Big Brother takes a loss

If you're weary and depressed after reading story after story about how the government is progressively crushing and ruling out dissent, the update to the Sep. 7 story about the literally underground Parisian cinema is cheering. The Guardian talked to one of the "urban explorers" who helped build and run the thing. After the entertaining description of the group's exploits, the man states:

"Urban explorers are the only people who, between us, know it all. We move between each network. We know where they link up - often, it's us who made the link. The authorities, the police, town hall, they don't know a hundredth, a thousandth, of what's down there."

There were, he added, maybe 10 other groups in Paris, all of a roughly similar size, involved in similarly creative, if murky, projects beneath the streets of the capital. "They will never stop it, they are too uncoordinated," he added. "We will always be a step ahead."