It’s Sunday and it’s August, so I don’t really want to go down the reading-my-research-interests-into-everything rabbit hole right now, but note this quote. Note that the Pentagon wants to track and even shape social networking trends and that the government in my state eventually began monitoring the activity of anti-Walker protestors on the #wiunion Twitter hashtag. We’d be foolish not to expect this (or even to suggest that there’s something inherently wrong with it), but those who wish to engage in online activism or gather information from demonstrators and citizens on the ground should be aware of this trend. Persons who have an interest in information policy and/or literacies should be responding to and commenting upon our government’s apparent increased interest in the online political lives of its citizens.
ITV Reporter:Is rioting the correct way to express your discontent?
Young Londoner:You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?
ITV Reporter:...
Young Londoner:Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of rioting and looting and look around you.
(Do we have a source for this? Because it's excellent.)
Sucking the color out of life since 1979.
(Okay, really? This is me at Westminster Abbey. Photo taken and tweaked by Dave.)
I’ve continued to carry it with me, but my Oyster card is lonely.
Its shell urges me not to throw it away, invites me to use it “again and again.”
It wants to know how many stops to St. James’s Park.
Political unrest stalks us across the Atlantic. We used part of our last day in London to walk through March for the Alternative, an anti-austerity, anti-public service cuts rally being held in Hyde Park. The rally was arranged as the conclusion of a march through the streets of London - the BBC estimates that 250,000 people were in attendance.
As we passed Speakers’ Corner, after having walked through crowds of shoppers on Oxford Street, mixed with what they call “splinter groups” and very stern looking police, a Scottish Socialist handed us the card that I’m holding here. We walked about 30 feet before I looked down at the card, yelled, and ran back to him. “Hey! This is us!! We’re from Wisconsin!”
Pictures and thoughts to follow, once we’re on a wifi connection that doesn’t leave so much to be desired.
GPOYW, “I Seriously Had to Ask Dave What Day It Is” Edition.
Couple of things going on here:
- Two nights ago, as we walked into the Sloaney Pony, Dave and I were immediately (immediately - before we opened our mouths, ordered anything, fumbled with the local currency, etc. etc.) sussed out as Americans by two elegantly intoxicated gentlemen near the entrance. Please note that we were both misshapen sweatshirt and fanny pack-free and were not (openly) carrying a camera or wearing incredibly white sneakers. As such, I am currently in the process of trying to crack the wardrobe code. First attempt = pashmina purchased near the Embankment Underground station. I’ve been watching you, Europeans. You and your pashminas. Observation indicates that the pashmina is the urban European woman’s version of being dropped into the forest with only a Swiss Army Knife and three waterproof matches. No one has (openly) laughed at me yet.
- As Dave just posted, Le Pain Quotidien, Wisconsin. Learn it, love it.
- Also pictured: alarmingly large bottle of organic cider from Herefordshire. Can’t decide if I like it. Will keep drinking and report back later.
[insert tirade about pigheaded American resistance to the glories of well-funded/maintained mass transit and public spaces here.]
