Iran blames Britain for the protests and everybody else seems wrapped up in Michael Jackson—really? Diana Ross gets custody if the court finds Ma Jackson unfit?—and the latest unemployment statistics.

The much-anticipated bazaar strike never materialized (or at least didn't get much traction) and now even the constantly updated sites like CitizenTube are scrounging for week-old footage and hyping Obama Town Hall meetings.

Some parliamentarians are condemning violence and some people are writing poems and songs:

The Guardian is compiling stories of the dead, tortured, and detained. And rumor has it that persiankiwi, one of the leading Twitterers of the uprising, has been arrested.

So things seem quiet—direly quiet on the streets, perhaps not so quiet in the prisons. From a story in the Guardian, linked by Sullivan:

He came to my shop around 10.30am. You could tell straight away that he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes.

He was not even into politics. He was just an ordinary 18-year-old in the last year of school. Before the election he came to me and asked how he should vote. He looks up to me. His father is an Ahmadinejad supporter.

He had gone home directly after his release, but his father did not let him in. He didn't mention he had been raped. At first, he didn't tell me either. It was the doctor who first noticed it and told me.

When he came to my shop he collapsed in a chair. He said he had nowhere to go and asked if he could stay with me. I called a friend of mine who is a doctor to come home and see him. Then I brought him home.

His shoulder blades and arms were wounded. There were some slashes on the face. No bone fractures, but he was bruised all over the body. I wanted to take some photos but he did not let me. The doctor said only four of his teeth were intact, the rest were broken. You could hardly understand what he said.

Then the doctor told me what had happened. He had suffered rupture of the rectum and the doctor feared colonic bleeding. He suggested we take him to the hospital immediately.

Or have the street dramatics begun a long, slow process of introspection that will lead to long-term change?