Rivers of London (UK)
AKA
Midnight Riot (US)
Ben Aaronovitch
Gollancz, 2001

Rivers of London is an urban fantasy/mystery novel set, as you may have guessed, in London. The story follows Peter Grant, a young probationary constable on the London police force. He isn't actually a particularly good copper; he's competent, certainly, but he's more interested in history and architecture than keeping an eye out for rowdy drunks. Once his probationary period is up he is expecting (but certainly not wanting) to be assigned to a boring desk job. Then he meets the ghost.

The ghost is very spooky and all, but this is overshadowed by the fact that it was the witness to a recent murder, so Peter interviews it. The ghost has some actionable intel, which leads to a sticky problem... How do you report that your witness is dead, no one else can see him, and you yourself might not be able to contact him again? As it…

Reasons to be hopeful, in spite of everything

An extraordinary number of awful things happened in 2016. Both the world as a whole, and almost every country in it, is looking fascinatingly unstable. There are so many ways things could get even worse next year, and in the years to follow, that I'm not even going to try to start enumerating them.

But things might turn out much better than we expect  —  there are plenty of opportunities for things to get better than they've ever…

Previous writeups contain good advice on driving in snow. Winter tires have improved a lot even in the last decade, so today in 2017 they are even more effective than suggested above. They can save you a lot of grief. I totalled my Saturn SL1 on a hydro pole after hitting a patch of black ice while running on all-season tires, and since then I have scampered to put on the winter tires just as soon as daylight savings time ends. They are a worthwhile investment in road safety.

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