Just on seatbelts... in an accident, if you're not wearing a seatbelt then you're a missile in my car. Quite possibly on a ballistic trajectory that intersects with my windscreen or my head. You wear a seatbelt or you get out of my car. And if you're driving, you're still a missile in an accident if you don't wear a seatbelt, and still as likely to be a missile on a ballistic trajectory that intersects your windscreen or my head. Wear a damned seatbelt.

Read "The Sentinel" by Arthur C Clarke.

You've see how whales are slaughtered, right?

It's not having "too many" customers that will kill a business. It's failing to serve them that will do it.

The one caveat I'd add to this is -- at least in the Nikon world where I live -- that you probably need to decide up-front on sensor size. Yes, you can put a DX lens on an FX body, but you're not using the full-size sensor to its capacity. Some people might be perfectly fine with owning both FX and DX gear -- a small DX body with a couple of lenses is pretty easy to lug around and you can save the FX and big glass for other jobs -- but not everyone wants to spend that sort of money on it. OP, definitely look into an SLR system. And as others have said, it's hard to go wrong with Canon or Nikon. I went Nikon (only because I already had a couple of lenses), but I otherwise might have been just as happy with a Canon. SLR gives you a metric arse-load of flexibility. I've shot stuff on my D3 that I would never have been able to shoot on a wee point-and-shoot thing.

Absolutely. I'm no pro, and I do like to buy (albeit infrequently) prosumer-grade stuff, but having said that I would totally recommend an SLR. And "but I've gotten to the point where the images produced by my smartphone aren't cutting it" is very unlikely to stop at just-better-than-smartphone-camera. If all you want is something that's only better than a smartphone, then you'd just save the money and make do with a smartphone.

He's also not obliged to beat nine colours of shit out of her, either.

I couldn't watch all the video. That man is an oxygen thief, pure and simple. I hope he dies in a fire.

Depends. Diesel, yes. Petrol, well the Coke's extra.

You did know that the story of Abraham and Isaac was intended to explain why the Hebrew deity doesn't require child sacrifice, right?

Because "I was just pulling your leg" is a great morality play, right?

Let me try something...

It only takes one aspergers inflicted admin to make a good long term contributer throw their hands up in the air and say "fuck that shit".

Instead, try: "It only takes one aspergers inflicted user to make a good long term admin throw their hands up in the air and say "fuck that shit". Not that I'm casting aspersions, but is this going on, too?

Power without accountability to the people that you're exercising power over is dangerous.

What "power"? It's a bunch of dots on a screen! Or did you get arrested by Wikipedia or something?

Memo Australian Government: this is how you make your intergoogle filter work. It comes with the advantage of completely screwing up any credible e-commerce in the country, too, which is handy when you want your economy to be all about being someone else's quarry.

Because they're awaiting instructions from Fred Nile?