Social Media Records Vancouver Riots, Boston’s Link to the Lunar Eclipse, and Rush Limbaugh Gets Into Merchandizing

After the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup last night to the Boston Bruins, Canucks fans took to the streets of their city, setting fires, smashing windows, and even sending eight people to the hospital with stab wounds. But what's getting less coverage is social media's role. Videos were uploaded to YouTube almost instantly, and photos and accounts of the destruction were posted to Twitter in real time. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson even jumped on the social media boat. On Twitter, he asked people to save pictures of the rioters so they could be used by the city's Police Department. Vancouverites responded by making a Facebook page and Tumblr blog where dozens of photos have been posted. After the looting was over, a cleanup event was created on Facebook. The event gained more than 11,000 members in a matter of hours.

While Vancouverites reacted to the riots on Twitter, Bostonians celebrated their win on the social media site. But many tweets weren't just about hockey, they were about astronomy. That's because last night was the first time there's been a total lunar eclipse since October 27, 2004. That's when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years. One Twitter user said, "So the lunar eclipse predictions were true ...every lunar eclipse a sports team from boston wins!" Boston's Stanley Cup win is the city's first in 39 years. The next total lunar eclipse will be on December 10 this year. I wonder what the universe will have in store for Boston then.

Republican pundit Rush Limbaugh is one of most recognizable faces in the tea party movement, and now he's putting his face on the movement's tea. Yesterday, Limbaugh launched a line of tea party-themed tea. He's calling it "Two If By Tea," after Paul Revere's famous line, "one if by land, two if by sea." Limbaugh posted a photo of the tea on Facebook, which has gotten thousands of "likes" and hundreds of comments. When describing the tea's label, he said, "There I am, all of my glory on every bottle on the shrink wrap ... as Rush Revere. ... The liberals are coming, folks!" The tea's website was so overwhelmed with orders (more than 80,000 have been made so far) that it crashed yesterday. Limbaugh says part of the profits will go to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, an organization that gives scholarships to the children of fallen Marines. I wonder what the tea leaves say will be Limbaugh's next project.

Do you think Boston's Stanley Cup win over Vancouver was astronomical fate or just a coincidence? Will you buy Limbaugh's new tea? Let us know on Facebook and Twitter. And get my trending updates all day by "liking" my Facebook fan page.