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.
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.
We all agree on the necessity of compromise. We just can't agree on when it's necessary to compromise. -- Larry Wall