Funny, my 14-year-old saw Jupiter Ascending and came in *ranting* about how the Mila Kunis character just kept getting saved over and over and over and had nothing to do.

I'd guess it's like horses where each one has to have an entirely unique name for registry/lineage purposes, but when the dog's being a dog you just call it by a regular old dog name.

Look, I'm a woman, I hear Republican lawmakers say outrageous things about women on a regular basis. I hear Ann Coulter say extremely offensive things on a regular basis.

I'm in Silicon Valley, so it's start-ups and real-estate prices. Also, these days, the drought.

Except these bees were migrant bees—they or their parents came to France, a western non-Islamic country, not vice-versa. Why shouldn't they expect to assimilate to the point that they don't kill people who don't share their views?

No, it's more like telling vegans not to kill people who eat meat.

Probably enabler-mother. So the father's the narcissist and the mother is the one who lets him get away with his abuse.

That would be one way out of the Night's Watch issue and it's certainly possible. The other way would be to have the Wall fall—and I think it's pretty clear that it *will* fall. No Wall, no watchers on the Wall; no Night's Watch.

Heh, that's entertaining. Don't think so—if nothing else, the Starks (well not Caitlin) are the wrong religion—particularly Bran, but who knows what Martin's plotting?

It sounds like the rape thing was unintended—they thought they were going for anger-sex, but the vibe came off very differently to viewers. I think the anger-sex thing might have worked if it weren't for GoT (TV) already having such a strong streak of sexual violence in it. It's actually my biggest problem with the…

I think Cersei and Jaime will be killed off around the same time, but I think Cersei's due for some major suffering first. I kind of think Jaime will end up killing her to put her out of her crazed misery. Once he does that, I think his arc is probably done, though maybe he'll hang about to do something heroic on…

Hmmm, interesting way to look at it—Jon does need to lose part of who he is to fulfill his destiny. Completely sounds like something Martin would do and, indeed, he's been doing it with the other characters—Anya, Sansa, LS, Dany—all are becoming more ruthless and less idealistic. Bran, meanwhile, seems to becoming…

I don't see the point in killing him off—it means a lot of build-up that kind of just goes nowhere. Why all the mystery about his parentage if he just ends up dead at the Wall? Nah, his story's still got somewhere to go. I can think of several characters more vulnerable than Jon Snow is—I don't care how many stab…

I think you've got to give a lot of credit to the GoT show runners. While I don't like everything they've done, they really are the right people for the task. It doesn't hurt that one of them has published fantasy on his own. Very few show runners have that kind of credential and genuine appreciation of the…

Right, we're not self-sufficient as a state, but because we're one nation, we don't need to be. We can shift food production. Indeed, we're already doing so in terms of crops planted when and where in the Midwest. Our Midwest monocultures are essentially a luxury that I don't think can or should last.

Not anyone I've ever known. Those swimsuits are expensive, so when I was young and had the sort of body that was suitable for a bikini, I didn't have the cash. Later on, when I had the money, I wanted more coverage.

Water's not just water. Water is food. No water, no food. If you're in a situation where the population outstrips food supply (something that isn't happening, by the way), then access to abundant water and arable land becomes critical. China and India both have huge populations, limited arable land (much of China…

I'm actually reading the first book right now (a bit more than a weekend read if you ask me, it's 900 frickin' pages long) and, while lip service is given to consent and her wanting to be there and getting off on it, I don't really buy it. I consider the treatment of sexuality the weakest part of the book—the closest…

It's completely relevant. It doesn't mean that we don't have to practice conservation, cut carbon emissions and turn to green energy sources, but overuse of natural resources is not the same as overpopulation.

Nah, she likes or liked cooking. She wrote an essay on Martha Stewart where she talked about imagining that if worse came to worse, she could become a caterer.