The world needs more puppies

As noted two posts ago, London's pretty much back to normal, save a few station closures and line suspensions (but really, the Circle line is useless anyways). There're still constant security reminder announcements and line closure notifications over the PA every, oh, 20 seconds. And there're still signs up everywhere, letting us know about such closures, and about how much money was raised for the victims fund in one day (97k) and how many pieces of luggage were left alone by their owners, leading to security alerts (100, in six days).

This last bit is interesting, given the bombs were not "unattended packages", but bomb-stuffed backpacks strapped to suicidal terrorists. As far as I can tell, there's never been (knock wood, knock some serious wood, right now) an exploding unattended package on a tube line. I guess you can't be too careful. Many of the security measures (such as paranoia over packages) seem pretty useless. There're cops at every station now, and while I don't mind the extra security presence (especially given London cops are usually friendly and good for directions) there's not much they can do to prevent bombs, is there? They really can't stop every person with a backpack or bag--hell, they couldn't even stop every youngish, dark-skinned man with a bag. There's a lot of people on the tube each day (about 3m commuters). And besides, crowded security screen queues are apparently a main target of suicide bombers in other places (ie, Israel, Iraq). More targets we don't need...

But they have come up with one measure I really like: bomb-sniffer dogs. (My admiration of this plan will be no surprise for anyone who's heard me go on and on about the wonder of police horses.) The eventual plan is to have such dogs in every (or nearly every) station. No line-ups then, as the dogs don't need a close inspection of a parcel, just a sniff for a whiff of bomb ingredients. No accusations of police racism, as the cops let the dogs pick suspects. And, such a measure would catch suicide bombers and "suspicious packages" alike. These are all good things, but there's one aspect I like even more...

I read about this plan in a free daily paper called Metro. Alongside the story was a photo of a sniffer dog already being used in one station. She was a 14-month old cocker spaniel (a breed I'm rather partial too...) named Daisy. So, let's sum up: London will be battling suicidal, hate-filled, mass-murdering bombers with chocolate brown, fluffy, adorable puppies named "Daisy". You see, these bombs don't need to lead to us giving up personal freedoms or any similar intangiables. And we don't need to surround ourselves with cops with machine guns. No, all we need is more puppies. And that I like.

For the Guardian story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5154458,00.html

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Random asides: Go to Google Moon and zoom in. So damn funny.

And, my new favourite movie line, from The Life Aquatic, a very odd movie that I'm not sure I liked (or course, Kate, aside from Seu Jorge). Anyways, I leave you with this:

Don't point that gun at him! He's an unpaid intern.

And now I'm going to bed, so I can be well-rested for my (now paid!) internship tomorrow (Hi Tom!).