Down here in Australia, it quite clearly states in the traffic code that a yellow light means "Stop if it is safe to do so"; furthermore it is illegal to enter an intersection if you cannot clear it before the light turns red - e.g. crawling forward in peak hour bumper-to-bumper traffic blocking intersections.

I don't know the rules for where you are, but in Victoria (Australia) if there is a limited period for parking - the expectation is that you will remove your car entirely from the parking area before the end of the specified time. It's meant to encourage turnover of consumers to retail locations. Simply rolling your car forward into another spot is not enough. I'm not sure if topping up the meter again counts as the same thing.

In Australia, Mom would nominate the son as the responsible driver. The infrignement would be reissued in his name and if the offence warranted any loss of licence points, they would come off his licence not hers.

I currently work for an organisation which does infringement management. There is a common process used for infringements in Australia called nomination - where upon receiving an infringement notice, the rental company nominates you as the responsible driver to the infringement enforcement agency, the infringement notice is reissued in your name and pursued directly with you.

That actually sounds like a really good idea. If I was on the local council where I live, I'd probably suggest it.

I get extremely frustrated on the freeway around here that my idea of a safe braking distance equals every P-platers[1] idea of a perfect merging space.

[1] P-plate is a probationary licence in Australia. While stupid road decisions is not limited to P-plate drivers and those with V8s, they form the dominant roadwarrior dickwad demographic.

It's certainly not something found around these parts.

Large scale statistical models with accurate information about medical conditions could potentially assist in planning for future health care requirements and research funding. However for all the reasons mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it should be anonymised so that individuals cannot be discriminated against based on predicted outcomes.

Not just mental illness - which is already overly stigmatised. But what if you had early symptoms or markers for degenerative diseases such as early onset Alzheimer's or something similar.

I was recently diagnosed with cancer that was triggered by an auto immune disease. I've had surgery and my prognosis is extremely good, but there's lots of cancers out there with a high probability of reoccurring.

My sister has a related auto immune disease but got juvenile arthritis instead. MY husband suffers from extreme chronic obstructive sleep apnea which was initially mis-diagnosed as a mental illness and then epilepsy as his symptoms escalated while we searched for a correct treatment.

I'm not sure the first thing I would say to a prospective employer is that I've had cancer, anymore than they should be able to ask whether we intend to have kids.

/facepalm

Don't go giving creationists big ideas on how to explain away reality.

Robots producing food with genetically coded human contraception included. Reduce the birth rate by 50% and the roll on effect is massive. Reduce it by 90% and things change pretty fast.

Cmdr Chris Hadfield

The James Bourke reference for people who don't know who he was.

You are a bad, bad man.

Not in any way related to Ralph the Wonder Llama.