So yeah, China just launched another manned mission into orbit.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22843318

The three crew will spend a couple of weeks in the Chinese Tiangong space lab. This will mean mastering docking of spacecraft, a key step in any space program. Good on them I say.

Is it me or are they standing rather close to that rocket?

Oh man, I'm excited and eager to watch it, but what the hell is up with all the obvious CGI effects? It seems like half the time it's a cartoon with characters performing inhuman physical feats; those goofy but short CGI Legolas moments in LOTR writ large.

That's some impressive imagineering with that cross-sectional!

Over the last week or so, I've been playing this game called Kerbal Space Program. It's a sandbox, physics-based space exploration game where you take on the role of designing, building and flying rockets and planes for this race of weird aliens called Kerbals, launching manned or robotic missions into orbit or far out into the solar system to land on moons and planets. It's tricky, requires planning as well as keyboard skills, and is suprising addictive. It's also probably one of those few games where watching someone play is just as fun (since everyone seems to approach things differently). Youtube has lots of really good Let's Play series - Chickenkeeper, Scott Manley and kurtjmac are ones that I've been following.

The below video is Scott Manley's opening tutorial (a charming Scotsman).

I wouldn't expect to see Winds of Winter until late 2014/early 2015 at the earliest. It certainly won't be done this year and will take up most of next. ADWD only came out 2 years ago, and GRRM apparently didn't start writing again until 2012.

As we're in the book thread, has anyone read or listened to the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas? There have been three so far - The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and the Mystery Knight. Set about hundred years before the events of AGOT, it tells the story of a lowly knight called Duncan who travels around Westeros with a young squire. The first two stories have also been adapted into comic books. Worth giving them a shot, especially if you're looking to get your GRRM fix in between the books.

Found this, made me smile.

Didn't they have a short-lived Blade TV series? I never saw it myself but I once heard that it improved towards the end, but that by that time, no-one was watching.

I was just thinking though, with regards to Stallone. If you were going to introduce someone to him, who didn't think much of him based mostly off of his beefcake Rambo legacy and crooked mouth shouting, would you suggest Demolition Man? What films show Stallone to be, overall, a better actor than Arnold for instance?

It's not the specific example of the boys being taken to the execution that matters, it's a demonstration of the type of world that they're living in and the type of family that they are. The Starks are stoic people in a cold land, and that (should) produce a mental toughness and wariness. That she's the aberation in the family, filled with southern stories about colour, puts her in stark contrast. There's also a difference between rearing a child for marriage and sheltering them. Sansa's being taught the skills she'll need to make a good wife, but she's not being protected from the outside world any more than Joffrey or any other child is. At least, there's no actual evidence for it - short of a thought from Ned about how she shouldn't have been in the throne room during the telling of the burning of the Riverlands. I'm not really sure that not wanting your child to hear about women and children being massacred constitutes sheltering them. Furthermore, Arya is undergoing the same nurture and we wouldn't consider her sheltered. We have only Sansa's character at the start of the books, and it's much more plausible that her character is just who she is, and not the result of an imagined sheltering that we can beat Ned and Catelyn with. Quite aside from the fact that her character flaw isn't her naivety at all, but her lack of observation and her own constructed walls of fantasy land (which does get pointed out to her by several characters).

Well I guess we'll have to disagree on this one. It's so easy falling into the trap of seeing virtually any action he makes as a mistake with all the hindsight available.

He doesn't trust Cersei though. His compassion for the lives of innocent children motivates him to warn her to flee and figures that's her only choice. Except that yes, this motivates her to kill King Robert instead, but with hindsight it's so easy to forget how much of a drastic action this is, how huge a risk it was, and how lucky it turns out for her. No-one could have predicted this outcome, and I think too often readers just ignore this.

I think the difference here is that these other characters were actually in love, Sansa is in love with the idea of being in love, and the object of her affections is so clearly unsuitable, not in that star-crossed lovers way, but in the 'this guy is openly an utter shit' way.

Quite surprised to see Sansa described as having feminine strength. She's essentially knocked around by everyone she interacts with, and doesn't really influence them in return. She has had no plan of her own and has required others to get her out of her situation (the Hound, Littlefinger etc.). I think people are vastly overestimated her impact on the story beyond being the 'marriage vector' that brings the Vale into the war on the Stark/Tully side. Maybe I'm just not remembering things well, but she hasn't really shown much political acumen or the kind of cunning that Littlefinger displays which would lead me to predict that that's where she is going, though I confess to being biased! She has shown improvement in terms of observation though.

Also, I meant that at the start of the story, she hides her petty feelings behind courtesy. She thinks of rather mean things, but except with her sister, she hides it and acts the lady. Later, the courtesy becomes her armour, and I suppose that's a great aspect of her character that emerges during her time at Kings Landing. She does show remarkable fortitude.

Ned Stark isn't naive and he doesn't trust that people are good... at all. This is a common misconception about his character that isn't supported by the book. Please read his chapters again, he's wary of everyone he meets (specifically thinking this of Pycelle, Varys, and Littlefinger). His demise occurs because he trusts Littlefinger (which he does only after his darling wife said that he could be trusted) and Cersei takes extremely drastic and risky steps to win, first murdering the King then destroying the official Royal will.

There's little evidence that Sansa has been sheltered, just conjecture. Never mind the fact that she's been reared in the cold North by relatively cold people and by a family that took its even younger family members along to an execution. Regardless of how unobservant she is with regards to the politicis, Sansa was at least aware of the increasing violence and its effects on people around her. She could see that her father was seriously injured by Jaime Lannister, and is specifically told “I want you back in Winterfell for your own safety. Three of my men were cut down like dogs not a league from where we sit, and what does Robert do? He goeshunting.” Her own father has been hurt and she can't see the danger? Didn't you say that she trusts her father?

And I'd argue that a betrayal is a betrayal regardless of knowledge of the stakes involved and how oblivious the traitor is to the consequences for their victim. "But say nothing of this. It’s better if no one knows of our plans." Her disobedience is a betrayal (this is the same Sansa you argue is owned body and soul by her lord remember) and Cersei credits it as a boon to her plan.  She knew it was wrong, and yet she did it anyway. Not for good reasons, but for purely selfish ones which she gives in her POV. I don't know how you can justify it.

Which brings me back to what I was saying before, the whole point of her character arc is that she betrays her father and is a selfish girl hiding her feelings behind the veneer of ladylike courtesy, preferring to have babies with a bully because he's the doorway to a life of fanciful bliss. To dismiss this and attempt to rationalise her actions and behaviour, I would argue, is missing the point.

I think you might be mistaking bravery for cowardice? Also, as I mentioned previously, her and Arya are the only Starks most likely to survive the whole war regardless of what they do, since they have value in surviving long enough for marriage. Sansa doesn't survive through any behaviour of her own, she's only living in Kings Landing because she gives Joffrey control over the North, and has extra protection at the start because Jaime is captured.

No worries, sorry if I came across as a bit rah-rah. I can't help but get a little heated when it comes to Sansa and Catelyn.   

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, despite what I think of Sansa as a person, she's a fantastic character, really well written and nuanced, with a fascinating journey that is unlike anyone else in the story. Sam is sort of similar, it's frustrating to be in his head, because most of us aren't that weak, but his development will be so much more potent.

I'm reminded of a great quote, that I think GRRM once said, about how the person who never reads only experiences one life, but the person that does read gets to experience many lifetimes.

I don't know, Shae is a pretty important part of Tyrion's transformation in the books, as her presence in Tywin's chambers infuriates Tyrion further. More importantly, her disappearance after the wedding robs her of being able to betray him during his trial, which is a significant moment for him. I just think if you've already got Dontos, then that's enough, since you don't really need to do much to establish the plan and it's quite fun to watch as you sense it's going to end badly with Dontos at the helm.

Alternatively, it makes much more sense to have the Queen of Thorns/Tyrells arrange it with Sansa, since they're supposed to be interacting alot at this time.

Thanks for the link Faldor, that does sound interesting. Having recently watched the first TOS episode with the Romulans for the first time, where the Enterprise tracks a cloaked ship into the Neutral Zone, I'd like to see them feature in a movie, properly this time rather than as a human clone leading orcs in Nemesis or as a crazed Khan rip-off in Trek09. I always liked it when they appeared in the TNG series.

Not really. I find most of it occurs between scenes or between movies. So, Kirk and McCoy develop their friendship almost entirely off screen during their time at the academy and doesn't develop any more in either movie. It's constant, but as a result doesn't appear to strengthen either. McCoy appears to have no developing relationship with anyone else on the ship, even when they set up an otherwise great scene with the admiral's daughter. Same with Uhura, her falling in love with Spock - the most interesting aspect of that relationship - is done off screen as well. They try to do stuff with the relationship in the movies, almost the only thing that Uhura is there for it seems, and in both cases they're in the same position at the end as they are at the start. Kirk and Spock, all their bonding appears to have taken place between the movies, as in this new one they're always bickering and Kirk seems to overtly dislike him. 

My money's on a war with the Klingons. An even bigger blockbuster style action movie.