But how do you get that chopstick out?? There’s no beginning, it’s chopsticks all the way down!

I disagree, but only because I think I figured out the ending, how GRRM told the show writers, and I can see how they interpreted it.

Possible spoilers: I think Jon is supposed to kill Daenerys and the writers couldn’t figure out why so they just made up dumb shit. But the reason he kills her is to forge a sword (Lightbringer) to destroy the white walkers. And Daenerys agrees to it.

"To fight the darkness, Azor Ahai needed to forge a hero’s sword. He labored for thirty days and thirty nights until it was done. However, when he went to temper it in water, the sword broke. He was not one to give up easily, so he started over.

The second time he took fifty days and fifty nights to make the sword, even better than the first. To temper it this time, he captured a lion and drove the sword into its heart, but once more the steel shattered.

The third time, with a heavy heart, for he knew beforehand what he must do to finish the blade, he worked for a hundred days and nights until it was finished. This time, he called for his wife, Nissa Nissa, and asked her to bare her breast. He drove his sword into her living heart, her soul combining with the steel of the sword, creating the weapon known as Lightbringer." -Tyrion tells this story in book 2 I believe

“According to prophecy, our champion will be reborn to wake dragons from stone and reforge the great sword Lightbringer that defeated the darkness those thousands of years ago. If the old tales are true, a terrible weapon forged with a loving wife’s heart. Part of me thinks man was well rid of it, but great power requires great sacrifice. That much at least the Lord of Light is clear on.” -Book 2

David Attenborough: The ape responds by mimicking human speech patterns. This behavior is believed to be a signal to females that it is ready to mate.

I for one enjoyed your comment. It’s like going to a zoo and seeing the apes.

A restaurant isn’t a public space. It’s privately owned and you are paying to be there.

Seriously. Like not voting is going to help more.

“I’m from the UK and your left isn’t as left as our left!” No one cares. But I don’t know what I expected. If you just want to die on this hill of extra chromosomes, be my guest. What a waste of time to debate with someone who argues symantics and isn’t capable of reflecting on anything they’re saying.

The issue here and the flaw in your reasoning is that you’re defending Trump by saying “DeMs ArE BaD ToO”. Trump doesn’t deserve defending. Quit peddling the dems are bad too bullshit. No matter how much or little he’s done in his term for the US or any other country, Biden is without a doubt a better choice than fascist, rapist, state secrets selling, man-baby Trump. We all know the two party system sucks. We all know dems aren’t perfect. The point is anyone on the left is better than the scumbag known as Donald Trump, so drop the wannabe centrist bullshit.

Ah ok, I see. Well I want to be clear, if someone is interested in reading, don’t be deterred by this, make your own opinion. My wife and I loved every book. I really liked Amos’ trajectory especially.

To touch on how I interpreted your points in the story (CONTAINS SPOILERS AND I DON’T KNOW HOW TO HIDE THEM):

-It pointed out the higher dimension beings couldn’t actually pinpoint anything in our spacetime unless a huge amount of energy was released at the exact moment we crossed their dimension through the gates. -It seemed to me that everyone was scared of duarte and even more scared of modifying themselves with protomolecule after his “coma” where he killed someone instantly. -I think I remember the Laconians basically being arrogant and underestimating everyone.

I hear that you have a different opinion and maybe you got burnt out on the books, but I really hope the show finishes them up because I enjoyed them.

What didn’t you like about them?

I guess people really can’t have this conversation without it being super emotionally charged. I mean, you can kill a person with a bow too, I don’t think that’s really a viable solution, it’s also a dangerous weapon. Anything you use to easily kill an animal can be used against humans, and arguably should be regulated too. And not everyone has the land, money, and resources to raise their own domestic animals for food.

Insulting people who want to ethically eat meat and anyone who owns a gun is what your going for here, but I don’t see where the “snowflake” remark comes in. It’s a big jump to say someone who wants to hunt to avoid factory farming has their entire personality built around it and to minimize their attempt at ethical food consumption by calling it a “hobby”. And saying “fuck all everyone who does X” is usually a pretty unhelpfully broad generalization that lacks scrutiny. You’re using the “attacking someone’s character” fallacy.

Renting a weapon to hunt seems like a decent solution, but who is qualified to rent or safekeep the weapons? Then they’re just in someone elses hands. What criteria do we use to judge who’s capable of renting them out?

My point is it’s a complex issue, and anyone who says it’s so easily solved by doing “this one thing” isn’t considering every angle.

Exactly. You may or may not be undesireable, and that’s arguably changeable. But you completely ensure your undesireableness by taking the pity party stance.

“Whores” aren’t necessarliy sitting around feeling bad about themselves and blaming the world. Incels are the definition of self fulfilling prophecy.

This is the perfect example of a strawman fallacy. I didn’t say no one else in the world was hunting. I asked a question. Interesting how your first reaction is to immediately attack a position I didn’t take. That’s what I mean about the impulsive responses.

In any case, which laws from which countries are you referring to specifically?

So, to summarize, your answer to the question is people should be allowed to own guns to hunt with restrictions?

What if I want to hunt so I can eat meat without supporting factory farming?

Just playing devils advocate here, I agree we need gun control in the US. But saying “fuck responsible gun owners” seems pretty black and white.

It seems to me that the media loves to latch onto gun stories to further polarize the US. Divide and conquer is the oldest trick in the book. Republicans don’t want anyone thinking. They want emotional reactivity and sensationalized, impulsive retorts with lack of reasoning from both “sides” and nothing close to nuanced thought.

Like what? An infinite decimal that seems random that we can calculate down to more and more precision?

That’s pretty easily answerable, if that’s what you’re asking. Pi is how we measure the circumfrence of a circle, amoung other things. But a circle has no edges. So how can we use numbers to calculate the infinitely smooth line of a circle with no corners if numbers inherently make precise, “edged” digits?

You use an infinite number. Precisely, Pi, which we calculated by taking the circumference of a circle and dividing it by the diameter. The more precise we can measure the circumference and diameter, the more digits of pi we can get. The more digits of Pi we get, the more accurately we can measure the circumference of a different circle we don’t already know.

TDLR: Pi is like that because circles don’t have edges, so we need a number that doesn’t end, otherwise when we calculate a circle and, say, put it into a computer, it’ll have little edges. The less numbers of Pi we have, the more noticeable and numerous the circles’ edges. Its like the difference between having a screen with more or less pixels.

It’s a good book. Entertaining, insightful, emotionally human. Just not a great book. I would have expected Children of Time to blow it out of the water.