Seil Chat

I don't see how you can possibly determine what is an individual person.

The theory to deal with that is here. Now, go figure http://course1.winona.edu/cmalone/Promo ... Report.pdf

This was last year:



That was a crowd of about 5,000.

Compare with this year at 8,300 (The Edinburgh Police figure on the day, on the scene) and it certainly seems that Sturgeon et al announcing enthusiastically 30,000 have grossly overstated the support for Salmond's rally and is attempting some kind of deceit on us.

Yawn

Surely this whole thread has reached the limit if absurbity when the protagonists are arguing over the actual number of bodies on the ground. There will always be sufficient adherents to a cause, if they are sufficiently motivated, and can afford to do so, to turn out in support of the cause, but to try and interpret that as a general voting intention is highly suspect.
This, taken to it,s logical conclusion would mean that any organisation with sufficient clout, purse and support, could influence people's minds, by the strength of their support.
Long live the secret ballot box, where one can cast a vote without intimidation, coercion or spin.

jimcee wrote:Surely this whole thread has reached the limit if absurbity when the protagonists are arguing over the actual number of bodies on the ground.

Agreed.

GravityFed wrote:Hello.I hope you do not get the wrong impression of me but I actually enjoy this sort of thing When I studied being an RAF photographic interpreter it taught us how to analyze any sort of terrestrial form and this photo gave me a real challenge I relished but using the grid techniques for crowd estimates I actually came up with a total of between 7000-8000 in the frame you can see of Calton hill not those outside on the road and on the extreme left side (it is quite easy.You divide it all into little blocks and annotate density ratios to each one.But if you pick an area 10x10 people that is 100 and 80 of those blocks,which I think you willagree is alot of blocks, gives you a crowd size of 8000 with about 10% margin of error.So respect to the police for saying 8300

Gridded hi res photos (taken at 14.15) were released today. Analysts confirm a figure of 6 to 8 thousand.

Why is this important ?

It boils down to trust. Nicola claimed quite firmly a figure of 30,000. Why would she exaggerate to such an extent ?

If Nicola and Alex want us Scots to trust their promises then they must be very careful not to be caught out so blatantly in the future.

.


Peace at last

.....and now we have the final, definitive attendance courtesy of PoliceScotland; yes: 8,300.

Just hope Nicola and Alex are not so incredibly inaccurate with their other figures.

Really, this is a bit pathetic - what is the point of bandying numbers on how many people actually were at a particular place at a particular time. The inference by the organisers is that all those attending this particular rally (or show of strength) were staunch supporters of the cause who would turn out, come hail or shine, to show their faces.
Now the population of Edinburgh is in the region of 500.000, so there couild have been a fair number of bodies with nothing better to do than visit the site as a way of filling another afternoon of tedium with an interesting diversion.
This has nothing to do with causes - anywhere with a huge resident population to call on, will be ripe to exploit the chance to try and show support for any crack brained scheme that the organisers fancy promoting - there will always be the curious, the time fillers, the domestic scene evaders, dare I say it, the pickpockets, and others with criminal intent, who welcome this kind of gathering, whether espousing the cause, or not.
As one of the silent majority, who has never attended a rally of any sort in a fairly lengthy lifespan, numbers supporting any particular cause can be taken with a pinch of salt, a headache for the police, a problem for the sanitary, a litter nightmare - about the only positive result (if it could be described as positive) is that it is fuel for the media.
Bickering over numbers by both sides does nothing positive for their cause but only shows up how infantile the whole procedure has become.