Titan Arum

Anything galvanized has a zinc coating. For example heating ducts, street lamps, corrugated metal roofs. In fact, in most developing countries, when you see a metal corrugated roof, it's Zinc. Also, alkaline batteries have a zinc coating.

This is indeed awkward! You get first dibs though, since you've been around just slightly longer And Mr. Cosmere, go Hops! and I made this just for you:

This has been a fascinating thread to read. Well done everyone at remaining civil! Conversations like this regularly remind me how awesome the 17th Shard is as a community. I currently identify as an agnostic atheist, along the same vein as Voidus. I also am a strong proponent of the logical and scientific reasoning behind what I see in the world. I am, however, very fascinated by religion and I find it curious that almost ALL (if not all) cultures around the world have some form of religion to try and make sense of the world that we live in. With that, let me tell my religious story. Growing up my family regularly went to a very large Catholic church. There was one problem with this: my father was raised "Methodist" and only went to Mass because my mother wanted us there as a family. He constantly would fall asleep in the pew, which frankly was a bad example for me and my sisters. I think his actions were the seed for my eventual departure from the church. Up until confirmation I was a pretty good Catholic child. I had completed all of the required sacraments to that point. I went to CCD every week. I was one of the few kids allowed to read the gospel during the children's mass. But I had questions. Why did my dad not seem to care? Why would God allow so much pain and suffering on Earth? Why were all non-Catholics (according to my very conservative priest) going to hell? This last question, actually, is why I ultimately decided not to be confirmed in the Catholic church. Prior to confirmation, the priest individually met with me and my peers. He encouraged us to ask any questions that we had, so I asked why all of my non-Catholic friends were going to hell. I was confused by his view because I though that my non-Catholic friends were good people and thus didn't deserve an eternity in hell. I asked him that if they follow their religion according to the beliefs of their religion, wouldn't that be good enough under God's eyes? Especially if they were still Christian? (I must admit, where I grew up we didn't have a lot of non-Christians and I wasn't aware of if any my friends weren't Christian.) My priests answer was steadfast: they're not Catholic, so they're wrong and they'll go to hell. After telling my mother about this conversation she asked me if I wanted to be confirmed. I told her no, and I left the Catholic church. In retrospect, I'm surprised she let a 13-year old me make this decision; however this time was the beginning of the end of my parents marriage and she was starting to question her faith as well. After leaving the church, I dabbled in some non-denominational youth groups, but ultimately decided that I was only going to them for the social aspect. This was also the time that I really became interested in science and math, which seemed to answer a lot of the questions about the world I lived in and replaced a need for God in my life. Now I believe that science does and can answer all of these questions and thus I do not need to believe in an omnipotent God. This isn't the end of my experience with religion, however. My girlfriend/fiance was raised Muslim. Her father is Muslim and her mother was Catholic. Islam strongly defines her cultural background, but she questions narrowly focused organized religion. Instead, she now identifies as a Unitarian Universalist. The UU church allows her to believe whatever she wants and at the same time have a spiritual community around her. For her, that sense of community is important and allows her to believe in God her own way. I think this is a good thing and it makes her very happy...but her father has no idea that she's no longer Muslim. I recently met her father for the first time. He doesn't know that I'm not religious. He assumes I'm Christian, but he is opposed to her potentially marrying a non-Muslim man. (It is okay for a Muslim man to marry non-Muslim by the book, but a Muslim woman cannot because in Islam a woman would normally take her husband's religion, not the opposite.) I think one day he'll be happy for his daughter no matter what, but this is a very dicey situation for us. Her brother has suggested I just convert to Islam to avoid this awkward situation. I, however, think this would be a huge insult and I am uncomfortable doing this do to my lack of a belief in God. Logically for me, if there is a God and a non-believer were to "convert" to keep up appearances, wouldn't this be worse under the eyes of said God than just not converting? It would be an insult to God and I would be lying to myself and everyone else around me. I just can't do it. Has anyone else had a similar situation as the one that I currently have with my girlfriend? If so, how did you deal with it? PM if you want to talk more about it, because I'd love to know how we can handle this ordeal!

After getting your MA in mathematics, why did you A] decide to stay on as a non-tenure professor and (hahaha, writing b] created an emoji so I'll keep it there because why not) B] remain at the same university? Was it because of a joy of teaching? Was it because you loved the university you were at and wanted to stay forever? Was it for some other valid reason? Do you hope to one day get your PhD and/or become a tenured professor? The context behind my questions: I always wanted to get a PhD in Economics because I love teaching economics to undergraduates and I also enjoy conducting economic research. However, after working as a Research Fellow following my Masters, I realized that the research side of academia in Economics can be prone to corruption due to the perverse incentives created by the publication bias (What's your opinion on this, by the way?). While at this job, I witnessed multiple professors (including the one I worked for) using unethical data analysis practices, including but not limited to data mining and changing initial hypotheses after the fact, all in an attempt to get significant and positive results so that they could get published in a prestigious journal. This sickened me and I decided that despite my love of teaching, I could not continue on and get a PhD and join the ranks of the economics academia. Instead, I made a compromise with myself. I now conduct research for a USAID contracting company where I get to teach/mentor junior staff on technical economic approaches. I get to do what I love, but something in the back of my head still nags me because I know not all universities and professors act the way I was exposed to and that maybe I'd be very happy at a small liberal arts college where teaching was a priority and you do research that you are simply passionate about.

So, basically, it's his own little Minecraft world. Where's he's built some lovely gardens and houses. Maybe even a fun roller coaster just for himself. The only problem is that his world doesn't have access to all of the necessary building materials so he goes and visits other worlds to mine metals and resources he can't get in Mines-mar. Stamplylonghead has nothing compared to Hoid's Lovely World!

I agree. At one point in Warbreaker, Nightblood is described as having a hooked cross-guard (the only mention of a cross-guard in the entire book) and these guards are more or less only used on a single-sided blade. Also, Vasher seems to constantly pop Nightblood an inch or two out of the sheath with one hand...which is more akin to a katana on one's waist. Sigh. Head-canon for Nightblood has been destroyed. Now my black katana sword for my Vasher cosplay costume is entirely inadequate.

After traveling for work for two weeks to Jordan and divorcing myself from technology for another two to go on a vacation in Turkey...I have a month of memes to catch up on. I can't wait to laugh my butt off reading what all you brilliant fellow 17th Sharders have posted! I can barely contain my joy. And now, time to read, laugh, and meet my upvote quota for the day.

When you're looking at a large stash of electrum coins in Turkey from the 5th century BC and your first thought is if the alloy is correct for allomantic burning: 45% gold and 55% silver.

I think it's worth nothing that their "godlike" power is simply their interaction with their investiture from Devotion. If they are godlike, then so is everyone else who can use their investiture. They were only termed gods because very few people in Arelon could actually use investiture magics and they used their powers benevolently.

Mistwraith 9 MV 8 Taylor Swift 7 Because I don't know any better! I think it would be funny to see T Swift go on. I know nothing.

Sweet! Thanks, Bao Bao! That lets me know you are Snoopy. Not that I doubted you ever.

Oh, never mind, YOU already know about the Cosmere! Welcome back, The Sharder Formerly Known as Snoopy Who Was Formerly Known As inexorablePanada (aka TSFKA'SWWFKAIP). We missed you around here.

Stormlight Archive, You Airsick Lowlanders

Here's a link to this meme generator that I have dubbed "Airsick Lowlander" You're welcome. And just because I can:

I pronounce it "Seth" since in Hungarian when you have an "Sz", it makes a simple "S" sound. Granted, I was mispronouncing every name in Mistborn because I never realized they were supposed to sound French. I read "Vin", now know it's supposed to sound like "Vahn", but still say "Vinn". Meh. Head-canon. Stannis, in all his grammar nazi ways, would simply shake his head and say:

Colleges in America do do research, because as Argent said, they're usually within universities. There are research universities in America that are made up of colleges. However, to be even more confusing to everyone, I went to the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Davis but do not identify that "College" as where I went to school. It's UC Davis through and through. I took classes all across the university, not just in my college.

Congrats on finishing up your Master's. What are you the Master of? I have a Master's as well, which I earned back in 2011 after working for several years after undergrad. Now I work in international development. I love my job and get to travel for work all the time. (For example I just found out today that on Friday I'm flying to Jordan for two weeks.) For those of you scared of university, Green Hoodie Mistborn is correct, don't be afraid of it. I had the best time of my life during the four years of my Bachelors. I made amazing friends and had awesome life experiences. I also felt like High School was harder than university. It may have been the IB program kicking my butt, but it really prepped me for uni.

As a non Oregon player, who are Voidgaze and Funtimes? Why was Funtimes such the clear winner? And you guys who don't know anything about the Dalles (other than you should always float your wagon down the river to it) should play anyway, for kicks! Backtrack 11 Deathwish 10 Mistwraith 11 Shiny Sparkle 10 Quicksilver 11 (only because I can totally see this as a Ponified Epic). MV 10 Frequency 10 Reader 4 Taylor Swift 10

Funtimes 16 Corpsemaker 1, it's still here for you Joe! I thought about killing the Corpsemaker, but decided to leave the zombie-machine to you! Altermind 7 Voidgaze 10 Lightwards 6 Ricochet 4

Nighthound 10 Funtimes 12 Red 10 Corpsemaker 10 Altermind 9 Voidgaze 10 Ray 10 Aldo 7 Lightwards 8 Richochet 8

Senor Feesh, Brandon writing in Kaladin's depression like that was completely intentional:

You may be asking yourself why I've quoted these 4 people: Sticks. If you keep reading...you'll get to Words of Radiance, and then there you may find a new religion. The Church of the Stick. He is a Stick. We are a Stick. Everything is a Stick. Sticks we will all be forever.

Without offending any of your wonderfully (and probably) ponified Epics since I have no clue which Epics are in the Portland RPG, I will use a sophisticated algorithm to determine how I play this game: randomness. I'll sort your Epic names by a randomly generated number between 0 and 1. The lowest two (i.e. the 2 with the numbers closest to 0) will be penalized and the top Epic (the one with the closest number to 1) will get a point. Game on, friends! Nighthound 10 Funtimes 12 Red 10 Corpsemaker 10 Altermind 10 Voidgaze 9 Ray 10 Aldo 9 Lightwards 10 Richochet 7 (And yes, my algorithm indeed made Richochet the highest, with a number of 0.8714491)

Prof 2 Oblitaeraion 14 Who will kill Prof off?!