Once again it is the weekend and I need to cleanse the way for next week’s political fecal matter…..this is how I keep from losing my mind…indulge me…..

50,000 people take to the streets of Madison……100,000 protests march in the streets of London…..a million people crowd the DC Mall to hear Glenn Beck rant……over a million people squeeze into Tahrir Square in Cairo…..and the beat goes on……

You hear of crowds like this almost daily….have you ever thought   “how the Hell do they know that?”  After seeing a photo of the event?…..Well I have wonder just how they go about their counts or estimation…..

In a recent article on BBC:

There are two ways of estimating numbers, he says. One is drawn from having a rough idea in advance of the capacity of streets in the area where people gathered for the start of the march.This advance planning involves studying very precise maps with measurements of streets, and then multiplying the width by the length to get the area, he says. Then you apply a rule of thumb that three people per square metre is comfortable and four is like a rock concert.

But then a second stage of calculations is required, to allow for the fact this is a moving group, with many people joining the march late. This requires some knowledge of how long the march takes to pass a particular point in the road.It would be better to always supply a caveat of a 20% margin of error but the media demand for accurate numbers is an impossible one to meet.

But there is a political dimension to the numbers game, and organisers of any demonstration are always open to accusations they inflate the numbers for their own ends.

And now you know how they calculate how many people are part of any protests or gathering…..so my fellow activist you can now do you own calculations and disputer any of the figures that may appear by the opposition or the media…..

Just doing my part for the cause……