Highest *marginal* tax rates...not only that, but a signification percentage of companies (especially the largest ones) pay only a small fraction of that due to subsidies, tax breaks, and other perks that the average citizen does not get. This is nothing more than a talking point with zero substance.

Pffft, this is the wrong crowd to sell unfinished fantasy series to.

He may not finish it, but you can be damned sure the producers of the series have a solid plot line at their disposal should he kick the bucket.

True, but I don't expect them to have the same level of detail or intricacy the completed series would have.

It's quite a complicated world. It's easy to miss out on the little clues scattered here and there - such as Young Griff's possible ancestry; who was responsible for Balon's death; the creaking hinge of Aeron's memories; the identities of the Sphinx, the new Pirate King in the Stepstones, the brother on the Quiet Isle, Robert Strong, and more; or what actually happened at the Tower of Joy, etc.

And that's what we actually can claim to be pretty certain about, if you're a careful reader. There's so much unrevealed or left ambiguous - what is up in the Land of Always Winter, who is Septa Lemore or Coldhands, what happened to Benjen (and no, he's not Coldhands, they killed him "long ago"), what's on the Isle of Faces, what did Rhaegar read that lead him to become a warrior, where did Tysha go, etc. Now some of these won't be answered most likely, but we'll get more answers, both in the main series and in the Dunk & Egg novellas.

I think the television series can pull off a satisfactory conclusion, especially since it veers off on its own direction occasionally (Yara's plotline, for example) and by the necessity of the television medium it must be more simple than the books. But I don't think the written series will be the same if someone else finishes it.

One of these days i might just get me an android. One of these days...

Thanx for the note! :)

Can you say, "first obvious on-screen lesbian relationship"? It was right there for all to see, except for the folks who insisted that onboard sleeping quarters were tight and they were just really good friends. Thompson's character got killed off not too long after that came out.

I was a big B5 fan in the day. As I recall, "sound in space" and some other real world physics effects were running hot topics in the B5 newsgroups, mailing lists, and the few websites in existence at the time (Wintermute's Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 should be in the Archive, somewhere...). JMS really did peek in on those and use them in the show.

ps. Yes there is sound, but most of it is coming from your own ship. Motors, fans, vibration etc. Other ships exploding? Not so much, unless fragments hit your ship. There was some debate about how much noise the rarefied cloud of expanding gasses could carry, and what you would hear as it impinged on your vehicle, suit, etc..

Cell phones come with an off button now? When did that happen?

Here's a link to one of their articles which shows the contents of a cartridge. Hopefully that'll work?

Marvel sold ITSELF to Disney. It is a wholly owned operating unit at Disney now, just like Lucasfilm and Star Wars. What you ought to be watching for is Luke and Leia showing up as Force enabled superbeings opposing a Villainous Vader (aided by Maleficent) on an Avengers themed Agents of Shield, with Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel and the other princesses (and their cute animal friends) all lending a hand. All on the Disney owned ABC network of course, with ESPN calling the play by play destruction.