Fightgear

First; let me say that like most people, I hold my view through personal experience and don't even allow my son to bad mouth the police. Topless: I've been involved in academia since 1984 and took my Phd in Los Angeles over a three year period. The only anecdotal evidence I accept comes from people who have experienced it first hand and not simply heard of it. Such 'anecdotal' evidence is what social sciences are about as is most police work (witness statements???). As for making a generalisation about it; that's pretty way out. My view, as I have stated, is simply that. Maybe my experiences have been weirdly skewed by some freakish event. I certainly haven't had any negative run-in's with the police to skew them. In the UK there there were less 900 reported murders last year. The UK population is generally agreed to be around 20% of the US population which would mean that, if the UK was more dangerous than the US, that figure would be 5 times more (i.e. under 5,000). In 2005, the US reported almost 17,000 murders/malevolent deaths. However, it is not about figures. The government statistics on crime simply show what they want them to show. With regard to my experience of policemen retiring, I can only recite what I hear and see from job applications. Most of the people my wife comes across are ranked from Sergeant upwards and the age range is mid-late 40's to very early 50's. However, my case about this isn't about coshing the police, it's about highlighting that while the police do a vital job, so do other services. According to the police performance tables, only two police forces achieve over 50% detection rates and both of those are in Wales! There is obviously something wrong somewhere. As I said earlier, I believe that the police SHOULD have been given the increase and had it back dated. I also think the Home Secretary should step down over this (and other things!) as she is clearly inept BUT, I believe we should also stop making out that the police are so badly done by. They are not.

Nickz32: No offence meant mate to be honest. But as I stated and you reiterate, it is my view and probably one of the minority. As I said, my wife works for a large addictions organisation and as you'd imagine, has tons of contact with the police. When she advertises for program managers, area managers, etc; you get lots of retired policemen applying. This has included ex-Deputy Chief Inspectors downwards. All are below 50 and all on great pensions. Pensions most of us would happily retire on without a second thought and live the life of Larry. Part of my job is teaching at a University in the Northeast of England (Teesside) and a few graduates I've known throughout their time at Uni, became policemen. One is a nice guy who will probably make a great policeman. The other a complete dolt who love power and is as right wing as they come. He failed the Cleveland constabulary test and so applied at Durham. He got in there and as soon as he finished training, transfered to Cleveland. Where he happily checked out everyone he knew on police records and told everyone about their history. The first guy was stunned at how corrupt his colleague were and refused to go out with certain people because they would deliberately target certain groups. This included regularly stopping Asian drivers of nice cars so he could make life difficult. He also told some revolting stories about police behaviour in the Red Light districts of Cleveland. I realise this isn't every force or every officer but I've heard similar stories since I first started working with the police back in the early 1980's. As for the differences between the UK and the US. I would have to question your sources. I worked at the University of Los Angeles for almost three years including secondments to various sectors of LAPD and CHP. Guns are way more plentiful there. There used to be a regular report available which details the number of armed attacks on police which I remember being reported, showed that the police in LA alone (which is not the most violent city in the US by far) was almost double the number in the UK. I'll try and get the details of that as soon as I can. I'm not saying that we should not be paying the police a decent living wage but they certainly shouldn't be paid more than firemen, nurses and certain other essential vocations. As an ex-seviceman, I ABSOLUTELY do not believe that an armed police officer should be paid more than our forces. For all the complaints about the ability to strike, when did you last see a union for servicemen? Why should a policeman be paid more than a squaddie patrolling in Iraq or Afghanistan? But when do you see them making the same noise? If the police decide to renounce the no-strike stance, who is it that will be called in to cover the essential roles? I also realise MOST policemen would agree with equality with the services, but the question is where does it stop?? The police need a decent wage to attract the right people. At the moment, their wage encourages too few people of the wrong calibre meaning a lot of newer police officers do the job for the wrong reasons and the public suffer. To get the right people it would have to be a selection criteria which made it worthwhile to be a copper and stay on the right track but it certainly shouldn't go beyond the scales of the other emergency services nor the Armed services and that is the dilemma.

Having bought and sold tons of stuff on ebay, I'd recommend for occasional use (bidding that is) an auction sniper. I use bidnapper or hammersnipe which automatically bid for you 3 or 4 seconds before the end of the auction and will only bid the highest price needed to secure the item. You simply put the highest price you want to pay and the website does the rest. No sitting waiting. Your computer doesn't even need to be on. Some sites will even send you a text or email when the auction has gone beyond your maximum bid. I believe the sites are better than the software versions which mean you need to leave your computer on.

I get kinda fed up with this constant complaints about the police being underpaid. I realise it might be unpopular but the police have one of the best employment/career lines available. My wife works as a very senior manager in the drugs field which involves her working closely with the police. Many police come to the end of their term of service and in their early forties will have a superb pension PLUS the ability to go into another job for the next twenty five years to increase that. I have over the years trained a hell of a lot of police officers both here and in the USA and the average wages (not sure if this has changed since I returned to the UK) were comparable but the benefits were far greater here than in the US and the dangers less. When I worked teaching the police in the Northeast, I was regularly offered knock-off dvds, made aware of little scams and let-offs etc. Only a couple of days ago, I went into a local Kentucky and while waiting for my order saw two ARMED policemen come in for some food. Handguns at their side. They walked straight to the front of the queue without excusing themselves or any reference to anyone else. One of them shouted his order to the young guy behind the counter (who was already serving someone else) and carried on a very loud conversation about 'pulling' a young guy in a flash car. The guy was apparently quite scared at the fact they were armed. They thought this hilarious. When (a minute later) they were given their food, they didn't pay! When they put the order in the guy said that it was £12 something. The lead policeman said "Ask your boss son, we're sorted". They then walked out. By this time we also had been served. I walked out to the car got in and drove away behind the police merc. They then went into a filter lane for the left turn ignored that (without even indicating) and drove straight onto a single lane roundabout cutting up the lady who was in the right lane. They then took a left turn off the dual carriageway without bothering to indicate at all. I have no axe to grind with the police, I am not a criminal of any kind but feel their job is well paid enough. Sure, other less dangerous jobs get better payment but how many can retire comfortbly at 45? Also, how often do you see police officers sacked because they can't do the job? Like I said, I realise this might be unpopular and it is simply my opinion HOWEVER, I do think the Home Secretary screwed this up by not backdating the pay award as it should have been done.

Just for added information for anyone situated around East Sussex or Kent, there is a place in St Leonards (outside Hastings) called MTech. They have done loads of work that has appeared in the tuning and performance mags. I spent a month trawling round Sussex going to about 12 or more body/spray shops but was knocked out by their work and their attitude. They have done three jobs for me (a very rare Lexus Soarer Active, a Soarer Twin Turbo and a GTO) and their work and pricing have been nothing short of brilliant. The guy who runs it (Samir) is a lovely guy too, a real car fan. He gets dead excited about your car and what you want doing. I've also known a load of people on the Soarer forums go to him and be equally impressed. Bit far for this enquiry admittedly but just put in for the sake of maybe future requests!

Ahhh I think I know these two women.... Sue M Enrun is the solictor and Pen Wide is the dentist! Worra dilemma.... Oops forgot, she is the telephonist! :)

Cheers.. my wife will make good use of that (already printed six out for her!)...the merrier she is the happier I am :)

Wow. Impressive! My wife could do with a few buckets of that.

By the way, another thing used on Ebay is that most of the car sellers will put a caveat on the auction saying that the car is advertised elsewhere and will be withdrawn should it be sold that way. Now I'm not proposing this, but who is to know if your car does get sold 3 hours before the end??? Alternatively, you might find something wrong with your advert (maybe a tyre size wrong, you've not mentioned your radio, or summat) and need to withdraw it the day before the end of the auction so you can put it right. BUT please don't try and do it just before the auction ends (within a couple of hours or so) as they won't let you. Likewise, never take how many people have messaged you, asked about 'price to end auction early' or are watching the auction as an indicator that someone will jump in and have a massive bidding war five minutes before the end. I've done that and lost out as a result.

I'd forget about putting a reserve on. It does (as everyone says) cost and will put buyers off (I've bought numerous cars from Ebay and sold just as many) unless you tell them what the reserve is (either privately or on your ad). You should really only sell on Ebay if you need to get rid of your car at any price. The simple facts are that if your car isn't selling, there is a reason. Maybe its that the right buyer hasn't seen it or isn't around. If this is the case you need to ask whether you can wait for them to find you and your excellent car? The other more abrasive point (first made clear to me when my ex-girlfriend sold my TR7 Sprint (factory rally car) for £100 while I was in the USA and I had spent a year rebuilding it) is that a car (or anything else) is only worth what you can get for it WHEN you need it. In other words, if you NEED to sell it, its only worth what people are prepared to buy it for. If you can't get a good price from people who know the cars then it might be that (especially at this time of year) that the price is too high. I spent thousands on my Soarer Active and when I sold it six months later, lost tons. What a car is worth is very different to what it FEELS like it is worth to us.

I've just emailed the three sellers asking if there is a right hand driver version. I've bought a couple of sets of trim from these guys before for Soarers which was okay so I'll see if they do rhd versions!

I am going to buy a trim set for my car. I'm seriously thinking about a carbon finish but the question is that there are about four seperate sellers on eBay selling 300zx trim sets. Most have pretty good feedback but the kits differ a little in price and number of pieces. The sellers are Woodashtrims Autobum and Fortuna1223 Has anyone bought from these guys and know the quality of the product??

Legrath: No not really. None of the flash manufacturers (at least when I had the camera a year or so ago) did a dedicated (i.e. it worked with the camera's autoexposure system and zoom lens) powerful flash. You can get 'slave' flash which fire as a result of the camera's own flash and flash which you can use the manual (sorting all the settings yourself) but not one which communicates back and forth between the camera and flash. I have to say that the colour saturation in the Fuji still makes my Olympus look tame to the extent I am still considering getting the Fuji pro camera the S3 or S4 when the price and my wallet can agree a price!

The white dog turds always seemed to belong to Poodles and you never see Poodles any more!

While I agree that he wasn't a great choice of England manager (then again, he wasn't even second choice) it's a bit daft to say he had no experience of managing a big team. The guy was assistant manager at Man Utd for a number of years under Fergie, then moved on to his first management job at Middlesbrough where he won them their first cup and got them into Europe twice. and then was made assistant to Sven running the England team. As a mild Boro supporter, McClaren is too vanilla. He tried to make his mark on the team waaaay too soon and this was his downfall. The England managers job is and always has been a poison chalice. Look what happened to Sir Alf Ramsey after the Mexico world cup. Look at what the press has done to ever manager. While we're winning they sing the praises (but behind the scenes look to disgrace him) and then when he loses they stick the knife in big time. Erickson, Venables, etc all suffered by the British press being more interested in their personal life than in supporting the man and the team.

Both the headlight cleaning link and the clear rear lights link are not working.

That's not a cat!

Well, in my previous career I was a Shrink (honestly!). The reason people are nervous, embarrassed in such situations is what we called 'awfulising'. It means imagining the worse situation. You go and say 'hello' to a stranger and they tell you 'to f*** off' or you go and say 'hi' to a girl you fancy and she laughs at you for thinking you have a chance. We just imagine the worse. Some people don't give a monkeys as what someone things has no effect on their life but others do bother. For people who came for help in such situations we get them to recognise their thought patterns and try and get them to stop imagining the worse. This would be done through 'homework' going into a food shop and asking for a can of paint, going into a car accessory shop and asking for milk, going up to ten people a day who you don't know and saying 'good morning' or 'hello'. After a while this went to going up to ten strangers a day and saying something positive such as complementing them on their car, their coat, their hair - anything. The third stage was going up to a stranger and greeting them and asking them an open question (one which can't be answered 'yes' or 'no'). Always worked. Uncomfortable sometimes for people but it always worked. Another aspect is also secondary discomfort. You get worried or nervous about getting worried or nervous and are scared that it will show. This makes you more nervous. Hope thats some help.

Ahh I had that as well. It was a great piece of kit. I traded it in for the S9600 but they both were superb on camera kits. The colour rendition in Fuji is superb. Only down side was they couldn't synch up with an external flash though sadly otherwise I'd still be using it.

My main need for moving out of the non-dslr stable was because I wanted to use a powerful flash. The ability to use telephoto's as well was a benefit but the main thing was the flash which always seems to be a pretty puny thing, good for family shots, snaps of the pet budgie and aunt Martha drooling while sleeping off her christmas lunch. I'll have to have a look at this H9 and see if it fits my needs as a compact.

My first REAL digital was a Sony. I think it was DSC-707 but it was quirky and took ages to write to card. Superb lens though and funky design but not easy to use. I love the new DSLR they have brought out (is it the a1 or something?).

I used to have the Fuji Fineview series cameras which are superb. The S9600 and S7000 were lovely cameras to use as close to getting a digital slr as you can get and up to 12 mp. I decided though I wanted to go for interchangable lenses and external flash so bought myself (against considerable Canon biased advice) am Olympus E-500 with lenses and flash. Lovely camera. Great resolution and features and beautiful lenses. However they don't have that wonderful crispness of the Fuji. I'm now set on buying myself a good quality compact I can just chuck in my pocket (rather than carry a camera bag) so am looking at some of the Sony ones too. I just don't like their memory sticks. Are they any better than the old ones??

Love the program. Am actually dreading it finishing. I like the way this series is more like one episode drawn out over six. Have to say I thought the guy who had the lead in the first couple of series' was better than 'Adam' also don't really like the Roz (the lead woman). Think the boffin character is superb though.

Well after owning a Merc 300Ce 24 Valve, A Soarer Active V8 and a GTO Twin Turbo, I think the 300zx is quite frugal. The Merc being the worse. You could literally watch the gauge drop as you drove. I know a lot of the 4 litre V8 Soarer owners are making the move to lpg and those that have recommend it highly so who knows, maybe that is an option. Apparently costs about £1,500 but at £75 per week fuel, you'd save (by my reckoning) £1,950 per year (assuming that lpg is half the price of super unleaded). So that means: Cost of conversion: £1,500 Cost of lpg fuel: £1,950 Previous cost of fuel: £3,900 Overall Saving: £450 (in first year, double in second) PLUS reduced car tax and increase in car value retention. Wow.... makes even more sense than I thought!

When you see them on the they look kinda 'normal' size but when I lived in Burbank, LA, there was this wonderful old shop which sold old movie memorabilia. Just junk from the nearby studios really. One of the things in the shop for several years was a stuffed Polar Bear stood up on its hind legs. It was flippin massive! It towered over me and I am over 6'. The claws were incredible as were the teeth. Absolutely stunning animals