The kind of quote you don’t want to see:

A baton strike came to the side of my face and then onto the top of my head. Directly onto the crown of my head. I felt a big whacking thud and I heard it reverberating inside my head.

I wasn’t sure whether I was bleeding or not. I moved off to the side and asked a police officer if I was bleeding. But he just said “Keep moving, keep moving”. Then I put my hand to the top of my head and looked at my palm and I could see there was blood everywhere.

I then asked another police officer, who was wearing a police medic badge, if he could help me. And he told me to move away as well and told me to go to another exit. By this point blood was streaming down the back of my head and back of my neck.

No, this isn’t a quote from some irate blogger, demonstrating in a hostile regime halfway around the world. This is the account of journalist Shiv Malik at the London student protests (see the 4:31pm entry).

If this kind of thing was happening in a non-Western country, our MPs would be all over the news, saying how disgraceful such actions by the authorities are. But because it’s the UK and the authorities are clearly trying to put a young generation off of protesting for good, MPs and the police alike are denouncing the protestors as hostile scum, ignoring police provocation and kettling.

That’s not to say every protestor is well-intentioned, because that’s clearly not the case. However, what we’re seeing here is a new kind of police presence, one where disorder, dissent and disobedience simply will not be tolerated; it’s a depressing thing from a country that supposedly prides itself on being democratic.

Bloomberg reports that network operators have finally totally lost it. “Wah wah wah,” says the CEO of one or the other or France Telecom, Telecom Italia or Vodafone ‘we don’t pay our taxes’ Group. “iPhones and Android devices are being used LOADS now, and it’s JUST NOT FAIR!”

The argument appears to centre on the fact that mobile operators are whiney bastards who don’t have the balls to charge users by the MB of data downloaded, instead competing with ‘unlimited’ plans; and so rather than charging users proportionately, they’ve come up with a CUNNING PLAN.

Unfortunately, the cunning plan is this: have Apple, Google and Facebook pay for the billions of dollars of investment requires to sort out their shoddy, under-strain networks. No, really. Good luck, guys! I’m sure this idea will pan out swimmingly!

Of course, this level of stupidity has precedent. We’ve already had idiot ISPs saying the BBC should pay them money for having the audacity to create the wonderful iPlayer that loads of people love using (rather than, say, killing unlimited broadband and charging people on the basis of the amount they use, like with electricity and gin).

So, well done, network operators. I’m sure Steve Jobs and his pals are nearly dead through an inability to breathe properly, due to laughing non-stop for several hours.

Hat tip: Matt Gemmell’s hat.

24 Ways has been running for several years now, providing 24 end-of-year articles for web designers and developers. It’s like advent, except the tasty treats are web design tips, not chocolates.

This year, the company is releasing an annual. The idea is to compile everything over the season into an 80-page book, then fire the proceeds at Unicef. The book’s only going to be on sale until the end of December and is looking for sponsorship, so:

• If you’re a wealthy but charitable sort, sponser the thing (PDF).
• If you’re in the web industry, buy the thing.

So:

• The new Apple TV, slightly larger than a Club bar and only £99.
• The recent iOS 4.2 upgrade, with AirPlay, enabling you to send video from your iThing to your Apple TV, just by prodding an on-screen button.
• The spiffy Air Video, enabling streaming and live conversion from Mac or PC to your iThing.

In the world of non-idiots:

• User buys all of the above, and happily plays anything stored on their computer on their TV, wirelessly.
• User also buys and rents stuff from the iTunes Store with absurd ease.
• Buyer is now hugely happy.
• Apple makes buckets of cash.
• Everyone who likes TV loves Apple.

In the world of Apple:

• AirPlay video is blocked to developers, out of pure spite and stupidity.
• Apple TV considered a waste of time by loads of people.
• Buyers left with other equally problematic products.
• Apple makes buckets of cash, but fewer buckets have Apple TV written on them in marker pen.
• Everyone who likes TV hates Apple.

Maybe iOS 4.3 will change everything, but I think it’s more likely Steve Jobs will broadcast a live video of him smashing an iPhone to pieces and announce Apple is to become an Android-based company.

As the USA gives thanks today, the UK is doing anything but…

A must-read on student protests by Laurie Penny:

I didn’t understand quite how bad things had become in this country until I saw armed cops being deployed against schoolchildren in the middle of Whitehall.