HAL9000

Apparently, I am not alone (for once) - this has happened to thousands of other drivers up and down the country - either being hit or sideswiping a parked car. I suppose it's inevitable given the weather. I've managed to reattach the bumper with a couple of spare clips. I shan't bother claiming for the dent or repairing it - it's not worth it on this car, which is only a run around. Given my luck with cars, I can live with a small dent until the next calamity befalls it. There was no note or any witnesses - I only posted as a heads up because I almost didn't notice the damage under the pile of overlying snow.

Just came home to find that someone had sideswiped my motor car sometime during the day leaving the rear bumper hanging off and a nice dent in the rear side panel - our road is like an ice rink. I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to ? take care!

When temperatures drop below freezing, leave a cold tap trickling over night - it helps prevent the water from freezing.

JohnL - At the time, a few years ago, the police could take DNA specimens without consent from anyone who had been 'detained'. In my case, without my knowledge or consent, the police took swabs soaked in my blood from the paramedics before leaving the scene under the pretext of having 'detained' me in the ambulance for questioning.

I just returned from a long walk along the western boundary of ED and the length of Peckham Rye to the Pulse. All the side roads are iced-up solid and there's compacted snow and ice on most of the pavements - even along the main roads in places. If anyone is thinking of going out - take care: it's treacherous out there.

I think that law has been changed recently. Although I am still furious about it, the appeal process is far too tortuous and life too short to justify going down that route - it's not as if I'm planning a career in crime.

Consider yourself lucky - my muggers left me with a permanent eye injury, a broken nose and a fractured skull. And when the police arrived, they ?detained? me in order to add my profile to the National DNA Database!

It features a beheading, doesn't it? Damn, I missed it! :)

I've come up as Superman: mild-mannered, good, strong and love to help others? Go figure!

23) I thought you were going to defrost the turkey?

The Hire Car was after all a hire car and explains why the DNA evidence taken from it was so low and contained multiple markers. Both her parents and twin siblings share Maddy's DNA - that alone could explain those results. The CODIS STR DNA data set contains some 200 common alleles across 13 markers (ignoring the Amelogenin sex marker) to represent the entire human population: every individual carries 26 of those alleles (i.e. 13 pairs). AFAIK, it is not usually possible to assign a particular allele to a specific individual within a mixed specimen. I have in the past looked carefully at this DNA evidence ? it is meaningless, in my opinion ? I say that as someone who has worked in the field and is familiar with the underlying science and technology. Edited for clarity.

Assuming Madeleine died at the earliest possible time: the child was seen in public at 1730 when Kate and Gerry McCann pick up their three children from afternoon tea at the Ocean Club until 2200 when Kate McCann checks on her children. Madeleine is gone. Source: Who are the McCann tapas seven? That's just 4.5 hours in the cool of the evening - is that enough time for a cadaver to leave traces of decomposition? An old blood spill from an unrelated event - from the previous occupants, for example - is likely to have generated decomposition by-products. As has been mentioned before: both of the McCanns are likely to have come into regular contact with cadavers as a result of their professions.

I've been experimenting with different ways to prepare chestnuts for Christmas stuffing. Roasting pierced chestnuts for 20-30 minutes under a full grill with intermittent turning seems about right - but this method may produce rather dry, chewy kernels that are difficult to peel. However, simmering pierced chestnuts for ten minutes produces soft kernels whose outer and inner skins slough off easily with little effort. Incidentally, over roasted chestnuts may be salvaged by simmering the hard/scorched kernels for 3 to 5 minutes.

Wikileaks: Pakistan hoaxed by bogus anti-India cables

I feel a Top Tip coming on.

Define 'cult'.

Tarot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Dazie never kiss a camel, it carries a V.D.virus > in its saliva. Tarot never kiss a cameltoe, it carries a VD virus in its vulva.

Breaking News: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani 'freed' after outcry over stoning sentence However, today, the BBC reports: Iran state TV 'films new stoning woman confession'

Tarot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I believe Jesus was jewish. Oi vey!

I use a copper br?ki and a teaspoon to make Turkish Coffee - very similar but superior to Espresso, in my view.

We corralled our little one between two sofas arranged face to face with toys on both sides. She would pull herself along the corridor during play. We gradually increased the width of the gap until she had to take an unsupported step to reach the other side - thus, she was walking unaided by around 10 1/2 months.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned a baby-walker thingy - http://www.toysrus.co.uk/Babies-R-Us/Toys/Walkers/Chicco-DJ-Baby-Walker-in-Seventy(0031480)?cm_mmc=Feed-_-Google%20Base-_-N%2FA-_-Chicco%20DJ%20Baby%20Walker%20in%20Seventy

Operation Kill-Two-Birds-With-One-Stone The Mission: to disseminate the following information to our enemies without appearing to betray the confidences of our friends and take down the potentially problematic Wikileaks website in the process. 1. Inform Iran that its supposed closest Arab allies are actually baying for its blood. 2. Inform North Korea that its supposed closest ally, China, could live with a unified peninsular under South Korean control. 3. Inform potentially wayward US allies that terrorist targets lie within their own borders. 4. .... add favourite message here .... Fall Guy: Julian Assange. Weakness: Cannot keep dick under control. Trap: Honey Pot.

The disclosures so far are no more than diplomatic title-tattle: as if terrorists don't already know that undersea cables land on coastlines.... Wikileaks invited the US State Department to advise on the redaction and censorship of sensitive information within the classified documents - the State Department refused. Ergo, nothing therein is really sensitive - the objections are merely a matter of principle. However, one cannot completely dismiss the possibility that the entire fiasco is a US intelligence maskirovka for disseminating opinions and views (or something else we haven't seen yet) that can't be published officially.

As far as I have been able to establish, the allegations of sexual impropriety surfaced after Assange was identified as being in possession of the said classified documents. I think it is reasonable to consider whether Assange was honey trapped by female agents provocateurs as a pre-emptive counter-measure against publication? The timing is highly suspicious, in my view. Someone in his position falling for such ruse must surely be too na?ve and ill-prepared to assume such a r?le?