If, as happens at University, beginning together does not necessitate ending together, to which are we more joined? Those with whom we end, or those with whom we begin?
Also…
I have come to the conclusion, after a couple of years of daily close analysis of the subject here:
…that ordinary (non-sports) cars accelerate on a curve which begins at a lower poin than the acceleration curve of the leaping human body. That is to say: a human and a car starting their acceleration from the same point, at the same instant, the human will outdistance the car, if only for the briefest fraction of an instant. This difference is inherent in the fact that a comfortable domestic car will only accelerate at a certain maximum on intitial clutch-traction, simply for the comfort of the passengers, whereas a startled human being can leap considerably beyond their own threshhold of comfort in extremis.
I have also concluded that the duration of this fraction of an instant is about the same as, or slightly longer than, the human reaction-delay; the two-hundred milliseconds or so which elapse between the detection of a threat and the most basic and reflexive of reactions to it.
This, I would assert, saves lives. This factor means that when I stand a few feet behind a car which has overrun the line at an intersection, and the driver of said car reverses suddenly to avoid the cross-traffic, I will usually outpace the car for exactly long enough for the driver to realise his mistake and apply the brakes, missing me by millimetres.
It is also a factor which __does not apply_ to many serious sports cars. As I have experienced in my brother’s (currently non-functional) RX7, sports cars can also accelerate at rates that substantially exceed human comfort. This implies that they can probably outpace a human being from a standing start over very short intervals of time indeed.
Not, I might add, that I have anything against sports cars. I don’t think anyone is under the illusion that they are entirely safe. 
In other semi-news: I have finally lashed out and bought the aforementioned GPS. Now it only remains to see if the damn thing works. 
And, lastly, I am proud to announce that I have FINISHED the User Registration / Modification script. You can now register yourself as a new Trouble user here and modify your user account here! 
. The GPS was useless at first but E retrieved it by the simple expedient of taking out the battery and putting it back.
I get Tuesday off in lieu, but on a beautiful Sunday afternoon this doesn’t seem like any kind of compensation.
