We've all heard terrible stories about pancreatic cancer. Only 9% live beyond five years. I'm around three years in and I look to be in that tiny group. In 2019 pancreatic cancer is incurable. Only a 1930s procedure called Whipple Surgery (there was a Dr. Whipple) has any power and only 1/3 of patients medically qualify and 1/3 of those get my result. Anyway, I've been through anything you can think of medically. I've acquired an army of doctors. Because I'm old I have federally funded Medicare. The entire cost to me to get fixed was $0. I paid for some drugs and parking. That's it. One of my biggest concerns was that every doctor and technician knew what everyone else knew. I take over a dozen pills a day (fewer now than before) and have a catheter port in my chest (I'm not USB compatible) which has been used over 30 times. My physicians are on three different medical records systems. That meant my wife and I became our own fourth system! If there was a place for me to sign so my doctors were unencumbered by HIPAA I would have signed in a minute. In order to protect my privacy this law makes it more difficult for my doctors.

I'm reading Slashdot. I must me somewhat geeky. Got my ham license in 1967 and enjoyed working Morse Code (Hams refer to it as "cw" for continuous wave, a description of its unmodulated carrier).

One summer eve a few friends and I went from our apartments in Queens to the Village. As we walked down St. Marks Place music played from the various record stores on the block. And then I heard it.

The song, "Miss Morse" by Pearls Before Swine is reasonably banal.

Oh Dear, Miss Morse

I want you

Oh yes, I do

I want you

It's when they got to the chorus I stopped in my tracks. I knew I was the only one on St. Marks Place who knew what I knew!

Chorus:

Dit Dit Dah Dit

Dit Dit Dah

Dah Dit Dah Dit

Dah Dit Dah

By the way, 1967 was also the year I took my first and last computer class. I still actively program and work from home because I developed the code that lets me be on TV 1,500 miles from the studio.

I am a meteorologist. I'm not going to dispute this particular Chinese claim, but I think it needs to be taken in context because the Chinese have not been above stretching the facts when it serves them.

The weather and air quality have been fairly close to the worrisome scenario painted months ago. I've been checking meteorological observations every day, finding the dew point at Beijing's airport in the mid and upper 70s on a regular basis and visibility of 1-2 miles common (It is currently under 1 mile, but there is rain falling).

Back in February I wrote on my blog of the potential Olympic weather: "So, when the deputy chief engineer of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau says, "Even if the rare extreme weather hits Beijing in August, people will not feel muggy. High humidity will not accompany the hot weather in August because their climax periods are different, " I'd hide the silverware and other valuables."

Current Beijing observations are here.

Dew points (the real number you should look at when you think humidity) have been consistently in the 70s--often the upper 70s. That's like walking around with a warm, damp cloth wrapped around your body. Much of yesterday had Beijing more humid than Miami.

I would feel better about what the Chinese say if dissenting voices were allowed to speak about the air!

There is an independent group from Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants in England who have been monitoring the air and issuing their own forecasts which have been much more pessimistic than the official government version. Now that forecast is gone! From Telegraph.co.uk: British scientists monitoring air quality in Beijing have been ordered to close down their website after their readings clashed with official statistics showing the city was meeting its pollution targets.