Glen Mills just forwarded this one:
Olympic nightmare: A red tide in the Yellow Sea
BEIJING: With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition.
www.iht.com/.../china.php
Then there was this:
Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijings shocking death camp for cats
Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Olympics-clean-Chinese-style-Inside-Beijings-shocking-death-camp-cats.html
This was early on, but it sounds like they will have as much as half the amount of cars on the road by banning all government workers from driving:
Olympians air a gripe about Beijing
March 12, 2008
Matt Reed was 1,500 meters into the last segment of the triathlon when he found himself gasping for oxygen. His legs were still pounding away at the pavement, his body pumped up after cruising through the swimming and cycling contests, but his lungs were shutting down.
The 32-year-old triathlete from Boulder, Colo., blames air pollution for triggering his asthma attack during the September track meet.
articles.latimes.com/.../fg-olyair12
Former Member
That's actually a good reason to have it there. What better way to draw international attention to the the issues you mentioned.
Precisely.
I don't get it. Aside from cultural preferences, or personal affinities, what is the deal with the cats being killed? Heck, what is the number of cattle and chickens and pigs or whatever slaughtered each year all over the world? Not to mention stray dogs and cats...As for pollution, just now in 2008 China caught up with the U.S. in the pollution statistics...whatever
Did you read the article about the cats? Last I checked, the US does not do things like this to our pets.
Regarding the pollution, I think you might be referring to greenhouse gases only. The NYTimes ran a series of articles about this very subject.
www.nytimes.com/.../26china.htmlwww.nytimes.com/.../choking_on_growth_10.html
Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. Beijing is frantically searching for a magic formula, a meteorological deus ex machina, to clear its skies for the 2008 Olympics.
Environmental woes that might be considered catastrophic in some countries can seem commonplace in China: industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
Everyone should own a cat...or three.
The world would be a nicer place.
This is why cat people scare me. You have to collect them. One dog is all you need.
This is why cat people scare me. You have to collect them. One dog is all you need.
wish that were true. my sister has 5 dogs.
btw, i have a dog too, the infamous pug
This is why cat people scare me. You have to collect them. One dog is all you need.
One cat is all I need, thanks.
When I was in Belize, I didn't eat any meat -- a cab driver told us a story of the use of cat meat in lieu of beef in some of the divier spots. Blech.
Oh, and here's another bothersome thing about the cat folks. They all have at least one cat named Daisy or Snowball or Socks. And, the really odd ones will name their cat Mr. So and So or Mrs. So and So.
I have to admit, our next door neighbor's cat was pretty cool, he just died, kind of sad.
Oh, and here's another bothersome thing about the cat folks. They all have at least one cat named Daisy or Snowball or Socks. And, the really odd ones will name their cat Mr. So and So or Mrs. So and So.
I have to admit, our next door neighbor's cat was pretty cool, he just died, kind of sad.
i have a cat named crabby cat(came with the name) and biki, orangina(like the soft drink) and my parents cat is named chicco(italian name, not for the baby toy company)
my dog unfortunately has an unoriginal name pugsley
It's no wonder cats are generally malevolent beings if they get such silly names.
Mr Furball
Cottonfeet
Sooty
GAH!
Rex
Rover
Ben
Buddy.
Much better names and suited to dogs, and at least they love you.
Other than the dogs I had as kids, which my mom named, I've had good dogs with good names. My avatar is Jackson, we also had a Guinness (a shepherd/retriever mix-105 pounds and all black) and now we have a Yellow Lab puppy named Radar! Dogs are good and I'm allergic to cats. My parrot can say, "Here kitty kitty kitty!"
