Raithe

Heh, one of the leading crop of e-petitions at the government site.. Rioters should lose Benefits

And if you just want the tv version, I think it was the BBC that did three of the books as 90 minute "films" this last year.. entitled "Zen" and with Rufus Sewell in the lead role

So mom's pre-op was today.. and that was a joyful 3 hours and a bit.... They realised they had to cancel fridays surgery because it was booked for the wrong anesthotologist. Then they had other realisations, such as finally noting that her notes mentioned she has MRSA and the history of complications and drug reactions and then they look at the medicine she's on... So getting it all rescheduled and the fact that they might end up having to take a day surgery and turning it into 3 days or so of potential testing before-hand to be on the safe side and various other aspects... Go medicine.

A nice turn of article from a magazine written by kids that got twitted by Neil Gaiman as a "sane editorial" Riots - The Voice of Youth

That's not the whole truth, isn't it? Germany and Austria for example only fully opened the labor market to Eastern Europe this May 1th. Granted, the EU makes a lot of pressure, but letting everyone in en masse is more the fault of Westminster rather then Brussels. It's half and half. It's a chunk of the labour government a few decades ago, and it's Blairs fault for signing certain EU treaties even though most of the country didn't actually want them. Throw in the welfare system that is so cheerfully abused by a certain portion of the population... Hm, for a couple of the worst stories (at least in their own way): One couple wandered out into the streets with their baby girl in a wheelchair to yell insults at the police, when a reporter talked to them the young twentysomething father was all "This is brilliant, we heard it was all kicking off here on twitter and came right here. I wanted my daughter to see what was going on because this is part of history, the people are fighting back." We've literally got packs of teenagers causing this now. How are riot police meant to handle mobs of 8-15 year olds who are throwing stones and petrol bombs? I mean, if the police have to resort to physically restraining them they'll end up crucified by large sections of the press. The description that seems to be going around today pretty much sums it up "packs of feral rats".

Actually, part of it is also the whole "open border immigration" thing pushed along by the EU. We've actually got a fair few of those yob gangs are romanian and eastern european immigrants. Hell, we have an extremist moslem who was refused entry because of his suspected ties to certain organisations.. he managed to get into the country illegally, was discovered within a week but we had to let him remain and even claim benefits because he pulled the whole "EU human rights" thing to stop us kicking him back to where he came from. One of the things that the police have been saying is that they don't want to have to start cracking heads to get peace because for the last century and a half the british bobby has generally worked with the community to solve problems rather then enforcing in heavy handed manners. The moment they do start firing rubber bullets and bringing the hammer down, it's going to have a serious effect. But at the moment with the general public worry, and the fact that most people are away it's more a surge of pure criminality rather then political indignation, I think a lot of the public wouldn't find it too objectionable.

Plus.. I would say that the key news and example is from the pre-launch build that was shown to reporters about 4 months ago and they were still tightening up some of the elements... Who is to say that the adverts as shown in that are the exact way it'll be handled when the games released?

Well over the course of last night Copycats kicked off in Manchester, and some in Birmingham and Nottingham as well as some continuation within London. But from what I've heard it's not so much angry rioters as again, groups of yobs trying to take advantage of the public worry and general sense of chaos. They had a bit over 16,000 police in London and a few armoured vehicles patrolling the streets. The rumours of potential Army involvement keep spinning around. Oh, and of course now there are the conspiracy theorists at work, trying to suggest that a lot of the rioting/looting done by masked individuals isn't so much as criminals but black-ops agents of the evil government as a means of building an excuse to "repress the poor". The fact that a group of looters knocked over a fancy dress store to steal masks to wear when they hit some shops down the street apparently got ignored by the people who started that one up...

The question is if they lied or if they were mistaken. As I said, if you're going after a known armed criminal, and he happens to be holding a gun.. If you hear what sounds like a gunshot, you'll probably take a shot at him. Okay, so it turns out afterwards when they do the after action report he didnt, but you thought he did, you'll report what you perceived even if it ends up that you were wrong. I'm just saying it doesn't automatically mean they were lying. Edit: and remember, the armed police over here have to go through a ridiculous amount of psychological testing and other assorted testing before they get on the armed response squads. It's pretty much one of those "if you ask to get on it, you'll be turned down" type of career options in the police.

True. Even the family of the guy who was killed are saying they're shocked and surprised by the riots and wished that the civil unrest wasn't happening.

I guess it's one of those things.. if you know the subject of the arrest is a potentially violent person..and they're holding a gun.. and suddenly there's some sharp noise that sounds like a gunshot.. Would you take the time to make sure it was him, or would you decide to shoot him to make sure no civilian / fellow police officer is hurt? There are swings and roundabouts to both sides of that argument...

No, we like baseball bats... Remember, we don't do guns. Bats, clubs and sharp, bladed instruments.. them we do. Edit: And cricket bats do work nicely..but are a little unwieldy for certain swings if you don't know what you're doing.

I think this is really going to depend how well the adverts blend into the background or just how glaringly obvious they are...

One thing the news is mostly skipping over, is the amount of people being left homeless and with most of their possessions burnt. All of those little shops being set on fire.. a lot of them have apartments rented out above them.

Random trivia for the moment.. the explosion of popularity of Bruce Lee films back in the 70' actually led to a large number of the "organised" football hooligans into turning up with sais, nunchuka's, and assorted martial arts weaponry due to the ease of being able to hide it under a jacket..

And ours doesn't cause riots. Yours is just rugby, played with 40lbs of protective gear and a break every 5 minutes.

Well lets see.. combine troops fresh from Afghanistan, riots, bolshy teenage gangs who think they're tough, and the excess of partially-extremist moslems who agitate in London.. and all who like to play the race/religion card at the drop of a hat.. That would get very messy. Even beyond what we have at present. And Tale : It's not been that long since the grand era of football hooliganism The coppers were all trained up for those sorts of rioting crowds.

Londoners ready to clean up their streets...

Stretching my mind out by trying to develop a system model of riots. And just went to get some snackables for lunch, opened up a jar of pickled onions to go with the cheese and biscuits.. and found that the jar had fermented. That is the first time I've ever seen that happen.

Well this one was an interesting question and answer from the Eidos Montreal team..

For the random interest factor.. :

The London inner-city gang culture is quite.. well.. severe. It tends to get glossed over in the international news, but yeah, that's where a lot of the impetus in the riots is coming from. Hell, it was only a couple of months ago we had the arrest of a 15 year old "hitman" who killed a woman for 200 quid and the "props" it would give him with his local gang.

Eh, not in those rioting cities you won't. If it was more Westminster instead of central London maybe.. but not a chance in Liverpool , Birmingham or Nottingham. Well, possibly Bristol - a lot of the lawyers old boys network get their Law degrees there.. but then monocle wearing types would probably get theirs from Oxford... Edit: And Scotland Yard are saying that they will have over 13,000 police officers in London within the next 24 hours...

Well by now, that's money already spent no ? There's still a fair chunk to be spent before the Olympics lands.. and more to be spent during the Olympics....

You really think that ? Actually, most of the people are know would appreciate the Olympics not being here. A lot of people have the view that the government is wasting a crapload of cash on the Olympics when it could be better used for things like..oh.. health and education. The Olympics is taking on the same sort of view as the Millenium Dome when it was being built. It'll be nice and shiny but pretty much a money pit and waste.