Without a photo from the air, like this, http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/1653683.php and a grid that is then extrapolated, it's all guesswork based on adding up how many came on the Kim Il Sung Bus Co. and such.
--I quite disagree. No matter your feelings toward IAC, Kim SungIl, Stalin, etc...Newsday was a bit more scientific in their estimation process than 'looking at a photo from the air'... It's one thing to argue that IAC does everything wrong without being able to do anything better than their formula for drawing crowds of protestors. But to argue that there was only 10K protestors in DC by virtue of impressions from crowd scans on CSPAN when newspapers like Newsday count much higher numbers (and last I checked Newsday doesn't owe any of their surplus accumulation capacities to Messers. Kim or Stalin) is really not remotely rational. It just further reinforces the impression that sour grapes are at work in your and Chuck's 'estimations'...