Breaking News!!!

As many people know I tend to get carried away on Usenews. One of the current threads I'm in, wildly off topic as usual on sci.space.policy, concerns Afganistan, and the rather peculiar idea that we won the war there.

Obviously, no body told the people still fighting.

Anyway, in an attempt to tell me how good the Afganistan campaign had been I was pointed to this news story about what the war had foiled in the UK.

Washington Post Story

I always like to start the day with a good laugh.

For those who missed this ground breaking news story, the BBC coverage can be found here:

Dirty Bomb in London

I find it hard to believe the Washington Post, often touted by USian friends of mine as a "good" newspaper can get things this wildly wrong. Come back The Guardian, all is forgiven...

GRRR... Garages...

The thing about buying a car, especially if you've not had one for a while, or have had a company one, is that you tend to find, one year on, that all the annoying pricy things end up arriving at the same time. No sooner had the reminder for the road tax flopped through the door but I was struck with the realisation that I had to check my insurance and MOT.

Road Tax is an evil you can't avoid. Insurance, well, on the plus side I have protected my no claims bonus for the first time in my life. Watch out fellow road users.

MOT's on the other hand drive me crazy. We were forced into the false economy of buying a cheap car - but sadly not so cheap that you can afford to throw it away if it annoys you. So I'm being held ransom by the Evil Garage Owners From Hell (aka Westward Renault) who MOT'd the car today. At the last service they warned me the Catalytic converter was on its last legs and really ought to be replaced. Ah well, thought I, the MOT is only a couple of months away - it'll fail the emissions test and we can do it then. So, the phone rings, it's the garage.

"Ah, sir, 2 main problems and a minor one." I nod. "First your power steering is leaking and one of your seat belts has a tear."
"Emissions test?"
"No sir, that's all, oh and you need a new light bulb."

Hmmm… so they lied to me before… Right. Not to mention the minor issue that I know one of the exhaust brackets broke off a few months ago. *sigh* Much arguing later and they agreed to give me a 25% discount on the work. The trouble is, taking it to another garage, waiting to see what random set of failures they come up with and getting the car ready for use next week just takes too much time.

Something I bet the garages know only too well.