Phoenix, yesterday.

This is not my first desert summer rodeo. Why I thought it was a good idea to walk out to the car in bare feet is gonna be left to science to figure out.

Desert life. 2019.

So, those Ring doorbells, offer a few more features than perhaps you realized.

What has raised eyebrows, however, is the company's push for partnerships with law enforcement agencies across the country, a fact that some feel has allowed police to create informal surveillance networks in hundreds of neighborhoods.

Yeah but you don't have to give the Police the footage though right?

However, he noted, there is a workaround if a resident happens to reject a police request. If the community member doesn't want to supply a Ring video that seems vital to a local law enforcement investigation, police can contact Amazon, which will then essentially "subpoena" the video.

Ah, oh well.

And Apple are but the latest tech giant caught uploading your conversations to the mothership.

I suspect most people don't know, or don't care, that this is all going on? Perhaps this is just the world we live in these days? If you told me 20 years ago that homes would have video cameras and cylinders recording everything said and done I would have thought you nuts.

Yet here we are. 2019.

As a side note I'm a bit pissed off that Apple are doing this. They'd always positioned themselves as holding a higher standard. While you knew the creepy tracking tradeoffs using anything Facebook/Instagram/Google based, Apple were supposed to be better. But I guess not, and everything is terrible.

I could listen to isolated vocals all day long. There's a wonder of a subreddit r/IsolatedVocals dedicated to this kind of thing. Some of my favorites so far.

Oasis – Some Might Say
Heart – Alone
The Clash – London Calling
A-ha – Take On Me
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime
Van Halen – Running With The Devil
Whitney Houston – How Will I Know?
Toto – Rosanna
Alice In Chains – No Excuses
Oasis – Live Forever
Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Who – Won't Get Fooled Again

I'm going to take this afternoon to see if Depeche's later albums are as bad as I originally thought they were.

Seeing the temperatures in Europe this week boggles my mind. 38°C in England is madness. They're just not equipped to deal with it. Here in Phoenix the summers can be a bit brutal, this weekend it will be 45°C/113°F.

But you can't really compare the two. Everywhere here has A/C. You go from cold car to cold building. Every room in every house has ceiling fans. And the heat is "a dry heat" as we have no humidity*.

None of that is true in England. I remember a few years back we were visiting my parents and went to Cambridge for the day during a hot English summer. We were dying and had to leave a sweltering shop and go into Mark's & Spencer just to get some A/C. I can't imagine walking around outside this week in Cambridge.

Sending hugs across the pond. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be inside next to the A/C vent.

* well except for the monsoon storms which bring the rains during July.

UPDATE 07/29 – and speaking of Cambridge, it was the hottest day ever recorded Last week.

York Minster, 2019.

Waking up this morning to see the aftermath of last night's first monsoon storm of 2019. Seen worse. Few branches down, leaves and twigs everywhere. Moisture still heavy in the air, it feels very muggy.