The future of Paris

Via BBC arts correspondent Razia Iqbal, the news item that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has unveiled an exhibition on possible make-overs for his capital, Paris, at the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine.

Every French president is morally obliged to saddle France, and Paris in particular, with a grand monument as their personal presidential legacy.
Previous grand projects include the Arch de la Defense and the Louvre Museum Pyramid (both of which are vaut le voyage)
You can check out the various proposals here (click on the gallery photos).

My favourite among the amazingly whimsical stuff is the project pictured left, which envisages expanding Paris along the Seine River all the way to Le Havre and the sea.
What exactly will be contained in that endless Left Bank and Right Bank is a bit unclear to me. I sure hope it won't be endless banlieues.
If it will enable people to live, work, relax and enjoy a bit more space than in the current arrondissements, that would be brilliant.
It could even lift Paris in the Quality of Life survey rankings, but for me it already ranks in the top 10 cities I wouldn't refuse to live in.

Auckland moves up in the world

It's that time of year again when expat multinational company staff report what the conditions are like in the far flung outpost they have been dumped in by their bosses and which ones they would prefer to move to.
Auckland climbed from 5th place to joint 4th with Vancouver, with Vienna, Zurich and Geneva again in the top 3 in the Mercer Global Quality of Living survey.
In terms of infrastructure, Auckland doesn't rate that well, surprise surprise. Singapore does best there
The criticism of this survey remains the same. But feel free to come check us out.

"A Game For The Ladies"

Via Mark Simpson comes a so-called online "Game for the ladies", where you are invited by adidas to choose two Super 14 rugby players whom you can make swap jerseys. The aim of the game is, obviously, to ogle torso physiques and tattoo design.
I bet far more laddies than ladies have played the game. Such is the preponderance of sporno in our culture these days. We are all ladies now, of course.

The Super Gold Card loot

The Campaign 4 Fair Ferry Fares obtained the official information figures on how much Fullers has raked in from the Government Super Gold Card subsidies.
A tidy sum of $756,000 went straight to Fullers' bottom line as it was achieved and received without any increase in costs for the company: hardly any extra staff or sailing had to be put on the Waiheke run (and it showed in the groaning boats over the summer).
The Herald reports:

Excursions to the island by an average of just over 200 pensioners a day accounted for almost a quarter of the Government's contribution to free off-peak travel on trains, buses and ferries throughout the Auckland region. [...] Campaign 4 Fair Ferry Fares spokeswoman Cathy Urquhart, who obtained the Government subsidy breakdown from the transport authority, says she is not begrudging senior citizens and war pensioners the freedom of her island.
"That's absolutely fine, seeing them all over the island," she said yesterday. "But at the same time we've got young people having to move off the island because they can't afford the fares. Fullers is pocketing a huge benefit from the Super Gold card scheme and the falling diesel prices, but haven't yet passed on those savings in a fair and transparent way."
Dr Urquhart's group campaigned fiercely against increases in ferry fares in October after Fullers blamed hefty fuel and maintenance cost rises. Although Fullers has since reduced one fare and also partly rescinded increases on other routes, the group has continued to press for more cuts as diesel prices have kept falling.
It issued a table yesterday claiming that the monthly Waiheke fare was now 23 per cent higher in terms of how much diesel it could buy than an average level since mid-2005.

Fullers responded with the usual bleating of other rising costs and the purchase of two inappropriate vessels from Tasmania which can't do the Waiheke run when the wind is blowing. But no response of the hypocrisy of using diesel hikes to increase fares and then denying a fare discount when diesel prices are at 2 year lows.
The drop in patronage that "has now been stemmed" was due to the gouging the company indulged in last year. Ferries were the only public transport mode that lost customers last year. It's not rocket science to find out why.
So now Fullers pockets are lined with our tax dollars, plus monopoly fares. Congratulations, Brian Souter, you bought a money printing press.

Waiheke Island public transport survey

The Campaign 4 Fair Ferry Fares has launched a public survey to gauge usage and opinion of the various public transport modes and infrastructure available to them.
The survey is anonymous and open to anyone who uses Fullers, Waiheke Bus Company and the wharves.

Please feel free to take the survey via this link.

Privates on parade

I completely overlooked a delicious news item from last year but my attention was of course strangely drawn towards it once it was mentioned to me.
The English newspaper Daily Mail, that stalwart everything British, was badly let down by a troop of Royal Marines who, after an exercise in Norway, decided to play that wonderful base bar game "Naked Bar", this time in a small Norwegian town. (Blurry picture here)
It's a simple game: when one of the marines shouts "naked bar", everybody strips off and continues drinking and roughhousing. This happens every day and night in the more adventurous pubs in Paris, such as L'Impact, and I'm quite pleased to hear that the British marines don't have hangups about social nudity. It's the offensive drinking games that are more problematic (par for the course with any British male group travelling abroad!) and those shenanigans were what most upset their Norwegian hosts, not their privates on parade.

As the Greeks intended

Romain Mesnil is a French world vice-champion pole vaulter but he has lost his sponsorship deal. He made a video of himself running 'nude' through Paris streets, including the Rue Vieille du Temple, in the middle of the gay neighbourhood, to promote himself and to drum up some fresh sponsorship cash.
If he doesn't get any sponsorship from gay business, then there is no hope or justice in this world.
He has put up a few items on ebay France for you to sponsor - including lunch or dinner with him. I'd rather do breakfast after the night before, if you get my drift.

Mind you, just imagine the ratings if the Olympics were televised as they were performed by the classical Greeks. It'd pay for the lot of them.
In the meantime, there are some options for nude athletes.