![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Aug. 6th, 2015 07:15 am* Two packed passenger trains in Central India were swept off the tracks on a bridge in monsoon flooding in India. It took several hours for rescue workers to turn up. The local villagers did their best pulling people from the water, but many, mostly women and children were trapped in submerged cars. In the end, while more than three hundred were saved, at least twenty seven are dead. My thoughts are with the survivors and the families of the dead.
* "Hiroshima: 70 years on, one survivor remembers the horror of the world's first atomic bombing:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11778250/Hiroshima-70-years-on-one-survivor-remembers-the-horror-of-the-worlds-first-atomic-bombing.html
* "Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later:" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/training-officers-to-shoot-first-and-he-will-answer-questions-later.html?_r=0
* TW: Child Abuse. They filmed the abuse of the boy, but not the girl. They have PTSD now and the boy is scared to go to school because of random police violence. He's in third grade; she's now in forth. According to a CNN report I saw but can’t link, the officer felt that a third grader who was not harming himself or others deserved this degree of violence because the 56 pound child didn’t instantly follow an order and him not complying somehow threatened the lives of three fully grown adults. Somehow. Despite him being unarmed and not violent. "Sheriff’s Deputy Handcuffed Two Third Graders For Having ADHD:" http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/08/adhd-third-graders-handcuffed/
* "Myth of pristine Amazon rainforest busted as old cities reappear:" https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/
* So I realized at 8:30 AM on August 5th, that my Jury duty term started Monday and I totally forgot. Luckily, they need no jurors this week. Phew! I get summoned a lot. Like every couple years. I've never actually served. My number is always way up there, and they never need that many jurors even when they actually have jury trials on the docket. (My experience is that they take them in batches when they are calling people in). I suspect I'm on file somewhere as needing special accommodation. I don't know if that plays a part, but given how often I've been summoned, you'd think I'd be called in once. The terms used to be way longer though. I live in a place with a small-medium city size population, but a low crime rate that mostly consists of DUI, low level drug and alcohol based offenses, sex work, theft, and vandalism. People tend to plead out and we have drug and alcohol diversion both of which way cuts down on jury trials. Actual violent assault cases are rare considering the population and our entire county generally has only one or two murders a year almost always by people who knew the victim well. The result is, they don't need nearly as many jurors as you'd think if you looked at us on a map). I'm not complaining. I've never once tried to get out of it, though when I was teaching I used to get a deferment to Summer, as I couldn't afford to turn down work in season on the off chance I was needed for a jury. It's a citizen's duty and might be interesting, but I'm also a ditz about remembering to call in every night and I live in fear each time of forgetting to turn up. I have no 12 Angry Men fantasy about what it's like. I've known too many people who've done it, including a coworker who did a month on a Grand jury. Mostly, I'm interested because I like to know how things work. It was educational to spend a morning watching Probation Violation Hearings. It was certainly educational learning from my coworker back in the '90's about how fucked up the Grand Jury system is. Still, I am very glad that my flaking did not get me in trouble this time. honestly, I'm not the juror they want. I've been on pre-trial focus groups back when I was working (Two hours of sitting around for nearly twice what I made for a day of teaching. It's a good jig if you can get it). I think for myself and I ask awkward questions. No lawyer wants that, especially on a Grand Jury. So my suspicion is, if I were ever called I'd be promptly dismissed for being too weird and too much a pain in the ass. Also, realistically, there'd be no guarantee I'd be well enough to go. Especially in Summer with the heat exhaustion. It's cooled off, but if they'd called me Monday, I'd have showed up looking on the verge of death.
* I wish this was a real show I could watch: http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/125460413880/wearmanyhats-obscuruslupa-skankplissken-i
* Ebays, Links fixed:
( Embed: )
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* My RL oldest continuous friend is doing a fundraiser: http://www.gofundme.com/x9g7q2k
* Trying to stay afloat until August: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com
* "Hiroshima: 70 years on, one survivor remembers the horror of the world's first atomic bombing:" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11778250/Hiroshima-70-years-on-one-survivor-remembers-the-horror-of-the-worlds-first-atomic-bombing.html
* "Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later:" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/us/training-officers-to-shoot-first-and-he-will-answer-questions-later.html?_r=0
* TW: Child Abuse. They filmed the abuse of the boy, but not the girl. They have PTSD now and the boy is scared to go to school because of random police violence. He's in third grade; she's now in forth. According to a CNN report I saw but can’t link, the officer felt that a third grader who was not harming himself or others deserved this degree of violence because the 56 pound child didn’t instantly follow an order and him not complying somehow threatened the lives of three fully grown adults. Somehow. Despite him being unarmed and not violent. "Sheriff’s Deputy Handcuffed Two Third Graders For Having ADHD:" http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/08/adhd-third-graders-handcuffed/
* "Myth of pristine Amazon rainforest busted as old cities reappear:" https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/
* So I realized at 8:30 AM on August 5th, that my Jury duty term started Monday and I totally forgot. Luckily, they need no jurors this week. Phew! I get summoned a lot. Like every couple years. I've never actually served. My number is always way up there, and they never need that many jurors even when they actually have jury trials on the docket. (My experience is that they take them in batches when they are calling people in). I suspect I'm on file somewhere as needing special accommodation. I don't know if that plays a part, but given how often I've been summoned, you'd think I'd be called in once. The terms used to be way longer though. I live in a place with a small-medium city size population, but a low crime rate that mostly consists of DUI, low level drug and alcohol based offenses, sex work, theft, and vandalism. People tend to plead out and we have drug and alcohol diversion both of which way cuts down on jury trials. Actual violent assault cases are rare considering the population and our entire county generally has only one or two murders a year almost always by people who knew the victim well. The result is, they don't need nearly as many jurors as you'd think if you looked at us on a map). I'm not complaining. I've never once tried to get out of it, though when I was teaching I used to get a deferment to Summer, as I couldn't afford to turn down work in season on the off chance I was needed for a jury. It's a citizen's duty and might be interesting, but I'm also a ditz about remembering to call in every night and I live in fear each time of forgetting to turn up. I have no 12 Angry Men fantasy about what it's like. I've known too many people who've done it, including a coworker who did a month on a Grand jury. Mostly, I'm interested because I like to know how things work. It was educational to spend a morning watching Probation Violation Hearings. It was certainly educational learning from my coworker back in the '90's about how fucked up the Grand Jury system is. Still, I am very glad that my flaking did not get me in trouble this time. honestly, I'm not the juror they want. I've been on pre-trial focus groups back when I was working (Two hours of sitting around for nearly twice what I made for a day of teaching. It's a good jig if you can get it). I think for myself and I ask awkward questions. No lawyer wants that, especially on a Grand Jury. So my suspicion is, if I were ever called I'd be promptly dismissed for being too weird and too much a pain in the ass. Also, realistically, there'd be no guarantee I'd be well enough to go. Especially in Summer with the heat exhaustion. It's cooled off, but if they'd called me Monday, I'd have showed up looking on the verge of death.
* I wish this was a real show I could watch: http://seananmcguire.tumblr.com/post/125460413880/wearmanyhats-obscuruslupa-skankplissken-i
* Ebays, Links fixed:
( Embed: )
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We desperately need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* My RL oldest continuous friend is doing a fundraiser: http://www.gofundme.com/x9g7q2k
* Trying to stay afloat until August: http://www.gofundme.com/cuovws or Lethran@gmail.com