The Ogham Alphabet

Those of you who have read the Morgana Trilogy know that I've been inspired by the Ogham Alphabet a lot (as well as Norse Runes), combining it with a key Fey feature to make it a central plot point in my stories.

So here's a little more on what the Ogham Alphabet is, historically-speaking:

• The word "Ogham" derives from the Irish god Ogman, the god of poetry and learning (who, like the god Thot in Ancient Egypt, was said to have created the alphabet)
• The alphabet is sometimes referred to as Beth Luis Nuin, after the original (Gaelic) first three letters of the Ogham Alphabet.
• They were carved singly, or in groups of up to five --> 20 different characters could be created.
• The basis of each letter is a vertical line and characters are lines branching to the left and right from it --> like a tree (the Ogham Tree)
• Because of this, letters were named after trees: Beth is birch, Luis is roan; and Nuin is ash.
• The whole alphabet is therefore considered like a forest.
• "Individual trees held high symbolic significance, so the forest alphabet was deemed to be a repository of wisdom. The word for 'knowledge' also means 'wood'."
• Inscriptions are read from the bottom up, the way a tree grows.

Of course, I used what I wanted from this (mostly using the term "ogham" along with Norse runes--the horror!), and then grouped each into different elemental categories. These, in turn, became the basis for calling out the basic Fey powers for the knights to use. My intention was to keep historical oghams for more complexe Fey beings, but that just didn't happen in this series...


Source:
The Element Encyclopedia of the Celts, by Rodney Castleden

When Temperatures Climb, Bodies Shrink

There's more and more talk (justly so, in my opinion) of global warming. This effect, though not new (NASA states that "just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago), still engenders dramatic (even catastrophic) changes. And the increase in temperatures we're seeing now, is the most rapid one the world has seen thus far (the increase in CO2 levels that caused the Great Dying, aka the greatest extinction event ever seen on Earth, was only 1/10th of the current increase rate we're seeing now).

One of these changes, as studied by Jennifer A. Sheridan and David Bickford, is the change in body size. Or, to be more precise, its shrinking. Which, as stressed out in their paper, "could negatively impact both crop plants and protein sources such as fish that are important for human nutrition." An ever more pressing issue as the global population keeps expanding, despite doing so at a slowing rate.

Here are some interesting details from their paper:

1. The increase in temperatures and the resulting change in rain patterns will affect every organism on the planet.
2. However, although each organism should see "shrinkage", this won't happen all at once nor equally across all species, which means that our whole ecosystem will be even more out of balance.
3. What will shrink? Everything, including:
1. Oysters, scallops, and corals (some of which may even disappear entirely since they wouldn't be able to form exoskeletons anymore).
2. Phytoplankton, which is the food base for most marine life, and, incidentally, is also the plant that absorbs most of the CO2 on Earth.
3. For every 1°C of temperature increase, the following drops in mass/size are expected (as examples):
1.  fruit: 3-17%
2. marine invertebrates: 0.5-4%
3. fish: 6-22%
4. beetles: 1-3%
5. salamanders: 14%
4. The downsizing trend has already started, by the way, and evidenced through studies of creatures in the wild as well as those subject to commercial harvesting. These organisms include polar bears, red deer, toads, squirrels, birds, plants, sheep. Scientists and farmers have also seen that cows follow the same trend in hotter temperatures, thereby also producing less milk.

   

   Source: Journal of Dairy Science

5. Evidence of such massive size reduction is also supported by fossils, which show, for example:
1. Bees, wasps, spiders, beetles, ants, and cicadas shrank by 50-75% in size almost 55 million years ago, when global temperatures suddenly jumped 3-7°C and rainfalls dropped by ~40%. 
2. Similar shrinking was observed on small mammals during other global warming periods:
1. An early horse got 14% smaller (granted, it wasn't a very big horse to begin with, going from the size of a dog to that of a cat)
2. Early primates got 4% smaller.
6. Other changes to expect from global warming:
1. Melting glaciers.
2. Rising sea levels (definitive flooding of land).
3. Acidification of all water sources--marine and fresh.
4. Increased ultraviolet-B radiation (risks to humans include: skin cancer, reduced immune response to Herpes, skin lesions, harm the spleen, eye problems; risks to plants include: impaired photosynthesis so less oxygen's produced, size reduction, drop in overall production, increased susceptibility to disease, changed flowering pattern).
5. Increased fire frequency.
6. Less rain/precipitation globally; and for those places with more rainfall, will see it happen all at once, with long stretches of water limitation.
7. Subtropics will get drier while much of the equatorial and high-latitude regions will get wetter (fewer habitable areas for humans)--linked to points 5 and 6.
8. Nutrient loss (either to excessive soil nitrogen loss through fires, or leaching due to too much rain at once).
9. Extermination of many species that can't adapt quickly enough.

I know. Lots of data to take in. And scary. A few percentage points might not seem like much, but they can mess up the balance of life on earth completely.

Already, as reported in The New Yorker in 2018, the number of chronically-malnourished people and the number of children forced into labor has started to grow again, "driven in part by an increase in conflicts and climate-induced disasters."  And that's "only" with a 1°C increase over pre-industrial temperatures. The article also mentions other effects from global warming that we're suffering from right now, such as: an increase in Lyme disease (Are there ticks on that beautiful green lawn? Should I still have my BBQ party?), proliferation of jellyfish (paddling among a cloud of medusas while out surfing doesn't sound so cool).

It's going to happen, it's happened before. The question is, by how much will temperatures rise, how quickly, and will we be ready to face the consequences (or have solutions to help protect our flora and fauna as much as possible) when the time comes?

N. America after sea levels rise due to ice melts

Europe after sea levels rise due to the melting of the ice caps

Sources:
NASA - Global Climate Change
World Population Clock
Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change, by Jennifer A. Sheridan and David Bickford
Global warming shrank animals in the past, article in USA Today, March 18, 2017
How Extreme Weather is Shrinking the Planet, by Mill McKibben for The New Yorker, November 26, 2018
What the world would look like if all the ice melted, National Geographic
Ultraviolet Radiation: How it Affects Life on Earth, NASA - Earth Observatory

On Productivity - Making Grand Gestures

I've been reading a really interesting book lately, called Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Found out about it because I realized I was having major concentration issues (partly due to my lately-discovered gluten allergy, but not only to that).

The book states that a key to advance in any worthwhile project (including at work), is to have the ability to get into the zone and do some deep work for long stretches of time. This entails detoxing from immediate reward activities such as going through my emails, surfing the Internet, checking out Amazon, twitter, or browsing Instagram... Yeah, easier said than done.

Other things just as crucial, but harder to control, including going to *cough*lock yourself up in*cough* a quiet space, one where people aren't likely to distract you. That's basically impossible in an open work space like the one at my current job (yes, I do have a regular job, as evidenced by my long absences on this--and other--forums).

Anyway, Deep Work is a really interesting read for anyone who wants to get things done, and also includes tips and tricks for people with varying types of jobs and activities.

Here's an excerpt I found particularly interesting to me, since it mentions the mighty J. K. Rowling, and her struggle to write the final book of her awesome Harry Potter series (I cannot compare myself to her, but the struggle to finish my Morgana Trilogy is definitely quite an arduous journey for me too):

   In the early winter of 2007, J.K. Rowling was struggling to complete The Deathly Hallows, the final book in her Harry Potter series. The pressure was intense, as this book bore the responsibility of tying together the six that preceded it in a way that would satisfy the series' hundreds of millions of fans. Rowling needed to work deeply to satisfy these demands, but she was finding unbroken concentration increasingly difficult to achieve at her home office in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

"As I was finishing Deathly Hallows there came a time where the window cleaner came, the kids were at home, the dogs were barking," Rowling recalled in an interview. 

It was too much, so J.K. Rowling decided to do something extreme to shift her mind-set where it needed to be: She checked into a suite in the five-star Balmoral Hotel, located in the heart of downtown Edinburgh.

"So I came to this hotel because it's a beautiful hotel, but I didn't intend to stay here," she explained. "[But] the first day's writing went well so I kept coming back...and I ended up finishing the last of the Harry Potter books [here]."

Interesting tidbit I actually wasn't yet aware of (shame on me). However much I wish I could do the same, my own life doesn't permit me to make that grand a gesture towards focusing on the editing/writing of Curse of the Fey (apparently the hotel costs $1,000 a night). But I try to do something similar whenever I can: go to a cafe (hopefully quiet--I'm not usually very lucky in this department, though), rent a cabin for a weekend (that one turned out to be quite fun and productive), go to my aunt's and uncle's place where I'm lucky enough to have full use of their office...

The Balmoral Edinburgh suite where J.K. Rowling stayed to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

What about you, what kind of grand gesture do you find yourself doing to be able to get your important projects done?

Pleasure Vs. Happiness

I don't quite remember how I fell on this book (the joys of happenstance) by Robert H. Lustig, but The Hacking of the American Mind is turning out to be quite an interesting read (although it should change its title, because it certainly doesn't just apply to Americans)!

In it, he states that there are two clear definitions of the terms Pleasure and Happiness:

Pleasure, which comes from the French word plaisir, is a concept of reward:

1. It's immediate
2. It provides some level of excitement/amusement
3. It's dependent on circumstance
   

Happiness, on the other hand, is about being content, about well-being and human flourishing (aka physical and/or spiritual growth:

1. It's about life
2. It's not prone to acute changes in one's life (so no roller-coaster of emotions)
3. It's unrelated to circumstances--anyone can be happy!

These two states can certainly happen concurrently, but they also can affect one another in negative ways that I certainly hadn't always suspected (going all the way down to the molecular level of our brain!). In fact, "chronic excessive reward eventually leads to both addiction and depression," what Robert Lustig calls the twin epidemics, and therefore too much pleasure can actually prevent us from being happy.

For your (and my) ease, I've created a quick table of the 7 differences between reward (pleasure) and contentment (happiness) as expressed in The Hacking of the American Mind:

Note here that it's important to have some level of dopamine (it would actually be really bad not to), but it is addictive, whereas serotonin...isn't. On top of that, in terms of evolution, dopamine is

"stronger" than serotonin, or we'd still be cavemen (if still around at all) since dopamine is a hormone that keeps us motivated. But this also means that, if we're constantly releasing dopamine into our brains, we're effectively destroying our dopamine receptors...and our ability to feel happiness.*

Knowing this, it only makes the following fact all that scarier:

In his research and analysis, Robert Lustig has come to realize that "in the last half century, America and most of the Western world have become more and more unhappy, sicker, and broke as well. Marketing, media, and technology have capitalized on subverting our brain physiology to their advantage in order to veer us away from the pursuit of happiness to the pursuit of pleasure, which for them, of course equals the pursuit of profit."

"In fact, [these corporations'] recipes are continuing to improve: as the science of reward is elaborated and becomes more precise, new techniques in neuromarketing are now becoming mainstream. And as corporations have profited big from increased consumption of virtually everything with a price tag promising happiness, we have lost big-time. America has devolved from the aspirational, achievement-oriented "city on a hill" we once were, into the addicted and depressed society that we've now become.

Because we abdicated happiness for pleasure. 

Because we got cheap."

And you thought the world in Game of Thrones was bad**! 

In any case, after this intense intro, I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of his book, including how indeed we did get hacked, and how we can claim our brains back (OK, this definitely sounds like a weird zombie movie now). I'll probably share a couple more nuggets as I go along :)

*OK, so this is highly simplified, and we have loads more hormones, but this doesn't make the above facts wrong either.

**I'm still crying that the last season won't come out till 2019, yes, yes, I too fall prey to this society of consumption, especially when it comes to stories...and sweets...and tea... Gah!

Wisdom

Those who are already wise no longer love wisdom - whether they are gods or men.

Similarly, those whose own ignorance as made them bad, rotten, evil, 

do not strive for wisdom either. For no evil or ignorant person ever strives

for wisdom.

What remains are those who suffer from ignorance but still retain some sense

and understanding. They are conscious of knowing what they don't know.

~Socrates, in Plato's Lysis, 4th c. BC

Intellectual Snobbery

On the whole I think the snobbery of my childhood, the snobbery of birth, that is, is more palatable than the other snobberies: the snobbery of wealth, and today's intellectual snobbery.
Intellectual snobbery seems today to breed a particular form of envy and venom. Parents are determined that their offspring shall shine. "We've made great sacrifices for you to have a good education," they say. The child is burdened with guilt if he does not fulfill their hopes. Everyone is so sure that it is all a matter of opportunity--not of natural aptitude.
I think late Victorian parents were more realistic and had really more consideration for their children and for what would make a happy and successful life for them. There was much less keeping up with the Joneses. Nowadays I often feel that it is for one's own prestige that one wants one's children to succeed. The Victorians looked dispassionately at their offspring and made up their minds about their capacities. A. was obviously going to be "the pretty one." B. was "the clever one." C. was going to be plain and was definitely not intellectual. Good works would be C.'s best chance. And so on. Sometimes, of course, they were wrong, but on the whole it worked. There is an enormous relief in not being expected to produce something that you haven't got.
The general standpoint in my young days had a certain humility. You accepted what you were. You had assets and you had liabilities. Like a hand at cards, having been dealt it, you sorted your cards and decided how best to play them. There was, I am almost sure, less envy and resentment of those more gifted or better off. If some young friends had expensive or exciting toys one did not expect or demand to have them oneself. I might say to my mother, "Freda has a wonderful doll's house. I wish I had one like that," and my mother would reply placidly, "Yes, it's nice for Freda. Of course her parents are much richer than we are." Nowadays it seems to be "Marylyn has got a bicycle, why can't I have one?" as though it were one's right.

~Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

Sadly enough, it doesn't seem like things have reversed since then...

How To Communicate With Your Fan (The Object, Not The Person)

Girl with a fan, Pietro Rotari

Since moving back to Europe, I've found myself falling deeply for the history channel. I find the programs on it to be very interesting, well-researched, and cover a wide variety of topics. One of the the programs on random historical news brought up a very interesting fact regarding the use of...

The Fan.

So here's a little dictionary of uses regarding the fan from the Maison Duvelleroy, a house founded in 1827 by a man who wished to see the delicate object back in use...

Lady with a fan, Alexandre Roslin

Holding it in your right hand before your face: Follow me.

Holding it in your left hand before your face: I wish for an interview (private).

Placing it against your left ear: I wish for you to leave me alone.

Brushing it against your forehead: You have changed.

Twirling it in your left hand: We are being watched.

Holding it in your right hand: You are being enterprising.

Sliding it in your hand: I loathe you.

Twirling it in your right hand: I love someone else.

Brushing it down your cheek then placing it against your chin: I love you.

Showing it closed to someone: Do you love me?

Sliding it before your eyes: I am sorry.

Touching the edge of it with your finger: I wish to speak to you.

Placing it against your right cheek without moving it: Yes.

Placing it against your left cheek without moving it: No.

Opening and closing it: You are cruel.

Letting it hang: We shall remain friends.

Slowly fanning yourself: I am married.

Quickly fanning yourself: I am engaged.

Placing it against your lips: Kiss me.

Open and still: Wait for me.

Holding it open in your left hand: Come speak to me.

Placing it behind your head: Do not forget me.

~Transl. from "L’éventail à tous vents" (Louvre des Antiquaires, Paris 1989).

Of course, you could also try to cheat with your fan...

Now what should an unmarried woman use the fan to keep cool without giving any false messages? ;)

Sources:

Langage des Mouches & Langage des Eventails (FR)

Duvelleroy Hand-Fans

Humanity's Tipping Point

I've just finished reading a(nother) fantasy book--Midnighters #3: Blue Noon--where one of the characters, Rex, considers the potential end of the world. For humans at least:

In the darkling part of his mind, Rex thought for a moment that perhaps this wasn't such a bad thing. Without predators to cull the herd, humanity had spread across the earth unchecked, crowding the planet beyond its resources, prideful and arrogant.
Maybe one night a year of being hunted would do them good.

Though one night a year may not seem like a lot, in this book it equates to thousands of deaths, if not millions. Granted, out of 7+ billion people, that's a pretty small number, but still.

Anyway, I know that end-of-world stories, or at least end-of-humanity stories have been quite popular lately (with zombies only being one aspect of them), and I think they do bring up an interesting point: considering we're at the top of the food chain (with nothing to cull our population growth), then how long can we continue on this path before we've outgrown our environment?

Population growth is currently at 1.14% per year. Granted, the rate has supposedly started to decline again (thanks to developed countries), but just over the 20th century the world population grew 264%, from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. Now that's not chump change.

So, since as Harvard University sociobiologist put it, "[t]he constraints of the biosphere are fixed," how many humans can our little Earth sustain? About 9 to 10 billion (according to some scientists). That's not much higher than our current level and, according to predictions, is a number that should be hit between 2040 and 2062. So in 25 to 47 years. Or relatively soon and, in most people's case, our lifetime.

Exciting news, isn't it?

So what are we to expect then? Short water supply (better start stocking up on those bottles!), short food supply (makes us feel bad about wasting 1.3 billion tonnes of food every year, doesn't it?), To make the picture a little bleaker, the 10 billion sustainability mark is assuming everyone becomes a grass-eater (vegans FTW!), so a more realistic picture would bring down that mark... Although, considering the current specie extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (aka background extinction rate: rate of extinction without human involvement), that means between 200-2,000 (on the low end) or 10,000 to 100,000 (on the higher end) species are becoming extinct, I have a feeling this constrains our biosphere parameters even further. Robot bees just aren't going to be enough to make a difference...

So all you zombie/apocalypse fan boys and girls there might get to experience survival scenarios (who knows how people would react in such a world?). As for everyone else, well, let's hope we figure something out, and soon. (I'm totally for colonizing Mars, btw!)

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my time with my family and friends that much more and appreciate my Christmas dinner fully (with no wastage!).

UPDATE - 2015.01.22:
Just read this article about humanity tipping the earth's ecological and weather patterns into unsafe zones, with already two large "dead zones" reported, and more to come if we keep up with our current activities (especially the production of the chemicals phosphorus and nitrogen). The scientists in charge of the study stated that we've hit 4 out of the 9 "safe operating space" boundaries, getting closer and closer to the point of no return where life won't be as friendly as it has been up until now...

Sources:
Live Science - How Many People Can Earth Support?
World Population Clock (with amazing charts!)
UNEP - Food Waste Facts
WWF - How Many Species Are We Losing?
Center For Biological Diversity - The Extinction Crisis
Robobees

The Merry Wives Of Weinsberg

Copper engraving by Zacharias Dolendo, 16th c.

During the High Middle-Ages, in 1140 CE to be more precise, wars and battles abounded in Europe. But today I'm bringing you to Germany and its first king of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, Conrad III. And, zooming in a little closer, to his defeat of the Duke of Welf and the king's subsequent siege of Weinsberg.

This siege wasn't anything particular, as sieges go, except for the way its surrender was negotiated. For it was done so by the wives. The king granted them the right to leave with whatever they could carry on their shoulders.

So each woman hoisted her own husband onto her back, and proceeded to carry him out. The king laughed at the sight, and allowed the wives to leave--along with their respective burdens--unharmed. For "[a] king should always stand by his word."

The Carry Me costume
'cause it's a thing now...
(at a carnival)

Sources:
The Women of Weinsberg and Other Legends of Aarne-Thompson-Uther
Wikipedia - Conrad III
Wikipedia - Weinsberg

Inemuri

A couple years' back, one of the interns at my company was found sleeping on the job. And not just once or twice, but regularly. Needless to say, he didn't stay long. But, perhaps that wouldn't have been the case if he'd done it in another country...

...like Japan!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Inemuri is the art of "sleeping while present" aka sleeping on the job to show how committed you are to it. 

The logic is that the worker's so exhausted from working so hard, practically 24/7, so he/she can't help but fall asleep at work. Some people even fake it, to impress the others. 

However, things aren't that easy, because there are certain rules to follow as well (which isn't too surprising). So before you decide to try it out, know that only those on the higher rungs of the corporate structure or organization can do it, and you must do it while remaining as straight as possible in your seat.

So, who's napping for real or faking it?

Sources:

Wikipedia

Wise Geek