Can't get enough

Since late yesterday evening I have been pretty regularly following The Guardian's live blog coverage of the on-going riots in England. Their round-the-clock coverage is really amazing.

That I can follow an international story like these riots in almost realtime still amazes me. Wireless and smartphone technology allow citizens and journalists and transmit multi-media updates as events are unfolding. Something that fits in one's pocket does the job of something that used to require a satellite truck.

Even just a few years ago we would have had to wait for at least a few hours to get the kind of information that we can now get in minutes. An event like this would have been covered by a relatively small number of journalists/cameras, many of which might be slow to find the action.

Oh, and I've also been following a site dealing exclusively with issues related to rioting in Birmingham. When I first came to this site only a few updates had been posted and things seemed relatively calm. Since yesterday afternoon this site seems to have become pretty good at aggregating reports from all over Birmingham and documenting the development of the riots there. (It's interesting to watch something become a thing in just a matter of hours.)

One last comment, the difference in tactics used by the riot police in England appears to be quite different than the tactics used by Canadian police during Toronto's recent G20 meetings. Instead of deploying tear gas and rubber bullets first and then arresting as many people as possible the London police seem to be taking a much more coolheaded approach. Of course, one major consequence of this approach is that many of those involved in rioting haven't been arrested and are free to continue rioting. It's an interesting value judgement that they have made.