Ouch- eletrocution

[PCPaul]

That case shows the real next stage in 'Political Correctness gone mad' - for those who haven't seen it, it's about a pair of students who were reported for having a copy of the 'Al Quaida Training Manual' on a PC. It was relevant to the course they were taking (although not a set book). It was also available free from the US Department of Justice website and you could buy it on Amazon.

Yet still they were reported for having it, the University called the Police, they were arrested and held for a while uncharged and interrogated, homes searched etc etc.

And now one of them faces deportation for some very minor errors on his immigration papers. Sounds like 'look, we found *something* at least' to me.

I'm sure there are people out there who need deeper investigation and swift, decisive action taking against them. Doesn't sound like this is one of them to me.

[geoff]

In message , tony sayer writes

(having been down the dark tunnel and come out the other side myself)

[Rod]

I know this is going well OT (weren't we pretty much OT already?), but...

One of the less appreciated effects of hypothyroidism can be severe, suicidal depression. If that is even a possibility, then getting a test might help to establish a genuine, physiological cause. (On the other hand, the medical establishment is quite capable of failing to treat people even when tests come back showing obvious problems.)

People have been known to self-treat for hypothyroidism and only then realise how much better they feel psychologically.

[tony sayer]

I was once told by a psychiatrist that his profession has just come out of the stone age with what they don't know about the subject;!..

So not that surprising really;!..

After all drugs and research for depressive illnesses don't get that much attention...

[tony sayer]

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Theres other clips on the web deranged people up power line poles with much the same arcing flashover effects;(

Some survive tho;!...

[Rod]

Unless they can flog them like Prozac/fluoxetine has been!

And there is sad irony in existing psychiatric medicines - lithium is reasonably often used by bipolar disorder. And is likely to cause thyroid problems in the people who take it. Which can cause depression.

Thank you, Mr Psychiatrist.

[Andrew Gabriel]

A stretch of road I used to do to work and back every day... Used to see about 2 deer accidents a week. A couple of times it was closed due to a (human) fatality. If you hit a deer at, say, 50MPH, that's the same as having a deer fired at you at

50MPH, and a windscreen is no use as protection against that.

Deer behaviour when crossing the road is rather wierd. Very often, I'd see a deer poke its head out of the hedgerow up ahead and look up and down the road, and then proceed to trot across. Usually, it was just too far away to be hit, so you might not worry too much as you approach. However, what you might not realise if you haven't seen it before is that this one is at the front of the line, and the ones behind proceed across without bothering to look. It's almost like they're thinking "Well, he didn't step on a mine, so everything must be OK" ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

There are not many wild deer near me but I have driven across a lot of Eastern Europe where there were plenty of wild deer. But what you say is correct. I saw it several times.

Deer are similar to school children. If one child runs across the road his friends may follow. I always assume a child running across the road in the distance is likely to be followed by some his friends following and slow down.

Adam

[The Natural Philosopher]

plenty of the bastards round here. Behaviour is as described.

[Jules]

Yep. Most I've seen do that in a herd was 12, but usually around here it's more common to see them in groups of 5 or 6.

Deer are very good for dashing across the road in front of traffic - they tend to wait right until the last minute. However, worse still, often I've seen them walk across the road as though with a purpose - only to get spooked by an approaching vehicle once they're safely across, at which point they bolt *back* across the road from where they just came, right into the path of vehicle.

It's the latter one which catches a lot of people out, because they assume that the hazard's gone long before they're going to get to it. I don't know why deer do that - maybe the mentality is "it was safe where I was, now there's a danger, must get back to where I was quick".

We had someone hit a deer right outside the house early one morning last year; it didn't do much damage to their truck, but the deer landed on the edge of our front lawn. First we knew of it was when the game warden came out to shoot it - gunshots that close make for one heck of an alarm clock :-)

(these are White-tailed deer, incidentally - I think the UK ones are all Roe deer, aren't they, along with smaller Muntjacs?)

cheers

Jules

[Pete Verdon]

Fairly large extent these days. Everything that can be, has been, outsourced to save the pennies.

Pete

[Dave Liquorice]

Pheasants do that as well. Must be a game thing.

Red are about in the wild as well, not just confined to the Highlands. The commonest species is the Roe though. I still wouldn't want to hit one at

50mph though. Rabbits can do enough damage...

[The Natural Philosopher]

When I first moved her in 1993, I was absolutely wowed to see 5, all together.

Last winter, I saw 50.. We cant shoot the bloody things fast enough.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It writes the car off. We've got roe and fallow here.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember David Hansen saying something like:

What makes you think the bike rider was at fault?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) saying something like:

I used to think so, but a flashover from rail to actual earth via a branch I threw onto a rail convinced me otherwise. This was about 45 years ago on an 25kV OHL urban system. Fwir, it was a hot summer day and the weather had been like that for a week at least, so I assume the normal earthy arrangements were defective. Makes me glad I didn't hold on to the branch...

[Jules]

You obviously need more through-traffic to take care of them :-)

[dennis]

Because animals are unpredictable and he should make allowances. Its a bit like that biker that killed himself on the front of a stationary tractor.. in no way was the tractor at fault even though the bikers stupid parents wanted the driver percecuted for being there. The roads are full of stuff that you can hit when you drive like an idiot, the best that can be hoped for is that the idiots only kill themselves.

[ARWadsworth]

Damage like this (not for animal lovers)

[PeterC]

Being able to stop in less than half the distance for which the road is visibly or actually clear and not driving where the road is already occupied or about to be were a couple of things that I was taught by the time I was about 6yo - seems to work most of the time.