[VRM]

Meat,
A 'sniff test' is also not quantifiable.

A revolution is usually commonly accepted to have happened when some sort of force causes a major sociological change to an existing constitution, or the adoption of a new one. There are other common definitions of revolution as well.

You define Iran as a change of ownership. That is not accurate as the entire structure of the governing bodies were replaced with something completely different, and they are still using that form of government and new constitution. Using your definitions for Iran then the American Revolution was merely a change of ownership as well. We took the keys, and stole the title while we were at it.

You have not proven that protest does not work. Stating it does not make it so. People have protested our involvement in Iraq - it is quite possible that those protests (some of which were quite large) influenced the outcome of the vote that gave Congress to the DNC. I cannot prove that it did, but you also cannot prove that it did not.

It is quite possible that China could change its position regarding Tibet based on protests. It's not likely to happen, but it is not impossible either.

Steve