The Off Topic Topic

[Ed Anger]

I thought Ed was retired?

Ed is retired. But Ed owns businesses. Ed looks for opportunities and new paradigms.

[Valmy]

I thought Ed was retired?

Ed is retired. But Ed owns businesses. Ed looks for opportunities and new paradigms.

What about synergies?

[The Brain]

Ed distrusts and fears them.

[Zanza]

Iraqi security forces arrested a sixteen year old German girl in Mosul who had disappeared a year ago and apparently joined ISIS after meeting one of their fighters on Facebook. Bizarre. She was handed over to US troops in Iraq. I guess we'll fly her home and then what? Prison for joining a terrorist group?

[The Brain]

I hate Facebook as much as anyone, but really??

[The Minsky Moment]

Anne Coulter is now on day 4 of her twitter fit against Delta for moving her 2 seats over.  Latest is she is now saying the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy was behind it.

CDC should be alerted.  Acute Tweetrhea is a disease and apparently quite contagious for those whose mental immunity was been compromised by flacking for Trump.

[The Brain]

Were Delta at Waco or not, by the way? A TV show claimed they were there.

[Eddie Teach]

Anne Coulter was crazy long before Trump entered politics.

[jimmy olsen]

Lol 

https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/887100059728347137

Hurricane center calls Tropical Storm Don "small" and ″not particularly well organized."

[Razgovory]

Anne Coulter is now on day 4 of her twitter fit against Delta for moving her 2 seats over.  Latest is she is now saying the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy was behind it.

CDC should be alerted.  Acute Tweetrhea is a disease and apparently quite contagious for those whose mental immunity was been compromised by flacking for Trump.

I thought she flew by broom stick.

[The Minsky Moment]

Anne Coulter is now on day 4 of her twitter fit against Delta for moving her 2 seats over.  Latest is she is now saying the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy was behind it.

CDC should be alerted.  Acute Tweetrhea is a disease and apparently quite contagious for those whose mental immunity was been compromised by flacking for Trump.

I thought she flew by broom stick.

It's got the legroom, but no space is large enough to fit that ego and the elephant size sense of entitlement.

[Zanza]

I was cut off on the Autobahn at roughly 100 mph today and the other driver deliberately braked as hard as he could, which I didn't expect, so I hit his car at probably 70-80 mph. The pyrotechnic seatbelt pretensiors fired, but the airbags were not deployed. The car is quite heavily damaged though. As I had witnesses that the other driver deliberately caused this, the police cited him for dangerous driving and took away his license on the spot. Thankfully no one was hurt, but at those speeds it's just luck that nothing happened.

I was ordered to appear in court as a witness next month in the case against the other driver over this. I've never been part of any court proceedings before, so that's a fascinating thing for me. 

[Tamas]

I was cut off on the Autobahn at roughly 100 mph today and the other driver deliberately braked as hard as he could, which I didn't expect, so I hit his car at probably 70-80 mph. The pyrotechnic seatbelt pretensiors fired, but the airbags were not deployed. The car is quite heavily damaged though. As I had witnesses that the other driver deliberately caused this, the police cited him for dangerous driving and took away his license on the spot. Thankfully no one was hurt, but at those speeds it's just luck that nothing happened.

I was ordered to appear in court as a witness next month in the case against the other driver over this. I've never been part of any court proceedings before, so that's a fascinating thing for me. 

How will this go? Did the police do any investigation on the scene like making note of length of skidmarks and such? If not, won't it be just your word against his?

[Barrister]

I was cut off on the Autobahn at roughly 100 mph today and the other driver deliberately braked as hard as he could, which I didn't expect, so I hit his car at probably 70-80 mph. The pyrotechnic seatbelt pretensiors fired, but the airbags were not deployed. The car is quite heavily damaged though. As I had witnesses that the other driver deliberately caused this, the police cited him for dangerous driving and took away his license on the spot. Thankfully no one was hurt, but at those speeds it's just luck that nothing happened.

I was ordered to appear in court as a witness next month in the case against the other driver over this. I've never been part of any court proceedings before, so that's a fascinating thing for me. 

How will this go? Did the police do any investigation on the scene like making note of length of skidmarks and such? If not, won't it be just your word against his?

Obvioujsly I know little about the specifics of the german justice system, but from my general knowledge of motor vehicle cases...

Cases can, and often do, run on just the basis of one person's word against another.  It makes getting a conviction tough, but to require corroboration would mean large groups of offenders would get away without ever facing a trial.  Think of offences like domestic violence or rape, which rarely ever have other witnesses.

Getting accident reconstruction from skidmarks is pretty tough, with lots of variables.  Usually it isn't all that helpful.

What, however, could be very helpful in a case like that would be to get the "black box" data from the vehicles, if so equipped.  Zanza's MB almost certainly would have that information.  If the front vehicle also had such a system, it could show that as the front vehicle he decelerated hard immediately before the rear-end collision.

[Zanza]

As it happened on the left lane of the Autobahn and we could still drive and leave the Autobahn at the next exit, there are no skidmarks to analyze or so (not sure if we left any).

It's my word plus that of the other two witnesses in my car versus his word.

Not sure if the black box information is available. While my car had a front-facing radar and initiated an emergency braking manoeuver based on that sensor data, I am not sure if that is court admissable evidence in Germany and whether the court would easily get it from the owner of the car (my employer).