From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Sat Feb 22 2003 - 13:48:52 MST
Michael M. Butler wrote:
>
> Let's hear it for LOS BRINISTAS OF THE SKY! Eyelevel estimates finally get
> a reasonable challenge.
Brinistas are guilty of injecting some objectivity into
the passion of a protest rally.
> Bear in mind that a snapshot doesn't characterize the "churn" if any of
> the crowd.
> To do that well, we would need to (oppressively?) track ins-and-outs
> somehow. MMB
No need for that at all. Instead of reporting how
many people were at a rally, report the number of
human-hours were at such an event. There will be always
a number of people who attend just long enough to
make the scene and say they were present, should it
become advantageous to do so, with little real interest
in the cause.
A high flying Brincopter or equivalent, taking one photo
every minute for the entire duration, then integrating
over time would give a more accurate and meaningful
estimate of attendance. It would be interesting to then
compare to a rock concert or the Bay to Breakers rallies,
a ball game or perhaps even a typical day at Disneyland.
I would also want to compare the crowd to the ordinary
background rabble of proles one finds in any urban area.
I could go to Times Square at noon Monday with a ladder
and a bullhorn, shouting slogans in favor of universal
surveillance, then claim that 100k people attended my
rally.
Just telling me how many people attended is meaningless.
I want to know how many are there for how long and how
many really mean it.
spike
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