It certainly doesn’t feel staged, the only things missing are the live video cameras.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8GvLKTsTuI

I think it's scatter-shot and occasionally clumsy, but sonically it's brilliantly evocative, and kudos to him releasing such a highly charged…

Yes, both factions revere the King, and this is partly built on the basis the monarchy, King No 5, I think, abolished slavery and at the same time as setting the people free initiated land reforms.

When I refer to the…

92 people died in the troubles – horrible – and the first major incident was the one in Khao San Rd in April, which may be the one you are referring to. In that incident there seems to be…

BANGKOK, 14 July 2011 (NNT) – The Pheu Thai Party has asked the Election Commission (EC) to certify MP status for all elected candidates urgently after the endorsement for many of its key members is pending.

Looking into it further as…

The guy in the chair in the top photo is the King – snubbing them I guess.

My favourite is this dude:

Education Minister:
Worawat Ua-apinyakul

Mr Worawut is…

The succession, though, will cause a fairly profound change in the way folks here see their king. The extreme devotion is to the guy, not the title.

Also, his likely successor sounds like a right tool. The big problem with monarchy, always has been.

The delay in…

I’m not quite clear on what his point is

I suppose…

Westminster council later notoriously attempted the reverse policy in attempting to privatise and demolish council estates. This was…

I’m not quite clear on what his point is, but this…

The info I got immediately after the election was in early July that there was a "refusal" by the Electoral Commission to acknowledge the Prime Minister and others and…

The info I got immediately after the election was in early July that there was a "refusal" by the Electoral Commission to acknowledge the Prime Minister and…

We've long congratulated ourselves, in London, of the fact that we have no banlieue. We applauded ourselves especially smugly when zoned, segregated Paris rioted a few years ago. It's not like it's untrue—give or take the odd exception (a Thamesmead, a Chelmlsey…

With the support of David Cameron, Conservative Wandsworth council was the first to attempt to evict tenants who had been caught up…

I'm surprised we haven't heard from Westwood.

I can imagine a swift and violent response. I think the same thing might happen here too.

What's been happening in the Middle East has yet to reach the significance of the…

You are suggesting DexterX act as a benevolent dictator, it is NZ's only real hope, No?

The London riots are not representative of a serious movement to overthrow the government and challenge the social order of the day – they are in the nature of opportunistic looting and rioting.

Riots/uprising that are politically based…

Who'd have expected sense from Russell Brand?

He's from the street, he'd have first hand knowledge of where it all goes wrong.

Agnes and her friends chose their route carefully from their estate to the chicken shop. Most often they were to be found at the Crib youth club, a safe space for…

being satirical, I thought

When you add Garth George, Michael Lhaws, et al, it seems fatuous bigoted wittering has a reliable market, if only among middle-aged newspaper editors.

I know what/where you come from DexterX , but let's for a change try the top 003% and the rest up there at the top income bracket of the country instead of always targeting the poor/suffering/ incapable/can'ts of the country and…

Good. I was hoping someone would post that – and that local political folk notice there are potential coalitions of interest with the more conservative right against radically selfish and immoral neolib positions.

The Prime Minister showed no sign that he understood that something stank about…

Or from the Telegraph?

In the past 24 hours I've seen sensible commentary on both the Telegraph and Time sites. I'm with Ben – this may well be the end of times.

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came…

I'm pretty much referring to GDP per head, which has been historically been high for NZ and many other Western nations. For a long time this was…

Amidst the bleakness of this social landscape, squinting all the while in the glare of a culture that radiates ultraviolet consumerism and infrared celebrity. That daily, hourly, incessantly enforces the egregious, deceitful message that you are what you wear, what you drive, what…

This is a bit broad and unconnected, what is or where would you set an unsustainably high income and who gets paid it.…

For many people I know, it's the place to be.

From Indonesia north, with the possible exception of Japan, Asia isn't in crisis, quite the opposite.

And Japan's crisis is very similar to the Western one. Unsustainably high incomes leading to unrealistic expectations…

Crucially, yes. The before and after of 1929 saw the power base in the same geographic place. The ructions of…

We may wonder why western leaders, on the one hand, tend to indiscriminately accuse other nations of monitoring, but on the other take for granted their steps to monitor and control the Internet.

They are…

Not sure about that. The option of war has been a constant feature of the system, as a way of stimulating production when the natural tendency towards…

In the context of Key and chums preparing to slash benefits in the name of reducing 'dependence', O'Sullivan talks about his mum and her's both raising families alone in 1960s…

I'd say it's a different…

You're exaggerating

I suspect Western capitalism is probably less in crisis at…

To cut a long story short, Holmes thinks no true Scotsman, oops, Londoner, goes on a burning spree – the sentence "it is so catastrophically un-British"…

I thought it was more traditional to ride them down from horseback, but, you know, whatever works.

So I'm reading about this entire other world, this world of beautiful dreams and beautiful houses and estates and balls and good manners that Hitler swept away,…

Rioting…

I really don't see your point. These aren't trends that *matter* on an individual level. They're trends that matter on a voting-patterns, society-wide level. One person who protests for a fairer society at twenty…

It’s not so much the boomers, but rather those who sold out and became what they rebelled against

Which every generation does, one way or another.

No that would be a individual who does that. Please try not to extrapolate out erroneously.

they decided they quite liked being the ones…

Which every generation does, one way or another. It's not like the boomers are special in that regard. (In precisely how they took advantage of the following generation, sure, but in that…

Reporter Andrew Gilligan wrote in the Daily Telegraph: "Here in…

Those too.

If Pizza Castello is the place I'm thinking of, it's where we had our rather disasterous (non-) first date. A tale for another time, though.

Sadly, it now appears to be gone. Google streetview shows a building site, and there's some chat here about them…

I might quibble there – maybe you mean neoliberal? Neoconservatism is quite a specific ideology which has few supporters outside of the United States.

I lived (i.e.: squatted) on Rockingham Estate in the Elephant, and briefly in a little estate just off the Walworth Road, with a mad Italian Manc…

It's not so much the boomers, but rather those who sold out and became what they rebelled against, which has considerable overlap but not one and the same. A lot of neo-cons, boomer or not, fall into that…

In two weeks and then again three weeks after that.

The only part that upset this 64yrold was – yet again- the collapsing of people born between 1945&1965 into one homologous mass...and the ascription of both life experiences and political viewpoints of a certain kind ('selfish/self-interested only') to both generations.

Other than that, it's both…

Brilliant. How?

The UN’s first ever report on the state of childhood in the industrialized West made unpleasant reading for many of the world’s richest nations. But none found it quite so hard to swallow as the Brits, who, old…

I know the Walworth road pretty well: I used to live at the Camberwell end and my girlfriend (now wife) at the Elephant end.

I was joking the other night that the only reason it didn't get turned over was because it's such a dump. Looks like…

I believe your presence is required over at today’s ladies thread, which is guaranteed apocalypse-free.

Not at all.

Once again Mr Hopkins demonstrates the need for education.

This one seems close enough.

Moo, Baa, La la la!

ETA: Russell, I'm pretty sure we need a "print this to t-shirt" function!

I can attest that Blair Parkes brick font works well for this.

Ignorance is bliss?

Russell, I'm pretty sure we need a "print this to t-shirt" function!

Glad to have you on board. I have some literature.

I'd like to note belatedly that if you start liveblogging the apocalypse again I will be inventing a Fingers in Ears Lalalalala Machine and utilising it quick smart. Bloody dystopians.

And fracked?

Talk about attacking the symptom. Hosni Mubarak, anyone?

So, this is when I discover the attachment doesn’t take a tiff.

No argument from you, then. ;-)

Oddly enough, I started re-reading 'A Clockwork Orange' a couple of weeks ago.

Nothing in there really that would illuminate the current situation, except that teenagers do it because they can,…

@Steve, may I suggest the Camberwell Carrot.

@Gio & Craig: you are so cosmopolitan up in the big city. My neighbours are from the 'Naki.

@Tussock: they've got to get the rioting in now while petrol bombs are still…

No, but he might see himself as Robocop.

Yep, because all those other ones they've been given over the last 20-30 years have worked so well....

"You will pay for what you have done. We will track you down, we will find you,…

Another man walks into the bar. "Hey, there's this hairy chested guy outside blabbering and making obtuse gestures in the air".

Bartender "yeah, he just walked in, saw our nest of tables…

Do any of these austerity countries have a plan for the future of intermittent oil supplies, with modern growth being a…

I would recommend using a mortice and tenon joint for attaching the rails to the legs, preferably foxed with a soft wedge to accommodate changes in humidity and temperature.
As for the table top itself. Care must be taken in…

sounds like an @reply function..

width = 100%
#sorted

(and yes it would rely on posters only trying for a few columns of numbers, not a matrixed treatise)

a debugger that checks comments for internal logical consistency?

Gio! How could we have arguments then?!

Edit: thank…

With a mono tag

|I could make my own tables|
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
(Actually, I don't think tables are such a good idea, because of the limited horizontal space. For tables of figures, monospace would be a functional replacement)

That is quite honestly the geekiest bloody thing I've read all year.

I'll see what I can do.

Do tell me where the intermediate point is between here…

Wow, really? Have you discussed with them the role of the Western countries that New Zealand has been consistently…

You know, Gio, please go lecture my next door neighbours on what a shithole New Zealand is. They’ll patiently…

Hence that rather odd & pompous little literary club, "Groucho's". I was invited to join but declined for the eponymous actor's reason...

We're not as picky as we used to be.

What? No personality test?

Dear Mr. Murdoch,

We've all been feeling a bit shagged and fagged and fashed, it being a night of no small expenditure.

Per our agreement, the money deposited into the bank hole – though quite sufficient for two night's worth of the ol' firely sparkly neglects…

teeworthy in some circles

And that particular commenter is a well-known capital-L Libertarian who's usually quite reasoned with his comments too.

And I am totally unimpressed with the mindless, idiotic ramblings in the comments.
"Where does one find a future? There are 400-odd unemployed people for every job advertised in Tottenham."

So why do people stay there? Presumably only because…

Glad to have you on board. I have some literature.

An opposition could capitalise on the publicity, you'd think..

That's kinda misleading though. If you live in a London suburb, you don't have to work there – tubes and buses, that sort of thing. The poor areas of London aren't that way because of an absolute lack of…

We have some great little wind-up torches made by Quechua (no sirens). They were bought overseas though – don't know if they are available in NZ.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10744282

A key point is the weakening of the ability to be socially mobile by getting an education and the lack of focus on unemployment.

and I was absolutely horrified by this statistic

"There are 400-odd unemployed people for…

I believe his next video will be "How to clean crap off a lens with burned fingers"
What a waste of a good telescope... and my time.

Quote "It's like a giant magnifying glass, pretty much". No, you don't say?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjOTOUeERI4

Sure, if you look around at the financial markets or at the state of social services in this or most other developed nations, we are muddling through just splendidly, aren't we?

Or a Macroscope

Sure, but things never do. The…

I expect a bit more than x8 from anything claiming to be a microscope. My toy one as a kid did x300. Perhaps it's a miniscope?

It's called a microscope Ben. ;-)
The other way to make things look small is to stand a long way away.

Really deep shit is my telescope cant see through all the clouds that have donned the skys for since I got it like.

When the revolution comes, my survival kit is "not driving a European car".

Yes dear.
;-)

Woah. That's some deep shit right there.

And I'm minded that I referred rather snippily to Tariq Ali's big-picture musings about the…

I recall my cousins all travelled with shotguns and perfectly legal as long as they are displayed .Theirs being on the dashboard.

Pffft. My wind-up radio has a built in torch. And it's waterproof. Ready? I'm going disaster hunting for the halibut.

I'd hope. I take Craig's point that you can look through the other end of the telescope to avoid seeing the carnage sometimes. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't look through it that way sometimes.

If your aim is to rob people then it's the only kind you'd want. Also, over here you can get a license, but not for gangster weapons. To get MSSA guns you…

And a wind-up torch now, too. Got it at the Mitre 10 Mega Centre on Sunday. I'm ready.

But illegally, you can have anything, and it's probably easier to get an illegal firearm there than…

In the situations I found myself in, it wasn't. There may be far more of an element of that in this/these…

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20110808-global-economic-downturn-crisis-political-economy

Beyond the economic troubles, politics…

Fair enough, I'm finding it equally hard to get too wrought up about riots in London. I find it quite easy to see a bigger context, because there actually is one.

seen from…

That sort of senseless violence has to be stopped, at any cost. What if there had been a cat in there?

journalistic training can do that for you

You'll be fine when society collapses: you've got a wind-up radio, remember?

But no longer for buying a logoed shirt online. WW2 may be a way back but I'm sure there will be some out there wondering why the All Blacks are beholden to a German Company
Sport eh?
The root of…

I guess a more precise way of saying what I was saying in relation to '100% contagious' would be to say that all of the individuals who make up the crowd will be affected. How that…

Suit yourself. I agree with Ben (must stop saying that) that we may be seeing a systemic crisis, at least for the West.

I'm more or less blocking out what's happening with sovereign…

You know something, I’m have a real problem getting invested…

No – you & Hebe are misreading my comments. Of course twins are people. And hominins have been fascinated by the twoness since we've been...there are several cultures that…

Well, yes. Of course it is the tax…

That's why I said "my parents", rather than "our parents".

But I'm serious. It seems to me that Western capitalism is in crisis, because the logical outcome of it is finally coming to fruition, that the means of production have mostly moved out, and…

If anything, water cannons seem to have become a symbol of illiberalism, rather than as a form of crowd control, thanks in large…

Certainly not. But I did feel like an up-close observer rather than a participant.

And they can't put them all in the army and make them fight on the North-West frontier, either!

Oh, wait....

Well, neither did I, so by that definition, I was a bystander, too. But I bet you weren't exactly 100% cool, calm, collected and dispassionate either. :)

not sure if crowd dynamics are inherently…

The introduction of the former was partly the result of a guilty conscience about the latter. The establishment were worried they would go to hell for hanging all those people, but it didn't say anywhere in…

Exactly! They can't export their…

Sorta. As I said in the original post, I've felt that very powerful excitement standing amid rioting. I didn't leave the…

Considering one of my parents spent most of the Dub-Dub 2.0 in active military service (and large parts of Britain were…

Yeah, I'm interested in the causes. But what I was trying to get across was the feeling of visceral emotional volatility of being in those sort of situations, even on the fringes, and even when, relatively…

The good folks at Lenin's tomb have got there already!

It did occur to me that they might have a use in snuffing out newly-set small fires before they turn into the sort of raging conflagrations that gut multi-story buildings.

Plus which, a bunch of bedraggled and cold teens are possibly more…

Will humans have the sense to realize that we have the power to make heaven on earth

Bit late for that there's just to many of us. But.....you know....... maybe in a few years we could all get a condo in your 3rd choice location, and a job which doesnt…

It's a sodding journal article, so I can't get the full paper, but the abstract is extremely interesting:

Does fiscal consolidation lead to social unrest? From the end…

EDIT: that looks like a total non-sequitur. I just wrote 100+ words on the effects of aggressive escalation /…

I think Ben's (video) game theory has been on the mark — it's partly directed, partly chaotic, highly mobile.

This is one of the BBM broadcast messages Paul Lewis got:

Everyone in edmonton enfield woodgreen everywhere in north link up at enfield town station 4…

You don't reckon that's deliberate?

the redundant "2" should weed out the one-handed typists

Well, yeah. Kettling only works in areas that have already been secured, or can easily be secured. It relies on everyone being in the same place. That's just not what's happening there.

They seem to have adapted well to the cops' kettling tendencies.