Titan Arum

I graduated 9 years ago with a double major in Economics and International Relations. Somehow I ended up with a minor in Global Studies after I studied abroad in Ghana; I came back and my academic advisor said I qualified and asked if I wanted it, so I said why not! Then in 2011 I earned an MA in International and Development Economics. As a result of that degree I conduct evaluations of donor programs around the world. For example, I am currently in Cambodia evaluating a USAID Feed the Future project. Super fun!

What is your favorite element?

When you name your Fantasy Football team "Numuhukumaikiaki'aialunamor", you airsick lowlanders! Unfortunately, Yahoo cut the name because of character limits. Maybe I should rename my team "Numuhuku...umm, Rock"?

Swooping in here all last minute after it's been determined that you won with this answer...but pterodactyls aren't technically dinosaurs. They are just flying reptiles. Dinosaurs are technically dinosaurs because they evolved specialized pelvis bones that allow their legs to develop directly below them. This means that when they run they do not crush their own lungs, making it impossible to breath at the same time. Pterosauars lacked this type of specialized hip joint. Poor pterosaurs, but at least they were the first vertebrates to develop flight! [Edit: Pestis beat me to this. ]

Ohhh! Leather-bound, you say? As one of those people who basically owns all of Brandon's books in ebook format, this will definitely be a guaranteed purchase. Now it's time to simply decide what question I want to ask in my personalized copy of the leather-bound book. Sometimes I am jealous of noobs like you: still untouched by all of the Cosmere works in existence. I wish that I had three or four more Cosmere books that I haven't read yet so that I could be amazed as the story develops and be wowed by the worldbuilding. Instead, I opt for just re-reading all of Brandon's books and being amazed as the story develops and wowed by the worldbuilding ...but this time accompanied with a fine-toothed comb to find all the things that I missed before.

Rubix, you're right. Also, how amazing that after all this time running the forum, there are still little tricks for you to learn! I thought I had gone crazy after I originally posted that there was some type of character in Kipper's title and then after my post there suddenly wasn't! I assume you changed his to a single space, because my test of the single space did exactly what you described: it removes the field. Sometimes I'm amazed at the power of a single space. A few years ago I was programming a survey in Arabic after designing it initially in English, only to discover that the software was not very compatible with a right to left script. It became obvious that the software did not have a mirror of itself because my survey questions were below the radio button answer on the right side of the screen. I had hoped that the radio button would flip to the left side, but no dice. The solution? Five leading spaces in front of the Arabic text to pop the question out from under the radio button. After many complex approaches to solve this problem...the simplest approach using spaces was the winning answer.

My guess is that Rubix just put in a single space? When you highlight where your member title should be, there is something there. It takes up the equivalent of one character. Edit: Yes, it does appear to just be a single space. I did it as a test for my member title and it worked.

Trader Joe's creamy peanut butter. What is the best vacation that you've ever taken?

I re-read the Mistborn trilogy in May, so it doesn't count towards my summer reading list! And...I'm leaving a re-read of SA out for now since I can't WIN the summer reading contest if I read 1000+ page tomes!

Well, technically, there is evidence that he is probably one of Kaladin's squires since there does not appear to be a spren associated with Lopen. Aslo, I hate to break it to you Willshaper, but you know...he's no longer a One-armed Herdazian, so his order would have to be The Two-Armed Former One-Armed Herdazians. And if you don't like it he'll give you a two-handed rude gesture!

When your public library has a summer reading challenge for adults and your book list that you've read so far since May 30th is the following: June 4th: Wool Omnibus, Hugh Howey June 8th: Shift Omnibus, Hugh Howey June 11th: Dust, Hugh Howey June 19th: The White Castle, Orhan Pamuk June 20th: Sixth of the Dusk, Brandon Sanderson June 21st: Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell, Brandon Sanderson June 23rd: Mitosis, Brandon Sanderson June 30th: Elantris, Brandon Sanderson July 3rd: The Emperor's Soul, Brandon Sanderson July 5th: The Moose Belongs to Me, Oliver Jeffers July 10th: White Sand, Brandon Sanderson July 17th: Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson So...out of curiosity, what should I read next from Brandon for my summer reading challenge?! I'm thinking of re-reading Warbreaker or Steelheart next. [Edit: formatting]

If you do want to read it, I've heard that usually there is a mile long wait list for it...so if it's available now for some reason, check it out if you're inclined to!

When you stop at every airport bookstore whenever you travel hoping to find a book "vandalized" by Brandon himself. So far...none have been found, but I bought two of his books at the Seattle airport Monday night anyway because my Kindle was dead and I needed something to read!

This has been discussed before on the forum. There are a few theories out there regarding who the Ones Above are, with the most likely being people from Scadrial. However, it could be individuals from Roshar as well. Check out this thread on discussing Sixth of the Dusk in the Cosmere Short Stories section of the forum. One thing worth noting is that Sixth of the Dusk takes place the furthest in the future relative to all other currently published works. Also, check out Theoryland for more Sixth of the Dusk WoB.

Personally, I find adding "Goat" to all of these quotes...makes them better! "My fellow goats, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." - JFK "I am not a goat" - Richard Nixon "Sir, my concern is not whether Goat is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on Goat's side, for Goat is always right" - A. Lincoln "Four score and seven years ago our goats brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all goats are created equal" - A. Lincoln "I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be [a] goat" - Winston Churchill "One small step for [a] goat, one giant leap for goatkind" - Neil Armstrong [Edit: I'm not the first to do Neil Armstrong's. Should've read 'em all first! Props go to Haelbarde for doing this one first]

Do all 17th Sharders have the ability to worldhop? If so, then...

When you see an article with the headline "Is there a killer squirrel virus?" and your first response is: "No way, they're just Lifeless Squirrels. They didn't become killers from a virus, but a person's Breath. Duh." This spoiler is a rant about poor journalism. If you do not care, feel free to skip what's inside [Edited to update my rant]

Welcome to the 17th Shard! Just as a note, you can talk about works that are coming out soon, such as Shadows of Self, in the appropriate sections of the forum for these books. However, there are some unpublished books that fans have read and can get from Brandon that you are not allowed to talk about in the public forums. These books specifically are White Sand, The Liar of Partinel, and for the lucky few affiliated with BYU who've gotten their hands on Dragonsteel. If you'd like to talk about these books (assuming that you've read them), there is a private forum for them (but maybe not for Dragonsteel). Ask a mod for an invite.

Your experience, waking up from your dreams and still having those memories seems like [Emperor's Soul Spoiler]:

Little did we know that the Knights of Ni are actually the priests of the Church of Stick, hoping that Stick will one day ascend into shrubbery form.

I'm glad too. And now his family loves his boyfriend of 10+ years as well. I know they'll get married now that it's legal and I know his parents will be there in support of him. Also, say what you want about Miley Cyrus, but I respect her more than ever now that she's started The Happy Hippie Foundation to support the homeless LGBT youth population.

Kipper-the-Sharder-Formerly-Known-As-Snoopy-Formerly-Known-As-Something-Related-to-Pandas, you're on, what, your third name now?

I too am not trying to be mean or offend, but I personally believe that being anywhere on the LGBT spectrum is not a "belief" or a "choice". In my opinion it is due to biological reasons. I've seen studies that show evidence of this as well, for both humans and animals. Looking at animals specifically, we all know animals do things by instinct and don't have free will. Thus, they don't choose to be gay. But there are several well known examples of gay animals, including the famous penguins at the Central Park Zoo. Using people as an example (and I'm sure people who believe otherwise have heard something similar to what I'm about to say) one of my best friends that I lived with in college (who was the "Queen" of our university) is quite an effeminate male who is gay. He was raised in a very conservative and religious family. He knew from an early age that he was gay and at first didn't want to believe it because he knew his family was opposed to homosexuality on religious grounds. He was afraid to be who he was because he thought his family would hate him and disown him, so he hid his sexuality form his family for the first 21 years of his life. For someone like that, why would they "choose" to be gay? It makes no sense to me. So I simply can't agree that it's a "belief" or "choice". In the end, with my friend, he eventually came out to his family. And they still love him as much as they did before. They're still proud of him. They still see him as their son who can do anything. His fears were unfounded. But, again, in my opinion, it wasn't a choice for him to be gay. If anyone is offended by this, I apologize now. Slowswift, if you're offended that I specifically quoted you to make this point: I'm sorry and I did not mean to offend you. As you said in your post, everyone is entitled to their beliefs, including those who I disagree with. I'm not trying to change your beliefs, but I wanted to share my thoughts on this topic.

According to Brandon, Vasher could Awaken an object on Roshar if he knew how to use Stormlight to Awaken. In the same WoB he also basically tells us that currently Vasher only uses Stormlight to stay alive, so if you ask me, he doesn't need to hack Stormlight to simply use it to stay alive. This seems like an innate ability for him, or at least very simple. The difficulty is using that Stormlight to fuel his native investiture. source [Edit to add source]