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SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall baseball battled back from an early deficit in game one to claim a 9-5 win before starter Jonathan Cole slammed the door shut on Swarthmore's offense for a 1-0 complete-game shutout in the nightcap as the Diplomats swept the No. 9-ranked Garnet on Saturday afternoon.
The Centennial Conference (CC) road victories propelled F&M's record to 19-11, 6-4 CC on the year while the Garnet tumbled to 16-9, 4-5 CC. The Diplomats are now 3-0 against ranked teams in 2019 and have won three-consecutive CC contests.
With the pair of wins, sixth-year head coach Ryan Horning became the program's all-time wins leader with 117 in his career. He passed Brett Boretti, who was at the helm of F&M baseball from 2001-05, and accumulated a 116-82 record during his tenure.
Game 1: F&M 9, Swarthmore, 5
After falling behind by a 3-0 score in the early stages of game one, F&M tossed five runs on the scoreboard in the fifth to storm in front. Kelsey Launi kick-started the crooked frame with a one-out infield single that allowed Kevin Lammers to score from third. After a wild pitch plated J.J. Freeman and an error at third sent Alex Miller home from third, Will Samuel laced a two-out RBI double to right field that capped off the scoring.
Swarthmore got a run back in the fifth to pull within one off an RBI single. The Garnet loaded the bases with no outs on the board but reliever Kyle Roche forced three straight groundouts, with two base runners being throw out at home plate, to get the Diplomats out of the threat.
Each team traded a run to keep F&M in front at a narrow 6-5 tally before the Diplomats put three insurance scores on the board in the top of the ninth off of three clutch hits. Kyle Ebert's two-out double to left field started the effort before Samuel stepped to the dish and scored two off a single to left field.
Reliever Danny Blugis dominated the ninth by retiring the Garnet in order with three-straight swinging strikeouts.
Samuel was on fire with a 4-for-5 line that included three RBIs and a run scored. Ebert went 2-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI while Blugis notched a hit and drew a pair of walks.
Roche twirled four strong innings of relief, scattering just three hits and not allowing an earned run while striking out two.
Game 2: F&M 1, Swarthmore 0
A pitching dual highlighted the nightcap as F&M tallied the game's first run in the top of the ninth. Blugis reached on a fielder's choice that put the second out of the frame on the board before Lammers notched a game-winning triple to center field that put the Diplomats in front.
Cole (4-2) capped off an incredible outing with a one-two-three ninth as F&M's junior righty froze Washington with a strikeout looking to end the contest.
It marked the fifth inning that Cole did not allow a baserunner as he totaled nine shutout frames, surrendering just three walks and striking out eight. The closest that Swarthmore came to generating a run was in the bottom of the first when the Garnet led off with a double, but Swarthmore stranded the runner at third after Cole retired the next three.
F&M led in hits at 7-3 with Lammers producing a 3-for-4 line with one RBI and a stolen base.
Up Next
CC action picks back up on Tuesday when the Diplomats host Gettysburg at 3:30 p.m.


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Malia Mills celebrates her company's 25th anniversary this year. She is in the studio with her production director, Libby Mattern, talking about how she has run a small business, launched her own stores, operated her own factory, and made a post-9/11 strategic withdrawal from wholesale. Libby discusses her non-profit sewing school, Course of Trade.
Malia Mills / https://www.maliamills.com/
Course of Trade / https://www.courseoftrade.com/

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About the Book
Node.js Interview Questions and Answers book aims to save your time and make you more productive Node.js programmer. This book will provide a comprehensive guide for creating, debugging, testing and deploying production-ready Node.js applications. In this book, each topic has been explained using appropriate questions with the best appropriate answers and suitable examples.
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It was The Wheel of Time that made me want to become a writer. I could almost stop writing, right there. I think that level of impact – to say that a particular book or series of books was what set you off on your life's course – is pretty much indicative of everything I think and feel about the Wheel of Time series in a nutshell. But then this would be an awfully short article, and hardly worth reading. Besides, as I learned from the series author himself, you should never, ever use one word where ten will do.
* * *
I remember the moment very clearly. I only owned the first four books in the series at that point, and I'm pretty sure I was going through my first re-read of the series up to that point. It was a thing I used to do, as the time spent waiting increased from one installment to the next. It helped keep me up to date on the ever-growing cast of characters and series of events that occurred. The author, Robert Jordan (real name: James Oliver Rigney, Jr.), was fond of bringing minor characters and plot points into major relevance later in the story. You could never be sure what was important (or even if you knew, beyond a scrap of doubt, you still never knew how much), and what was just so much window-dressing. And there was a lot of window-dressing in The Wheel of Time.
The fourth book in the series is The Shadow Rising, and it's probably the last one I enjoyed from start to finish with few if any measurable qualms. I was about halfway through it when I had the sudden wish that I could tell a story about characters and a world that was this absorbing, that would take someone away from their own life, even if only briefly, into something grander and greater-seeming.
I was fourteen at the time. At fourteen, most kids believe they really can do just about anything, given effort enough and time. So the thought went through my head: "Why the hell shouldn't I be able to tell a story like this?"
I think I stopped reading, pulled out a notepad and a pen, and started writing on the spot, just to see what it was like. I had never written anything purely for my own enjoyment, or for others to enjoy, before that point. In fact, prior to that moment, I sort of hated writing. Writing was something I'd always done at someone else's command, on someone else's suggested topics, for school, and it always had to be done a certain way. I don't know if schools in Illinois today still have the IGAP format for essay-writing (which, really, was all the writing I ever did until I got to take a creative writing class in high school, and was I ever chomping at the bit for that), but they had it when I was in school. I'd say it was godawful, but godawful doesn't really do it justice. I could go on a good rant about it, but this isn't really the time or the place.
Whether I'd liked writing or not, prior to this, had been sort of irrelevant because I was somehow relatively good at it regardless. I'd like to brag, but the plain fact is that this is due, probably, to nothing more remarkable than the fact that I read a lot.
Looking back, I have a hard time articulating why I loved The Wheel of Time so much. It's not that I think, today, with the benefit of hindsight and a certain greater amount of maturity, that the books are fundamentally bad. I'd say that on the whole, my feeling about the series is generally positive (though a little more mixedly so than I'd like).
Most of the difficulty is that I literally just have not had the cause to articulate my feelings on it one way or the other, period. At the time I was first reading these books, none of my other friends were really readers. Later on, when more of the people in my circle of friends were readers, there were few who were really inclined toward reading a book series which now stands at fifteen volumes (fourteen in the main story, plus a prequel that began life as a novella which was later expanded to a full novel, albeit one significantly shorter than the rest). Those who had, by this point had moved on to the less consistently enjoyable middle of the series, and had mainly given up on it. So I didn't have a lot of people to talk about it with, and I'm not mentally damaged enough to start having discussions with myself about it (though I suppose the argument could be made that this blog boils down to exactly that).
But I've decided to write about The Wheel of Time anyway, so I guess I can, in fact, talk to myself about this after all.
* * *
Nostalgia's an odd thing. You read a book when you're young, and love it, and then one day you're an adult with a job and a car and a mortgage and a spouse and two cats, and along the way from the day you first read that particular book to this day, when you've decided to re-read it, you've become a different person. Not an entirely different person (not usually, anyway), but different enough that the way you viewed the world maybe changed. Maybe before, you were conservative, and now you're pretty liberal. Or the reverse. Who knows? Anyway, you aren't the same person who read that book all those years ago.
For some reason like that, I haven't revisited a lot of the books I read when I was a kid, and later, a teenager. I suppose I'm a little afraid. It's easier to simply bask in the warm glow of what I remember (probably some of it wrongly, this far removed from that time) than it is to look at it fresh as an adult with all the accoutrements (and baggage) of adulthood, and find out that something's changed. Maybe it's only myself, but I'm never sure whether that's the more or the less depressing idea. Sure, it's probably not as dire as all that, but why take the risk?
I don't have this luxury with The Wheel of Time, though.
The first book in the series, The Eye of the World, was published in January of 1990. I would have been eight at the time, and didn't come to the books until a few years later. But the final book in the series was published in January of 2013, twenty-three years almost to the day after the first.
These are not, like some other series (Recluce, for instance), different stories within the confines of a shared world or common universe. The Wheel of Time isn't even a series of separate stories about the same cast of characters. No, this is a single story about the same characters from start to finish. Even the prequel deals largely with characters we're already familiar with – just not the main ones, and at an earlier point in their lives. It's difficult to say exactly how much time passes "in-universe", that is, in the context of the story. I think it's something like three or four years, but it may be little more than two. The amount of time it ultimately took to tell the story makes it difficult to get a good handle on how much time actually passes in the story.
So, no. The Wheel of Time series wasn't something I read once as a teenager, and then came back to as an adult, and felt differently about. The Wheel of Time was something that, for a long time, I was always somewhere in the middle of. But more on that in a bit.
* * *
I don't know that J.R.R. Tolkien was necessarily the first author to "sub-create", to craft a world and a history for the purpose of telling a story or a series of stories. On the other hand, I can't say so for sure. I know Robert E. Howard had at least sketched out a world of sorts for his Conan tales (referred to as the Hyborian Age), though it was nothing nearly so detailed in any respect as Tolkien's Middle-earth. And while I know Tolkien's world was taking shape even as he was in the trenches of World War I, Howard published his stories and died (tragically young) before The Lord of the Rings saw the light of day. What we can say, pretty conclusively, is that Tolkien was the first to do what he did on the staggering scale that he did.
If we were to hold a contest, to see who, so far, has built the most complete sub-created fantasy world, Tolkien is undoubtedly in first place.
Robert Jordan is a pretty close second, I think.
If there's one place where there's absolutely no dispute, where Tolkien has Jordan undeniably beaten, in terms of depth of creation, it's in language. Robert Jordan's Old Tongue, a dead variation of the modern language which is mostly known by scholars and people who have a reason or a need to sound fancy from time to time, is consistent, and seems to follow some general rules of grammar, but he never (to the best of my knowledge) really built it into a full language. He created it strictly as needed by the story. It served much the same purpose in his sub-created world as Latin serves (or at any rate once served) in ours, and was used in much the same way. This is in stark contrast to Tolkien's approach, which was to create the several different languages of his invention first, building all the while around them a world to provide context.
Just so we're clear, Jordan's approach is far and away the more practical of the two, and Tolkien's advantage may be somewhat unfair in this regard, or at least one we can't reasonably expect other people to have. He was, after all, a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford who created his own translation of Beowulf and, as an added bonus, was pretty much single-handedly responsible for getting serious literary types to take Beowulf as a serious literary work. So, you know, if you ever had to read Beowulf for a class at some point and hated it, now you know who to blame. What I'm trying to say is that where I and many other rational people ground our teeth all the way through years' worth of English courses to figure out how our own language works, the one we learned to speak practically by instinct, Tolkien was making up languages of his own purely for the amusement in it. So when he had to refer to a place or object by some ancient name, he had only to look at his constructed languages and say "well, this place or thing would have been likely named by this particular group of elves, who spoke Sindarin, so its name is such-and-such", and then he was done. No span of minutes spent behind a keyboard frowning, chin on fist, desperately, and with mounting frustration, trying to think of a completely fantastical place name that sounds like an actual place while not also sounding corny or over the top, and which also doesn't conform to certain idiosyncracies in one's own naming habits – such as, just as an example of no particular personal relevance, a tendency to use the letter A making an "ah" sound (not that I would know anything about this, not me, oh no) – and most importantly, which one hasn't used before somewhere else. Interestingly, this did lead to certain linguistic coincidences, perhaps the most readily recognizable of which being the Elvish word Atalantë referring to an advanced island nation whose civilization was destroyed when said island sunk beneath the waves as divine punishment for tremendous hubris (this was an actual coincidence, by the way; Tolkien is said to have been quite irritated when he worked it out, because he felt people would just assume he was deliberately referencing Atlantis).
So, anyway, yes: Robert Jordan had an extremely detailed history worked out for his world. It becomes clear, as you read, that there are certain sections of its history (for instance, the life and times of Artur Paendrag Tanreall, also known as Artur Hawkwing) of which the author had laid down a detailed chronology, with absolutely zero intent to tell any of those stories (at least, not at the time), just because it was necessary to have that information way, way in the background for verisimilitude's sake. Because, see, it was a major event. The comparison that comes most immediately to mind would be the Crusades. Not because the wars in which Artur Hawkwing fought were of a religious nature, but because they were a major event that changed the world forever afterward, such that attitudes and ideas and conflicts of the present can occasionally be traced all the way back to those events.
People also look and act differently from each other, depending on where you are. People from one country talk and dress and act differently from people in another country. There are, of course, occasionally very clear analogues to civilizations in our world. The countries of Andor and Cairhien are simultaneously at each other's throats and yet deeply intertwined politically in a way that can only make you think of medieval England and France, respectively. The far northern nation of Shienar has echoes of Asia generally, though the Seanchan empire seems to be evocative of Japan specifically, superficially (in many other ways, it is completely unlike any civilization yet seen on Earth).
The sheer riot of invention is impressive. Unfortunately, after a point, that also becomes the series downfall.
But none of this addresses what the books are actually about.
* * *
In the beginning, the series starts off in the typical way. We have a group of young people in a town at the back end of nowhere. Three of them, young men all of an age with each other, have a pretty good chance of being the chosen savior of the world, and there is an itinerant magic-user trying to figure out which of them it is, so that she can guard and guide whoever it is. It's fairly obvious, to us as readers, which of the three it is, but all of them are important in a way that it takes a little bit of background to understand.
The titular Wheel of Time is a sort of mystical, philosophical notion – I'd almost say it's a religious idea, but there's not really anything in the way of religion in the world of the Wheel, but instead just a sort of generalized belief in the Creator (often referred to as the Light) and the Dark One – one of many borrowed from Eastern philosophy and mysticism, which posits that the world is unending, and that there are seven Ages, represented by the spokes of the Wheel, which repeat through eternity. As the opening paragraph of the first chapter of every book in the series is keen to remind us, there are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time.
(This almost felt like a joke at some point toward the interminable middle of the series. The beginning of The Wheel of Time seemed so remotely in the past that there may as well never have been a real beginning, and it surely seemed there would be no end.)
Curiously, there is also a different statement made at various points, that the Creator, "in the moment of creation", sealed the Dark One away in a sort of other-dimensional prison so that he could not work his influence on the universe. This seems to imply some kind of beginning, despite what the Wheel suggests. But you know what? Fuck it. It's not as if our real-world religions are devoid of inconsistencies. Why should our fantastical ones be any different?
Anyway, the force that causes the Wheel to turn is called the True Source, or the One Power. There are two halves to the True Source, saidin and saidar. Certain people with the talent to do so are able to channel the True Source in ways that affect the world around them, which is the system by which magic functions in the world. However, there's a bit of a catch, in that saidin can only be channeled by men, and saidar can only be channeled by women. The two forces are alike in origin and nature, but fundamentally different in their use. Men must grapple with saidin, every moment of its usage being a struggle in which to lose is to be burned to ash, literally. Women, meanwhile, must learn to surrender themselves to the flow of saidar, like a riverbank which passively contains the flow of the river.
As these two halves of the One Power are so different, men and women who channel are unable to work together without a lot of through-hoop-jumping and other assorted mystical jiggery-pokery. A man can't see how a woman weaves the basic elements of saidar together, and a woman is unable to see how a man uses saidin. Which is just as well, in some ways, because any given task usually has to be done in two very different ways depending on which half of the Power is being used.
In the Age before the story opens, known as the Age of Legends, the Dark One was accidentally released from his prison. Actually, "released" is putting it too strongly. His prison was opened only somewhat, allowing him to touch the world and exert his influence on it, without actually freeing him to do as he pleased. It might seem like very little, compared to how badly things could have happened, but it was enough, and more than enough.
Use of the One Power was common in this Age, and most of those who held power and prestige in the world were users of the One Power. They were known as Aes Sedai ("Servants of All" in the Old Tongue – which was the common language of the time).
To many of these Aes Sedai who were unsatisfied with their lot in life, the Dark One promised power and favor if they would serve him. The greatest of these would become known as the Forsaken, and the names they were given as enemies of the Light would be remembered thousands of years later. The Forsaken drew followers to them, and waged such a war for their new master that they brought civilization to its knees. In the end, they were beaten, though the price was dire.
Lews Therin Telamon, essentially the leader of the forces of the Light, and known as the Dragon, concocted a plan which involved using seven magical artifacts to seal the Dark One's prison. This was probably not going to be as good a seal as what had been in place previously, but at the very least, it could buy the world some time to breathe, and to think of a better plan. So he set out with his Hundred Companions to do this very thing. The plan was nominally successful.
What Lews Therin had not predicted – what no one could predict – was that at the final moment before the seals were set, the Dark One lashed out, not directly at his attackers, but at their source of power. Lew Therin's Hundred Companions were all men. And so the Dark One tainted saidin, the male half of the True Source. The effects of this last vengeful stroke of the Dark One were not immediately felt, though they became apparent soon enough.
Beyond this point, any man who drew on the power of saidin was doomed. The taint would slowly drive all users of saidin mad, while also afflicting them with a rotting sickness. It would be easy to suggest the solution of "not using saidin," except that to use the One Power is fundamentally addictive. In addition to all the usual benefits ofmagical powers, simply holding the One Power, even without doing anything with it, creates a state of heightened awareness in which all senses are cranked up several notches, and is accompanied by a sensation of general empowerment and euphoria. Those who have the ability to channel the One Power and who are later deprived of it (it happens, occasionally, for various reasons), often fall into a deep depression and die of sadness and longing, if they don't manage to simply commit suicide first.
Having half the magic users in the world turn insane in a relatively short period is bad enough. When you consider that those magic users have the ability to manipulate the very elements of creation, it gets far worse. What followed was an event referred to as the Breaking of the World, which changed the world's geography and, as a side-effect, plunged it into a dark age from which, as the story opens, it still has not really recovered.
In modern times, in the section of the world where the main action of the story takes place (known informally as the Westlands), all Aes Sedai are women, divided into seven factions, or Ajahs, each with its own idea of what should be done with the One Power, and thus with a specific task at which they are skilled and for which they are often deployed. (There are rumors, hotly denied, of an additional Ajah, a Black Ajah, which serves the Dark One. Naturally, they are all true.) There are no male Aes Sedai. Unfortunately, the ability and inclination to use the One Power is not simply learned. It can be, for some, but for others it's inborn; they will begin to channel on their own, whether they are taught or not, whether they want to or not. Some of them, deluded or genuinely mad, proclaim themselves to be the Dragon Reborn, and a few of these have managed to draw followers to themselves and cause serious trouble for the world at large. Because of this, the Red Ajah of the Aes Sedai make it their mission to find all men who can channel, and stop them by using the One Power to destroy the very faculty which makes channeling possible. The practice is called "gentling".
This is getting somewhat far afield, but it needs to be explained at some point, because most of it is relevant later. But it's time to get a bit closer to where I was intending to go with all of this. Back to the Wheel, then…
The lives of everyone in the world, using our Wheel construct, are each a thread, woven together by the turning of the Wheel into the Great Pattern. The Dark One, meanwhile, wishes to escape his prison completely and destroy the Wheel, thus unraveling the Great Pattern and unmaking the universe, so that he might remake it in his own image. Periodically (as we've seen) he gains the opportunity to do so. The reasons change with each Age.
To combat the Dark One's distorting influence, and to preserve the Pattern, the Wheel occasionally weaves in specific threads – lives – and the people who represent these threads are called ta'veren (I've forgotten what the word is actually supposed to translate into, but it's a testament to how often I've heard it, reading these books, that I can explain exactly what it means). Ta'veren are people whose very presence essentially warps the lives of others around them, and sometimes the behavior of objects (vases may fall out of windows several stories up and not break, coins land on their edge, and on one memorable occasion, a character manages to roll the dice and get a one – on two dice, because one lands on its corner) forcing them to conform to the intended course of events. The people thus swept out of the normal run of their lives are often just as surprised that these things are happening as everyone else. There are tales of ta'veren in times past who found that their enemies would confess their darkest secrets in the presence of said ta'veren, despite having absolutely no reason to do so, simply because it was required by the Pattern to make events conform to the will of the Wheel.
The three young men from the backwater village are all ta'veren. Typically, there is only ever one ta'veren knocking about at any given time. The presence of three at one time, in one place, is extraordinary, but also frightening in its implications, because it begs the question: How badly off are we, exactly – how close to complete disaster ?– that we need three people who are able to bend the very paths of fate around them, just by being there? The Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon, was ta'veren, and with just the one of him, we saw events set in motion that ended civilization as it was then known, and in which the actual face of the world changed. What's coming that could be so bad, it requires three of these to correct the problem, when usually one is quite enough?
The entire series spends a significant amount of time grappling with this, and it's fifteen books long because this isn't the only thing that's happening. It's the main thing, yes, but hardly the only thing.
The Wheel of Time reeks of destiny. Things happen because they must, because this is how they were intended by the Creator to happen. Throughout much of the series, we read snippets of an in-universe work called The Karaethon Cycle, which is a collection of prophecies regarding the rebirth of the Dragon, his conflict against the Dark One, and a second Breaking of the World. Many of these prophecies are maddeningly vague and seemingly self-contradictory. Attempts to use them to predict events confound all who attempt using them this way. Rather than predictive, they are confirmative. They exist not to tell you what will happen, but rather to confirm that what has happened has been part of the overall plan.
But The Karaethon Cycle is not the only work of prophecy. The Aiel (a desert-dwelling people who are an odd combination of the Zulu, the Bedouin, and the Irish, of all things) have their own prophecy regarding the Dragon Reborn, whom they call Car'a'carn, Chief of Chiefs. The Sea Folk (go on, guess what they do) have their prophecies regarding their idea of the Dragon, known as the Coramoor. Even the Seanchan, the descendants of an exploratory mission sent out at least a thousand years ago by Artur Hawkwing, have their own prophecies about the Dragon Reborn. And as you might guess, none of these sets of prophecies seems to be in agreement.
* * *
We have a trio of main characters. At the forefront is Rand al'Thor, a tall sheepherder turned swordsman who spends much of the early going running from the very thought of what he may be, even as he knows it in his heart. Yet he is bound by a sense of duty and responsibility. He hates what he may be, for the destruction and hardship it will bring, and that all of it will be in his name. Yet at the same time, when the proof is put to him and cannot be denied, he does not hide, he does not run, but faces it squarely, and rises. He is the most strongly ta'veren, though he would be lost without the help of his friends, also ta'veren. One of these is Mat Cauthon, a young layabout who probably (before the story begins) spends more effort avoiding work than the work itself requires, who loves pranks and jokes, and later dice and cards and flirting with barmaids, and who is always ready to expound, at length, on how he's "no bloody hero" even while in the very midst of some of the most heroic fighting the series shows us. The other friend of Rand's is Perrin Aybara. Powerfully built, he is slow and careful in his movements, having learned early how easy it is to hurt people accidentally. A blacksmith's apprentice, he's allowed precious little time to do any blacksmithing as the story goes on, though there's a memorable scene of it in the third book which is probably one of his early defining moments, and a damned good piece of writing beside.
The story starts out with them running, hiding, seeking temporary refuge where they can, and relying quite heavily on the fact that they are virtual nobodies in the world at large. They are, of course, of tremendous importance to the Dark One. The Forsaken, and all the rest of his servants, know that it will be utter defeat if these three are not stopped in time, before they grow in power and stature. So this is the early part of the story, where the characters are constantly on the defensive, constantly on the run, more difficult for the forces of darkness to find, yet less well able to deal with such threats when they arise, and with the destiny that lays before them all feeling roughly as comfortable as a slowly tightening noose.
But everything changes with time, and our three heroes are no exception. Inevitably, the forces of darkness fail to stop them at the ideal time, and the characters rise in the world. No longer constantly on the run, they are in a position to form their own plans, enact their own maneuvers against the power that seeks to destroy them as a prelude to its dragging the entire world down into the dark.
Watching these characters grown and change is one of the more interesting things in the series, and it feels all the more authentic for happening gradually. But then, again, this is a fifteen-book series. Nothing in it is happening quickly.
* * *
Speaking of writing quality earlier: The series has some truly breathtaking moments.
One of my favorite moments in the series – perhaps the favorite moment, for me – comes relatively early on, in the second book.
There are a number of great moments, to be sure. There's the moment where the companions come to the titular Eye of the World in the first book, a lush, green preserve in the middle of the otherwise corrupt and deathly hostile Blight, situated pretty much on the Dark One's doorstep. There's the encounter in the Stone of Tear, where Rand takes one of the major early steps to embracing – not just accepting, or resigning himself to, but embracing – his destiny. As I say, there are plenty. But there's one that I'll carry with me for most of my life, and probably spend most of the writing I ever do trying desperately to match.
There is an artifact in this world called the Horn of Valere. Every so often, the kingdom of Illian puts on a hunt for it, very imaginatively called the Hunt for the Horn. What happens when someone sounds the Horn is that it summons the spirits of heroes from Ages past to fight. Said heroes are mostly (if not wholly) ta'veren in their own right. The Dark One's forces are looking for it just as hard as those of the Light, no one is quite sure whether the Heroes of the Horn will come to fight for whoever blows the Horn, or whether they'll only fight for the Light. No one wants to find out (except the Dark One's people, of course). It's found at the end of the first book, but the second book is the one most concerned with it, being (among other things) an account of the taking and retaking of the Horn by the heroes and the villains alike, until the very end of the book, when Rand, Mat, and Perrin look to be in their most hopeless situation yet (and then the Horn is basically never mentioned again thereafter until literally the last book in the series).
And then, positing that although the Prophecies are quite clear that the Horn of Valere must be sounded at the Last Battle, those Prophecies are also somewhat murky on the question of whether it can be sounded before… one of them sounds the Horn.
A mist rises. From it stride figures of legend, heroes of hundred stories and a hundred Ages gone, and as many names or more. They are a small but deathless army whose powers are neither mundane nor of the "magic" of the One Power, but something entirely Other.
There is a warmth to these people, as they come to meet the Hornsounder; they smile, they laugh, they banter a bit. They've spent quite a while together in the time between when one or another of them is called back into the Pattern, and they have been at all of this a very, very long time. And while they pay their respects to the Hornsounder, they turn and face Rand, stating that there is one whom they must follow, Hornsounder or no Hornsounder. And it's at this moment when Rand's destiny truly begins to fall into place. He turns to face what and who he is, a man known to these people of legend, for he is one of them himself, and he knows it now at last, and in no scrap or corner of him can there be any more doubt or denial. From this point forward, and until the end of his life, he will be what he was meant to be. And so, raising his banner, he and his friends and his army of deathless heroes charge.
Ironically, it is the Heroes of the Horn who do the mundane thing, the liberating of a city and the rescuing of friends. Rand, initially riding with them, is whisked away to some strange Otherworld to face his enemy, the champion of the Dark One as he is the champion of the Light. Their battle, and its result, colors the rest of the story.
* * *
I do not fail to get tingles down my spine when I read the bit above. Every time. Every time. But sadly, it can't all be that good.
To be fair, Jordan's writing is never bad. It does, however, get a bit excessive past, say, book three or four.
The first three books are largely adventure stories, with the characters on the run, going to new places, finding new dangers and new allies. There is a sense of mystery at the very heart of the world, a feeling that there are soft places at the edge of what's known, where anything can and might happen. Around book four, the world starts to become a little more known. We stop seeing new things, and we start seeing things we've already seen, just with a different context. The characters, as I said earlier, become movers and shakers in the world in their own right.
This is not a bad thing. But it is a fundamentally less interesting thing, to me, than a good adventure tale. With the fifth book, The Fires of Heaven, it starts to really set in. And the problem is, along with all of this, the books slow down. More and more words are spent on less and less happening. I forget exactly which book it's in, but there's one whole book where Rand spends basically the entire time planning and plotting as if he's going to do one thing, only to do something else instead at the very end, to throw off one of his enemies. There's another book which ends with Mat buried under a pile of rubble. For the entire next book, no mention at all is made of him. And partly because of this massive drop in momentum, Jordan's worst excesses either get worse, or they get more noticeable, but either way it amounts to the same thing.
Robert Jordan is a wordy kind of writer. I don't mean to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, but he does go on about the details. Now, I happen to feel that this is somewhat forgivable in fantasy writing. When you're writing about things that never happened in places that never existed to people who never lived, you're essentially building your own context. A certain greater amount of detail is needed to keep everybody on the same page (so to speak). And this is fine for the early volumes of The Wheel of Time.
But later on, we get scenes where whole pages are spent describing the wood paneling on the walls and on a desk, the particular clothing styles of the characters we're speaking to, as well as detailed physical descriptions of the people themselves. These are, keep in mind, characters we will see only in this one scene. It's not even a really pivotal scene. It feels, at times, as if Jordan took the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" as a tremendously conservative estimate, a bare and frankly shameful minimum, regarding how many words are necessary to set a scene.
He also has an unfortunate habit of describing things (even if only in passing), which need no description, because the audience is already familiar with them. Maybe a mention or two toward the beginning of the book is necessary to help people get reacquainted with an idea here or there, when it's been a couple of years between installments, but we hear it all the time. We get to hear about the sweetness of embracing saidar pretty much every time a woman does it. Whenever a man seizes saidin, we get to hear about how it's simultaneously like ice and fire, how it's deadly dangerous but also exhilarating. And of course, we get to hear about the taint on saidin. Oh, God, the taint. You could fill a regular-sized book with nothing but Jordan's descriptions of the taint on saidin. You could probably fill another book with instances wherein one male character, confronted by one or more women, desperately wishes that one of the other male characters were present; they know how to handle women.
Added to that is the way that the pacing of the books seems to change. In the early installments, there seemed to be a number of minor payoff moments throughout the given volume, little "Ah-ha!" moments or other revelations or minor resolutions to give you a sense that Things Are Happening. Later books seem to ditch this in favor of one really huge trash-the-set type of climax, but feeling really drawn-out and strained all through the middle.
I remember when I got my friend Steve to start reading the series. He quit about two-thirds of the way through the sixth book, Lord of Chaos, which comes to a little over a thousand pages in paperback. When he quit, I told him, "Oh, you can't quit now; you're just about at the good part!" Later, I thought about what I'd said.
In a 1,000 page book (rounding down – yes, down – for simplicity's sake), two-thirds of the way through is, what, 666 pages, give or take a few paragraphs? That's about the size of any two average-sized novels (which may be complete and wholly satisfying stories all on their own). It's a lot to endure to get to the good part. I stopped nagging Steve about reading The Wheel of Time not long thereafter.
Really, there are other parts of Lord of Chaos that are enjoyable, but these things start to feel like they're building toward something else. Most of it has an odd feeling of happening on the way to greater and grander things. In the case of Lord of Chaos, that greater and grander thing is a massive battle which is enjoyable in part due to how many richly deserving people get smacked down in one way or another.
At around this point, I was going to mention one of Jordan's other writing quirks, which is how he handles relations between his male and female characters. It's certainly worth going into by somebody, but it really should be an article all its own, and the somebody in question should ideally have taken at least a couple of college-level courses in gender studies, and therefore be far more qualified than me. About the best I can do is say that regarding Jordan's idea of the Battle of the Sexes, I can only shrug my shoulders a little helplessly, and remark that it's best described, in short, as a weird kind of passive-aggressive trench warfare.
* * *
Looking back on the series now, I don't know if I can recommend it without reservations. When I started reading, only the first four or five books had been published – maybe six. The first three were, to my mind, great. The fourth was pretty good. The fifth and sixth sort of seemed to fall off a bit, and that was pretty much where things stood for a while. The short version of it is that the first four books are basically straight adventure stories, and have a major focus on the ancient past of the world, and the secrets hidden in it. Past that point, the books get more involved with political maneuvering of one sort or another, which is interesting, but does not grip me with as much immediacy as a good adventure tale.
The thing is that, in my own opinion, the series kind of stayed in a "fallen off" state up through the eleventh main book in the series, Knife of Dreams, which was the last one Robert Jordan wrote before passing away. By that point, there were twelve volumes total: eleven in the main series, plus a prequel, titled New Spring. The final tally of books in the now-finished series is fifteen. The final three were written mostly by another author, Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson was chosen by Jordan and his widow, Harriet McDougal, working from Jordan's copious notes, and at the very least, the epilogue was written by Jordan himself. By all accounts, these three books (The Gathering Storm, The Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light) were originally meant to be just a single book, titled A Memory of Light, and it was going to be a whopper. Even by Jordan's standards. He memorably joked that he was only going to write another book in the series, even if Tor had to invent a new printing process to make it. (He also apparently joked at one point that there was going to be a boxed set of the whole series; it would necessarily come complete with its own library cart).
That boils down to a lot of reading to do, even for someone who loves it, for a series whose individual installments tended to be a little disappointing as often as not. All of them have their moments, of course, but beyond a certain early point toward the end of the first half of the series, I begin to have trouble placing specific events in the right order, let alone the right book. Even in the books past volume four where I can still do this, I have a really hard time explaining to anyone why, exactly, it took over nine hundred pages – nine hundred! In hardcover! – to get there.
It helps, though, to understand that I was reading these pretty much as they came out. Reading only one mildly disappointing book every few years is pretty easy to do. Reading fourteen books straight through (fifteen if we're including the prequel), some of which are good and some of which are… less so, is a lot to ask of a person. Especially when that person may have a job, loved ones, and a pre-existing social life and set of hobbies.
* * *
There's something melancholy in finishing The Wheel of Time. I began reading it with The Eye of the World, the summer I turned fourteen. It was sitting there, on my desk, when I came home from summer camp. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks. I found the series by going over the bookshelves at my grandmother's house. I saw the third book first, titled The Dragon Reborn, and got interested. I thought maybe, knowing the reading habits of my grandmother and my grandfather, this was one of those international espionage or political thrillers that uses certain medieval motifs in their titling for one reason or another, but no. This seemed to be an honest-to-God work of high fantasy. And on the cover was the phrase "Sequel to The Great Hunt". So I did some hunting of my own, and came up with a copy of The Great Hunt, also sitting on that shelf. And on the front of that book was the line "Sequel to The Eye of the World". I was beginning to wonder how deep the rabbit hole went. Unfortunately, my grandmother didn't have a copy of The Eye of the World, but she did have a book that contained its first eighteen chapters, as a sort of promotional item. She gave me that and the other two, and said she'd get me a copy of The Eye of the World, but would have to order it. I spent a large portion of that summer in anticipation after I devoured that eighteen-chapter promo copy.
I finished reading The Wheel of Time when I was 32, in the late spring, a few months after the last book had come out. At the time of this writing, I am 34. This is a story that I have been reading for more than half of my life.
I stalled out after Knife of Dreams, and was reluctant to start on the final three books, even though I had been buying them as they came out. I bought them practically as a reflex, because by God I was going to finish reading this series someday. I'd spent a lot of time reading and re-reading these books over my life, and nothing short of death itself was going to prevent me. Yet I hesitated. I read The Gathering Storm, and liked it well enough. The characters felt all right. They were a little different from how I remembered them, but that was hardly unexpected, being written by a different author, who was smart enough not to try to mimic Jordan's style. Still, they squared well enough with my recollections. Better than I had expected, honestly; I had for some time been bracing myself for a real horror show. This was not because Sanderson isn't a talented author (I wouldn't have known, not having read any of his work prior to this), but because the idea of one author taking over the meticulously crafted world, all its history and its literal hundreds of important characters, from the original author, sounded like a recipe for disaster, just on basic principles. That the end product of this was not simply serviceable, but genuinely good, has gone a long way to convince me, if nothing else, that I should try reading some of Sanderson's books.
But after The Gathering Storm, I stalled. I wasn't sure, at the time, where my final bout of hesitation had come from. Some of it was the plain reluctance to slog through another couple of mammoth door-stopping novels. Even given the quality of Sanderson's first effort in the series, there was still that to consider. And there was still time to fuck it all up. He had two whole books – two whole Robert Jordan-sized books, which is like four or five regular books – to flame out in a blaze of glory.
"But this is everything you've been waiting for!" part of me cried. "This is it! This is the final bit of mystery, the final piece of the puzzle! This is what all the parts of the series you loved have been leading up to!"
And all of this was entirely true. And all of that was part of the problem. Still, eventually, I did break down and decide that it was time to put the story to rest. To bring myself to the end of things, once and for all. To throw the dice and see how they came up.
It's a strange thing when you're reading a story for years. You really aren't reading it for all of that time, not unless you're some kind of obsessive nut, but you sort of inhabit it for that time. The characters and events and places all exist in a corner of your mind. Even when there's no more forthcoming for a while, you can go back and re-read, find new information, new pieces of the puzzle, new wrinkles in the pattern that you missed the first time around. And because there's no end written, you get to wonder, to imagine. There is a fascinating feeling of potential to it that lends it a kind of life. Even in the lull between volumes, that thought of "what if?" gives the story a feeling of life and an illusion of forward movement. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, the story was still happening. It was always happening, constantly. I was still there.
Then it ended, and I came home.
* * *
I occasionally go to anime conventions. The first one I went to was AnimeIowa, in 2000. I went with my friend Wade, and connected with a few of my other friends while we were there, people I didn't see much outside the college I went to. It wasn't an especially large convention, as these things go, but it was the first one I ever went to, and it seemed like a huge thing at the time. To parallel The Wheel of Time somewhat, there's a scene relatively early in the first book where the main characters, coming as they do from a village at the back-end of nowhere, come to their first big town, called Baerlon. To them, Baerlon is huge. To the rest of the world, it's a hick mining town out in the sticks, barely worthy of being called a proper city at all. The difference is all a matter of perspective.
The thing about AnimeIowa, and a lot of the larger conventions I went to afterward, is that there's a sort of carnival atmosphere. Even if you're just going to panel discussions and viewing rooms, and taking photos of the occasional really impressive costume, the level of energy can be tremendous. There is a feeling of being constantly "on" that I have a hard time describing, because I don't often feel it in quite this way. The best I can do is to illustrate a thing that happened. On one night of the convention, I needed to take a break for a little while and just hang out in our hotel room. So I did. I read a little bit, and later I put together one of the models I'd bought. And still, it was as if I could feel the convention going on, several floors below me. It wasn't any noise or commotion, but a simple feeling. It was like a radio wave in the air, and I couldn't tune it out. It was as if all the people involved in it had come together to make some new kind of life, and it didn't matter at all where it was or where I was. Since it was in a hotel, they could go around the clock, and they did. While it was happening, I was a part of it.
I had never felt anything like this before. It was amazing.
Then it ended, and I came home.
When Wade and I left the convention, I fell into a deep melancholy. I didn't want to do anything, because nothing seemed to be really worth doing. What I did want, which was of course impossible, was to be back at the convention. The fact that the convention wasn't going on any more only made me dig in my heels and get angry with reality. I wanted the convention to run longer, another day or two, a week maybe, I didn't know. It needed to still be happening, is what needed to happen, and I needed to be there in it.
I've felt things that affected me more. I once stood on a mountaintop and looked down at other mountaintops, lesser peaks and ridges, and felt at once how tiny I was in the grand scheme of things, and somehow also exalted, just to be able to be in that moment, at that peak, and have that realization. But this feeling of loss, coming home from my first convention, which was supposed to be just nonstop fun and excitement (this happened when coming home from others, later in my life) was wholly unexpected. I dubbed it "convention withdrawal" and left it at that.
I say all of this to help try to describe what I felt when I finished reading The Wheel of Time. The exact causes of the feeling aren't the same, but the basic nature of it is.
For most of my life, this story had been happening. I had been inhabiting that story, ruminating on its characters and events, wondering at the truth of what had happened, and at the things that were yet to occur. Because it was unfinished, because I was in it, it was on some level of my mind still happening. When I finished it, all of that changed. It was no longer a thing that was happening. It had passed into the territory of things that had happened. I had come through to the end of it finally, and there was no more, and would be no more. Even if there was, it would not change the fact that this story, which had not only been with me for most of my life, but had helped in some ways to shape that life, was now done. Over. Finished. Through.
You can, of course, point out that re-reading is certainly something I could do. And I probably will, at some point. At the very least, I want to have a better and more complete understanding of what happens in that foggy stretch between books six and eleven. But it feels different to read a thing – to experience any story, in any medium – for a second time, even for works that encourage and reward it. Re-reading always feels different. It's not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. I once mentioned to my wife, when I started to re-read The Magic of Recluce, many years after I had first read it, that it was a unique joy to read something that I had enjoyed once many years ago, but had since almost completely forgotten. There was still the wonder at what exactly was going to happen, with the comfort of having some sense of it already, and tinged with a general sense of known enjoyment. But as enjoyable as this is, few things match the raw excitement of diving headlong into unexplored territory.
* * *
There's a music playlist I usually listen to while I write, which is mostly 90s alternative rock I heard on the radio from around 1994 (when I first found a station I liked) to about 2000. There's a lot on there that I don't hear any other way. Maybe a local station will play "Nineties at noon" or something, and I'll hear a song I haven't heard since more than half my life ago. Even if I didn't care all that much for the song then, there's often the strong, almost tidal pull of nostalgia, and suddenly I have to track down a copy for myself. That's largely how this list got put together. There are songs on there by The Cranberries, by Seven Mary Three, Dishwalla, The Gin Blossoms, New Radicals, etc. There are two things I remember doing – two things I specifically remember doing, several times, to which this music provides a soundtrack. One of those things is reading The Wheel of Time. The other is writing.
It's not strange, to me, that these things coincide. The former inspired the urge for the latter, after all. I love The Lord of the Rings, and believe it's still the better story. But it wasn't there when I was fourteen. When I was fourteen, Frodo's adventure with the Ring of Power felt stuffy and rigid; it felt inaccessible; I couldn't find the warmth in it.
A lot of people have taught me how to write.
Stephen King taught me it's okay to swing between formal and portentous, and informal and even crude. That it's okay to say "Fuck outlines!", queue up a blank page, and just go, and get lost in the fire of creation, in the pure joy of the act.
T.H. White taught me to take my time, to treat my characters with respect, and be clear in what I write, and that even people who do things that seem awful can do them for good reasons, and aren't wholly irredeemable.
Reading about how J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings, I learned how a single seemingly minor change can send your story off down an entirely different path, and that this is not necessarily a bad thing, if you're willing to follow your characters where they're inclined to go, and that sometimes the best lines of prose come to you while you're in the bath.
I like to think I would have been drawn to writing anyway, because it's what there is in me to do. But I'm never sure, and so I'll always be indebted to Robert Jordan for that. You can't get lost in the fire of creation if it isn't burning in the first place, and it was Jordan who set that particular blaze alight.
As I said quite a while ago, The Wheel of Time is what made me want to write. You could strip all the rest of this away, or argue about every point I've made in this long, ridiculous, rambling mess, and that one fact will always remain. And that's no small thing.


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BuzzLuck Casino Review and Bonus
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Talent Strategy
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Concert Preview: Recorders in Consort on Early Music Discovery Series
EMG presents : Recorders in Consort on Early Music Discovery Series
Vicki Boeckman and David Ohannesian
Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 1PM
Downstairs at Town Hall, Seneca entrance
$10 general admission, $5 seniors and under 25; tickets available at the door.
This fipple's not so simple
We early-music buffs tend to take recorders for granted. A good one's made of fine woods and precisely machined, but fundamentally it's a whistle, right? Yes, but: Talk to recorder-maker David Ohannesian and you'll find that turning a whistle into a musical instrument is as tricky as any other precision craft. The earliest recorder I've had a chance to handle was basically a cylindrical wooden tube, but by the end of the renaissance builders had already learned that a tube that narrowed toward the end and then flared out again produced a bigger, stabler sound. Even though a recorder doesn't resonate to the tones it produces (equally well-made ivory and plastic instruments don't sound any different) they'd also learned that boxwood somehow lends a particularly rich quality of tone, probably because of the microscopic texture of the machined wood. The wood of choice for the edged plug which produces the sound is cedar, but the crucial determining factor is the shape of "the windway": "A flat, rectangular windway produces a more solid, centered sound; on where the windway is slightly arched in the center favors higher frequencies in the sound and gives more brilliance," says Ohannesian. "And the width of the windway is crucial; I can hear a difference if I cut it 12.31 millimeters wide rather than 12.30."
Join Ohannesian and Vicki Boeckman as they put recorders gigantic and teensy through their paces Sunday April 12 in the last of EMG's hour-long Discovery matinees of the 2009-10 season. Take the kids; they'll learn a lot. So may you.


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Charts & Figures
EA Role And Service Alignment
March 23, 2018
Business Architecture Service And Capability Alignment
March 23, 2018
Take The Steps To Develop An EA Strategic Plan
March 23, 2018
Search Results
Report EA Metrics That Matter
Benchmarks: The EA Practice PlaybookNovember 19, 2018 | Gordon Barnett
Enterprise architecture (EA) leaders are struggling to define metrics that demonstrate the value delivered by their EA practice. This report lays out the core categories of EA metrics, recommends...
Report Develop An Enterprise Architecture Strategy Aligned With Business Challenges
Strategic Plan: The EA Practice PlaybookMarch 23, 2018 | Gordon Barnett
Many enterprise architecture (EA) teams strive to be more business-focused and strategically engaged — but getting there isn't easy. To succeed, EA leaders must reset stakeholder expectations and...


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multipanelfigure (0.10.7)
Infrastructure to Assemble Multi-Panel Figures (from Grobs).
Tools to create a layout for figures made of multiple panels, and to fill the panels with base, 'lattice', 'ggplot2' and 'ComplexHeatmap' plots, grobs, and PNG, JPEG, SVG and TIFF images.
Johannes Graumann
Author(s): Johannes Graumann [cre, aut], Richard Cotton [ctb]
License: GPL (>= 3)
Uses: assertive.base, assertive.files, assertive.numbers, assertive.properties, assertive.types, caTools, ggplot2, gridGraphics, gtable, jpeg, magrittr, png, rsvg, tiff, lattice, VennDiagram, roxygen2, knitr, markdown, rmarkdown
Reverse suggests: flippant
Released over 1 year ago.


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Introduction: The U.S. Pakistan Partnership for Agricultural Market Development (AMD) Program is a four-year USAID funded program implemented by CNFA in Pakistan. The objective of AMD is to support the development of Pakistan's commercial agriculture, particularly through improving the ability of Pakistan's agriculture and livestock sectors to meet both international and domestic demand in targeted product lines.
AMD Project requires the quotation of Designing and printing of training of module booklets for Lahore office. Lahore
Offerors are responsible for ensuring that their offers are received by CNFA in accordance with the instructions, terms, and conditions described in this RFQ. Failure to adhere with instructions described in this RFQ may lead to disqualification of an offer from consideration.


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R2 Designs Apocathery Jar Candle | Burnt Fig & Cassis 250ml
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R2 Designs is an Australian brand carefully hand picked by Banjo & Matilda, offering a range of amazing candle scents which are completely non-toxic and environmentally friendly. All hand poured in Melbourne, Australia; these 100% soy wax candles are displayed beautifully in an amber coloured apocathery jar to complete any space.
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- Made from 100% soy wax, non-paraffin and completely non-toxic
- Environmentally friendly and plant based.
- Safe to use around children
Shop the full range of R2 candles we stock here.


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Male Pattern Baldness
Known as male androgenetic alopecia affects 30-50% of men by age 50 making it the most common form of hair loss in men.Mostly affects Caucasian men at a younger age, its pattern affects temples, mid and frontal head and has an 80% genetic predisposition.
Although it mainly affects men psychologically there has been recent studies that show a relation with increased incidence of cardiovascular diseases, higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It is now even considered as an early marker of prostate diseases.
As spoken before there is a high genetic prevalence of why men go bald. These factors modify the hair follicles' response to circulating androgens. Specifically the variation in the androgen receptor (AR) gen found on the X chromosome.
Those with high genetic risk will start going bald in their early years as teenagers. This, combined with the number of affected family members will increase the risk of baldness.
In a normal hair cycle, each telogen hair will be replaced by a new anagen hair. Anagen, the growing phase lasts around 3-5 years, while the telogen lasts around 3 months. In male pattern baldness, the growing phase decreases with each cycle while the length of telogen remains, making the growing phase so short that won´t even let new hair to reach the surface of the skin.
There are many options available for balding men. Since it is not a life threatening condition, allowing it to progress naturally is still an option most men do. Although not life threatening, its psychological impact is still very marked, that is why the cure is still trying to be found like the holy grail.
Wigs and hairpieces
Hair style changes, scalp dyeing and adding small fibers are some of the cheapest and satisfactory measures men can do. Modern wigs may be washed and give a natural look. Hair weaves can be sewn into your natural hair. It has the advantage that it will always stay throughout the day. The bad part is it can damage your natural hair.
Medical Treatment
FDA approved drugs are topical minoxidil and oral finasteride. Both prevent hair loss but cannot completely reverse the effects of baldness. Its effects start showing up 6-12 months after, so it is recommended for you to use it at least one year before deciding to change treatment.
Minoxidil works as a hair growth promoter, but the slow miniaturization of hair follicles continue in spite of treatment. It is available in 2% and 5% solutions. Recent studies have found that 5% solutions are more effective. Some of the side effects it may produce are itching of the scalp, increased dandruff and skin irritation.
Finasteride diminishes the conversion of testosterone, the male hormone responsible in part to hair loss. It has been reported to slow progression of hair loss and partially produces hair growth. A daily dose of 1 milligram has shown benefits and reduces the hormone by up to 64%. Some of the side effects are loss of libido and erectile dysfunction.
Other emerging medical therapies include topical antibiotics to combat the inflammatory cells seen in male pattern baldness, growth factors and laser treatment.
Surgical treatments involve hair transplantation from the back side of the scalp that have active hair growth factors to the front and mid section of the head. The effects can only be seen after three months after surgery and the success of the grafts is up to 90% effective. Some of the side effects are risk of scarring and infection. Multiple treatments are necessary depending on the surgeon's skills and patient's factors.
- https://www.healthline.com/health/male-pattern-baldness#prevention
- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/04/male-hair-loss-baldness-surgery-drugs
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK278957/
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Many people are haunted by something in their past. Fear, anger, regret, guilt, shame can be deeply imprinted in the psyche and nervous system and color one's sense of identity.
If, after doing a lot of "personal work", the ghosts of one's past are still hanging around, then the key to the door out of the haunted house is to notice that when the mind stops, the past stops.
To be aware of the 'I' without the story of 'me' is the foundational recognition that leads to the end of the haunting and to freedom, because it reveals the story of the past to be a deceptive appearance — a phantasm.
When we realize our true nature to be limitless consciousness itself, then the ghosts of the past have no place to stick.


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Natnael Ayalew (Nhatty Man)
With a mesmerizing stage performance and a huge smile that's always intact, Natnael Ayalew, also known as Nhatty Man, lacks anything but energy. As an upcoming talent, he managed to crack into the Ethiopian music industry working with a famous band called Express which he later left to join another band called Sweet.
Known far and wide by his fans as Nhatty Man, he became a household name after his first single 'Amrogne' hit the Ethiopian market. In the early stage of his music career, Nhatty started collaborating with artists like Netsanet Melesse on the song 'Fertuna'. He also features on Dawit Frew's 'Ethiopia'. He later worked with other renowned Ethiopian artists such as Henok Abebe on 'Cheferaw dera', the KORA award winning Tsedeniya Gebremarkos' 'Yeker Beyalehu', Jossy's upbeat track 'zigi zaga' and many more.
Nhatty's life has gone in directions he never anticipated. After dropping from a civil engineering school in his second year in college, he started a new journey as a disc jockey (DJ). But it wasn't long before Nhatty wanted more of the fun and excitement of the new life that was unfolding before him. After making an appearance in a couple of featuring works, he officially made his debut album 'Man' on February16, 2011.
'Out with the old and in with the new' was Nhatty's motto at the time as he quickly learned his ways in the Ethiopian music industry and never looked back. 'Man' dropped in the market on February16, 2011 and was widely acclaimed by his fans. The album, which contains 14 tracks including his smash singles 'Amerogne' and 'Addis ken' features different genres like R&B, Reggae, rock and local rhythms. The album incorporates collaborations with some Ethiopian singers like Hade Haile and Betty.
Through his music, Nhatty wishes to change the bad image and stereotype that the world has towards his country, Ethiopia.
Nhatty who re-launched his latest album on April 05, 2012, has recently signed an agreement with Adika Communication and events so the company can manage him professionally. Adika re-launched the singer's latest album 'Man' with six brand new songs added. 'Kanchi Aybeletem', 'Ghetto youth', 'Brand New day remix', 'Sunday', 'Tefa Amesgagn' and 'Where you at?' are the new songs that are featured in the new CD.


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After three and a half year of development Scrap Galaxy is now released worldwide on Steam!
Scrap Galaxy – Multiplayer Trailer
Just 2 weeks left until Scrap Galaxy is released! Wishlist it now on Steam, and make sure to subscribe to the Catalope Games YouTube channel.
9th November – LiU Game Conference
The 9th November Catalope Games will showcase Scrap Galaxy at LiU Game Conference. LiU Game Conference is an annual conference about computer games, visualization and virtual reality. This is also the event where LiU Game Awards held – the award
Catalope Games visit Kulturnatten 30th September
As part of Kulturnatten in Norrköping Catalope Games together with Dimfrost and Quick Save Studios will showcase our games. Catalope Games will showcase the latest version of Scrap Galaxy. Visit us kl. 14.00-18.00 the 30th September at Färgeriet, Kåkenhus, Bredgatan
24th of August – East Sweden Game Grand Opening
East Sweden Game is a game development coworking space in Linköping which Catalope Games is a part of. The 24th of August is the grand opening ceremony. Catalope Games will be there and showcase the latest build of Scrap Galaxy.


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New Scientist rejected letters
29/08/15 11:07 Filed in: science
So far this year, I've been writing regular letters to the New Scientist magazine. Up until May, they printed quite a few of them, on the subjects of alien contact, alien signals, VR headsets transforming public performances, killer robots, the accuracy of internet facts, home servers to create bitcoins and one or two others, which was great.
'Fast food hit' (13th May)
Dear New Scientist. In your recent '60 seconds' column (issue 3020, 9th May 2015, pg7), you report that recent research shows that 'fructose appears to make our brains more responsive to images of food than glucose, and people who drink fructose-rich drinks are more likely to choose high-calorie foods over money prizes'. Since fructose, particularly in the form of high fructose corn syrup or HFCS, is a mainstay ingredient in fast food drinks, does this mean that fast food should be declared officially addictive?
'Carefully planned knee-jerk' (26th May)
Dear New Scientist. Your editorial (Issue 3022, 23rd May 2015, pg5) sensibly points out that negative, public 'knee-jerk' reactions to new recreational drugs are a big obstacle to an intelligent drugs policy, but it doesn't mention a much bigger problem. When a recreational drug becomes popular, it doesn't just proliferate, it competes with established, legal, recreational drugs. The organisations that make large sums of money from these legal drugs are therefore highly motivated to use their money and influence to demonise the new, competing drug in the media and push for its prohibition, thereby protecting their profits, even if the new drug that has appeared is actually less toxic than their own products. The public 'knee-jerk' reaction in such a situation is therefore far from automatic, but is instead the result of strings being carefully pulled.
'Who's in charge?' (26th June)
Dear New Scientist. Two articles in the technology section of your 20th June issue (2015, issue 3026, pg20) described how software will soon be able to 'not only understand what we are saying, but divine and anticipate our needs like a personal assistant,' and 'offer tips to make us look more chic'. This ability reminded me of Bertie Wooster's superlative butler, Jeeves, who was forever steering Bertie out of problems with his suggestions. The idea of having one's own personal Jeeves might sound idyllic but there's a worrying issue; who's really in control, the suggesting servant or the accepting master? An ancient Chinese proverb states that 'the best leader is the one whose followers think they're deciding things for themselves'. The same is almost certainly true for corporate advertisers, and algorithms.
'Prices and values' (13th July)
Dear New Scientist. In your cover story on the psychology of climate change inaction (issue 3029, 11th July 2015, pg28), Robert Gifford produces a long and interesting list of why people don't act to reduce their carbon footprint, but he misses a more fundamental issue, that our Western consumer society is fundamentally climate-change inducing; it is built around consumption and entirely against self-denial. This mentality is highlighted in an earlier article in the same issue (pg8) that describes the push to market a pill that mimics calorie restriction, rather than encouraging people to fast. To stop climate change, we don't need clever persuasion, we need an entirely different society.
'Walk the walk' (19th July)
Dear New Scientist. In your article on the Coal Renaissance (issue 3030, 18th July 2015, pg10), I read something I had never seen in a decade-or-more of of reading climate change articles, that a scientist involved in climate change research was actively making a personal sacrifice to reduce his or her carbon footprint. At the end of the article, Kevin Anderson of the University of Manchester stated that 'he never flies anywhere himself' because he feels climate change scientists should set an example. After years of reading about climate change conferences in places like Bali (2007), it's wonderful to find evidence of a scientist not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. Well done, Kevin!
The dubious data unit, the 'hard drive' (2nd August)
Dear New Scientist. Describing the weight of an object in terms of elephants or blue whales is a popular subject on Feedback, but I noticed a new trend this week; how to describe amounts of data. The BBC website has an article reporting on the funding gained from last year's ice bucket challenges.Prof Ammar Al-Chalabi, professor of neurology and complex disease genetics at King's College London, states in the article that an international project to analyse the genomes of 15,000 people with MND, including every person in the UK with the disease, has been accelerated by funding from the ice bucket challenge. He said that it's "a massive project which will produce enough data to fill 10,000 hard drives".
This is a worrying development. Data is an elusive quantity to visualise but 'a hard drive' is not only a vague momentary unit (40Gb? 2Tb?), it's also time dependent as a standard item, halving every year-or-so. In comparison, an 'elephant', as a standard unit, is a veritable French Sevres Kilogram of reliability. Is Professor Ammar Al-Chalabi aware that in fifteen years time, he'll have to say that his international 2015 project 'produced enough data to fill 1 hard drive'?
'Superficial Intelligence' (4th August)
Dear New Scientist. In your Opinion page (issue 3032, 1st August 2015, pg22), Martin Rees states that biological brains will eventually be superseded by far superior, machine intelligences. This follows on from recent comments in the media by Stephen Hawking and others, warning of the dangers of runaway A.I. These are all surprising assertions, as digital computers, fundamentally, are no different from punch-card clocks. Also, A.I. and quantum computing have so far failed to live up to their initial hype; they're currently more Superficial Intelligence than Artificial Intelligence. How do Hawking and Rees think these automated sorters and calculators will reach such lofty goals?
Extra note: If you'd like to read an article explaining the limitations of digital computer's reasoning, check out this blog entry.
'Only one murder' (14th August)
Dear New Scientist. In a recent letters page (issue 3032), Tony Castaldo discussed what was required to combat climate change. He said that 'encouraging climate positive behaviours such as bike riding makes a negligible difference', and then talked about focussing on developing a theoretical, painless, technological fix. When I hear someone dismissing a positive, ethical act as being of negligible importance, I often reply by saying, 'okay, so it doesn't matter if I go out and murder someone?' When the person protests, I point out that since there are seven billion people on the planet, one more death would be negligible, according to their reasoning, and its significance could therefore be dismissed out of hand; what one might call a 'percentage morality' approach.
An ethical act is an ethical act; its importance and difficulty are always significant.
'Slow free will' (14th August)
Dear New Scientist. In your cover story of Issue 3033 (8th Aug 2015, pg32), Sean O'Neill reports that our belief in free will may be illusory, citing Benjamin Libet's famous experiment, among others. It is true that Libet's experiment is strong evidence that we don't consciously control our immediate reactions, but there is also a lot of evidence that indicates that we can train our brains over time, if we make enough effort. Perhaps we do have free will, but it is a slow free will and our moral responsibility lies in training our brains during quiet times to respond appropriately when the critical, fast-response events occur. In this way, we are responsible for our actions, but it is on the training ground, not in the game, that we become moral people.
'A leg to stand on' (14th August)
Dear New Scientist. In issue 3034 (15th Aug 2015, pg12), Colin Barras reports on the discovery of a strange Iron Age tradition of feasting only on a pig's right foreleg. It reminds me of an enduring story in which a traveller, passing a field, spies a pig with a wooden leg. He sees the herdsman nearby and asks him 'why does that pig have a wooden leg?' The herdsman replies 'Oh, that pig is incredible. A month ago, I was attacked by wolves in the forest. He heard my cry, ran in and single-handedly drove them all away'. 'Wow', said the traveller, 'that is amazing, but why has he got a wooden leg?' 'That's not all,' continued the herdsman, 'only a week ago, I was trapped under a falling tree and he rushed in and lifted it off me with just his snout.' 'That's astonishing!' Said the traveller, 'but why has he got a wooden leg?' 'Ah, well,' said the herdsman, 'with a pig as amazing as that, you don't eat him all at once.'
Perhaps this story gave rise to that Iron Age tradition?
I hope you liked that string of letters. I think they all make sensible and meaningful points (well, possibly apart from the last one), and so I am still a bit surprised none of them were selected. Hey ho. I probably won't be writing any more letters to New Scientist for a while. [STOP PRESS: They have actually printed one of the letters! (5th Sept), so, basically I'm keen again! I'm so fickle…] On the plus side, I'll try and use the extra free time to write more blog articles and maybe even a bit more of my science fiction comedy novel! But don't quote me on that. ;-)


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Former first lady leads Guatemalan vote
A former first lady leads early results from Guatemala's presidential election, although a second round of voting is expected to determine who will oversee the Central American nation.
With votes tallied from just over a third of polling centres, Sandra Torres captured 24 per cent of Sunday's vote, followed by four-time presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei with 15 per cent.
Electoral Supreme Court president Julio Solorzano said the large number of contenders for the top office had slowed the vote count.
At this rate no candidate will win the more than 50 per cent of votes needed to assume the post after a first round, with a second vote likely to take place in August. Presidents are limited to a single, four-year term.
Guatemala's next president will be tasked with attempting to stem growing violence, poverty and outward migration.
An estimated one per cent of Guatemala's population of about 16 million people has left the country this year.
Guatemalans are also clamouring for a crackdown on corruption. Three of the last four elected presidents have been arrested post-presidency on charges of corruption.
Torres, 64, is a businesswoman who gained national prominence during the 2008-2012 government of her then-husband Alvaro Colom who is among the former leaders to have been accused of corruption. The couple divorced in 2011.
"There is a belief that instead of advancing in these four years of government, we've gone backward," said Marco Rene Cuellar, 39, the first to vote at the Mixed Rural School in the municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula.
"We've lost our way as a country, but we should not lose faith in the democratic process we have."
Businessman Roberto Arzu, diplomat Edmond Auguste Mulet Lesieur and indigenous human rights advocate Thelma Cabrera rounded out the top-five candidates for the presidency.
Australian Associated Press


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Emily ran her hand over the dusky green cover. It made her fingers tingle again. Intrigued, she opened the cover and found what should have been the title page was blank. Very faintly in the corner she could see someone had written a name in ornate script. Emily studied it closely and made out a few letters… it definitely looked like it started with an 'A', then a 'v', followed by another 'a'. Emily moved her lips slightly as she whispered the name—Avalynn.
She turned over a few more pages and found that the text appeared to have been handwritten. What most intrigued her were the pictures, drawings really. The first was a sketch of five women sitting on the ground around a fire. Their hair was drawn in wild pencil lines but the unmistakable curves of their bodies were sketched with great attention to detail. Their arms were raised above their heads and as she looked at the drawing she could have sworn they were moving and the women appeared to be chanting. Emily could even see the pencil lines glisten with moisture and she could smell the aroma of incense burning on the fire.
She looked further through the book. Every now and then there was a heading and some more writing, but the pictures were so astounding and enticing. Another one showed a young woman tied to the ground, her arms and legs spread like the points of a star. Emily thought perhaps she was a virgin sacrifice judging by the way she was clothed in white compared with the dark dresses of the other women.
As she studied the drawing, Emily realised that her own breath was short. She imagined herself as the young woman in the drawing. Emily began to feel hot and lightheaded. She felt like she was about to faint.
Images of witches danced across the page. A scent of wild pansies drifted through the air. Emily tried to concentrate but her mind was getting hazy and the images blurred on the page. She felt a strange desire as her eyes remained fixed on the drawing, a pull so strong she could picture herself there, tied on the ground with the women chanting, the aroma of flowers in the summer moonlight filling her lungs, until she could feel herself dissolving, blurring the lines between the girl in bed and the one tied to the ground, until she was no longer sure which one was the real person, the real Emily.
Emily quickly put the book down.
I need some fresh air.
She moved toward the edge of the bed but as she stood her legs wobbled and she fell back down. Then the room began to spin wildly and she closed her eyes as she laid her head on the pillow. A wave of fear washed over her body.
When she opened her eyes, Emily found herself tied to the ground and surrounded by five women dressed in black. The air was thick with mugwort.
'Come, child. Join us.'


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Reisebericht von Raphael Boulet
Erfahre wie Andre das Training in der Yuntai Mountain Schule gefallen hat
I was here for 120 days learning KungFu with Sanwe shifu. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of things. I also met a lot of really nice people here, students from China as well as the other international students and all the teachers and school stuff were really great. ALL of the Shifu are very competent and especially Samwe is super nice.
Training hall and dining hall were both sufficient, but I wished there was a greater variety of food in the meals, also more protein. Sometimes, when I had to get out of bed, or it was really cold, I hated being here, but I never regretted it.
This is a good place and training here is a good experience. Maybe do less meetings on Saturday and more free time on Sunday. :)


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Police and Fire Commission
Police and Fire Commission
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Powers and Duties:
The Board of Fire and Police Commissioners shall appoint all officers and members of the Police Department, except the Chief of Police. The Board shall also perform all the provisions of the Commission State Statute, including disciplinary actions.
- Don Anderson
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Going for a simple walk in the fresh air can do wonders for the whole family. This might sound obvious to some but for those of you who don't go on many walks, then perhaps I'll persuade you!
Firstly, it's free and you can go anywhere. Again, obvious perhaps but I would suggest getting a good local walk book. You can pick them up in most book shops or second-hand shops. Here in Gloucestershire, we love 'Cotswold Walks' by Christopher Knowles and Peter Reardon. These are 'Family Walks of between 3- and 5-miles including places of refreshment along the way.' They include detailed maps of the area and lovely descriptions of things to spot along the route. There are also some brilliant free maps called 'Little Cotswold Walks' that you can download from here.
Secondly, a good walk gives everyone in the family space. Not just physically but mentally. I'm no psychologist so I'll try and explain with an anecdote: One recent Sunday, my husband and I decided to go for a walk with the family. My two step-sons 12 and 16 had been bickering all weekend. My 3-year-son had also been difficult: refusing to eat and winding up the older boys. Generally, everyone was a bit 'fraught' with each other.
We went on a walk. It was a beautiful sunny September day in the Cotswolds. We got our map out and started reading it. At first the older boys looked at us in amusement but by the end of the walk, they were the ones trying to spot the 'ancient wall' or landmark noted in the book. We came across a historic bridge across a steam, then a lovely old church which we went inside. Everyone explored and had their own 'moment' of peace. We ambled along a lovely quiet road fringed with apple trees and blackberry bushes. All the boys picked and ate them along the way. My 12-year-old step-son kicked a stone all the way down the road. He enjoyed being in his own space with his own thoughts although we were all together. He picked the stone up and brought it home.
We stopped on the way, sat and just looked about us. How often as a family do you all just sit together and do nothing? It was lovely. All the boys enjoyed each other's company – there was no bickering or irritation. Both older boys had the small one on their shoulders carrying at times and at the end we had a drink in the pub. Lovely!
I would recommend a family walk in most weathers – even when it's blustery and raining a bit, it can be so rewarding. Going on a walk can make children and teenagers feel like they've achieved something and it gives them some head space away from all the distractions at home. Even if you aren't having in-depth talks (with can also happen on walks) you can feel connected with your family. It's also sometimes nice to get away from the crowds of big attractions and explore the 'free' English countryside. It really does do everyone the power of good!
I also have a list of short local walks for children here.