Good for her, well done! Not as pretty of a tattoo as a well-drawn organic molecule, IMO, but publishing is hard and worthy of celebration when you succeed.

I have an Astell & Kern SR25 MKII DAP (digital audio player) and I use it quite frequently. The sound quality far surpasses what my phone can produce when connected to any of my speakers or headphones.

It plays FLAC files and any other audio file type you can think of. And it acts as an offline music library when needed (64 GB of memory plus a 1TB microSD).

The better the headphones/speakers I use, the more it outshines anything coming out of my other electronic devices. I use it almost every day.

Miserable Old Bigots?

I was thrilled with it too! The threads really came together in a satisfying way. And it was nice to get a solid (but not too complete) win for our heroes. Rafe knew just what we needed to feel satiated (he wrote this episode with another person, whose name eludes me).

For me, every episode has been better than the one before it this season, and only 1 or 2 episodes from season 1 are actually on par with the average for season 2. The new character introductions have been on point, especially Aviendha today, and the Forsaken are WAY more intriguing and scary in the show than they were in the books.

The problems I have involve too little screen time for Mat (I want book 3 Mat ASAP), and not enough swordplay for Rand and Lan. But other than that, I am loving the show.

Yeah, fades are more easily killed by everyone in book 6 onward, I think. Maybe it’s related to the introduction of the gholam.

I feel the opposite, but not because Lan isn’t an amazing badass. It’s because fades are hardcore, and wasn’t it 3 fades he fought (he chopped one’s head off while two more emerged from the shadows, I think) instead of just 2? I think the fades were just about right power-wise or maybe even nerfed a bit, to be honest. Lan could take 1, would struggle with 2, but 3? He did a pretty good job killing 2 of 3, tbh.

If a ‘Wheel of Time diehard’ includes someone in the middle of their 6th reread, then I guess I contradict your assumption. I thoroughly enjoyed the 1st season, even with its minor flaws, and predict the 2nd season will be even better. I generally enjoyed the plot deviations and saw them as improvements.

If anything, a WoT fan that is honest with themselves should a) be able to overlook minor flaws, since the books have plenty, especially book 1 and b) realize that plot deviations are a must because an at most 8 season series cannot follow all of Jordan’s arcs and details faithfully - combine, rearrange, and cut is absolutely required.

To me, the heart of the story is there, the characters are well-acted, and the music is great. Sets and writing were good in season 1 with some room for improvement, IMO.

I am actually pleased that you think the world-building “borrowed bits and pieces of different Earth cultures and threw them in a blender.” That’s completely intentional and follows from the metaphysics and history (e.g., the Age of Legends and subsequent breaking of the world) in the books. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea though, sure.

Finally, with a small sample size of friends and family I am having a much easier time getting them into WoT than I did GoT (the last fantasy show I really got into). Reasons (I am paraphrasing their words) include:

More accessible color pallette and atmosphere

Less gratuitous violence (especially towards women)

More magic and “fantasy” feel

Refreshingly not a standard medieval setting

Being able to share it with more people in my circle has obviously enhanced my enjoyment. They are all super pumped after seeing the season 2 trailer.

In addition to the great suggestions others have already provided, check out Emma Goldman’s writings if you haven’t already. They might appeal to you and she has some interesting takes.

Here’s a good starting point: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/GoldmanCW.html

Question: who is the little girl holding ‘the Dark One’s’ hand at the darkfriend social?

I have no idea and am wondering if anyone else does. Unraveling the Pattern points the girl out in his trailer breakdown on his youtube channel. It’s really hard to see in the original trailer without brightening the shot a bit.

Oh yeah, haha, that shot of Selene against his chest gave me chills! I look forward to seeing how they handle their time together on screen. It would be interesting if the show alters the relationship dynamic a bit to add some more reciprocation (from Rand) and overall nuance to it. In the books the dramatic potential felt very underutilized, and just kind of ‘haha, look at this naive farmboy not knowing how to handle a woman that knows what she wants’ - which to me just seems so cliche and uninteresting.

Large consensus says he’s a specific person at the table at the Social.

Of course, how did I not think of that! Thanks, I was thinking about Bors and some of the other characters that might have been there, but totally forgot Fain. Time to zoom in on that shot to see some more details, lol.

My latest thought is: what scenes shown in the trailer are more TDR than TGH? That scene near the end with Mat driving his spear into something (or someone) is immediately followed by an explosion at what looks like a castle or fortress - if those shots are actually connected, then this is very reminiscent of his activities near the end of TDR. But other than that, most every scene I recognized looked to be from TGH (which is not necessarily a bad thing, since I think TGH has more television-friendly moments in it throughout than TDR does).

Great non-canon line at the end from Siuan - “You are the water that turns the Wheel itself.”

I wish we got to see more of new Mat in the trailer but I guess I can wait. What we got were snippets of some epic moments: the darkfriend social, Rand meeting with Siuan, Nynaeve’s Accepted test, Rand v Turak, Heroes of the Horn (I think I see them on horseback @1:22 or so, may be a stretch, lol), and Aviendha (and Perrin!) in action v Whitecloaks.

I was already looking forward to the next season, especially sharing it with my show-only fan wife who loved season 1, and now we are both completely hyped for this second, atmospherically more ominous (I predict), season.

Love the trailer! I’ve probably seen it 10-15 times now between my own views and watching others react or live stream to it.

I am incredibly hyped to see Nynaeve’s episode dealing with those arches; it looks like she comes out of it with two wounds in her abdomen and I can’t wait to see how that goes down. Also, Perrin fighting Whitecloaks - it’s going to be badass to see the antagonism between he and they ratchet up a notch.

Other highlights/observations

No sign of Padan Fain (unless it was super subtle)

Turak v. Rand is going to be epic

Dude with flaming sword killing a fade, wtf is going on there (I need to know)!?!?

Egwene’s face @1:02 in the trailer, she’s wearing some unfortunate neckwear and looks in bad shape

Whitecloaks or Heroes riding through the dust/smoke @1:22???

Rand meeting Siuan (so glad we’re getting this scene!) - does Lan teach him Cat Crosses the Courtyard?

Aviendha looks deadly as hell in combat from the brief glimpses

Very excited to see what the great writers, actors, and other crew members have put together for us lucky fans. I hope they get what they’ve rightfully earned by their hard work, solidarity with WGA and SAG-AFTRA all day.

I love Lauren’s videos so much! His attention to detail, editing skills, and comprehensive story telling are second to none. I hope he keeps making videos through the entire run of the show; I know he took a break during the negativity surrounding the end of season 1 but his content always elevates the original works for me - and I mean both the books and the show!

"Drivers have long raised the insufferable heat they can face when out for a day of deliveries, especially in the hotter parts of the country. The fleet of UPS trucks doesn’t have any air conditioning to keep the drivers safe and comfortable during their long hours on the job. During the summer months, package cars can reach upwards of 130 F. This has led to far too many UPS drivers suffering from heat stroke on the job, and some have even died due to the excessive heat. With worsening global warming, these issues will only become more severe. "

This is why we need unions and direct action more than ever, and can’t rely on government entities (ultimately beholden to capitalist interests) to protect our health and safety while we’re on the job. What the fuck good is OSHA if it is allowing heat illness and heat stroke deaths to happen without holding UPS accountable? They should have had their operations shut down until they outfit every truck with AC, and be fined into oblivion until they do so. Instead, OSHA does squat. Health & safety regulations are written in blood but OSHA’s bloody hands refuse to even touch the paper.

You are saying that sucralose (or a metabolite thereof) could alkylate DNA - and theoretically proteins too - correct? Like what sulfur mustard gas does?

I did a quick search and couldn’t find any papers demonstrating a mechanism of action for that, although I skimmed a few that postulated that a dichlorinated hydrolysis product might be the true carcinogenic agent. Do you know of any studies that demonstrate that the alkylation can happen, either in vitro or (ideally) in vivo? Or maybe some better search terms to use, that could be my issue…

I am truly curious about this, I never knew the chemical structure of sucralose until I read your comment and subsequently looked it up.

Nickel or iron would be a lot cheaper and could get the job done with some tweaking, good suggestion. I’ve done aromatizations of cyclohexene derivatives with sulfur in the past that have been pretty high yielding too (which is why I mentioned it), and bubbled the hydrogen sulfide gas through bleach and other aqueous oxidants to prevent stench. Sulfur is dirt cheap, but it was used stoichiometrically.

As you say though, the biggest step forward was already done by this group - switching feedstock to biomass. I hope to see more and more of this type of research to deliver on the promise of ‘green chemistry’, which in my past experience has been used as a label somewhat dubiously just to make a journal submission stand out.

Aww, lovely cat! I bet that white chest and belly fur is just the softest stuff ever!

Thank you, I just finished the whole thing. It was a great read, and now I need to go and wipe my eyes from all these onions I’ve been chopping. :)