Banners bearing slogans will be banned from all Olympic events with BOCOG saying that they "might block other spectators' views". There must have been a lot of audience members complaining about those "Go China!" banners at past Olympics. Beijing game goers are so lucky!

On March 24, BOCOG Security Officer Liu Shaowu explained why a list of 20 categories of items are banned from any Olympic events. Banners are banned so that the spectators' views won't get blocked. Radio transmitters are banned so they won't interfere with signals sent by media groups. Bottled drinks are banned to protect the athletes. Sharp objects like screws are also banned unless reporters need them for technical reasons and register them beforehand.

Interestingly, the English version of this piece of news is no where to be found under the same category --"Olympic Cities/Beijing"-- where the Chinese version is on BOCOG's website.

If you are lucky enough to get a ticket to go to one of the events, be prepared to go through a possible ID check, bag check and X-ray (seriously) check. And if you have a really good slogan, wear it on a T-shirt.

Mia @ 18:25 | .(330) |

Strangely coinciding with our "Women Make Noise" video being spotlighted on Youtube's music section, at least for the moment, Youtube is available in Beijing. I guess the wankers with their hand on the lever decided that promoting Chinese women rockers trumps supressing info on festering wounds in their country. Probably only a matter of time until they close the pipes again. Thank god for proxies.

Here is the screengrab from Youtube:

Luke @ 20:29 | .(2997) |