August 7, 2010

• Worst game of Marco Polo ever!

  Catching up on e-mail, I noticed this photo published in Spiegel Online:

  

  Almost seven billion people live on our planet and almost over one billion of them live in China. This week, thousands of them flocked to a public swimming pool in Suining, in China's Sichuan province, to get a break from the summer heat. They stood rubber to rubber in the country's largest floating pool as temperatures reached 40 degrees Celsius (about 104 Fahrenheit).

  Look at that picture closely.  Look at their faces!  About 5% are smiling, probably at the ridiculousness of the situation, and the rest look as though they are just trying to keep from drowning.  Is that really enjoyable?  Can they really be thinking "This is fun!" or "Gee, it's really nice to get away from everything for awhile."  It looks like they're trying to break some sort of record.  For crying out loud, you can't even see water!  Try filling a swimming pool with people to the point where water is literally no longer visible. 

  I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer swam in the polluted East River to avoid crowds at the local pool.  Maybe somewhere there's a Chinese Kramer counterpart trying something similar in the even more polluted Yellow River.

  Speaking of Yellow River, is there any kind of contingency plan to allow the swimmers in the middle of the pool to reach the bathroom?

  • 6:07 pm
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