Graeme

I'll admit that even I tend to believe the stereotype that rural areas are more likely to be homophobic. Here's a story from regional Victoria about a family with two dads and two mums that shows we shouldn't trust that sort of stereotyping

Protest against same-sex school formal backfires I love this. Someone obviously didn't read the details properly. They thought they were buying tickets to stop teenagers from getting them. Instead, they were buying tickets to sponsor more teenagers to go for free...

All of the justices have released statements regarding Justice Scalia. Justice Ginsburg's was: For those who aren't aware, the opening sentence is about an opera that was written about the two of them. As vwl indicated, while ideologically poles apart, the two were very good friends.

Thank you! I've had one reader so far tell me they solved it before the reveal, but I expect most will simply read through to the end.

My understanding is that a 4-4 split leaves the lower court ruling unchanged. That lower court ruling does not become the law of the land and is not binding on other districts (unlike a Supreme Court ruling). However, it would take another case to bring the issue in question back to the Supreme Court in the future -- they won't review that specific case again

I normally wouldn't read stories that have a bdsm tag, but I first found this at Nifty in the college section first and was hooked. It's being posted at GA now, and the version there is much easier to read than the Nifty one (it doesn't have the 'alternative' chapters that are in the Nifty version). Efrain and Cory It's lighthearted and fun, with some hilarious lines. If you want to find out about the "attack twink", you're going to have to read it. It's currently up to chapter 14 (the chapter numbering is different to the version at Nifty) with no end in sight. Indeed, I'm not even sure where the story is headed, but this is a case of the enjoyment being in the journey, not the destination.

Interesting I worked out what the story was about early on. I also like the parallel with the building of the first fission reactor, which was in a similarly non-typical location. Conventional wisdom is that nuclear fusion reactions won't be self-sustaining because they blow themselves out. The conventional goal is to have a fusion reactor produce enough electricity to power itself (breakeven point) with any improvement after that being electricity available for consumption. This story implies that it should be possible to build a self-sustaining reaction by containing the energy and using that energy to trigger the fusion of other hydrogen atoms. I also noticed the combination of lasers and superconducting magnetic fields, when it's usually one or the other (using lasers to implode pellets to trigger fusion, or use magnetic fields to squeeze the plasma until it fuses. I hope a young (ie. not set in their ways) nuclear scientist is paying attention!

I believe so...

Oh, wow! That was amazing. Thanks for the link!

I remember the story of a young Australian travelling to the USA who declared that they had Vegemite with them. They were quickly informed that Vegemite isn't food and they didn't have to declare it as such. That's a story from the 80s, so it's possible USA customs have reclassified it (though that may to make it an illegal weapon instead...)

Transgender teenager becomes first boy at top all-girls school I love how reasonable and supportive the school has been with this

I agree, Cole. It appears that the design is such that it kills the mouse by starvation. Not a humane way to go, though to be far, treating animals humanely wasn't a high priority 155 years ago.

155-year-old museum mousetrap claims new victim I can just see some old gentlemen proclaiming "They don't build them like that any more..."

Play School segment to feature gay fathers Play School is a long running TV show for preschoolers. I can remember watching when I was a kid, around 50 years ago. They have a segment called Through The Windows where they show the kids watching something about the world. In 2004, they had a segment about different types of families, and they included a family with two mums. It caused an uproar in some sectors of the community, including the then Prime Minister. The article above reports that they're doing a similar segment this year that will include a family with two dads. Somehow, I doubt it will provoke the same level of uproar as the segment 12 years ago did. EDIT TO ADD: The above link is from Australia's left-leaning press. I went looking and found an article on the same subject in Australia's right-leaning press. It says even less than the one above, but interestingly it mentioned comedian Josh Thomas who it appears has recently recorded something for the show. Josh Thomas is openly gay, though that's not mentioned in the article.

Go to http://images.google.com and type in Russell Tovey. It'll bring up lots of pictures, including several of him topless and some of him in just his underwear... There's also one of him naked, but I'm sure you won't be interested in that one.

I = Intersex

As my editor can attest, I have a bad habit of using gender-neutral terms all the time. I tend to use "they" rather than "he" or "she" more often than not. I don't know why -- I suspect at some point someone got onto me about being gender-neutral and it stuck.

That reminds me of an old joke about the lollies known as 'lifesavers': Two gay guys were chatting when one of them sighed. "Life is so depressing at the moment." The other guy smiled. "Just do what I do when I need a pick up. Suck on a lifesaver." "That's all right for you; you live by the beach..."

I can see the couple's point of view, but given that civil marriage is now allowed for same-sex couples, exactly what role are civil partnerships playing? As the counsel for the government indicated in that article, it's quite conceivable that civil partnerships will be abolished in the foreseeable future -- replaced with civil marriages.

Because of that comment about knowing his son is gay from the age of six. You can't know at that age -- you can only 'know' that the boy is effeminate. Being gay is about sexual attraction and sexual attraction doesn't manifest itself until puberty. It doesn't show itself at the age of six... This could be about an effeminate boy with a boyfriend called Mike, so it's definitely plausible, but the dad saying he's known since the boy was six shows that the dad doesn't understand what being gay means.

I have just finished re-reading the original and then reading the sequel. Very enjoyable, even if there were a few minor inaccuracies that momentarily bothered me. Only an Australian is likely to spot them, though.

While it was taken to extremes in that video, I recognised several real-life uses of the word...with the subtext translation being quite accurate Yes, it's a very versatile word...

Actually, the previous Prime Minister insisted that the plebiscite be after the next election. That is, he wants Australia to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hold a special nationwide plebiscite to ask if Australia wants same-sex marriage. The 'best' part is that it doesn't matter what the result of the plebiscite is, it has no legally binding power. The High Court has already ruled that the Australian government has the ability to legislate for same-sex marriage -- there's nothing in our constitution that forbids it. My own concern regarding the plebiscite is that if voting isn't compulsory (it's compulsory for elections, but we've only had a handful of plebiscites in our history and never had one that didn't occur at the same time as an election) then there's a good chance that those who are indifferent will not vote. My personal view is that for the majority of Australians they don't really care, but if they have to make a decision they're in favour of same-sex marriage because they don't see why it shouldn't be allowed. But without being required to vote, they won't because it doesn't affect them and they may not go to the trouble of getting to a polling booth on the day, and that leaves those with a strong opinion on the matter to vote. Things get a lot more uncertain then. That's why I found the views of the South Australian Premier encouraging. As more and more politicians go public with their views in favour, it puts more pressure on those in charge of the political parties to swing in behind same-sex marriage. As an aside, our current Prime Minister has previously stated he's in favour (his electorate covers the main gay district in Sydney and he's always been pro-gay), but he's constrained by the views of his party and coalition partner, and there are too many who oppose. If he pushes too hard on the subject, they may band together and depose him. He has to compromise, at least until after the next election.

The short answer is yes. A number of Aboriginal activists call Australia Day "Invasion Day". However, I don't believe that's gaining a lot of traction. While most educated Australians recognise the legitimate nature of the Aboriginal point of view, the reality is that even most Aborigines don't think it's particularly important. They're more concerned with things like incarceration rates, lower life expectancy, alcohol problems in Aboriginal communities, etc. It's different for New Zealand. The equivalent in NZ is Waitangi Day, which is celebrating a treaty between the British and the Maori tribes. That treaty still has legal force in New Zealand and grants Maoris certain rights that are enforced.

This one made me sad. Not only was there a tragic death, but the pain was then complicated by needless discrimination. I'm sorry that this happened at all, let alone that it happened in Australia.... South Australian Premier to apologise after same-sex marriage not recognised on death certificate