Short Stories, Long Odds

(cross posted at http://ratlist.tumblr.com)

We have all watched over the last few days as Twitter went from being a hot social networking tool to being used by brave Iranians to change the world. With media restrictions in place from the Iranian government, the main source of news coming out of Iran was, especially in the first few days, the tweets of students and protestors and supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

As the protest has grown and the days have worn on, the nature of the intelligence one could glean from certain twitter feeds – #IranElection and #GR88, in particular – changed. In the first few days it was a heavy but seemingly pure stream of raw intelligence, dispatches that contained up to the minute updates on everything from events personally observed by the twitters to rumors to video and pictures of the ongoing clash between protestors and government forces.

In the last 48 hours, the main tagged feeds have become diluted: innocently, by western twitterers who have been captivated and motivated by what they’ve read; and more troublingly, by people who are quite obviously disseminating incorrect, inflammatory, or misleading information. The latter is incredibly problematic, as Twitter is not only being used as a source of information for the outside world. It is also being used by activists in separate parts of the country to communicate information about what is happening where they are. So not only does the misinformation dilute the message and news coming from the Iranian people fighting for freedom, it also is detrimental to their efforts, and could very well have life or death consequences.

That is why I’m starting The Rat List – a collection of Twitter users disseminating incorrect or blatantly propagandistic information. Many of these users have new accounts, have no history of accurate updates, and are not trusted sources. They could be Iranian intelligence agents organizing to thwart the efforts of the activists and put down what is becoming a vibrant and viable uprising. They could also just be assholes who think they are being funny. Either way, I am mostly doing this for my own edification, to record some small part of what is happening in a way that I know something about, by analyzing raw intelligence. If it helps out, I’m glad for that too.

Visit http://ratlist.tumblr.com for updates.

I hope this is in a textbook my children read:

“People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” – President Bill Clinton

Things are bad all over. But the Congo, of all places, had multiparty elections today.

Mr. Mabuisi, the 80-year-old voter who has lived through it all, said he voted for Mr. Bemba because he was worried about what would happen if Mr. Bemba lost.

“This is democracy,” he said, as he slipped his precious voting card in his pocket and walked away.

Here’s a little light reading. I’m gonna leave that to you to figure out on your own.

Things were looking up today – the Red Sox moved to a record of 5-1, solidifying their perch atop the AL East, with Papi launching one and Papelbon and Beckett having great pitching turns in the home opener at that lovely cathedral of baseball on Yawkee Way. If you can’t tell, I’m feeling a little nostalgic for Boston.

The good day, however, was not to last. » Read the rest of this entry «

Marcus Porcius Cato (for you antiquity buffs out there – Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor) used to punctuate every speech, motion, and point of order on the floor of the Roman Senate with this phrase. It means, basically, “Carthage must be destroyed.” He would append it to every declaration. Imagine.

“We recommend that taxes shall be raised on olive exports and, further, Carthage must be destroyed.”

» Read the rest of this entry «