==pla|\|ing lakes==

Saturday, March 05, 2005

The New York Public Library now allows free access to its digital image library online

That's a quarter of a million images, mainly historical. Intersting, informative, and some damn nice wallpaper material to boot.

10:24 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"exercise in economic flagellation"

Greece's Olympian folly

On the other side of the Olympic facility, in the inner sanctum of the world-class basketball hall, the roof is leaking. Buckets, dexterously placed around its carpeted stadium, collect droplets the size of large coins. Across town, on the ancient Marathon route, the drains are clogged. They are also blocked at the multi-million-pound building that served as the press centre during the Games. And, at the rowing centre in Skoinias, the waters have turned stagnant brown. There, officials wonder what to do with a facility now widely decried as an environmental disaster.

One of the smallest nations ever to host the globe's biggest sports event, Greece had hoped the Olympics would transform its citizens' lives as never before. Instead, they are discovering that the 16-day bonanza may have been pure folly. This week, as their government prepares to release a long-awaited bill stipulating the venues' "post-Olympic usage", many are wondering whether staging the Games was little more than an exercise in economic flagellation.

The biggest Olympics ever, and the most expensive in terms of security, the event is believed to have cost about £7 billion, five times more than originally expected. Such a bill, say economists, will take at least two decades to pay off with Greeks as yet unborn footing most of it.

9:53 PM - [Link] - Comments ()