Long arm of the law?

Making sense of the good, bad and often strange trending topics online

Long arm of the law?

Making sense of the good, bad and often strange trending topics online

'Fourteen years ago, they lost their loved ones.

Today, they also lost faith.' That tweet, from Prarthna Gahilote, summed up the mood of many after the Supreme Court nearly halved the compensation awarded to families of the Uphaar theatre tragedy victims.

Shubhra Gupta tweeted: 'Today, I am not fine. The Uphaar tragedy just deepened.
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Such a travesty.' Kanchan Gupta added: 'Only in India. It takes 14 years for courts to settle Uphaar fire claims. Culprits have got away in this world.
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May they not die in peace.' And an irreverent take from Khamba: 'Breaking: Supreme Court reduces compensation for victims, offers month's supply of Burnol instead.'

The other icon
The death of Dennis Ritchie, creator of the C language and co-creator of Unix at 70, didn't clog timelines the way another icon did a week ago, but he was missed nonetheless.
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According to Maddog Hall, 'all programmers owe him a moment of silence.'

Someone with the handle ProgressiveUGA pointed out: 'Real geeks realize this guy should be celebrated just as much, if not more than Steve jobs.'

Julien Fourgeaud added: 'Jobs gave us the iPhone, but Dennis Ritchie made modern computing possible.' And this, from StuSocial: 'Exciting times I can just see Steve sitting up in the cloud with Dennis Ritchie, so proud!'

Back in the day
Life in the 90s was a trending topic for a while, prompting much reminiscing. 'Back then,' went one tweet, 'television was worth watching.'

Another popular tweet: 'We had social networking back then; we just called it "going outside".' Also this: 'We still had Bob Hope, Johnny Cash and Steve Jobs. Now we have no hope, no cash and no jobs.'

The last word
From filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt: 'This cultivated air of supercilious indifference is a must to be a critic. Writing a review gives a critic a feeling of self-importance.'