Weathering the weather

As you know, I'm a Scot with one red-haired allele (thanks, mum), so my melanocortin-1 receptors function poorly compared to wildtypes (biology-speak for normal people). This means that going out in the sun comes with a moderate risk of exploding into flames - I think the official term for us half-gingers is Daywalkers. Dom hails from Eastern Canada and inherited pasty Irish skin from her mother, so perhaps moving to a city known for really hot, humid summers was bad planning.

Still, we knew to expect this before we moved out here so are content to spend our summers scurrying from shadow to shadow, desperately seeking out somewhere that sells factor 250 sunblock. I did have visions of spending the summer lounging around in the sun, having barbeques and drinking fine USian beers. This was the case for April & May, but the daytime temperatures are now regularly hitting 35C and above - it got to 40C yesterday, setting a record for the warmest weather I've ever experienced.

One thing that is quite striking about weather forecasts in the US is that they tend towards the hysterical, so we tend to get warnings about tornados, wild fires, torrential flooding, snowmageddon, baking sun and rains-of-frogs on pretty much a daily basis. A consequence of this is that one begins to ignore the weather warnings and have a little smug giggle about how much more hysterical the US media is than back home (unless you read the Daily Mail or any of the Murdoch rags, of course...)

So, we took yesterday's weather warning about the incoming storm with the usual pinch of salt. Then the storm came - I've never seen so much lightning before: there were a few flashes every 1 or 2 seconds, and this went on for a few hours. I tried standing outside when the storm first hit, but with all the bits of trees flying around at face-height and the driving rain soaking me to the skin, I decided that it was best to retreat indoors lest I turn my wife into a widow.

It was breath-taking to be out in though, truly exciting to witness such an impressive weather phenomenon first-hand. Although it was easy to enjoy it with the privilege of having an nice, dry house and air-conditioning to retreat too. I can't even imagine how much it would suck to be homeless in that storm. For us, it seemed pretty impressive and our electricity went down for about an hour but then came back, so we didn't think the storm was that bad.

And then we had a walk around our neighbourhood this morning. As I'm not the most articulate fella in the world, I'll give you some photos to give an idea of the carnage that was around. Click on the photos for the full-sized images.

Most of the houses on our street (actually, I think all of them except for our block) are still without power, as is most of the local neighbourhood. Our local pub was on of the few places open, so we were able to grab a lunch, a pint and Wimbledon before giving up on our shopping tasks for today. According to the Washington Post, 1.3 million homes are still without power, and regional "cooling centres" have been opened so that people without power, and therefore air conditioning, can go somewhere to hide from the heat. Today was a bit milder, at a mere 36C. More storms are forecast for tonight, so I might take the weather warning a little bit more seriously this time.

I'll leave you with a wee ditty that I learned at primary school:

Whether the weather be fine,

Or whether the weather be not.

Whether the weather be cold,

Or whether the weather be hot.

We'll weather the weather,

Whatever the weather, 

Whether we like it or not!

A letter to the Home Secretary

Hey folks, this post will be in a slightly different style to my usual ramblings, because I have something to moan about that does not revolve around food, too many cars on the road or people spelling words like "colour" badly. In fact, my post has nothing directly to do with the US, other than to highlight one area where the US fares much better than the path currently being chosen by the UK Coalition government.

For those who haven't heard, Theresa May (the Home Secretary) would like to limit immigration to satisfy the xenophobic leaning of many on the right of her party and to try and stop Tory voters from drifting to UKIP*. The majority of UK immigration comes from the EU, but obviously the Home Secretary cannot do anything about that. So her latest plan, as detailed by the Guardian on Friday is to prevent UK citizens from bringing their foreign born wife to the UK if the UK citizen earns below £25700 (with no children) and up to £46000 or more if they have children.

While Dom and I are obviously not impoverished, if these rules were enacted then they would prevent us from coming back to the UK in a few years if we happen to pop a sprog or two while we're over here. So, as you can imagine, I believe this proposal to be somewhat stupid, given how much the UK taxpayer has invested in training Dom and I. As much as I'm enjoying living in the US at the moment, I'd rather not have the Tories turn me from a legal nonresident alien into a nomadic alien, exiled to the frozen wastelands of Canada for all time. Or at least, I'd like to choose to head to the frozen wastelands of Canada instead of being driven there by badly thought-out immigration laws.

One thing that the US does very well is that it welcomes (for a few years anyway) those of a foreign persuasion who want to work here, as long as they know they are expected to leave eventually. Which is fair enough - I'm grateful that US taxpayers are paying me to do my hobby, although I suppose they get a good deal out of it as well.

Anyway, when someone from my country gets pissed off, we don't riot in the streets like the French, or aggressively have a cup of tea like the English. In Scotland, we either hit the person who annoyed us, get outrageously drunk, or write an angry letter. I chose the latter option so below is a letter I wrote to Theresa May explaining why I think her immigration plans are a bit daft.

As an aside, I would like to say that, were Scotland independent, we would head down a different path and welcome immigrants with open arms. But Alex Salmond is being rather coy in explaining what independence would actually mean and my sources on the ground say that the natives are starting to get rather restless. So come on Alex, man-up and spell it out, we might say even say yes... (well, not me personally as Theresa May won't let me bring my wife back home!)

* To my non-UK readers, UKIP is a right-wing party in the UK who want, along with the usual  conservative agenda, to remove the UK from the EU. UKIP is basically a home for the rabid right of the Tory party who consider themselves too respectable / not racist enough to support the BNP.
 
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Dear Ms May,

I have been reading in the media about plans that you have to limit immigration such that UK nationals who marry non-EU partners will need to demonstrate a substantial income (more than £27,000 with no children) if they would like to bring their partner back to the UK. I am writing to let you know that I believe this  plan to be deeply short-sighted and detrimental to the UK as a whole.

I am a neuroscientist, having finished my doctorate at the University of Oxford last year. Whilst studying at Oxford, I met and married the woman who is now my wife, a Canadian microbiologist who also completed her masters & doctorate at Oxford. We are currently working in the US, where we have both obtained postdoctoral fellowships at fairly prestigious institutions. I'm not sure if you are aware, but early-career academic researchers earn a relatively low salary, especially compared to other professionals such as lawyers, medical doctors and Members of Parliament.

The general career path for a researcher (in the life sciences, at least) is to spend at least 5 or 6 years in junior research positions at different institutions before trying to obtain an academic position such as a lectureship. Given the reproductive window of our species, our early research careers also come at a time when we would be starting a family, so it is not unlikely that we will have 1 or 2 children within the next few years. As well as starting a family, we will also need to decide which country to settle in, which would either be Canada, where my wife is from, or the UK.

If you proceed with your seriously ill-conceived plans to limit immigration, it is likely that the rules would prevent me being able to return to the UK with my wife. As well as grossly abusing my rights to family as a UK and EU citizen (my wife and I have both paid not insignificant sums to the exchequer whilst living in the UK), you would also be ensuring that the investment made by the UK taxpayer in educating both myself and my wife would be well and truly wasted. Although that cost may be insignificant compared to, say, mothballing an aircraft carrier before it enters service, it is still squandering taxpayers' money, which I suspect is not why we elected you.

Kind regards,
Dr Michael T. Craig