Apologies to BK. You were right about gay marriages.

[Theben]

This is the book I'm getting most of this from - I caught the end of an NPR interview with the author where he mentioned the fish-tongue-eating-crustacean, and decided that I had better buy the book just for that alone.

In that case here's another book you might be interested in. I liked it.

[Ben Kenobi]

So what you are saying is that you believe that the Iliad/Odyssey, combined with the discovery of what some believe is Troy proves the Greek Gods existed!

I'll take 'brilliant arguments' for 400, Alex.

[loinburger]

In that case here's another book you might be interested in. I liked it.

Wutang

[ZEE]

this thrade has changed my life and i am literally up for hours every night when i should be sleeping worrying about this thrade.

[Asher]

You've recycled that joke countless times.

[ZEE]

like daily Poly drama

[BeBMan]

Oh those heathen orientals!

Robot conducts wedding in Tokyo

Sunday 16th May, 03:17 PM JST

TOKYO —

Almost everyone stood when the bride walked down the aisle in her white gown, but not the wedding conductor, because she was bolted to her chair.

The nuptials at this ceremony were led by “I-Fairy,” a 1.5-meter-tall robot with flashing eyes and plastic pigtails. Sunday’s wedding was the first time a marriage had been led by a robot, according to manufacturer Kokoro Co.

“Please lift the bride’s veil,” the robot said in a tinny voice, waving its arms in the air as the newlyweds kissed in front of about 50 guests.

The wedding took place at a restaurant in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, where the I-Fairy wore a wreath of flowers and directed a rooftop ceremony. Wires led out from beneath it to a black curtain a few meters away, where a man crouched and clicked commands into a computer.

Japan has one of the most advanced robotics industries in the world, with the government actively supporting the field for future growth. Industrial models in factories are now standard, but recently Japanese companies are making a push to inject robots into everyday life.

Honda makes a walking child-shaped robot, and other firms have developed them to entertain the elderly or play baseball. Kokoro, whose corporate goal is to “touch the hearts of the people,” also makes giant dinosaur robots for exhibitions and lifelike android models that can smile and laugh. The company is a subsidiary of Sanrio Co, which owns the rights to Hello Kitty and other Japanese characters.

“This was a lot of fun. I think that Japanese have a strong sense that robots are our friends. Those in the robot industry mostly understand this, but people mainly want robots near them that serve some purpose,” said bride Satoko Inoue, 36, who works at manufacturer Kokoro.

“It would be nice if the robot was a bit more clever, but she is very good at expressing herself,” said new husband Tomohiro Shibato, 42, a professor of robotics at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in central Japan.

The I-Fairy sells for about 6.3 million yen and three are in use in Singapore, the U.S. and Japan, according to company spokeswoman Kayako Kido. It has 18 degrees of motion in its arms, and mainly repeats pre-programmed movements and sounds.

http://japantoday.com/category/technology/view/robot-conducts-wedding-in-tokyo

Robots

[Asher]

This letter sounds like it was written just for Ben.

http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/000504.html

Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people.

I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.

My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.

He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "***" incessantly, starting when he was 6.

In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.

You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.

At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?

A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."

You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.

He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.

You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.

How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage.

You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.

The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"

Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?

[Ben Kenobi]

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your homosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you

You believe this, Asher?

You want to know something, Asher. I could have written this article myself. You know what it's like growing up hearing impaired? You know how many people I had who said the same things to me, that this article talks about?

Are you going to say it was wrong for them to bully me? Or are you going to persist in bullying those who don't agree with you?

[loinburger]

You believe this, Asher?

You want to know something, Asher. I could have written this article myself. You know what it's like growing up hearing impaired? You know how many people I had who said the same things to me, that this article talks about?

Are you going to say it was wrong for them to bully me? Or are you going to persist in bullying those who don't agree with you?

Let the record show that being gay is no more sinful than being hearing impaired.

[Asher]

Ben, you are bullied because of your intellectual disabilities.

I think you have perfect hearing and you use "hearing impaired" as an excuse for not understand what the **** people say. Because here on Apolyton, where no one talks AT ALL, you still have no ****ing idea what people are saying.

You ain't hearing impaired, son, you're just STUPID.

[Hauldren Collider]

[action=Hauldren Collider]agrees with Asher[/action]

[a.kitman]

This is the book I'm getting most of this from - I caught the end of an NPR interview with the author where he mentioned the fish-tongue-eating-crustacean, and decided that I had better buy the book just for that alone.

half way thru that book now. best thing in this thread by far .

[MikeH]

Let the record show that being gay is no more sinful than being hearing impaired.

[MikeH]

That's a great letter. If people bothered to read it it would give some indication of the hurt these hateful views cause.