I'm a long-haul Cosmic anthropologist, which means I hop around isolate-planets (like Earth) in order to study Advanced Language Species (like homo s… - Yakoub Islam

Riots may be symptoms of a deeper socio-political malaise: the product of unjust government policy and racist policing. I know from friends I have spoken to who were participants in the 1981 Brixton riots, that riots can engender a great deal of local solidarity against an oppressive State. But I am far from convinced that energy spent doing damage to life, limb and property is likely to prove more productive than properly thought-out and planned non-violent direct action. More likely the opposite.

Learning is something I’m good at, given the right conditions. Drop me in the middle of an academic subject I care about, and that has relatively clearly defined boundaries, and I can do "expert" more quickly and more comprehensively than most. It’s not vacuous memorization: I’m no savant. What I do is create a schema of fundamental knowledge and understandings, usually over-learned using SQ3R, and that schema then becomes a powerful magnet for related information.

Al-Buraq to Earth. Contact made. Link established with planet Earth. Kamal, onboard computer, setting up Mission Log in accordance with first contact communication protocols. Set up complete. Awaiting further instructions.