Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

B1tch 🤣

 

Don't worry my dear Bear you can work from home.

[Flanged Wheel]

As the resident bewigged villainous member of the Bar, there’s a couple of common misconceptions that might be worth noting,

 

It is entirely possible (and I have done it many times) to introduce the previous convictions or other bad behaviour of the defendant into a trial. It does require a bad character application (under the Criminal Justice Act 2003). There are seven gateways to admission and, even if admitted, the judge will give directions to the jury (or Board if a court martial) on how they should approach the evidence. If they do have previous convictions, even if they are not introduced into the trial, then their entitlement to a “good character” direction in the judge’s summing up will be affected. It’s not unusual for the defence to adduce previous convictions (especially if they are unrelated to the current charge) so that a modified good character direction can be obtained.

 

Secondly, if you are defending and your client confesses to you in private, then you are very likely to be “professionally embarrassed” and will have to withdraw from the case*. Your duty of confidentiality continues so that you cannot reveal the reason (although everyone will have a good idea as to what has happened). Barrister ethics include a professional duty to the court and that means not misleading the court. You cannot advance a positive defence that you know, by instructions from your client, to be untrue. If your client tells you that they didn’t do it, then however fanciful their defence may be (and some of them are very fanciful), it’s your duty to advance the defence as robustly as you can. It can seem deeply unpleasant but I’ve pondered alternative ways of approaching the issue for years and never managed to come up with a better alternative. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t one, just that it is not obvious.

 

*I should add that this is relatively rare. Many accused will be sufficiently familiar with the system to understand this and many lawyers will explain this to their clients at the very outset. 

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Would  be a Toyota FJ45

My apartment neighbour had a blue FJ (white roof) like this. Considered a mid-size SUV. Taxonomically, they're trucks - built on a truck chassis.

Quote

Structurally, the FJ Cruiser incorporates a body on frame truck style design similar, but not identical to that of the two-door Prado platform. 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

18 hours ago, Grizz said:

a fluorescent strip light above a surface planner without a crown guard fitted, operating at exactly the same frequency as the 6000 rpm cutter block

Not quite. The fluorescent strip operates at 50 Hz - the cutter at 100 Hz, but the same stroboscopic effect would happen with the first harmonic of the power frequency.

[Ozexpatriate]

17 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Take, for example, being shot in the shoulder with a large calibre weapon.

Actually its more about the velocity than just the calibre - as @Grizz articulated earlier - particularly where there are exit wounds.

 

Every time there is an active shooter mass-shooting 'incident' in the US involving an AR15 there is inevitably someone trying to remind people of the damage that high velocity bullets do. It is traumatizing for those who treat the wounded or tend to the corpses.

 

If I remember correctly, in some of the post-Uvalde Congressional testimony, a pædiatrician described a (near but essentially) decapitation of one of the victims.

[Ozexpatriate]

12 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

North Korea is a country I would love to visit just to satisfy my curiosity as everything we get about it portrays it as some sort of cartoon looney tunes Haven of bonkersness where outlandish super villainy reigns. I suspect it's not the most salubrious of countries and rather repressive but I am genuinely curious about the place as some of the stories are so over the top.

There were a number of press reports recently of a party of Russian tourists visiting a North Korean ski resort. Apparently they were the first visitors to the DPRK's sole ski resort since pre-pandemic.

 

Even the Russian tourists required an escort and the sightseeing part of the package 'tour' was carefully managed.

 

People are the same everywhere. Regimes are not.

 

EDIT: 

CNN: Tourists have returned to North Korea for the first time since the pandemic. Here’s what they saw

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

42 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

My apartment neighbour had a blue FJ (white roof) like this. Considered a mid-size SUV. Taxonomically, they're trucks - built on a truck chassis.

Quote

 

 

Thats yet another of those sad cases that  like the Mini, the Beetle,  the Fiat 500 etc  are a recent "reboot" of a '60's  classic  and  is  similarly bloated compared to the original:  its longer by 2 feet, wider by 8 inches, though the roofline  is a little  lower.

 

I think most utes of the Golden Era were built on a chassis, and  many manufacturers (Mazda, Ford, Toyota  for instance) still offer a  utility style vehicle that uses a cab/chassis and leaf springs, (Allows  much greater load bearing  capacity) but I wouldnt call  them a truck.

 

 

 

 

As far as I'm aware, a "truck chassis"  basically has  flat rails from the cab back in order to mount a  flat bed on top of, rather than going up and over the rear axle assembly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

19 hours ago, Grizz said:

Network Rail and LU spend millions every year fencing in our domestic railways because unlike most, if not all domestic railways in Europe, they are required to do this in law.

The same legacy, "old sod"  Vicky-Regina legislation (for protecting the trains from livestock, not protecting people from trains) applies in Australia as well. It is likely better in some built-up areas but my remembrances are mostly of a couple of broken rusty strings of barbed wire and old rotting posts askew - and cattle grids you had to avoid on your pushbike around the level crossings.

 

11 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

On the dangers of children in traffic/railways:

Traffic is less of a problem here than the railway lines. Pretty much ALL of the overland lines are unprotected by fences.

Whether they carry the occasional, i.e. twice a day short line train, that runs at a moderate pace not 60ft from my back door, to the longer freights barreling across country, there are no protections in place to discourage anyone from walking across or along the tracks. Not many incidents overall, but the ease of access does make it more likely.

I lived in a neighbourhood that was directly across Uncle Pete's mainline (west out of Chicago) from a middle school and yes, there was a fatality. There is a very substantial cycle/pedestrian overpass there now - with a fully-enclosed safety cage.

 

Even more dangerous is the move to "Precision Scheduled Railroading" where one of the side effects of massively long trains is that they stand in sidings for long periods, in some places blocking level crossings. There are many videos of children clambering under a stationary train (that could literally start at any moment) where to walk around the train could literally be miles. This sort of thing.

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I think most utes of the Golden Era were built on a chassis, and  many manufacturers (Mazda, Ford, Toyota  for instance) still offer a  utility style vehicle that uses a cab/chassis and leaf springs, (Allows  much greater load bearing  capacity) but I wouldnt call  them a truck.

There is a distinction between a car chassis and a truck chassis - it is largely the rails you speak of. Both have a chassis. The traditional Aussie utility coupé (Holden HQ / Ford whatever) is the same car platform - maybe with better suspension in the rear.

 

It's not a utility coupé if it's built on a truck chassis. It's a truck, even if Aussies still want to call it a 'ute'.

 

A bit like the subcompact and compact crossover utility vehicles that are built on a car platform that marketeers want to call an "SUV" - they are essentially hatchbacks with bigger wheels a taller, longer roof and a steep 'hatch'.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, Flanged Wheel said:

Barrister ethics include a professional duty to the court and that means not misleading the court. You cannot advance a positive defence that you know, by instructions from your client, to be untrue.

Without delving into politics, this has been a major theme of some recent highly visible court cases in the US, where an attorney-at-law made outrageous claims* in public but was required (professionally) to behave differently in front of a judge.

 

* Dr. Evil:

Quote

My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. 

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

58 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It's not a utility coupé if it's built on a truck chassis. It's a truck, even if Aussies still want to call it a 'ute'.

 

 

 

The Deniliquin ute muster is on every  October. Basically utes from 100s and 1000s of km away as well as from everywhere else  turn up for 2 days of ute based celebration, including  circlework, beer tasting and a Country and Western choral recital.

 

Its pretty much like one of those debutante balls you read about in "Country Life" but with Akubras.

 

 

 

To test your taxonomy theory, I have  bought you a ticket, a hi-viz vest, a clipboard and an official lanyard.

 

Your task is to stand at the entry gate and say "I'm sorry Sir/Madam/ Blue Kelpie, but   that vehicle is not in fact a ute , since  it actually has a truck chassis. No entry for you I'm afraid!" 😛

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

The Deniliquin ute muster is on every  October.

I do see a lot of utility coupés there. (And trucks!) 😀

 

In a similar vein we could invite @New Haven Neil and @PupCam to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and invite them to explain the deficiencies of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 (And trucks!) 😀

 

 

One of which is proudly flying the Stars And Bars, you can kick  him out on the basis of being a goose.

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

One of which is proudly flying the Stars And Bars,

Technically not. That is the Battle Flag of the Army of Virginia - also the naval jack of the CSN. The first official flag of the Confederacy was nicknamed the "stars and bars".

 

You'll see why that is so.

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

15 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Technically not. That is the Battle Flag of the Army of Virginia - also the naval jack of the CSN. The first official flag of the Confederacy was nicknamed the "stars and bars".

 

You'll see why that is so.

 

 

Aww man, I should have just stuck with my original description  "That flag that was painted on the roof of the car in that TV series that used to be on that had that chick in it who wore little shorts"!

Edited March 9 by monkeysarefun

[pH]

Some years ago, a group of us hiked the West Coast Trail, a 75 km wilderness trail on the west coast of Vancouver Island. There were two of us dads, one son-in-law, three 14 year olds and two 12 year olds. 
 

The other dad has died and one of his sons (then a 12 year old) is going to hike the trail again this summer to scatter his dad’s ashes. Two of my sons (12 and 14 years old the previous time) will do it with him. Talking tonight to the son who was 14 last time and is now 45, he pointed out he will be the same age on this trip as I was the previous time.

 

Thanks very much, son, for making me feel old  !

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

Australia 101: Always check under and behind EVERYTHING before picking it up and moving it!*  

 

The mysteriously named Red Back Spider on the back of a fence panel I was repositioning earlier..

 

 

 

* except @polybear who's  probably  best off getting  someone else to move everything.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

15 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

little shorts

Sill known as "Daisy Dukes" after the character who wore them. 

 

Little changes in Hazzard County. So long as the General Lee has a full tank of gas, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane is never gonna catch those Duke boys, no matter how much Boss Hogg wants him to. Uncle Jesse will see that they get away even if has to let the air out of Rosco's patrol car tires.

 

Edited March 9 by Ozexpatriate

[pH]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

As I understand it, defendants have a privileged and non-monitored communications and face to face discussions with their defence lawyer.
 

…

 

Should this confession of guilt to be made by a defendant to his or her defence lawyer then I think that the defence lawyer should be – by law – prohibited from trying to get an acquittal …

How will it be verified that the defendant made this confession to his or her defence lawyer during a privileged and non-monitored face-to-face discussion?

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

If I remember correctly, in some of the post-Uvalde Congressional testimony, a pædiatrician described a (near but essentially) decapitation of one of the victims.

 

 

Similarly after the Port Arthur massacre here where the shooter began the carnage in the cafe using an AR15 at point blank range on the people sitting at tables.  I recall an interview with a nurse who was there but was not shot. She attempted to treat the victims, I remember she struggled to describe the scene but in the end just said "I tried to help  but most of them...... they were..... very dead".

Edited March 9 by monkeysarefun

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a peaceful Charente.  The Chasse are not out yet so no rifles have been heard yet.  

We had an excellent evening with some good friends last night.  The girls need to be chatted to this morning and I believe that we are eating out tonight. 

 

Regards to all and of course Sundry. 

 

Jamie

[Ozexpatriate]

Tomorrow night (Saturday, well early Sunday morning) sees Daylight Saving time imposed upon us.

 

Despite the jokes about my home state not embracing daylight saving time (it does very little in the tropics and even the subtropics) I've come full circle.

 

I don't like it.

• I like having the sun at its zenith closer to noon (actually 12:21pm*) - not around 1:20pm.
• In the middle of summer I like having an extra hour between sunset and bedtime to open the windows to cool the house without relying on so much air-conditioning.
• I don't like getting up in the dark. We're at a point now the sun finally comes up at a convenient time to accomplish things (like going for a walk) early in the day.  Sunrise tomorrow is 6:33am. On Sunday it will flip back to 7:31am. 

* We are in the western half of the US Pacific time zone.

 

There was a push to have year-round Daylight Saving so people don't have to change the clocks. (This is really stupid.) Then the pendulum swung back to year-round standard time, so people don't have to change the clocks. (This would be great.) It won't happen. The bill died in the (Oregon) house in their last session.

[jamie92208]

As France is tied to the same time zone as Germany for economic reasons we have similar problems despite liviing less than a degree West of the Greenwich Meridian.  In mid summer it's still light at 11pm and we never get really light mornings. 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

14 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

As France is tied to the same time zone as Germany for economic reasons we have similar problems despite liviing less than a degree West of the Greenwich Meridian.  In mid summer it's still light at 11pm and we never get really light mornings. 

 

Jamie

So typically French.....

 

Baz

[Ozexpatriate]

1 minute ago, Barry O said:

So typically French.....

Try Spain.