Hello! I Was Wondering If You’ve Shared Your Ao3 Account? Like, Have You Acknowledged “this Account

don’t be afraid to make corrections

don’t be afraid to lend a hand

and don’t look down

Woo Woo keeps walking around the house whispering “I know.” But he won’t tell us what he knows…

New Galactic Supercluster Map Shows Milky Way’s ‘Heavenly’ Home

A new cosmic map is giving scientists an unprecedented look at the boundaries for the giant supercluster that is home to Earth’s own Milky Way galaxy and many others. Scientists even have a name for the colossal galactic group: Laniakea, Hawaiian for “immeasurable heaven.”

Image 1: Scientists have created the first map of a colossal supercluster of galaxies known as Laniakea, the home of Earth’s Milky Way galaxy and many other. This computer simulation, a still from a Nature journal video, depicts the giant supercluster, with the Milky Way’s location shown as a red dot. Credit: [Nature Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rENyyRwxpHo)

Image 2: This computer-generated depiction of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way galaxy containing Earth’s solar system, shows a view of the supercluster as seen from the supergalactic equatorial plane. Credit: SDvision interactive visualization software by DP at CEA/Saclay, France

The scientists responsible for the new 3D map suggest that the newfound Laniakea supercluster of galaxies may even be part of a still-larger structure they have not fully defined yet.

"We live in something called ‘the cosmic web,’ where galaxies are connected in tendrils separated by giant voids," said lead study author Brent Tully, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu.

Galactic structures in space

Galaxies are not spread randomly throughout the universe. Instead, they clump in groups, such as the one Earth is in, the Local Group, which contains dozens of galaxies. In turn, these groups are part of massive clusters made up of hundreds of galaxies, all interconnected in a web of filaments in which galaxies are strung like pearls. The colossal structures known as superclusters form at the intersections of filaments.

The giant structures making up the universe often have unclear boundaries. To better define these structures, astronomers examined Cosmicflows-2, the largest-ever catalog of the motions of galaxies, reasoning that each galaxy belongs to the structure whose gravity is making it flow toward.

"We have a new way of defining large-scale structures from the velocities of galaxies rather than just looking at their distribution in the sky," Tully said.

A wizard’s Manual can come in all shapes and sizes. For those who know which links to click, there is a section of Wikipedia where the globe puzzle is full and finished. Articles in this section never have a problem with trolls or misinformation, and cover subjects ranging from a listing of every Power to a deep dive on echolocation spells.

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. :)

Fun fact of the day

Inside a Neutron Star

Credit: Karl Tate, via SPACE.com

At least once Nita makes it to college she won’t have to keep asking her dad or counselor to cover for her when she has to miss school. If one of my students emailed me saying they were going to miss class because they had to stop the universe from tearing itself apart I’d be like ‘cheers I’ll drink to that bro’

January fanbinding - What the butterflies said

Set myself a 2023 challenge to do a bookbinding project each month for an "actual book", i.e. something with written content rather than blank paper (or where I've made the content, as i partly want to make myself figure out formatting and dealing with an externally defined length). Also trying to use different styles of binding, so some added fun there figuring out what works for each!

I've just finished a reread of the Young Wizards books, so for my first project & pamphlet bind went with a YW fic, the wonderfully heartbreaking 'what the butterflies said' by @sunrisenebula

Available now for free download: "Herself"

Since tomorrow's the start of the Irish national holiday weekend with what many Irish people will refer to as The Day That's In It, this urban fantasy novella is for the next few days free for download from the Ebooks Direct store!

Set mostly in the Dublin of 2004, it contains Irish mythology, abused civic statuary, famous cemeteries, celebrated dead people, the much-mourned sushi place behind the Brown Thomas department store, seriously cranky deities, and the mysterious serial murders of numerous Fair Folk.

…By the way, though this isn't a Young Wizards work, it's set in the same universe. One scene unfolds in a space that'll be familiar to YW readers as "[the pub] where the wizards drink".

Interested?

Just head over here, shove a copy in the cart, and go through the checkout process. You won't be charged.

...And one other thing! Some of you will have seen our "Get Our Whole Store For $44!" offers, and for one reason or another haven't been able to avail yourself of them. Well, starting right now, our Tumblr folk have got another chance! (Ahead of everybody else, as the sale's not being announced to the general public on other platforms until midnight US/EST.) ...And you can even see the animated promo before everybody else! (Go on, try not to jig. I dare you.)

Details about how to get the "I Want Everything You've Got" package are over here:

Please note that if you get the Whole Store package, you won't need to download Herself separately: it's part of the package.

The usual frustrated note for our British friends: unfortunately we can't sell to you. It's a Brexit thing. Info about that is here. As always, our apologies.

And now for the jiggy bit!