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[Vector]

Student protests in Berkeley today.  Not very big ones, though.

[Virex]

Why're they protesting?

Really, what are we supposed to do about it? It's in Bumfuck, Egypt!

Although the idea of finding local protest leaders and equipping them with Class IV body armor, motorcycles, megaphones, and a shortwave radio network sounds like it could be a good idea.

It would seem Mubarak had the same idea

[SalmonGod]

Exactly.  Watching is really all I can do, unfortunately.  If I could teleport to those people who got trashed by that van with medical supplies and knowledge, I would.

[Vector]

They want the US to stop funding Mubarak--apparently we've given him/Egyptian jerks 30 billion dollars over the past 30 years.

They're quite unhappy about it, but the protest was only about 40 people.  I doubt it will get anywhere serious.

[Bouchart]

Student protests in Berkeley today.  Not very big ones, though.

Seems like any other Thursday to me.

[nenjin]

Really, what are we supposed to do about it? It's in Bumfuck, Egypt!

Although the idea of finding local protest leaders and equipping them with Class IV body armor, motorcycles, megaphones, and a shortwave radio network sounds like it could be a good idea.

Or it could turn Egypt into a bad re-creation of Resident Evil 5.

[Vector]

Student protests in Berkeley today.  Not very big ones, though.

Seems like any other Thursday to me.

Not really.  Usually, the people hanging out in the main plaza are crazies trying to hock end-of-the-world scenarios, not protesters shouting about Mubarak and carrying signs written in Arabic.  We're a lot less politically active nowadays.

[PTTG??]

How do people actually find out about these protests? All the time I'm hearing about how there was a protest at so-and-so and a zillion people showed up, but I have yet to see a single flier or classified add or anything saying "hey, let's all go someplace and yell about something!"

[Max White]

How do people actually find out about these protests? All the time I'm hearing about how there was a protest at so-and-so and a zillion people showed up, but I have yet to see a single flier or classified add or anything saying "hey, let's all go someplace and yell about something!"

Well let's see, it could be a sudent union thing, they have rooms where you can hang around doing nothing and read the stuff on the walls.\
It could be an Egyptian thing, and they texted all there freinds.
It could be 4chan looking for another reason to get on the streets, little hell raisers that they are...

[Vector]

How do people actually find out about these protests? All the time I'm hearing about how there was a protest at so-and-so and a zillion people showed up, but I have yet to see a single flier or classified add or anything saying "hey, let's all go someplace and yell about something!"

Berkeley actually has a club that supports revolutions (which I believe got this little shindig together, along with support from various Middle Eastern student groups--the organizations are usually talking to each other and planning this sort of stuff); usually these things spread by word-of-mouth, though.  If you want to know where to find peace protests, I imagine the Quaker church is a good place to find out.  There's also websites like this.  You can find them for the specific causes if you do a little googling.

[SalmonGod]

How do people actually find out about these protests? All the time I'm hearing about how there was a protest at so-and-so and a zillion people showed up, but I have yet to see a single flier or classified add or anything saying "hey, let's all go someplace and yell about something!"

I think it typically starts with those people being angry about something, looking up information about it, then discovering that someone is organizing an event about it.  If you're not looking at least semi-intentionally, you're unlikely to see anything about a protest until it's happening.  It doesn't help that any sort of meaningful protest typically has to be somewhat secretive, in order to put authorities on the defensive when responding.  Otherwise they turn into the police going "Ok you can exercise your freedom of speech in this cage or march this path we've mapped for you.  Either option is guaranteed to be miles away from the public figures or attending media you wish to display your unhappiness to."

The only exceptions are extremely high-profile events with backing from celebrities and the like, that can only be minimally contained by virtue of sheer size.

[Leafsnail]

Cambridge university has a pretty active protest segment (although they tend to complain about silly things like alcohol allowances).  There was a 50 strong student vigil outside the council offices last night.  There'll probably be a fullscale one too and maybe some occupations, because any excuse to avoid working they truly and passionately believe in democracy.

[Tellemurius]

we don't care here, nothing we can do about it.

[Seamas]

Cambridge university has a pretty active protest segment (although they tend to complain about silly things like alcohol allowances).  There was a 50 strong student vigil outside the council offices last night.  There'll probably be a fullscale one too and maybe some occupations, because any excuse to avoid working they truly and passionately believe in democracy.

What exactly do the Cambridge students want, anyway?  If it's solidarity with the Egyptians I don't understand occupying a building, or even protesting at all.  The thing will work itself out.

[Aqizzar]

Breaking news, as of a couple hours ago: The Obama administration is now negotiating with Omar Suleiman and the military's top officers, to arrange for a transitional government until September, so that Mubarak will step down as soon as possible.  It's unclear if Mubarak himself is actually involved in this negotiation for his retirement.

And yeah, the whole "beat up reporters" thing is alive, well, and absolutely confirmed.  Similar media-control campaigns have followed it, such as several hundred Twitter accounts made in the last two days, which spend all their time bombarding the Egyptian network with pro-government statements, and that the major Egyptian cell-phone service says they were forced by government agents to send out thousands of unsigned text-messages calling riot and protest "dishonorable".  Anchors from Egypt's state-run TV service (Nile TV) have fled their offices and joined the crowd, saying literally "I couldn't take it anymore".