The thread of learning something new every day
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@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
this talk reminds me that I once tried to convince the constabulary from writing me a speeding ticket by citing Zeno's paradox. Illogical logic just never wins
Correct, it doesn't.
I can just see you sitting there in an S5 explaining "but officer motion is just an illusion"
There are a few of Zeno's paradoxes so maybe you used a different one?
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@Snowy there's seven aren't there? Yeah infinite divisibility of time and wasn't in an Audi. Try a 1958 metallic blue and purple CA Bedford van, me with hair down mid back and just a mattress and about 10 dozen beer in the back. In Dargaville.
Cop tried to get me for going through a stop sign as well but Zeno did manage to convince him that was impossible... I think he just wanted to get rid of me. Not the first - won't be the last.
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@dogmeat said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@Snowy there's seven aren't there? Yeah infinite divisibility of time and wasn't in an Audi. Try a 1958 metallic blue and purple CA Bedford van, me with hair down mid back and just a mattress and about 10 dozen beer in the back. In Dargaville.
Cop tried to get me for going through a stop sign as well but Zeno did manage to convince him that was impossible... I think he just wanted to get rid of me. Not the first - won't be the last.
Re Zeno - something like that. I think a couple are basically the same so can add or subtract.
Even a hippy in a fuck truck full of piss, can talk to a cop in Dargaville about paradox. Excellent.
We put a V8 in a Bedford van as a service vehicle for a rally car. It was faster than the car.
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@Snowy said in The thread of learning something new every day:
We put a V8 in a Bedford van as a service vehicle for a rally car. It was faster than the car.
That made me laugh as all I could imagine was a massive Bedford van over taking a ford escort (or the like) on the outside of a gravel hairpin corner
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@Hooroo said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@Snowy said in The thread of learning something new every day:
We put a V8 in a Bedford van as a service vehicle for a rally car. It was faster than the car.
That made me laugh as all I could imagine was a massive Bedford van over taking a ford escort (or the like) on the outside of a gravel hairpin corner
Pretty much how it worked. It was usually a "relatively" straight line to be fair to the Chevette (surprisingly good rally car when completely rebuilt). Support crew just need to be involved.
Corners weren't a thing for the Bedford on any road to be fair.We were young, and seriously bloody stupid, so it all just happened without any deaths surprisingly.
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I learned about a museum dedictaed to hangover stories...
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@taniwharugby there's a new thread! đ
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Fascinating thread BTW guys. Love the airships, I've always had a bit of a fascination with them as I have a weird memory of being really young and seeing one, bear in mind I was born in 1985 so it must have been a balloon but my memory is of it moving through the air above Birmingham Town centre, right above the markets.
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@R-L You could easily have seen one in the 80's
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And also, on this day in 1940
The Second World War arrived in New Zealand with a bang when German mines sank the trans-Pacific liner Niagara off Northlandâs Bream Head. The sinking shocked the public and shattered any illusions that distance would protect these islands from enemy attack.
The Orion, a German raider disguised as a merchant ship, had slipped undetected into New Zealand waters and laid 228 contact mines in the approaches to the Hauraki Gulf on the night of 13/14 June 1940. At 3.40 a.m. on the 19th, the 13,415-ton Niagara, which had just left Auckland on its regular run to Suva and Vancouver, struck two mines and sank quickly by the bow. Fortunately, all 349 passengers and crew got away safely in 18 lifeboats; the only casualty was the shipâs cat, Aussie.
Also lost was the shipâs secret cargo of small-arms ammunition and gold ingots worth ÂŁ2.5 million (equivalent to nearly $250 million today). In late 1941, an epic salvage effort recovered almost all of the gold from the wreck, which lay at a depth of 60 fathoms (110 m).
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@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
I learned about a museum dedictaed to hangover stories...
Loved this.
*Remember to drink responsibly!
Your Hangovers Team*
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@taniwharugby Shit stories though. Amateurs...
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In 1968, Salazar suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Most sources maintain that it occurred when he fell from a chair in his summer house. In February 2009 though, there were anonymous witnesses who admitted, after some investigation into Salazar's best-kept secrets, that he had fallen in a bath instead of from a chair.[93] Believing that the 79-year-old prime minister would die soon after the fall, President Américo Tomås dismissed Salazar and replaced him with Marcelo Caetano. Despite the injury, Salazar lived for a further two years. When he unexpectedly recovered lucidity, his intimates did not tell him he had been removed from power, instead allowing him to "rule" in privacy until his death in July 1970.[94]
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in the US (most states) in addition to pleading Guilty or Not Guilty, there is also the Alford Plea (AKA a Kennedy Plea) which is where you admit the evidence you are faced with is such that you are likely to be found guilty, but you are not pleading guilty.
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@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
in the US (most states) in addition to pleading Guilty or Not Guilty, there is also the Alford Plea (AKA a Kennedy Plea) which is where you admit the evidence you are faced with is such that you are likely to be found guilty, but you are not pleading guilty.
Isn't that the one that lawyers use when fighting an unwinnable case (even if the defendant is adamant of innocence) so that they can get a plea bargain, save everyone time and money and move on?
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@Crucial think it is different to a plea bargain too, usually a plea bargain is still pleading guilty to take death penalty off table or reduced sentence (well that is how it is portrayed in the movies and TV
so must be true) -
@taniwharugby said in The thread of learning something new every day:
@Crucial think it is different to a plea bargain too, usually a plea bargain is still pleading guilty to take death penalty or reduced sentence (well that is how it is portrayed in the movies and TV
so must be true)I remember now. This was what the 'West Memphis 3' used to get out of jail.
If they fought their convictions further they could have been found guilty again but by taking the Alford Plea they were able to negotiate time served as sufficient and be free -
It can be folded into a plea agreement as it essentially functions as a guilty plea where the accused still maintains their actual innocence:
The Alford Plea originated from a first-degree murder case in North Carolina in 1963, which was appealed to the Supreme Court. (North Carolina v. Alford, 400 U.S. 25 (1970)). Evidence included testimony that Henry Alford took his gun, proclaimed that he was going to kill the victim and went to the victim's home, where they argued. Mr. Alford left the home, and soon thereafter, the victim was shot when answering a knock at the door.
If convicted of the crime, Alford would have suffered North Carolina's then default sentence of capital punishment. Despite the evidence against him, Mr. Alford insisted he was innocent and plead guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to thirty years in prison and appealed his case to federal court where he argued that he was coerced into the guilty plea to avoid death and requested a new trial. The 4th Circuit Court ruled that the plea was involuntary because it was motivated by fear of death, therefore, the trial court should have rejected his plea.
On appeal, the Supreme Court of the United States held that there were no constitutional barriers to accepting a guilty plea despite protests of innocence so long as the defendant is competently represented by counsel, the plea is intelligently chosen and the record before the judge contains strong evidence of actual guilt. Today, when Alford Pleas are accepted, trial judges have discretion as to whether to accept the plea.
Further to this, if you use the plea, you then have to accept the conditions of a guilty plea:
In an opinion filed this week in the South Carolina Supreme Court (Opinion No. 27250), we see the benefits and the pitfalls of a defendant pleading guilty in an âAlfordâ plea. For those who are not familiar with what that is, basically it is a plea bargain where the defendantâs position is that he wants to take the plea bargain, but still maintain his innocence.
He was convicted of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, and sentenced to ten years, suspended to five years probation, which included a provision that he successfully complete sex abuse counseling. If he failed to comply with probation, he would have to register as a sex offender for life if he did not successfully complete the counseling.
Mr. Herndon began the sex abuse counseling. This counseling required that he admit the abuse he committed on the victim and submit to three polygraph examinations about the abuse. Herndon actually did do two of the polygraph examinations, but refused to do the third one, saying he did not want to admit guilt because he had not been convicted of a sex offense.
Herndon was given a probation citation and ... brought back to court, where he argued that he was not given adequate notice that he would have to admit guilt as part of his counseling. The court ordered that he register as a sex offender for life and he appealed. The crux of the issue here is that Herndon felt that with an Alford plea, he was able to maintain innocence. As the court stated, âThe primary thrust of the Alford decision is that a defendant may voluntarily and knowingly consent to the imposition of a prison sentence even if he is unwilling or unable to admit he participated in the acts constituting the crime.â United States v. Morrow, 914 F.2d 608, 611 (4th Cir. 1990). In this case, the court reasoned, âthe Alford plea does not create a special category of defendant exempt from the punishment applicable to her conviction. Thus, circuit courts are under no duty to provide notice to Alford defendants any differently than the notice provided to defendants entering a standard guilty plea, or those defendants adjudicated guilty.â
Museum of Hangovers
Airship Industries - Wikipedia
