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With tracking down the torch yesterday, I have to say that I was quite amazed at how well old fashioned lying and deceit, beat all the tricks of technology for people to be able to see the torch.       We keep thinking that blogging, mobile technologies, and this new age of mass information through Citizen Journalism is going to topple corrupt regimes. As yesterday proved, this isn't the case and it will most likely not be the case for a long time. The only thing we have seen from this so far is more information, which is good, yet practically useless by itself. It makes us feel like we know something and are affecting change because anyone with an internet connection can know anything immediately these days.       But knowing and doing are two very different things. This would be the big difference between my generation and my parents'. Where we go forth and learn about everything that's happening in the world, they just went out with bullhorns, masses of people, got in the face of The Man, demanded change, and got a great deal of it.       This is how the city of San Francisco was able to so easily foil the what was probably the largest treasure hunt ever seen. No matter how many iPhones, Blackberrys, and WiFi connections people could pop on to, the simple truth in the end was that no one knew where the torch ended up going. Why? Because the information wasn't there.       This is one of the big misconceptions about our new digital age in that if you have enough people involved in something, the information will just arise spontaneously. It goes to show that the information is only as good as the activity level of those involved in getting it. All of us amateurs ate it when it came to tracking down the torch. The only folks who were able to really find the torch with limited success, were the traditional media outlets because they have the money and people employed to do these things. Those of us in the blogosphere who think that if we just show up to an event and wonk about it when we get home are doing actual reporting, are sadly mistaken. This is commentary. Reporting requires digging in and kicking some ass out there in the real world. No matter how incredible your cellphone, the planet is still and will always be an analog place that requires getting yourself dirty to get the scoop.       In the end, #1 Fan and I were reduced to losing any aspirations of digital omnipotence. We tried to listen in on what people were saying only to find that they knew nothing more than us. We tried to see which direction large amount of police were heading, only to see that they didn't really know either. About the only thing that worked in the end was to watch what the helicopters were doing and once we saw them fly away from anywhere that we were, we knew our chances of seeing the torch were sunk. I still find it sad that our officials consider this a success when the only way you could have watched the torch was on a video feed from a helicopter above it.

For those who might not possibly have been aware, the Olympic torch was supposed to come and be run through San Francisco today. Given the massive protests and conflict that happened in London and Paris, people were a little concerned as to what might happen in San Francisco, which is probably the most liberal city in the US. The protesters all got ready for a show down on both sides. It was the Tibetan exiles and their supporters, versus the Chinese supporters and well, the Chinese supporters. The first group had to run away from their homeland when the Chinese seized control. The second group will defend this and be very pro-China, which makes me wonder as to why they're in the US and not China if China is so good?       Anyways, if you feel like unraveling the 300+ posts on Twitter, you can see what happened today. Probably the best summary was on The Chron who said:       ...After being hidden in a waterfront warehouse, bused to Van Ness and carried on a surprise route through the Marina to evade protesters, the Olympic torch's wild journey through San Francisco is over. Closing ceremony moved to SFO [the airport].       I have to hand it to the Chronicle. They really put a lot of effort in to this and the stakes were high because SF is the navel of Citizen Journalism and Swarm Reporting. Yet, they ended up with what seems to be the most complete coverage of this shitzkrieg. Go old media!       But that was the crappy part of all of this. The only people who saw the torch were those guarding it. They kept moving the route around and shifting the plans so that no one knew what was happening. The crowds were just aimless. While you'd want to follow one group because they had just consulted their iPhones and supposedly knew where the flame was going, they were just as clueless as anyone else. It looked like a bunch of sheep running from one street to another and then back until they even canceled the closing ceremony, leaving the thousands who came out to see it really cheated.       I'm sure that both in China and on a national level in the US, this will be seen as a success because there was no attempt to extinguish the flame and no conflict. Go figure. I bet there are no protesters on the plane that they carry the thing on either. Paris and London were 20-30 miles on an established route, whereas SF couldn't even handle a truncated three mile route.       Overall this was a complete failure and I hope shows badly on Mayor Gavin Newsom who seems more interested in which is the proper striped suit for the occasion as well as his future political career.