What an idiot

The UK say a new record today... and no, not the world's largest pot of tea, or anything like that. It was the highest speed ever measured on Britain's highways (or motorways, as they call them). A guy was caught doing 172 mph (277 km/h), beating the previous UK record of 153 mph. Not like it matters at this point, but he was in a 70 mph zone. To boot, the car was a rental, a Porsche 911 Turbo (the guy worked for a company that rents exotic cars). He was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail.

To put the whole incident into perspective, a formula 1 car tops out at just over 300 km/h, while a typical airliner has a takeoff speed of around 260 km/h. That's right, he was going a speed normally consistent with a jet taking off. Thanks for coming out.

In local dumbness, a professor at UdeM (that other New Brunswick University) submitted a study to the province that said that all information should be accessible, unless it is private information. Specifically, he wants the Protection of Personal Information Act and the Right to Information Act combined into a single piece of legislation. I can't wait to see how this thing is worded. Because, really, privacy and access to information are two competing goals in most cases, yet not strictly mutually exclusive. We could call it the Right to Personal Information Act, or maybe the Protection of Right to Information Act. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but the lawyers would be blasting hot air for years just trying to close all the loopholes.