Zombie

"Freedom" of speech has a lot to answer for. Seems to me that rights - like "freedom of speech" - have to be matched with responsibilities, otherwise civic society is headed for disaster. And one man's "freedom" is often another man's oppression. Britain recognises this, which is why we have laws to protect people from unrestrained "free speech" - because it is for the good of society. And don't we all want to live in a healthy, happy society where people can get along with most other people? So for me, "freedom of speech" is fine - until it starts making the lives of others shitty for no good reason. I'm glad I live somewhere that seems to understand that.

Another reason I'd glad I don't live in America. Britain's NHS has a lot of problems but it's probably the thing we value most. It's probably also why so many want to live here but we can't treat the world

Public heath overrides everything else. Responsible government understand this and responds immediately and effectively. Irresponsible government doesn't.

Uuugh, thanks W_L - read this just as I was tucking into my sandwiches

It's on Nifty. Originally posted as Davey in the High School category, the author rewrote it as The Least of These with a sequel The Greatest of These http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/highschool/the-least-of-these/

Hey, President Obama's half white - you can't claim him as all yours You're right about Reagan. Even Reagan's best friend Margaret Thatcher - who was very very very anti-gay - accepted that something had to be done in the UK to save lives and endorsed needle exchange programmes in 1985 and the first national AIDS/HIV public health campaign with scary TV "tombstone" ads and health leaflets to every household. But I don't understand your apology for "Blacks [who] see gay rights as special rights for freaky rights". Winning gay rights is a political struggle and you have to engage in that political struggle at every level to get the outcome you want, even if that means dealing with people you despise at every level. Because there is no such thing as "black sexuality" or "white sexuality" - a dick is a dick whatever its colour

That's a great little film, Thorn. Thanks for posting it I felt sorry for his best friend Giovana getting sidelined, though A full length version with the same cast is currently in production, due for cinema release in 2014. I hope it can sustain the charm of this short feature. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Don%27t_Want_to_Go_Back_Alone

Yeah, shopped. Clever though .

Agree with crazyfish. Healthy family relationships are already based around love - unless there are issues preventing this - so to introduce sex seems unnecessary, inappropriate and ... well I'll leave it at that. Of course it does happen in real life, but I think it's more of a tragedy for the players. So while there's justification in exploring that tragic side in stories I don't see the appeal in merely writing / reading an erotic incest story. It has the same appeal for me as reading an erotic love story between an 18 yo and an 80 yo *shudders*

poor Symp needs to increase his medication meanwhile, getting back to the question ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l4Kj7ow2UM :funny:

It seems to be cultural, probably with some underlying evolutionary biological bias for the "health of the herd". Nothing radical about inherited behaviours - plenty of examples in the animal world. btw wouldn't a "pair of twins" avoid the problem - they could just swap siblings .

I guess those would be the donuts eaten with a fresh brew from Russell's Teapot :funny:

Individualism. Collectivism. Society.

It's been pretty clear for a long time that Putin's Russia is a corrupt oligarchy. It plays by a different set of rules. So does China. Don't see that changing any time soon But we still have to deal with them.

The fossil records are there - nothing here changes that

1950s horror sci-fi movies are great fun, but it seems more likely that WE came from outer space. The idea of "panspermia" has been around since Ancient Greece - proposed scientifically in 1834 - and was picked up by Professors Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe in 1974 when they proposed that some dust in interstellar space was largely organic. In 2001 Wickramasinghe led a team that discovered the existence of life forms near the edge of space in the Earth's stratosphere at 41 km. This was supported by an ISRO study in 2005 that also discovered radiation resistant bacteria, raising the question how these could have drifted up from the Earth or whether they could be extraterrestrial in origin. The latest findings to support panspermia come from analysis of the Sutter's Mill meteorite "which lit up the skies over California with a dazzling fireball in April 2012. Meteors that streak across Earth's sky mostly are fragments of the asteroids that lie between Mars and Jupiter. Meteorites can be rich in organic compounds, including some found among life on Earth. "Their composition therefore has always been seen as an indication that the precursors to the evolution that led to the origins of life could have come from the extraterrestrial material of meteorites," study lead author Sandra Pizzarello, a biochemist at Arizona State University in Tempe, told Space.com. "Since the origins of life are utterly unknown, the idea has its merits." Pizzarello and her colleagues analyzed two fragments of the Sutter's Mill meteorite, which streaked through the skies on April 22, 2012, crashing in California. Fragments of this meteorite were given to researchers who have worked on similar rocks before, including Pizzarello. The organic chemicals in meteorites can get extracted with the aid of solvents. Speculation regarding the origin of life is based on the notion that it arose from a "prebiotic" soup of organic molecules, perhaps delivered in part by meteorites. Initially, fragments of the Sutter's Mill meteorite apparently possessed fewer dissolvable organic compounds left after solvent extraction compared to other similar meteorites. "You may say that it was a disappointment," Pizzarello said. However, the researchers tried dissolving the fragments in conditions mimicking hydrothermal vents on Earth, the environment often seen in the early Earth that life might have arisen within. Upon such treatment, the rocks released organic molecules not previously detected in similar meteorites. The findings that suggest there are far more organic materials available via meteorite for planetary environments than scientists assumed. Scientists investigating the origin of life often suppose dissolved compounds desirable for life need to first have gotten concentrated and held together somehow, much as cell membranes do for the cell's components. The organic molecules the researchers discovered in the Sutter's Mill fragments "could be good for such a purpose, because they can form rudimentary enclosures to contain compounds useful to prebiotic evolution," Pizzarello said. The scientists detailed their findings online Monday [september 9] in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. WARNING! WARNING!! Usual risk warnings about mad scientists and scoop-hungry, credulous, weazel-wording journalists apply, investments can go down as well as up, and smoking really isn't good for you http://www.nbcnews.com/science/meteorite-brought-surprising-ingredient-life-earth-2012-8C11118242?lite&lite=obinsite

Well said! You've got a lot of good things in your life. I've not read the story but there's nothing wrong in using any word when the story justifies it and sometimes the story needs painful words to be used. You are the writer so you make that call

brink's analysis is informed and instructive, especially about Facebook. I'd also be concerned about building close links with Google - since Google took over Youtube I have found Google wanting my identity to be disclosed along with my Youtube content. I got annoyed and fed up having to resist Google's persistent attempts to do this, so I ditched my Youtube a/c. Until players like Google start respecting people's wish to remain anonymous I will avoid all engagement with them.

I think you'll find it works like this, Bill

Thanks for posting the pic of Woobiekins - looks like he's got a good deal going on there

Welcome Solo - hope you have a great time on GA and get lots of new story fans

You lookin' at me, punk?

You guys sure have a lot of fun your side of the pond ...

Two issues in addition to Ron's point about any cultural / ethnic bias, which is unclear 1. this is a minuscule sample - tiny tiny tiny!! 2. the sampling methodology seems deeply flawed because if the report is accurate "researchers recruited 70 fathers who had a biological child between ages 1 and 2, and who lived in a home with the child and its biological mother" which means the "researchers" pre-selected a sample of men that were already performing parenting duties - see Brink's rant about bad science/tists