Clunkity clunk - and I'm on the floor!

I'm sure you've heard of them in some form or other. They claim to speak the "truth", but can't seem to agree on it. For every one of them, the "truth" is what only each individual, and not the collective, believe. I'm not talking about religious fundamentalists, I'm talking about 9/11 deniers. One says space beams, the other says potato! A confused group of mainly early teenagers and some ex-professors, none of which are in the proper fields to be making these kinds of analyses, preach that the attacks of 9/11 were an inside job, created by the US government.

Of course, I have no interest in debunking them, there are a lot of engineers and people who are qualified to take care of them. As a life science student, I can only comment on the G-forces that the human body can withstand, so I'm not qualified to be discussing the collapse of the WTC buildings.

However, even though I'm not an engineer, I can certainly tell when an argument is so stupid that not even engineers will look at it. Below is a clip of Sofia Shafquat, the narrator of one of the many tired out internet films about that day, "9/11 Mysteries". She uses the most peculiar argument I have ever seen to get the word out:

Now, I'm not sure what to say. Obviously, buildings don't speak English when they fall and I certainly know that they don't say "Clunkity clunk"! Apart from the mind-numbing stupidity that made it onto the History Channel, there is also the fact that the building was not hit at the very top and therefore, wouldn't be going "clunkity clunk" 110 times. I'm not going to debunk what Sofia said, since she's already done that, but I would just like to highlight how crazy and stupid the conspiradroids get when they realize that they're running out of ammo...

Updating from "Stop making a big deal..." and how much I "love" insurance!

Anyhow, it's been a while and now it's back to me! The Turkish Grand Prix is on its way and I'm hoping to see Ferrari and McLaren go at it again (And me cheering for Kimi!). I'm teaching some people on how to do well on standardized tests, and I'm just working out in general...

Anyhow, I pick up the letters from the mailbox yesterday and I discover that we have received a letter saying that we are 100% at fault for the accident that occurred over a month ago. That's fine, with us. If you hit someone from behind, it's your fault with the exception of the taillights of the car in front not working. The damage was tagged at under $50 so it doesn't really affect us, as in, the damage was so very tiny that the insurance company won't take our premiums up because this is the first accident that my mother's been involved in almost 15 years. P.L. and her husband, Q.L. have indeed reported the "damage" from the incident. I didn't think they would go that far, but hey, they have shown that they can be cheap people!

Anyways, my mother calls up the insurance company to once again, tell them that she has nothing to claim because a claim form came with the letter. After logging almost an hour of phone time going from one customer service rep to another because "it is not their department" or some other excuse. The file number is given, my mom asks for what the other party has been claiming because she is curious and then she is sent to someone else because of something or another.

After going through confirmation, file numbers, names, secret codes, whathaveyou and the likes of it, we find out that P.L. and Q.L. are still negotiating with their insurance company on how much they should be given! For the rest of the day yesterday, I was just in a happy mood and nothing could have made me upset simply because of this! It is my assumption that maybe, in the past, they have given exaggerated claims, and the insurance company will want to investigate the claims to make sure.

It's been over 40 days since the incident and after thinking this through, and from the sorry state of her vehicle, I am assuming that P.L. has been in quite a few accidents where she was the one to blame, and therefore, her premiums were way up.

When this incident occurred, she wanted to get revenge, and immediately went to the collision reporting centre (CRC), knowing full well that we wouldn't want to get the insurance company involved, and going to the CRC for us would be the last thing we would want to do. Unfortunately for her, she talked too much there and we got a phone call saying that the incident has been reported and there is an inconsistency in the story. We reported the accident so that the insurance company can have both sides of the story. A really lucky move for us! We also mentioned that her right taillight was not functioning when the incident happened, which could probably bring them under scrutiny. I would also assume that the damage they are reporting is not consistent with our damage. They might have even reported the chipped paint on their back bumper, which even the hood of my mom's car can't reach is the damage! I'm so glad the CRC showed how high off the ground the damage of her car was!

Over 40 days have gone by this very minor accident, I've moved on, my mom's moved on, but P.L. and Q.L. are still in negotiation with their insurance company about this incident. Day in, day out, they are probably on the phone trying to see what to say next. Quite amazing when you see that certain people have an objective in mind when something minor happens. C'est la vie!

The plans of a scammer have been thwarted. We did not want this to go to the CRC, but they went and banked on the hope that we won't go and only their exaggerated side of the story would be present when they go to the insurance company. Funnily enough, we went to report this in order to put their exaggerated claims into perspective and now they are having a hard time at receiving anything, rightfully so. I'm just hoping that their claims are so heavily exaggerated (Such as maybe hammering the back bumper so much to destroy it) that it could be considered fraud and have the case simply thrown out! I only hope the case is thrown out and nothing else. I don't want the law to get involved with this for their sake.

Anyhow, Turkish Grand Prix coming up! P.L. and Q.L. are still going at it with the insurance, which is probably not budging on them, and I'm away! Ciao, Prego!

A friend takes the checkered flag in life...

Over a year ago, I met an old lady at my work in the university booksale. She was a professor in French and she loved to talk with young people. Her job was coming to University College once every week or so and looking at the French books that were donated to the college and price them. I was introduced to her one day when I was asked to help her price some books because of a bad wrist. No problem.

As we were pricing one day last year, she told me of her life when she was younger in France. Last year, naturally, Renault, the fabled French F1 team, were winning and I told her about the team. She told me of her dreams to be a racing driver in Formula 1 when she was younger. She told me of the day she went to try out for a French team, which would eventually become Renault. The mechanics would put her through oil slicks, water and other obstacles in the tryout. It was truly an adventure that she went through. She passed the tryout with flying colours. There was however, one small problem, she was a woman, and she would eventually get married to start a family, therefore she wouldn't have much of a racing career, 5 years at most. Because of that minor issue, she was not able to race because the team would not get their money's worth through training.

Marie went on to become a professor in French, and retire, but I don't think that desire to race, even as she was in the final year of her life, would retire from her mind and heart. In the brief time I knew her, I always had the feeling that she was regretting that she did not continue to prove herself a racer. Sometimes it takes a woman to do a man's job, and Marie certainly was out to prove that, but she was prevented. I hope that in heaven, she is racing with the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Alberto Ascari and Richard "Dick" Seaman. RIP.