Contemporania

In the interests of putting this diary in a temporal context, I’ll drop a few notes here:

• Just less than two hours ago, Steve Fosset successfully completed the first solo non-stop flight around the world. Fosset is a famous American adventurer who previously flew non-stop around the world in a hot-air balloon.
• A few days ago the trial of Michael Jackson (infamous singer for the last three decades; mentalist for the last decade) started in Santa Maria, California. I don’t take much interest in the trial but it’s big news over here in the States. Most talk-shows are pretty much making the assumption that he’s guilty as hell.
• The Supreme Court of the United States (the highest court of law in the country) has ruled that people cannot be given a death penalty for a murder committed under the age of eighteen. It was a close vote (five judges for, four against). The death penalty can still be handed out to those who commit murder over that age however, but it is seen as a step in the direction of removing the death penalty altogether — something Europe saw as a good idea a long time ago.
• I just bought a ~500ml cup of tea (only my third in a month), and it cost me $1.39.
• The current price of a gallon of petrol in the US is about $1.94, compared to roughly $9 in the UK. Americans are unhappy at paying $1.94!

Please feel free to add a comment with anything you think defines the moment.