(no subject)

[threeplusfire]

This afternoon I have my six month check in with the massive health care study. It requires a certain amount of record keeping but it isn't too hard. They come to the house, ask how often we see a doctor and if we have to fight our insurance to get care, and leave me a check. Tomorrow I get paid to watch television. Excellent. I'm trying to decide what to spend my market research money on - a squishable? candy? shiny stuff? books?

The weather continues to be appalling. I think we're on 24 straight days of over 100, which is the longest streak in recorded weather history. July here was not only the hottest it has ever been but the hottest in the state. So far this year we are at 56 days of 100 degree plus days. The record is 69, which we will no doubt beat. There is no sign in the near or distance future of any change.

It took a jury half an hour to sentence Warren Jeffs to life in prison, and I confess some vindictive, angry part of me hopes prison is a misery for that man. Anyone who tells a 12 year old that they have to please him sexually or God won't let them go to Heaven deserves a miserable time in prison.

The riots and fires burning in London really shouldn't be such a surprise. What does surprise me is that I labored under the delusion that British policemen didn't have guns and didn't seem to have a good handle on riot control. The comment making the rounds on Twitter is that they can't control a crowd that hasn't filed a march route in advance. I watched about five minutes of news "commentary" and stopped.

My buttons arrived today. They are so lovely. Mike ordered an Asus Transformer tablet for us to share, and it is pretty awesome. I think I'll use it mostly as an ereader. It's a lovely piece of technology.

Comments

[in-thy-bounty.livejournal.com]

Outside of London and airports, armed police are still pretty rare. It's definitely increasing though, especially since the terrorist attacks in 2005, and also I suppose in response to the increase in gun crime in the bigger cities. Riot police on the other hand are something everyone is used to seeing. Even leaving aside the situation in Northern Ireland (and anything happening there has a knock-on effect in Glasgow), riot police are deployed or at least on standby every single weekend at hundreds of football matches across the country.

I would go with squishable for your money!

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

And even in London it's relatively rare - there will be armed police in specific places, but not just strolling around town the way they are here in Paris for example! I find it so weird to see the transport police here carrying massive guns and huge canisters of tear gas!

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Our policemen as a rule don't have guns; we do of course have special armed response teams for specific situations where criminals are thought to be using weapons. But your average copper won't have a gun.

[cymry.livejournal.com]

SG bought one of the Asus Transformer tablets a few months back and loves it; he always swears by Asus products, though, so he's biased. =) I'll admit to playing with it from time to time, though I haven't bothered with the ereader side of things yet.