Titan Arum

Hey Oudeis, I may be interested as Philly is the closest destination for me as well. I'm down in DC so I may try to take the bus up to Philly and then train to Haverford. Worst case scenario with the trains, if there are several people leaving and we miss the train back to Philly, we could get a cab or Uber back and share the cost. No matter what I'd be taking the bus back down to DC. Another option, if more people from DC want to make the effort we could carpool up. I'd be willing to rent a car for a day and share the cost with people.

Hey All. I'm bringing this thread back because I've just recently gotten back into Anime. I don't really have the time to try and find things on the internet and I enjoy watching Anime on my TV better, so does anyone have any recommendations for Anime that is on Netflix that I can stream right now? I'm leaning towards watching Death Note next, but the premise doesn't seem that exciting for me. For added information, I like anime that isn't overly cartoony/kiddy (for example I don't like where crying is unrealistic because it's spraying from their faces). However, I do like anime like Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop that pushes the boundaries of the standard trope of anime. For further context, I just finished bingeing Attack on Titan and thought it was brilliant. I also really enjoyed the art in Mushi-shi. Maybe these could give you an idea of what I enjoy? Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

I just sent a tweet to Peter to determine when we may find out the full dates for the tour and this is what he responded with: Given that the tour is starting in T-7 days, it seems kinda odd that the publisher didn't announce the tour dates in advance to better market the tour in any way. I mean, I know the 17th will show up if we have members in a given city, but geeze! Nonetheless, thanks for the update, Peter!

I've never been one to do New Year's Resolutions, but this year will be different. I have three: 1) Run my first marathon, the Marine Corp Marathon here in DC. This is primarily my vector for losing weight, since just saying "I want to lose 25 lbs." is too vague since it doesn't say how to do it. 2) Find a new job in international development that will let me do more work abroad 3) Celebrate Pi Day like it's never been celebrated before: √-1 23 ∑ π This year's version is the closest approximation to the actual value of Pi that we'll ever see in our lifetime: 3.1415. Thus, 3/14/15 will be epic. (Rounding doesn't count, because pi is continuous, otherwise if we rounded, one could argue that 3/14/16 would be a closer approximation since the 5th decimal is 9).

When you're flying and check every airport bookstore for WoR in the hopes of maybe, just maybe, you'll find two Szeth cards so that the Shardhunt can finally be finished!

The Latin name is rather funny. The reason it's now known as "Titan Arum" instead of Amorphophallus titatnum is because of a BBC radio host who thought it would be too inappropriate to use the scientific name on air. As an American, it only reinforces the stereotype of Brits being prudish! (Even though I know they're not!) I was fortunate enough to see two of these flowers in bloom back in 2004 and 2005 at my university's conservatory. It's had 7 Titan Arum blooms since 2003. I'm not even a botanist, but i'm really impressed by these plants.The entire notion of attracting flies for pollination using a chemical stench similar to dead mammals is fascinating to me.

Hey Pestis, I ate the tarantula in Cambodia. The smoked crickets were good there too! There are a ton of great foods to be had in South East Asia!

Howdy, Pestis. I'll second several people and say that you should read Warbreaker after you read the Mistborn series. I took the same route that you did: I read SA first, then Mistborn, then Warbreaker. Now that I've read most of all of the Cosmere boooks (excluding one or two short stories), I have now gone back to re-reading SA. Stormfather, I missed so much my first time around! I am proud to say that I am one of those people that has EATEN a spider. Deep-fried, pregnant tarantulas (nom, nom, nom...spider caviar!) dipped in a peanut sauce are delectable. They're deep-fried to cook off the hairs and they're also de-fanged so that it won't bite you as you eat it. Mmmmm. It was tasty. Maybe, though, it was just the peanut sauce that was really tasty?

Now if only all of the color-blind people of Nalthis had access to an Eyeborg. Then they could just hear the colors and understand them. On another note, since color is so important to the Investiture of Nalthis, are the people of that planet mostly all Grapheme-color synesthetes? Has Brandon every mentioned if synesthesia is prevalent on Nalthis?

It's amazing how the Dark Alley comes out in full force on the Intro forum! Daftman won't even get the reference yet. With that, Cary, read Warbreaker or the Mistborn series after you finish Elantris. Elantris is one of Sanderson's earlier books, so his writing style isn't what you got in the Stormlight Archive; nonetheless it's still an amazing book as well! Edit: Oh, yah, I forgot to say Welcome!... so, Welcome!

Actually, I'd say PLEASE write another book when you blow out the candles! Who wouldn't want an additional book when you aren't expecting one?!

Nom, nom, nom! Happy head munch Day! I honor Brandon birthday with name from country Hungary, because me hungary for heads.

I haven't heard of the Dark One before today...is that going to be Odium's coming of age book?

Amazon totally spoiled it! But, whatever, we get TWO Wax and Wayne books!!!! EDIT: And even better... we're going to get Four of those books in total!!!

Amazon totally spoiled it! Good job at finding that, Megalodon!!

Looks like the announcement is pushed back to 430; however it seems that they're not entirely sure when it may happen! (But it will probably be in a tight window, such as the 30 minutes he's gone back and forth with).

Pathfinder, if I recall correctly, spren are just the cognitive aspect of objects int he Physical Realm. Yes, some spren are sentient, but only after the start forming the Nahel bond. Most other spren, I would argue, don't really understand what is going on around them, other than being interested in whatever it is that makes them a certain type of spren. (Syl only became truly sentient after she began bonding with Kaladin, before that she was basically a windspren.) If we want to discuss the ethics of trapping spren then I'd say it's not terribly bad relative to a lot of other things. Are Rosharians forcing them to do anything in fabrials that they aren't already doing or attracted to? What you are saying about spren, could easily apply to other things, like the domestication of chulls. Humans on Roshar have domesticated them and force them to pull wagons. I'd argue that culls, as animals, have more sentient capabilities than spren, which are just a representation of the cognitive. Should we not then fight for chull-rights and not "enslave" them? As a result, if you argue that capturing spren for fabrials is dark, then you could argue domesticating axehounds, chulls, and other creatures is dark as well since we're taking them away from their wild nature. Thus, to bring this to a real world argument, all domestication of animals as well as trapping animals in zoos would be considered dark and unethical. Some people argue that this is (think PETA), but others do not. However, most of us (if not all) would probably argue that enslaving people and killing people to take something from them would be wrong. Possibly a controversial opinion: I'm more inclined to believe that the ethics of hemalurgy are far darker than the ethics of trapping spren. How does hemalurgy work? Well, by stabbing individuals and ripping Spiritweb attributes from them. Isn't it worse to steal something from a human, via a very harmful method, than it is to trap a spren and use it for it's power? Also, the art of hemalurgy has devastating side effects for a lot of people who have parts of their Spiritweb stolen: death. Thus, If most spren aren't really sentient but all humans are, I'd argue hemalurgy is worse (ethically and physically) than creating fabrials out of spren.

When you put a reminder in your Outlook calendar at work for 12/18/2014 4:00 PM EST to make sure you immediately check what Brandon's big reveal is, even if you have a work meeting at that time.

AND we get State of the Sanderson today! I can't hardly wait. I really hope it has something to do with White Sand, because I think I'm most excited about the graphic novel version. After getting a copy from him and reading it voraciously, I began imagining how it would play out in comic form. (By the way, how to I join the private discussion on White Sand?)

If we're pretending we live in-Cosmere, this totally makes sense. But real-world me hesitates with the ethical dilemma of purchasing slaves on one planet to use on another just to sacrifice them for your own demonic force. Heck, even the just buying slaves part is hard for me to stomach, even if it's an economic boon.

Howdy, Sir Vivor! Welcome to the 17th. A piece of friendly advice: take care with cookies. What did you think about the Misborn series and SA to date? Which is your favorite? I recall reading SA first, and now that I'm re-reading it (after reading all the other Cosmere books), I'm finding a ton of information that I was either ignorant to or never realized the significance of! Some unsolicited advice on your next Cosmere read: Elantris! Cheers.

Howdy! Welcome to the 17th! What's your favorite theory that you've come up with about Señor Hoid?!

I'm assuming the OP means State of the Sanderson 2. Since he said he'd hope to have it up by this Friday.

I too cannot access Brandon's website right now. But it appears that it's been down for over an hour now. It can't possibly be because of the SOS2 unless his servers are being overwhelmed by traffic, which I highly doubt because nobody on the Shard today has mentioned SOS2 as coming out yet.

Great! As the Lord Ruler of Corpse Flowers, this is a good thing. Thanks!