Green Games in 2008 June 28, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : issues , add a commentChinese government promised to hold Summer Olympic games 2008 as Green Games. Problems arise in the air that athletics breathe outdoor. Ozone and other fine dusts when there is no rain or wind may be threatening the health of these athletics covered by Spiegel Online.
On my second thought, what about the 11 million people who are living and breathing the air daily? The other stupid idea about this question may be that the evidence of those 11 million residents is the very proof that the air is breathable and okay at least for the time of the games.
This is just my wild guess to get this dirty air clean ASAP. Considering the communistic or totalitarian aspect of China and the government already promised to have the Green Games, they may stop 80 percents of vehicles and polluting factories running say two months before the game and wait for nice showers to wash away all the fine dirts in the air. Surely together with planting some greens in the city long before the games.
But the article says that this is not the case. A significant number of residents are sick because of one of the dirtiest air in the world. Even if they stop all the vehicles, the factories, and other possible heating or cooling system, the wind depending on the direction carries 50 to 70 percents of the fine dusts from somewhere outside of Beijing.
No remedy unless they set a pretty extensive perimeter centered Beijing and shut off all the polluting machines or factories long before the games. I guess if they would do this, this might have been at least more than 15 percents of shutdown overall in China.
Interested and motivated in seeing how they manage to turn this gray dusty environment into the green one at least for the time of the Green Games.
Sphere: Related Content
George Orwell: 12 Writing Tips June 28, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : tips , add a commentA scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:
- What am I trying to say?
- What words will express it?
- What image or idiom will make it clearer?
- Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
And he will probably ask himself two more:
- Could I put it more shortly?
- Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
* From “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Elder problem - Looks like honey dripping, huh? June 27, 2007
Posted by nbeyond in : Video clips, science , add a commentSome clips I made a long ago to test blog in draft for video upload.
The Elder problem is one of the benchmark tests for density dependent flow.
Sphere: Related Content