Snooze

Precisely! Causing Death By Dangerous Driving is the same sort of thing. Either you were driving dangerously or you weren't. That's the only distinction. Whether somebody died or not as a result is a symptom of the specific circumstances, rather than the actual intent of the driver, or even how dangerously they were driving!!! It seems to me like the assumption is just there that most dangerous driving incidents that cause death must have been REALLY bad, whereas if you merely managed to maim a bunch of kids without actually killing them, then you couldn't have been driving that dangerously! Again, it comes down to the fact that unless the judge can use hard facts (like a death occuring) to enforce sentences, then anyone with enough money to pay an expensive legal team can talk their way out of anything.

As I've probably mentioned before, the law is hampered by our judicial system. Because jurys and judges can be swayed by evil, money-grabbing, b*stard lawyers (did I mention I don't like lawyers? ), many laws have to put black and white limitations on what should really be morally "grey" areas, so that convictions can be made. For example, the "underage sex" thing. Many people are sufficiently mature to have consenting, safe sex whilst they are still considered to be legally underage. Whereas many people considered legally old enough are nowhere near emotionally mature enough to have a sexual relationship. Morally, it's a grey area and would ideally be treated on a case-by-case basis, but in order for the judicial system to work efficiently, black-and-white lines have to be drawn. In most cases, these lines are in the right place for most people, but an unlucky few WILL get caught out where their personal (and possibly valid) morals differ from those of law. As a further illustration; the age of consent differs quite a bit throughout the world (http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm). Are we sure that ours is "correct"?

Some sort of pastel colour would be pretty!

Front-facing, rear-facing, convertible or lie-flat?

I hear that you're also no longer allowed to call insane people "loony" or insane institutions "lunatic asylums". It's madness gone politically correct!

My son is 8 months old now and still just in a rear-facing seat (the Supra is our only car). The rear-facing seats mostly fit okay. Only problem is the length of the rear safety belts - we had to get a seat with an "alternative seat belt routing". If you use the passenger seat to "lock" the seat into place behind it, then it'll be about as secure as a baby seat can get. The rear-facing seat that we got is part of the "Urban Detour" travel system from Mothercare. More of an issue is total storage space. With the kid in his seat, there isn't enough room to get my stuff, the missus stuff, baby's stuff AND the pushchair into the car. Will be looking at front-facing seats this month now he's getting bigger. These will prove to be more of a problem, as they are only secured by the seatbelt (as opposed to the front seat helping, as above) and most are designed for flat seats, rather than the deep buckets in the Supra. The two options are either: a) find a seat (or seat base) which jams into the bucket securely enough (the Britax seems to have come up a number of times, although I believe the actual model people have used is now discountinued). b) use a foam mold to fill in the bucket and make the seat base flat. To be honest, just a bed of towels or something would probably be equally secure too. I will be looking later this month at currently-available front-facing seats. Will post my results here!

My parents have just got themselves a PT Cruiser. Ugly, ugly car. As a result, the things are blindingly cheap for what you get. The values of them seem to have plummeted since they came out, so you're actually getting a good car for the money if you pick one up 2nd hand at the mo.

I've had my '93 J-Spec TT6 supe for about 18 months now. It's had a thorough service up at Phoenix each 6 months and.... ...that's it. Apart from an alarm problem (which was an aftermarket unit anyhow), no issues at all here. Car is running lovely!

would have carded him, but I've come up to scotland for a week without any!

yeah - it was an older bloke, I think. There with his son (or a random young boy, I suppose! )

At the 8:30 showing of Hot Fuzz at the cinema in Ayr last night. Came out and saw one of the other leavers (there weren't many people in there) climb into a silver L-plate soop.

In another thread on here, some terribly sad news was reported regarding someone's friend dying due to a mistake made in a hospital. What I want to say (doing this separately, because it doesn't belong in the other thread) is that I'm really scared by the number of people who's first response is "sue"! Are people really that financially greedy these days?!?! IMO, it's that sort of attitude that's tearing this country to shreds! It's partly because hospitals are having to pay out more and more in compensation like this that remaining staff are forced to work longer and harder for poor wages, causing even more of the same mistakes! And whilst I understand the feeling of need for some sort of recompense or revenge, people have to understand that the people who are ultimately really responsible - ie. those who decide to underfund the NHS do not suffer at all from this kind of action. The only people who really suffer are the ones who recieve subsequent poor treatment because of it. The only people who gain big from this kind of attitude are the lawyers and the insurance companies, who are lining their pockets and laughing at all of us! Please think of this before you continue contributing to the ever-increasing "claim" culture in the UK!

This really is terrible news

Is that really what guerillas do? Wouldn't they keep giving themselves away by doing that?

http://www.goldentours.co.uk/tour.php?18

If the UK is a country of free speech, why do BT keep sending me these demands for money?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

Ballerinas always seem to be standing on their toes. Looks really painful and tricky to me. Can't help but wonder: Why don't they just hire taller ballerinas instead?

Lucas - according to your sig, your car isn't here yet. If this compo is for a set of refurb headlights, how do you know if you need them yet?

It doesn't matter what temperature a room is, it's always room temperature.

Sponges live in the ocean. That cracks me up every time I think about it. How much deeper would the sea be if they weren't there, I wonder?

Last week I forgot how to ride a bicycle.

Am I going to have to dig out all my one-liners from the last compo?

Tick tock, tick tock

Okay - let's help speed things up a bit here.