I haven't been watching TV the last few days. Listening to them mangle what's going on and not going on is too hard to bear. 

It's too much to expect the talking heads on TV to tell it straight, or even understand it. Or as this Salon columnist guesses, they pretend not to understand, in ways a sports reporter would never get away with.  

Anyway -- why the riots? 

Seems to me the young folk figured out that law and order is a mass trance. If you choose not to buy into it you get crushed. But if you can get a few thousand others to go along with you, you can break through.  

If the young people of Egypt can figure out how to overthrow their government, why can't the young people of London? 

Big change was brought about in the 60s and 70s by people going to the streets, and it looks like it's happening again. How and when will it happen in the US and how many people will die? 

Lots of interesting stuff to think about.  

PS: I added some more ideas to my request list for Heello. It occurred to me that this might be a good time to really solidify federation techniques. Let's hope the Internet stays up for at least as long as it'll take to get this stuff working.