According to i09 these are the "most popular physics books ever written". Though potentially a rather bold assumption, from what I heard Richard Feynman was nothing if not a brilliant man.

Videos of his famous lectures and now all 3 volumes of the text are available to read/watch online, for free, right here.

How big is Earwa actually supposed to be?
I'm thinking the distance from Invishi to Golgotterath might be roughly the distance from the South Africa to the Mediterranean.

I'm asking because I'm also interested in how cold the "North" might actually be. Is Kian close to the Earwan equator? It looks like Agongorea is a desert based on the maps, but I'm wondering if it might actually be rather cold up there. I know rainfal, rather than temperature, identifies an area as a desert, but it seems strange to me that the land around Golgotterath should bare the same "desert" markings as the Carathay desert.

I guess the size of Earwa itself won't really answer that question, since we don't know how large the world is, and if its substantially larger than Earth, the distances North/South of the equator wouldn't really be meaningful if trying to discern the climate of the far north, since thousands of miles from the equator could still be rather tropical if the planet was big enough.

Answer (from below):
Distance from Golgotterath to Invishi (southernmost city on the map, in Nilnamesh, near mouth of Sea on Onkis and) is about 10,000 kilometers

explanation, though buried in some spoilers, is below.

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Tesla promises not to enforce their own patents.

This news, combined with this cartoon:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

Make me want to one of these things..

Assuming that the Gods as we know them, Yatwer and the like, experience some kind of non-linear time relationship with Earwa, how would the emergence of a new god affect Earwa? Many here have postulated that either Moenghus Sr. or his son Kellhus has/will become a God. With the given Dunyain dogma it seems to make some sense that in order to achieve their Objective, i.e. become a self-moving soul, then they would need to ascend from the mortal realm of Earwa and dominate the Gods that control the Outside, or at least carve themselves a bit of the pie.

I wonder, then, what would happen to Earwa's history if a new God emerged in the outside. Would the inhabitants recognize the change? Or would only the reader (you and I) be able to see the changes to the world. Suddenly all the religious texts would change, since an ascended being would be lifted from the Earwa timeframe/timeline. They could influence any point in the timeline as they pleased... Then again, would they accidentally manipulate the timeline to a point were they weren't initially born, so the couldn't ascend, etc ect. Or, could an ascended god protect their past selves/timeline to make sure events happened to insure their future success.

Time travel and manipulations confuse me.

Anyone else mused on this subject in relation to Earwa?

Came up in the forum, thought it was awesome so I posted it here:

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profi...h-ijen

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/12/kawah_ijen_by_night.html

This topic has been moved to Literature.

http://second-apocalypse.com/index.php?topic=955.0

Thought I would write this up because some things really bothered me on my read through of TDTCB.

• Stupidity:
  
  • Upon leaving Ishual Kellhus:
  • Did not have a map
  • Did not know where he was going
  • Did not have any survival skills (No ability to hunt, trap, or forage. No idea what was safe to eat in the forest)
  • Was not dressed for winter, despite the fact that it was it was Autumn and Ishual is high up in the mountains.
  • Had no idea how dangerous sranc were.
  • Allows his body to waste away without using his amazing Dunyain intellect to figure out how to find food in a forest
• Luck
  
  • Luck 1:
  • Stumbles upon some ruins just before he dies from exposure and hunger
  • Collapses in the middle of nowhere, which happens to be in the path of Leweth. A man who lives all by himself, providing a way for Kellhus to ease into the world of Earwa
  • Luck 2:
  • Found by Cnaiur just before he dies of blood loss on Skiotha’s burial mound
  • Luck 3:
  • Just before Kellhus and Cnaiur are overrun by the Nansur pursuing them, they run into someone who hides them and prevents their capture, which leads to
  • Luck 4:
  • Becomes the student of the only Mandati and probably one of the most knowledgeable people following the Holy War. Akka is basically a historian, and likely one of the most informed people in the entire world.
• Enormous Misfortune
  
  • Leweth, who has been living peacefully in the hills for years, is found by sranc. Not just your normal band of raving sranc, but one led by a Quya.
  • Small caravan headed south gets overrun by a large army of sranc.
  
  

These events seem quite ridiculous. The fact that Kellhus made it to the Holy War is pretty absurd. I’m not so sure the Dunyain actually intended for Kellhus to make it to the Three Seas at all. Maybe they sent him into the forest to die, or they planned on the Consult finding him, but I have a hard time believing they wanted him to succeed. For being the prodigal Dunyain son, he relied quite a bit on dumb luck to get him through the first half of his journey to Shimeh. At the very least, this points to something happening behind the scenes, what that might be I don't claim to know. [/list][/list] <- can't remove those for some reason...

I got a beta key emailed to me (I signed up months ago), but apparently they are giving out a bunch of beta key weekend passes (February 7th - 9th). I do believe you've got to make an account at this site, but I guess they are sending out keys to those who sign up.

Here is the link (curse.com) that claims to have some 500k keys.
http://www.curse.com/news/the-elder-scrolls-online/49348-grab-your-exclusive-beta-key-for-the-elder-scrolls


[edit]
I feel like my post looked spammy... Oh well . I've got a key and I was just trying to spread the wealth.