Since May 27 I've been on what must be New Zealand's slowest broadband connection, with an upload speed of between 12 5 kbps and 32 kbps, and download speeds of between 700 560 kbps and 2 Mbps. This on a plan which is nominally supposed to be 2 Mbps / 128 kbps.

Slingshot has not been able to tell me what the problem is, nor have they made any efforts to fix it. They have refused to acknowledge that it is a fault arising out of the provisioning for my service by Telecom, preferring instead to tell me that Telecom has tested my line and my line is capable of achieving the contracted speeds.

I've just watched a segment on TV3 about the dangers of driving on New Zealand roads, especially those posed by [mostly teen-age] drink-drivers, unlicensed drivers, etc., and I remembered that a friend had sent me pictures from the scene of a fatal accident.

Please be warned that the attached pictures are of an extremely graphic nature, so please do not try to view them if you are of a queasy disposition. However, I urge you to share the images with anyone you know who has ever behaved irresponsibly behind the wheels.