornly join in. Imagine the extra agony wrapped up in the words read the fine print before you sign. I didn’t think that Deep Wizardry could wreck me any more, but here we are.

Inside a Neutron Star

Credit: Karl Tate, via SPACE.com

NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis

One of Fred’s shyer relatives breaks cover…

(via Black Hole Discovered Which Emits Brilliant Light)

Good News Network

Humpback Whales Are Singing More: Number of Songs Has Doubled as Food Sources Became More Abundant

Eavesdropping on whale songs over 6 years shows the number of days humpbacks have been singing has nearly doubled–with their food source.

"Eavesdropping on whale songs over the last six years is providing new information vital to answering questions about these giants of the ocean.

The number of whale songs detected is associated with shifting food sources, according to the California scientists—and the number of days humpbacks have been singing has nearly doubled.

When monitoring baleen whale songs in the Pacific Ocean, researchers found year-to-year variations correlated with changes in the availability of the species they forage on.

In vast oceans, monitoring populations of large marine animals can be a “major challenge” for ecologists, explained Dr. John Ryan, a biological oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California (MBARI).

Their team deployed underwater microphones called hydrophones to study and track baleen whales, which communicate over long distances through sound.

“Surprisingly, the acoustic behavior of baleen whales provides insights about which species can better adapt to changing ocean conditions,” said Dr. Ryan, a lead author of the study.

They also monitored songs from blue, fin, and humpback whales off the West Coast of the U.S. to see what the song data could reveal about the health of their ecosystem.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, showed “large” year-to-year variations in whale song detection.

“The amount of humpback whale song continually increased, with their songs being detected on 34% of days at the beginning of the study and rising to 76% of days after six years,” said Dr. Ryan.

“These increases consistently tracked improved foraging conditions for humpback whales across all study years—large increases in krill abundance, followed by large increases in anchovy abundance.

“In contrast, blue and fin whale song rose primarily during the years of increasing krill abundance.

“This distinction of humpback whales is consistent with their ability to switch between dominant prey. An analysis of skin biopsy samples confirmed that changes had occurred in the whales’ diets.”

He explained that other factors, including the local abundance of whales, may have contributed to patterns in song detections observed in some years, but changes in foraging conditions were the most consistent factor.

“Overall, the study indicates that seasonal and annual changes in the amount of baleen whale song detected may mirror shifts in the local food web.”

WHALES ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL: • Gray Whale, Extinct for Centuries in Atlantic, Is Spotted in Cape Cod • Sighting of Many Blue Whales Around Seychelles is First in Decades – ‘Phenomenal’ • Majestic Sei Whales Reappear in Argentine Waters After Nearly a Century

“The results suggest that an understanding of the relationship between whale song detection and food availability may help researchers to interpret future hydrophone data, both for scientific research and whale management efforts”, which could better protect endangered species."

-via Good News Network, March 1, 2025