{"id":853,"date":"2008-07-01T11:21:02","date_gmt":"2008-07-01T02:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-07-01\/853"},"modified":"2008-07-01T11:21:02","modified_gmt":"2008-07-01T02:21:02","slug":"egregious-waste-in-the-name-of-well-im-not-quite-sure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-07-01\/853","title":{"rendered":"Egregious Waste In The Name Of…. well, I’m not quite sure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 78 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>350 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

These signs popped up at intersections in my area of Kyoto a month<\/span> or so ago. They read:<\/p>\n\n
\n June 26 (Thursday) \u301c June 27 (Friday)<\/font>\n Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting<\/big>\n Due to traffic controls, etc., traffic congestion is expected.\n Please exercise restraint on driving into Kyoto.\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

As I mentioned the other\nday<\/a>, the G8 Summit meeting of foreign ministers was recently held in\nKyoto, which entailed a lot<\/span> of hubbub.<\/p>\n\n

There was a massive police presence everywhere. I snapped<\/span> a couple<\/span> of\npictures from my scooter while waiting at red lights. Mostly, there were\ncongregations of police at intersections, looking bored....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 86 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/3.5, ISO 320 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\nWell-Guarded Trees<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n\n

There was an incessant buzzing of helicopters the whole time, and while\nkilling a few<\/span> minutes one of the days, I practiced<\/span> manual-focus tracking on one of them...<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As in the Watching a\nHelicopter<\/span> Take Off<\/a> post, I'm surprised<\/span> how slow the helicopter blades\nmove. The shot above<\/span> is 1\/500th of a second,<\/span> almost freezing the blades. I'd have thought<\/span> that I would<\/span> have needed a much<\/span> shorter shutter to do\nthat.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, with all these police, I wondered<\/span> how much was being spent. It\nwasn't nearly the hubbub of a presidential<\/span> visit<\/a>, but\nit all – every last yen – seems to be a waste.<\/span> If these<\/span> 8\nforeign ministers want to have a chat,<\/span> why not pick up a friggin<\/span>' phone?\nOr, if they really need to do it in person, why not meet at a place<\/span> that's\nalready secure (e.g. Camp David or the like) and do so without telling the\nworld's crazies in advance?<\/p>\n\n

Even worse, last week's meeting in Kyoto was just one of nine sub-meetings building up to\n the main meeting in\nHokkaido<\/a> next week.<\/p>\n\n

So how much does it cost for the G8 to meet in person instead of using a\nphone<\/span>? Today the Japan\nTimes<\/a> (major English daily in Japan) reports that it's 60 billion yen,\nor about $575 MILLION DOLLARS<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n

This quote from the Japan-Times article – particularly the last line – pretty much sums everything up:<\/p>\n\n

\n

The ministry budgeted around \u00a55 billion ($48 million)<\/i> for the media center, which is constructed on a parking<\/span> lot in a ski<\/span> resort and will accommodate around 3,000 people from the press and governments.<\/p>\n\n

Inside and outside the center, cutting-edge environmental technology, including fuel cells and heat pumps, will be exhibited.<\/p>\n\n

The center itself boasts eco-friendly features, including solar panels, “green” walls and a snow<\/span> cooling system.<\/p>\n\n

Once the summit is over, however, the building will be demolished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These signs popped up at intersections in my area of Kyoto a month or so ago. They read:<\/p> June 26 (Thursday) \u301c June 27 (Friday) Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting Due to traffic controls, etc., traffic congestion is expected. Please exercise restraint on driving into Kyoto.

As I mentioned the other day, the G8 Summit meeting of foreign ministers was recently held in Kyoto, which entailed a lot of hubbub.<\/p>

There was a massive police presence everywhere. I snapped a couple of pictures from my scooter while waiting at red lights. Mostly, there were congregations of police at intersections, looking bored....<\/p> [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}