Dunkum

this. I think if they had avoided cutting between perspectives so much, it could have been a lot better, but as it was, there were scenes where it was next to impossible to see what was happening because they were rapidly cutting between 4 or 5 people's perspectives

Can't stand matrices. matrix multiplication was always so complicated that I would get frustrated with them and just give it up. that said, I once read my Abstract Algebra and Number Theory textbooks for fun (and did something like 1/4 of the problems). theoretical classes were always much more interesting to me than the more practical calculations based ones, and differential equations was far and away the hardest math class I took. On the integral/antiderivative question: I will give it a shot, though I am not 100% sure how close I am to it. 1. When I took calculus, we were taught integration like this: you start by looking at the area under a curve and dividing it up in to rectangles reaching from the axis up to the curve, each with the same width. then you make the rectangles thinner, allowing you to fit more into the area, and more closely match it. the integral itself was the limit of this process. I assume everyone else learned it that way, but retsting just in case. 2. the derivative, meanwhile, shows you the rate of change of a function. 3. so given function f with antiderivative F, why does the integral of f turn out to be related to F, and in particular, why is the indefinite integral of f equal to F (plus or minus a constant) 4. to start with, imagine integrating f using the process I describe in 1. for a given interval, what do the rectangles you divide it into actually represent? since f is d/dx(F), f shows the rate of change of F. so the area of a rectangle with height h=f(a) and width w is h*w which is the rate of change times that width. that is going to be equal to the total change across that width w, and the sum of all the rectangles (the total area under the curve) is going to be the change across the whole interval (F(b )-F(a)) - for a practical example: if F shows velocity as a function of time, then f is going to be acceleration as a function of time. using the notation above, h=f(a) is some measure of acceleration, w, the width is on the x axis, so it represents a length of time, and h*w is acceleration times time, which gives the change in velocity. so the area under the curve f along some interval reperesents the change in the value of F along the same interval (this is where the +c comes in. since this is just the change in the value, what that initial value was won't affect it. the change of the value of x^2 between 0 and 1 is the same as the change in the value of x^2+10973 along the same interval) 5. now for the indefinite integral, as near as I can tell after consulting both wikipedia and my old Calc textbook, the reason it is equal to an antiderivative is basically just down to definition. it looks like they determined that definite integrals were related to antiderivatives, and so just decide that, as a matter of definition, the indefinite integral would be an antiderivative function. all of the above would be about 8000 times easier to describe with a whiteboard. or if I were better at describing things. that said, I think it is all correct

I don't have time right now to go through all 4 pages of this thread, but I rather like the concept you have going here. Just some initial notes from the first post while I am thinking abou tit: 1. for mental stability (maybe could use a better term, but I can't think of one) I think this should be paired with Adamantium, and the ferrings called "Adamants" 2. beauty: I like the idea here. I would assume, given how these things seem to work in the cosmere, that this would change a person's appearance based on their own cognitive vision of their ideal self (or possibly other people's cognitive vision of them). while storing they degrade based on this, moving further away from that cognitive ideal, while still being recognizably themself. and vice versa while tapping. more notes after I have had a chance to read through the rest of this.

on that first one:

pretty sure Harmony explicitly set up the Elendel Basin as it is

Just to add a counterpoint to this, as I pretty much always do whenever WoT comes up: I hated book 1, and didn't much like book 2 either. They were my 2 least favorite in the series (after them it is probably 8, though I would have to double check). I also didn't have a problem with book 10. that said, it definitely drops a bit in quality around 6 or 7, and picks back up around 11 or 12

but this also means a koloss army is very predictable. your lifeless shouldn't need to change tactics very often. just keep a reserve force or two back that you can send out where needed and that might suffice

I never actually cared one way or the other about Roy. Laurel has been annoying pretty much from day one, but she has been getting better.

And I assume/hope we'll get a Rogues episode on Flash at some point before the new series starts up. Cold has to get out of prison somehow; and his episodes are always fun. Rip Hunter probably doesn't show up until the week before the new show starts, if then. My guess is flash/arrow crossover where they help him deal with some sort of time traveling menace

exactly. it should take them about 5 seconds to figure all of this out, and Cisco or Caitlyn even mentions it, but then they ignore it for the rest of the episode. Joe shooting at him, that I can understand, it was an instinctive reaction. but other than that, every really shouldn't be having such a problem with it. it just isn't that complicated

didn't read the Bands of Mourning preview (it's coming out soon enough anyway) but if so, that should be intresting

everyone's reactions to Harry actually bothered me, for the most part (though Cisco is definitely correct). Basically, they have been dealing with multiverse doppelgangers for weeks now, shouldn't be that hard to explain who Harry is...

Just finished this week's Flash. normally, I wouldn't have logged back on to my computer, but I felt the need to check something. for anyone who is interested: slight spoiler for this episode

Where are you getting the idea that either a. it takes a lot of breath to create nonhuman lifeless (vasher uses one breath on the squirrel, though he is more or less an expert) or b. that anyone thinks that the squirrel required multiple breaths? I don't recall anything to that effect from the book, and a quick search through it doesn't pull up anything to indicate that either.

yea, those two characters are not even remotely similar. the commenter on that chapter doesn't know what he is talking about in the slightest.

started on book 4 the other day. Liking the series a lot so far, but these books are dense. it takes forever to read them

I think you mean Jhessian Thief, not Jhessian Infiltrator. Ultimately, it all really comes down to the decks you are playing against too. I figured the Turn spells were probably for dealing with big creatures, but I wasn't sure how much use you were actually using those. if you play people who use a lot of life gain, then preventing it is useful, if you play people that focus on heavy hitting creatures, then keep the Turn//Burns and push out something else. I will second the idea of removing the fluxcharger and izzet boilerworks. the former looks like you most expensive card other than Ral Zarek (side note: I've used his -7 ability once. it was fun) and can easily be replaced with more cost effective creatures, and the latter will tend to slow you down because of how it comes into play.

@Lindel - off the top of my head, my only suggestion would be to see if you can't find some cheaper spells. lightning bolt (one mana, 3 damage) is a bit hard to come by these days, but I would think Shock (one mana, 2 damage) is still readily available (though admittedly, I havem't looked). Basically, if you aren't using the Turn portion of the Turn//Burn cards, you could probably replace them with Shock to your benefit. @khyrindor - that sounds like something that could be beaten with a bit of speed. hydras tend to be expensive, or at least tend to be most effective when you spend a lot of mana on them. I have a friend whose deck is nearly unbeatable if he has time to build it up, and another friend who regularly beats him with a goblin deck by killing him quickly, before he can get most of his defenses into play. another possible strategy is to include things like Holy Day. it doesn't matter how many hydras and how strong if you can prevent all damage with one mana.

could be. I don't actually have any kind of data on miscarriage causes. presumably some are related to the health of the mother, and those ones would be reduced.

however metal and food are not alive (usually, anyway) when they are inside your body, and it is hard to imagine a scenario where they would be considered part of the body (although...). as you said, healing works based on the cognitive image of the self, and I assume the answer has to do with how the woman views the baby/herself. new question I just thought of responding to this: If a person has a prosthetic limb (or other body part) that they consider to be a part of their body, cognitively, could investiture based healing extend to repairing damage to that prosthesis? for example consider Darth Vader. Vader's limbs are robotic, and by the main Star Wars Trilogy, he has been living with them for years. under those circumstances, he could have come to internalize them as a part of his body. if that were the case, and someone exposed him to investiture based healing, could that healing repair damage to those limbs?

seconded. though I constantly have the problem in fire emblem games where I get paralyzed with not wanting to lose a character, replay the same battle 12 times, then get sick of it. during the times when that is not happening, they are very fun, and the original one released in the US was pretty good.

If a pregnant woman tapped gold (or held stormlight, or any of the plethora of other things that heal people with investiture) would that also heal the baby as well? edit to add: would there be any other possible weird effects on the baby?

this. I kinda like her. she's basically a non techie version of felicity

now I've got myself wondering if tapping health while pregnant would also heal the baby...at the very least keeping the mother healthy means that gold compounding would probably drastically reduce the number of miscarriages