The Arab Spring

I have a feeling that this is just going to make the protesters angrier and make the situation a whole lot uglier for the government.

Yes, but with less organization, so that the protests won't be as effective. It's a shrewd move on the government's part to disrupt the Net, but they probably thought it to be less damaging to do that.

Still sucks, though.

They may take our jobs, our friends, and our freedom, BUT THEY'LL NEVER TAKE OUR TWITTER!

Anyway, ABC news rather blatantly said that Americans should worry about all this, because the US government is friends with the governments of Egypt and Yemen. How nice.

Mubarak goes under, Gaza will burn and Israel will come under attack. The usual doomsday scenarios. Not that there isn't a hint of truth to that.....

On the other hand, Saleh goes under, we have three Yemens to deal with.

He shut down their internet. They now have a large group of people with no access to porn, that's not going to end well.

Based on a few glances through Twitter, it looks like a few groups are attempting to organize protests on Egyptian embassies.

It will be interesting to see how many of these are just talk.

I hope this is more successful than the Iran one.

Well, Tunisia managed to enact some regime change.... They're calling it the Jasmine Revolution - the media likes giving revolutions nice pretty little names.

@Deboss: And given that a crapload of the population is at the age where they view such things, this is certainly not going to end well for ol' Hosni...

Crap. Just relized that if Egypt is under protests, that will most likley affect crude oil prices. I guess I'll be saying "hi" to 4 bucks a gallon here shortly.

...might be why the State Department is concerned, partly.

Anonymous is getting in on the fun.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/105329/20110126/egyptian-government-web-sites-attacked.htm

4...dollars...a gallon.

...according to currency converter, that's £2.52/gallon.

We pay £1.30/LITRE here.

Sigh.

EDIT: Feeling great shame at being more moved to post by the price of petrol than by the situation in Egypt. I hope it resolves with as little loss of life as possible, thinking in both short and long-term.

edited 28th Jan '11 11:29:37 AM by mmysqueeant

Got a nice live stream.

^^ You guys get taxed at like eight times the average rate than the US in terms of gasoline taxes.

edited 28th Jan '11 11:28:45 AM by MajorTom

They also don't have to worry about driving so much.

America was designed to where you need a car to go ANYWHERE.

Well when your country is the size of a continent, driving and long distance travel are kind of a necessity.

While it's true that in America things tend to be more spread out (at least partly because the land was settled after the adoption of locomotives, and a lot of the development happened after the adoption of automobiles) that's not the entire issue. Americans just drive more when they don't have to, while Europeans are more willing to walk/bike/whatever.

edited 28th Jan '11 11:55:50 AM by Wanderhome

^ However, private driving isn't a complete necessity. Buses, trams, trains, planes and carpooling exist.

// I mean, currently installing predominant communal traffic in the US wouldn't just magic away the problems because the US is a hugely car-friendly and anti-other means of transport country. But favouring developement that favours these other means of transport would help with gas costs per person and traffic congestions and whatnot. Your obesity rates might even go down when you'd actually need to move in order to get somewhere.

edited 28th Jan '11 12:00:53 PM by Kamera

Busses suck balls pretty much everywhere in the USA. They don't go everywhere they should and when they do they're often late or randomly don't show up.

Not all cities have trams.

Planes are two, three times the cost of driving.

Trains are both double the cost of driving easy AND don't go everywhere, so you're really SOL.

In the UK, trains are readily available, as well as busses and trams. Planes for domestic travel are unneeded. Plus, you can walk from one side of Manchester to the other with no trouble. Not so for most of the larger US cities. Manchester is friggan tiny - and it's large by UK standards.

edited 28th Jan '11 12:11:06 PM by Yamikuronue

Busses suck balls pretty much everywhere in the USA. They don't go everywhere they should and when they do they're often late or randomly don't show up. Not all cities have trams. Planes are two, three times the cost of driving. Trains are both double the cost of driving easy AND don't go everywhere, so you're really SOL. In the UK, trains are readily available, as well as busses and trams. Planes for domestic travel are unneeded. Plus, you can walk from one side of Manchester to the other with no trouble. Not so for most of the larger US cities. Manchester is friggan tiny - and it's large by UK standards.

Trains in the U.K. cost at best the same amount as a car journey would, in terms of petrol. At worst they can be 4-5 times more expensive - even off-peak. The system honestly makes very little sense, sometimes.

Trams are very rare. Very rare indeed.

Buses are definitely the way to go in the U.K., for instance the Megabus is £1 per town you travel through - that's cheap travel.

There's also several buses that use unconventional fuel sources, for instance the Brighton Lemon (runs on left-over cooking oil, if I remember correctly) or the Bath Uni service.

For me to go into the city and get things done costs less than £2 round-trip; it's maybe a half hour tops between trains, more like 10 minutes during busy periods. When I lived in North Carolina, to get across town to the grocery store would have required changing busses twice. Or I could hop in the car and drive ten minutes to the closer store which isn't on a bus route.

Over long distances the equations change, but getting into work every day when you live in the suburbs requires a car - my dad had the option of a half hour drive into work or a fifteen minute drive to park at the airport and take the train into work. There was no bus, train, or tram that ran in his neighbourhood at all.

edited 28th Jan '11 12:51:38 PM by Yamikuronue

Good point, the short train journeys are about as cheap as car travel, which is more important for most people.

Desperate attempt to get back On-Topic: Anonymous appear to have done little to affect events, again. Clinton urged the Egyptian government to do something nice in vague terms. Nothing really new.

Google, or at least Google's chief legal advisor, has weighed in saying "access to information...is a fundamental right." Why is it a fundamental right here, but it wasn't in China? Seems hypocritical to me.

El Baradei and other senior opposition leaders in Egypt have been placed under house arrest.

Presidential guards are attempting to defend the museums.

The headquarters of the National Democratic Party has been torched. Officials are attempting to put out the fire.

Police stations in Alexandria are also burning.

edited 28th Jan '11 2:03:46 PM by Pentadragon

Really? Welp, giving the protesters martyrs should work out just dandy. After all, no-one ever rallied around a single person more than they would for an ideal before.

The Egyptian government at this point is either gone or it's shed the last vestiges of respectability and has no choice but to become a 100% tyranny.