Seonid

I've never had an offer letter for any of my jobs. Drug tests aren't a big deal, as long as you avoid poppy seeds (and don't do drugs, of course, but I'm taking that as a given). All things considered, I wouldn't worry about it. If they said they were offering you the job, you can pretty well assume you've got it. I'd move cross country on the assurance you have.

Accidental downvote, sorry. I loved the RP. Also, I will need a spec doc.

And I'm finished. 6 hours spent shoveling today...and it's showing again so I'll probably have to come in tomorrow morning as well

One more building left! Almost done!

Still shoveling. Stupid snow

Umm...if we could stop with the snowfall, that would be good. I'm tired of spending my weekend shoveling snow. Getting comp time is good (although getting paid would be better), but I'd actually like to have a weekend one of these times.

Muahahaha! I shall reign over this forum forever, slaying all threads which displease me, and dispensing delicious waffles to all they who submit to my rule!

Thank goodness. I was wondering if my long post on politics had killed the thread...

The particular site in question goes for a 2-axis system of political definition. Right libertarians follow a laissez-faire economic philosophy, minimal or no regulation at all. In addition, they are libertarian on social issues, believing that - by and large - the government shouldn't interfere with individual's private lives. Left libertarians do not have a publicly visible presence in America, and anyone whose only experience with libertarianism is American politics may find it a contradiction in terms. However, several European (mostly Contintental) philosophers have followed a left-libertarian schema. The premise is the same as the right libertarians when it comes to the private lives of individuals - the government/state ought not interfere. However, their economic beliefs are communalistic and utopian - a sort of voluntary communism without state coercion. Many of the Israeli kibbutzim were like this at one point at least, and a number of hippie communes during the 60's met this criteria. On the far extreme (far more extreme than most, if any, of the charts I've seen here), one French philosopher even believed that the mere ownership of property was a form of theft. These left-leaning thinkers are obviously incompatible with right libertarians on economic issues, because in a propertyless society - or even a communalistic one that approaches that (like the Mormon United Order experiments in Missouri - the ones in Utah were more authoritarian) - the free market that right libertarians so value is non-functional. The far extremes of any libertarianism position is anarchism - which has both left and right variants. Left authoritarians include stereotypical socialists. They invite heavy state regulation of the economy (achieving the same ends as the left libertarian's economic ideal), but also believe that the state's needs ought to be prioritized over the individual. So, cultural and social outliers are marginalized, and so on. The most common examples of such regimes in American media are repressive - the Soviet and Chinese Communists - but the European social democracies are much milder versions (tending towards the less authoritarian part of the axis). Right authoritarians include stereotypical American conservatives. They are aligned with right libertarians on the issue of the free market, but favor state enforcement of a code of ethics/morality (in America, it aligns with Christian values, but it doesn't have to). The interest of the state in legislating that code of morality is more important than the interests of the individual in freely expressing themselves. Again, social and cultural outliers are marginalized. As has been mentioned, there are many many shades of difference even between people in the same quadrant. Also, this has no bearing on whether someone is a good person - there are moral and ethical people in all four quadrants, as well as total monsters - but only shows a slice of their particular constellation of political beliefs. It is more accurate than the traditional left-right line graph, though, because as we have already seen in this thread American Libertarians can't find a home on the left or the right. (Almost all American politicians are either left authoritarian or right authoritarian - and most of them, including President Obama and Hilary Clinton, are right authoritarian.) Bernie Sanders is left, and right on the line between authoritarian and libertarian. Ron Paul was very right, and slightly libertarian.

Because the titles of newly created threads show up on the "New Content" section of the forum, and in similar places. Without tagging the thread title for spoilers, people might click on the link from the main page without realizing that it directs to the spoiler forum.

You get a note from Amazon saying it's not available til the 30th. *inserts Bands of Mourning spoilers*

You might be interested in a discussion we had a few years ago here. We talked about 4-dimensional (or higher) Intent spaces, and that perhaps any given Intent space was a subset of a higher-dimensional space spanned by Adonalsium. Been a while, but still interesting.

Ah. I'm going to have to go back through Bands of Mourning, but there might be a land connection.

Wait, what?

While I am almost certain you are right here, it's not guaranteed. In particular, it could have been a kandra imposter - the bones are known to have been owned by tensoon. I find that highly unlikely, but it's possible. Another thing that isn't guaranteed is that he's still back. We have a coppermind that shows him, but it's 300 years old. We don't know if he's still here. All that said, I believe that you're right. I think he's back, not just in the past but still present. It fits the foreshadowing, it fits the coppermind, it fits what we know about kelsier being unwilling to move on, it fits what we know about Harmony's ability to bring people back. And I want to see the survivor of hathsin talk to his brother again.

Excellent then. No regrets! Also, to Lightning, Aradel, and whoever else played Magic with me, I enjoyed my first game, even if my attention wandered after Aradel got into his unassailable position. Thanks!

Don't worry, no Bands Spoilers here. I asked Brandon about Iron Feruchemy at the release party, though. I have had a pet theory about Feruchemical iron for a while - that it messes with the person's connection to the Higgs field. Brandon confirmed it in the signing line. Exact words will, I'm sure, be on the transcript, but I asked specifically if it involved Higgs field stuff, and he said yes. For those who don't know - the Higgs field is a quantum field that interacts with various particles and gives them their mass. The force carrier of the field is the Higgs boson, recently discovered by the LHC. So, by decreasing your interaction with the Higgs field, you could decrease your mass without messing with the amount of matter in you. How it interacts with density would be more subtle, but I think that it works out most of the kinks with Feruchemical iron and density. Sorry for not posting this on the earlier discussion threads, but I couldn't find them fast enough. So you get a new thread for all you people more hardcore about theorizing than I am. I'll just go back to trying to graduate.

I'll agree to disagree on this one. There's little enough evidence either way. VenDell (who may or may not have been being completely honest) says that the Lord Ruler made them. The SoScadrians believe that the person they call the Lord Ruler (the one who built the temple and helped them) made them. Their belief could be wrong, or VenDell could be lying. Not enough information to conclusively decide the point.

I agree that Iyatil is likely a SoScadrian. I'm less sanguine about deciding that she must be the one described in the broadsheet. Possible, but not certain, I'd say. However, it is almost certain that she isn't from the expedition to the temple. Alloy of Law is at about the same time as Stormlight, and there wouldn't have been enough time for Iyatil to join the Ghostbloods and become such a prominent member of their society. It is extremely likely that she must have left earlier.

That's true, but we have already seen that Harmony is able to return someone to life if they are still hanging around and willing to return. And the individual we speak of has been confirmed to be hanging around...

Yeah, totally Khriss. Also, I asked Brandon about the other thing she was talking about - the conservation of momentum thing - and he confirmed one of my previous guesses about Iron Feruchemy (I can't remember if I've posted about my guess before or not) - but he confirmed that Feruchemical iron modifies your body's interaction with the Higgs field. Which seems the simplest way to achieve the results we see. Doesn't explain the strength change, but that could likely be explained by additional Cognitive stuff going on. But the physical process of storing/tapping mass is actually a result of messing with the Higgs field.

Just going to put this here. It likely wasn't the Lord Ruler who made the Bands of Mourning (at least, the epilogue casts severe doubt on that hypothesis).

I regret nothing! Unless nobody else recorded the reading as well, in which case, I might be open to feeling some regret.

They've got an auxiliary event (called FanXperience, if I recall right) in March, but the actual named Comic Con happens each fall. There isn't an announcement up yet on their site for it, but the last few years have followed that pattern. Comic Con in August/September, FanX in the early part of the year (typically March or April, but it was in January once). The scale of the FanX convention is much smaller, typically only 50,000 people compared to over 100,000-125,000 that show up for the con. (For me, the events are less interesting, as well, though I don't pay extra close attention to these matters.) Sorry if I stepped on your toes - I just saw them at the signing last night, and thought "I know Kaymyth can't make it this year, but it would be fun to do with whoever can. Maybe see if we can start a yearly tradition."

Well, after double checking to make sure we're in the spoiler forum, I have this to say: Read the epilogue. It's not the Lord Ruler.