Yet perhaps the most bewitching figures are the lone performers, such as Andre Ferner, who appears as Madame Lasiren.
Next are the "lone wolves," such as Wittgenstein, who make their marks "by way of sheer stamina and force of will".
Lone wolves, such as Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel in Nice, who killed 84 with nothing more sophisticated than a truck, leave traces that stick out only after the fact.
To the Editor: I have long believed that mass killings by a lone gunman such as Friday's horrendous event in Newtown, which more often than not end with suicide, are at their core about the suicide.
A few lone voices, such as Kenneth Clarke, tried to advocate closer monetary ties, arguing that Britain had previously been in other international monetary "unions" such as the gold standard and Bretton Woods.
In America, "lone gunmen" such as Johnson and Roof have access to weapons and to a dangerous ideological echo chamber, no matter how small or fringe, which reinforces their world view.
It points to a growing threat of attacks by "lone actors", such as the stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms while holding a surgery in his east London constituency in 2010.
Recognising connections and too many people as the most operationally risky elements when plotting terrorism, al-Suri argued that attacks should be carried out by small groups scattered around the world In other words, lone attackers – such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and Westergaard's attacker – were to pop up all over the world in pursuit of the same goal.
Moerner pioneered an influential technique for studying lone molecules such as proteins known as single molecule spectroscopy.
The unpaired electron count is typically listed as 1 for radicals and 2 for carbenes (it does not include conventional lone pairs, such as those on oxygen or nitrogen).
For instance, making the case for the government's war on domestic extremism, the Obama administration has suggested that it may require greater legal powers to combat violent attacks by lone wolves (such as "people motivated by racial and religious hatred and anti-government views" who "communicate their hatred over the Internet and through social media").
