ChrisR

Well done. This story reminds us that George Orwell was an optimist.

Story update at: http://www.thelocal.de/20160414/gay-penguins-move-from-berlin-to-hamburg Seems that the duo are doing fine, living with a group of male penguins, including one other gay couple. And the accompanying photo shows that, appropo, their enclosure incorporates a Stone Wall !

The story itself is off to a grim but fascinating start. The characters all 'feel' quite real, much the sort of chap one might know well. This should be exciting!

Cole asked: How did anyone survive?! They didn't, Cole. Since 1978 the British Parliament Question Hour has been reruns. Rather like American C-SPAN.

And how many betting shops are filing for bankruptcy this morning?!

I'm certainly glad you've explained this. More than once, reading about Australian politics, I've been left wondering "Liberal as opposed to what?"

If at first you do succeed, quit. Why risk ruining a perfect record? [And yeah, I'm 1 for 1 skydiving.]

It has been written that "after the first death there is no other". This tragedy reminds us that sometimes that's not completely true. Thank you for the reminder.

I'm personally all for extending the draft to include women. The "ancient generals" have moved quite far in their programs to extend opportunity to men and women alike throughout the armed forces. (Consider, for example, Arizona's congresswoman who is a retired USAF colonel with combat command experience in the A-10.) Making women register for the draft is an obvious and inevitable part of the program.What has stood in the way of doing so has been a combination of perceptions and realities that are gradually being overcome. The realities are easy to see. Women - girls - have traditionally not been physically trained and psychologically prepared for the rigors of serving in combat branches of the armed forces. Yes, of course there are numerous exceptions. But as a general rule, the facts stand historically. This is changing in modern times, so the available pool of women legitimately qualified for combat roles has increased. And it's combat roles that are crucial. We would not be striking much of a balance of equality if women got the powder puff roles to free up men for the rigors! Perceptions are more challenging to overcome. Like it or not, there seems to be a trend among, well, human beings, to want to protect the womenfolk. Although there are always the far-sighted wisemen - er, wisefolks - who see things differently, it takes awhile for change to happen. And change to mindset is even slower than physical change. It isn't just the mindset of the generals, but of the politicians and the very people who elect those politicians to office. And there is no overwhelming demand that draft laws be rewritten to add women. So bright idea or not idea, it's not likely to overcome resistance anytime soon. In fact, I've seen neither of the presumptive candidates for the presidency take a stand on it. Come to think of it, neither of them served either, despite Donny doing time at a military school.

Yet another European zoo has gotten into the news courtesy of its gay residents: http://www.thelocal.de/20160427/gay-vulture-couple-adopts-egg-in-german-zoo

Why should this be a surprise? I've met more than a few people who talk through the same orifice, so they must be breathing there too! One question though - how does it differentiate exhaling and passing gas?

Jack's resemblance to Jamie Bell is striking too. It's good to see the 'oddball' win, especially in the face of his jerk schoolmates. Let's hope that it opens doors and new opportunities for Mr. Higgins.

Computer-infatuated-Awesome-Dude-folks ... Can we officially start using the word "Gayks" yet?

Undoubtedly "for their own good" http://abcnews.go.com/International/berlin-zoo-moves-gay-penguin-couple-home-settle/story?id=38436716

I think this whole interdisciplinary studies program is WAY out of hand. It's supposed to be a MATH course, so counting trees I could understand. But intro to trees? 3x+pine = 4y(oak)2 Solve for Giant Redwood? Humbug 101! This is California after all. For math students an introduction to grass makes a lot more sense.

I object! How long must we Irish folk suffer with being the butt of your Anglophil jokes? Oh sure, and we need a town spanner and there's good ol' Paddy now. He's so scuttered, won't be knowing a damned thing for nothing. He's the gammy eejit. Well ye can all póg mo thóin. Saol irish ábhar! </rant> I feel better now. Perhaps you can explain the joke to me slowly over at the pub. And you're buyin'.

Just as easily, he'd be an indictment away. Hillary's problem in working with classified information has yet to run its course and puts her on a collision course with Andrew Johnson and Hillary's hubby Bill on the road to impeachment. It's one of those cases where she might beat the rap but she won't beat the ride. Congress will be an unholy mess for months if not years (I know - nothing new) but her ability to function as a president would be severely constrained. So if it's going to be a Democratic president, let's skip all the drama and go directly to The Bern. I did find it amusing that the LA Times managed to write an article about the upcoming election without once mentioning Donald. I wish the press would simply conspire and use their freedom to give us a Trump-free week.

I'd have to say that the quality and consistency of writing here is head and shoulders above the other sites I've looked at. Perhaps some of the lack of discussion is based on the fact that folks here already expect quality, so don't always comment on it, and would rather not dissuade a new writer, who doesn't quite (yet) meet those lofty standards, with criticisms. And I do respond fairly often to writers via email, so I hope I'm not the only one. At one point I thought it might get old saying, "What a great story!" and "What a wonderful story!" and "What a heartwarming story!", but I checked synonyms.com and discovered 7 pages of similar words. Perhaps I'll set up a Mad-libs-ish database and post via a random generator. Nah. I'd spend too much time on the programming and not enough on the reading. Several commenters have mentioned the reluctance to discuss stories in public when others haven't read them yet, particularly when there are fiendishly fun plot twists. I appreciate their reticence. So those who don't shout out "I can't believe it was the butler!" have my undying thanks. Almost as much as the writers who contribute so much of their time and talent to provide us all with some thoughtful, fun, enriching, [insert 7 pages of synonymic accolades here] entertainment.

It seems that marriage equality has a ways to go in Australia as well. http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/gay-marriage/ashes-of-british-man-who-died-in-australia-removed-by-airport-security-after-husband-tries-to-fly-them-home/news-story/30ad7f39a306bfbd4c5ab360fc714c35

Thanks for posting that, FreeThinker. I too miss The West Wing, but that scene has special meaning to me. My oldest brother was laid to rest at Arlington in June of 1971. And I still cry.

One of the associated concerns about the people who work with DNA is the potential for deliberately entering the wrong readings into national security and law enforcement data systems - hackers who might insert data rather than steal it. So if an axe murderer leaves behind a sample of DNA, but has a hacker friend who can access the evidence data system and swap yours in, you might find it tough to prove your innocence. After all, DNA is never wrong, right?

It's interesting to note that Catholic Ireland has approved gay marriages while its northern neighbor has not. Perhaps the young man would be better served if he took up the call for Irish arithmetic: 26+6=1

When it comes to the debate on what should/should not be written, I suggest a new strategy, R2... Let the writer win!

Wow! I hadn't realized that the animators even start off with Tom playing the music in the proper key of C# minor. His fingers (do cats have fingers?) are hitting the proper keys. Later on things get a bit more chaotic and the animators a bit less careful, but it's nice that they made the attempt at all. (For all the writers here, who can forget "And then I write, by morning, nite... and afternoon and pretty soon... my name in Yebokatrovsk is cursed - when he finds out I published first!")

What a wonderful piece of ... fiction? Who can really explain the power of the gods and Gods of our beliefs, and even moreso those of the peoples who have gone before? A wondrous story which must first cast off a dark cloak to offer hope, and does so brilliantly.