BrainStream: Protest March Headed from Common to Fleet

Interesting. Just got a SMS Message stating that the BTS protest march has just left the Common and is heading down Beacon St. to the Fleet Center. How's THAT for to-the-minute updates?

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BrainStream: More Protest Pen Pictures

Weld Pond has updated his pictures of the the Free Speech Pen from this morning's protest of it.

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BrainStream: BTS March Hits "Soft Zone", Police Request Search

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BrainStream: Year of the Blog.....sortof

Well, the Year of the Blog at the DNC is getting off to a slow start. So far most of what has been posted has nothing to do with news - it's mostly touristy, delegate-like musings, discussions of the parties, drinking, celebrity-spotting, and protest-gawking. In addition to that, its taking forever for bloggers to get their posts online due to limited Net access. I figured people would do all they can to extend and access the Internet to blog more real-time. You guys need sidekicks and PocketPC phones!

Now that the convention has been gavelled to order, hopefully things will change. Despite this, I've already spotted two small things that point to some interesting changes on the political front - Electablog speaks with Oakland, CA Mayor Jerry Brown & David Weinberger's chat with Representative Henry Waxman about the difficulties of investigating the various follies of the Bush administration.

Is this a fluke of the DNC? Or will politicos realize that the way to get the real issues out to the people....will be to go directly to the peoples' voice? The people! Hopefully we'll hear more stories of this nature and our representatives in Washington will soon realize that not only are they representing us, but we can help them in the process of doing that.

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BrainStream: Be Smart on Boston Transit During DNC

A friend of mine who works in a Chemistry lab on at an East Coast University said today a friend passed him a notice being sent around from another Boston-area University Chemistry lab reminding staff and students not to be stupid enough to bring samples of research along with them on the T, bus or other form of public transportation.

To those of us who have been paying enormous attention to security matters this week, it's obvious but to exhausted, jaded students who have been awake for 72 hours on caffeine and munchies....it might not occur to them that while the partially synthesized protein enzyme is harmless - the two burly Boston police searching everyone with a backpack might not be so smart. Who would have thunk?

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BrainStream: Bloggers Bored - Get the Real Story!

Fellow bloggers, if you're bored - stop watching from the 7th floor. You're not at the DNC to blog all the boring speeches, (though someone may want to keep an ear out for anything interesting said), go into the crowd like the press and meet the delegates from your states - chat with delegates who aren't getting the media attention, or go outside and chat with locals, protesters and other folks about Boston. If you can celebrity-spot before a journalist can & get a candid story - all the more power to you. But blogging the DNC isn't just about posting faster than the press - it's about getting and publishing the stories the press will never find.

Though kudos to the BBC for interviewing Robert Reich - my favorite to run against Mitt Romney for governor a few years back. They're live down in the BBC booth- bloggers, stalk!

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