Comments for Fulbright in Portugal

Comment on City of music by Steve Doig

Steve Doig — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:41:07 +0000

Thanks, Miguel. I’m so language-disabled that it didn’t occur to me that “plaza” is Spanish; it’s used in English a lot to mean a large public square (like Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.) That’s the only reason.

Comment on City of music by miguel

miguel — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:09:22 +0000

Hi there, nice comments! I was just wondering why you chose to use the Spanish term “plaza” instead of the more appropriate English term “square”. Is there any reason for this? (btw, as you may know it’s “Praça” in Portuguese)

Comment on Busy final weeks by Phil Meyer

Phil Meyer — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:49:47 +0000

What a great experience! Go well, Steve. You are doing the Lord’s work.

Comment on Another march! by Steve Doig

Steve Doig — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:41:50 +0000

Well, I disagree, but thanks for your comment.

Comment on Another march! by Grumbler

Grumbler — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:22:11 +0000

Interesting that you talk about the “hundreds of spectators” while unfortunatly (and compared to other demonstrations in Portugal) the number of people on the sidewalk was residual (probably due to scaremonging done by the media).
Nevertheless, even if the 30.000 is not credible, your number is clearly an underestimation of the ammount of people that where present in the demonstration since people arrived at Restauradores when there was still people getting out of Marquês de Pombal, hence your “proof” about the size of the Avenida and the 22.000 square meters is not a valid argument

Comment on Another march! by Steve Doig

Steve Doig — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 10:44:52 +0000

I didn’t count the 100 or so “anarchists” who were being penned in by the policia, and who got to the square long after the main march had arrived. Nor did I count the hundreds of spectators who were watching what was going on along Avenida da Liberdade. As the blog post notes, my estimate is based on the counts I took as the marchers went past.

Comment on Another march! by drcursor

drcursor — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:05:11 +0000

Strange… I left the main square around 17.30 and there we’re still people marching down avenida da liberdade, and you say that you saw the last marchers going by you at 16.40. In the place where you we’re the last marchers should have passed at least 1 hour later…

You always speak of the number of people that stay in Restauradores Square, but completly (or deliberatly) forget that most of the people don’t stay there (and many had to run away this time because of the rain).

At 17.00 the downtown of Lisboa (Rua Augusta, do Ouro and others) we’re filled with people from the demonstration while the square was still like the photo you show.
You also don’t take into account the number of people that just stay on sides of Avenida da Liberdade.

You can’t call this journalism or science…

I leave you with a photo from a different perspective of the demonstration

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs599.ash2/155107_165142403525987_100000906859415_314962_7200892_n.jpg

Comment on Head-counting in Lisbon by Steve Doig

Steve Doig — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 14:11:55 +0000

Well, I disagree. As you must have observed, I was standing right on the east side of the main trafficway of Avenida da Liberdade within arm's-length of the marchers, and I could easily see across the 20 meters to the other side of the street. See this blog entry for a full description of the math.

Comment on Head-counting in Lisbon by drcursor

drcursor — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:37:22 +0000

I saw you today at the anti-NATO demonstration, and I confirmed what I already thought… your method os anything but scientific… you just we’re in a place where it would be impossible to see all the way to the other side of the street, and counting average numbers without any scientific ou mathematical base…

Comment on Head-counting in Lisbon by João Caetano

João Caetano — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:22:51 +0000

Some people are loosing the scope here.

The difference between Steve’s estimate (10k) and the organizers (100k) is a factor of 10.

Steve’s method looks pretty solid to prove that the organizers number is well over estimated.

Much better statistics, atomic-clock devices for timing, or laser-based devices for measuring the length would only allow you to say that the organizers number was over estimated by a factor of (let’s say) 9.3865, instead of by a factor of 10.