McPhee

The children's hospital rumours aren't true. People on Twitter have been debunking it, apparently the police got there before the looters and made it clear it was off limits. Can't believe the number of idiots in Brum that looted with bare faces. They'll be getting picked up in the coming days... Apparently some Polish shopkeepers saw their shops being looted in Croydon. Five minutes later an eyewitness saw around 50 Poles running down the high street, armed with sticks, beating the snot out of any looters they caught. Not sure if it's true or not, but it's been mentioned by a few sources. To be honest, I like. Serves the idiots right.

We don't have water cannons, we've never needed them before. The nearest ones are in Northern Ireland (or on their way, the acting police commissioner didn't specify either way). We also lack paramilitary, so you can forget rubber bullets etc. The military can use them, the police can't. The police are definitely outmatched. There's too many incidents for them to deal with. Currently they have people at 13 different incidents (not including investigating officers looking at the aftermath from previous nights). Each time they arrive they're greeted with crowds 5-10 times their size. They can't contain these crowds, never mind attack them. They're stretched enough that some of them have worked through from last night and haven't yet been relieved. They aren't outmatched? Debenhams in Clapham has been getting looted for an hour and a half. There's currently no police officers nearby, the five that were there retreated due to being outnumbered by "hundreds" of looters. If the police aren't outmatched then why aren't they there? If their numbers aren't stretched would they be allowing the looting to carry on? They're having to prioritise arson and other violent incidents over looting... BTW, Leeds; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-14449656 That's all I've seen so far.

There's a few problems there. Firstly, the police are badly outnumbered. Secondly, there's far too many bystanders around. They don't want to turn this in to a war, and they don't want innocents caught in the middle. Over the past 10 years the police have been hit hard with criticism when innocents get caught in the crossfire and this is the result. There's been a lot of call for no mercy policing in this incident, but as soon as some bystander dies from a rubber bullet to the eye there'll be outrage. People conveniently forget that they wanted a crackdown.

The media aren't covering it, but it's kicking off across Birmingham apparently. If this goes on through the night and the police can't crack down on it then Parliament needs to be recalled tomorrow and they need to think seriously about declaring a state of emergency. The police are clearly outmatched. Their dawn raids plan might be effective at getting arrests, but it's not doing anything to quell the unrest. They need help.

I'd settle for a 300% increase in Police dogs and a 100% decrease in dog leads. That would do the trick. I'm betting it's a whole lot less funny when 85lbs of German Shepard pounces on you and then drags you away by the ankles. The tweets from people supporting these riots make me cringe. It seems that this evening is the Police's fault for using stop and search on "innocent" youths who just "happened" to be gathered in Hackney in large numbers on a Monday afternoon. They were planning on being peaceful of course, it was the police that set them off again

...aaaaand it's go time. Apparently they've started early today, there's already reports coming out of Hackney about clashes between Police and groups of youths.

Serebii, where do you work? I know you run your website and stuff, but where do you do all of this from? Ever tried working in coffee shops (Starbucks etc.)? It works pretty well for me, keeping me out of the house and giving me the opportunity to meet people. It's quite a normal thing to do, and you won't be the only one doing it. I've gotten to know the staff simply by being in Starbucks or Café Nero 3 or 4 times a week, and I've gotten to know some of the regular customers. I've not dated any of them (my missus would kill me :p) but I've made friends. Try it Meeting people sober > meeting people drunk. But then, I've always been awful at picking up ladies when I've had a few drinks. My ability to read people goes down the toilet and 9 times out of 10 I make a game-breaking mistake.

I suspect you're chances of finding a Norton 360 owner here are... slim Most people probably just use Windows Firewall which is built in to Windows 7 and Vista. However, I'm sure it does the trick. All it's there to do is stop unwanted traffic, which if it's set up right isn't a difficult task.

Another MSE user here. I love the way you can just install it and forget about it. I do a scan about once a fortnight and that's it, I neither hear nor see it on any other occasion.

VVVVVV is just... ridiculous. I've given up after like... five minutes it's that damn frustrating. Too awesome not to go back to though I bet Humble are making a decent tip from that money :p It's something like $180,000 at the default split! About the same would go to Child's Play.

They've just added the Humble Indie Bundle 2 games if you pay more than the average $4.83 donation. So that's; Crayon Physics Deluxe Cogs VVVVVV Hammerfight And Yet It Moves Steel Storm Braid Cortex Command Machinarium Osmos Revenge Of The Titans All for $4.84, or roughly £3. Oh, and you can play Minecraft for free until 14th August if you haven't got it yet.

I'm actually quite surprised there's no thread on this here TBH, given some idiot Republicans are currently threatening the stability of the entire Western economy. They're probably the greatest threat to this country at the moment, more so than any terrorist organisation.

Unless I've missed something, he obtained the guns legally. He had a Ruger Mini-14 which he obtained with a hunting license and a Glock obtained with a firearms license. I'm not sure where he got the ammo from, but he injected it with Nicotine himself. Even so, ban the guns and he still could have killed those people. He confessed to going to Prague to buy firearms (and failing) and he also demonstrated skill at bomb-making. He was never going to have any trouble killing a large number of people.

That Star Wars console is seriously ugly. It's also absolutely awesome and I really, really want one!

That Star Wars console is seriously ugly. It's also absolutely awesome and I really, really want one!

New Soldier weapons out. They completely ruin the look of the game, but then again they did that already with some of the previous weapons :p The bigger of the two laser guns has a charged shot on the RMB. Ridiculously powerful! Massive direct-hit damage, good spash-damage, good knockback and it's sets people on fire. Easy to craft too, just needs a Black Box and one reclaimed! Haven't tried the smaller one yet, that needs a Buff Banner and a Reclaimed, but I don't have a BB spare and they aren't craftable.

I was actually crying with laughter when I saw the pic of The Flash.

Have you seen the deals doing the rounds on those handsets? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/253572 http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/lg-e900-optimus-7-smartphone-unlocked-windows-phone-7-16gb-flash-5mp-720p-now-15/975468 Not sure if they help or not? I'm not too clued up on exactly what Android handsets are about at the moment, but why the Wildfire S? It seems a bit low-spec for an Android handset to me, especially given the Orange San Fran was available with better specs for less money 12 months ago.

I do. I can't recommend it enough If it's the LG Optimus 7 you've got your eye on then go for it! That thing is a bargain at the moment!

Actually, that's not true. They can refuse any notes that they don't wish to take. Anyways, won't be there tomorrow. Got a busy and expensive August ahead so I can't really afford a weekend in the capital.

Watched the first two episodes yesterday, then the one aired tonight. Awesome show! I'm hooked already.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/terraria-pc-1-49-75-off-steam/974226

So... The Sun illegally obtained medical records on Gordon Brown's son. The Sunday Times illegally obtained his financial and property records. And NotW illegally obtained the Royal 'Green Book', as well as (rumoured) hacking the voicemails of 9/11 victims. If this week carries on like this then the walls are going to start falling. The possibility that the rot is present in not just The Sun, but also The Times is going to irreversibly damage News International. If they've been at the voicemail inboxes of 9/11 victims then expect the public uproar to spread stateside. It's a weird feeling thinking that by the time 2012 comes around we might have an unrecognisable media, one that is considerably less powerful that before.

Was £1.49 yesterday. It's been in the sale 3 times in this run! I was reading how many copies they'd sold the other day (figures from before the Steam sale, so $9.99 each). 555,000. Yup, that's $5,550,000 (less whatever Steam take as retailer). Probably a good $4 Million has gone to the developer. That is insane. The game is good and all, but I never thought they would make a serious life-changing sum from it. Anyone else thing they're in the wrong profession?

I just realised I'm off next weekend and the meet is next weekend. Coincidence? Slap me down for 'might be attending'.