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After Apec, most Sydneysiders are saying “Never again”

BBC: Apec security leaves bitter taste in Sydney

Like many, he is incensed by what he regards as the needlessly aggressive and restrictive policing, which carried a heftier security price tag than the 16-day-long Olympics and led to the construction of the 5km ( three mile) “great wall of Sydney”.
“I’m so embarrassed and annoyed. Where was the sense of proportion? We replaced Olympic volunteers with riot squads,” he says.
“Somebody in the security operation got very carried away with their own self-importance, and nobody in the state or federal government counterbalanced them.
“It was totally and utterly disproportionate.”
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For many Sydneysiders, comedians from the already popular The Chasers War on Everything have become folk heroes – they managed to breach the million-dollar security set-up with a few shiny black hire cars, some wrap-around sunglasses, a few fake passes, a colour printer and a handful of bonnet-mounted Canadian and Australian flags.
Almost 5,000 New South Wales police officers, 1,500 defence personnel, 450 federal police, teams of sharp-shooters, patrol boats zipping across the harbour, Black Helicopters swooping above – all upstaged by 11 members of a TV comedy show.

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I was randomly sent this link about the perfect rock chick, but it’s perfect because it just confirms my crush on Kim Gordon, which was renewed after seeing them on Saturday
night.

They are really aware of their sexuality, but they don’t use sex to sell their music. They’re more interested in expressing power and that feeling of what it’s like to jump up and down to your favourite music. They don’t resort to that marketing ploy of the rock chick as bad girl. We were all wild things as teenagers, but there’s a big difference between wanting to be a rock star and having a burning desire to play music.

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One good thing about the London tube strike

The Guardian posted this list of ‘useful maps during the Tube strike‘, including the Tube lines superimposed on a real street map so you can see how the Tube map relates to the real world – very handy if you’re new to London and don’t know when not to bother with the Tube, two walking sites and a map that shows how long it takes to get to each station from a particular station.

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Woo! The Eurostar is faster *and* nearly at St Pancras

BBC: Eurostar is making its inaugural journey from Paris to London via Britain’s new high-speed line

Richard Brown, chief executive of Eurostar, said he hoped that by 2010 10m people would travel by Eurostar each year.
“Today marks Britain’s entry into the European high-speed rail club.”
He said journey times to Paris, even for people travelling from Yorkshire, would be broadly the same as for those flying due to lengthier check-in times at airports.
“It’s as quick and more frequent… and we will be matching airline prices.”

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Can’t give up the cheap flights?

The BBC says, “Britons are “addicted” to cheap flights and confused about the climate impact of flying“.

In a government-funded study, even people living generally “green” lives said they were reluctant to fly less.
The Exeter University team that carried out the research says cheap flights have become a lifestyle choice.
Aviation accounts for about 7% of the UK’s emissions, and research suggests Britain will not meet its climate targets without curbing the industry.
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“And it’s not people on lower incomes taking these flights, it’s middle class people taking more flights to go on city breaks, and they can afford to pay higher prices.”
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But some observers believe there is an inherent contradiction within a government that wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while expanding airport capacity.

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The BBC “asks why search engines are so keen to keep hold of our personal data” and raises some interesting issues:

“This is a general problem with free services,” she added. “You have the impression that you don’t pay for this, you don’t pay. In fact, you pay a very high price, because you pay with your own privacy, your own intimacy. You pay with yourself.”
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With Web 2.0 now moving so many of our desktop applications, and therefore data, online, campaigners feel we would do well to get these privacy issues sorted out sooner rather than later.