Dogs are off the menu at hotels and restaurants for the Beijing Olympics!

1,000-years-ago China was technologically ahead of the rest of the planet by about 400 years or so. They sailed a "clipper-like" ship into the Mediterranean one day and it was like Martians had landed. Imagine brightly colored, silk sails, on a multi-mast ship with a massive rudder never ever seen before.

They had fireworks, paper, ornate fabrics that the Europeans had never seen before and they were blown away. Ultimately the Chinese were underwhelmed with Europe and decided to close up shop and screw trading with the Europeans who had everything to gain and nothing to give.

Now zoom up 1000 years later to RIGHT NOW! and China is seemingly between 50-150 years behind western Europe depending on which Chinese province or city you are in. In some places it's America circa 1960 with grand steel mills, enormous cranes, and industrial fortresses spewing out smog and pollution that hurt both your eyes and nose as you contribute to it all while driving down the street in a Chinese Buick La Crosse. (Buick still exists there.)

In other places it's London circa 1880 and the public is burning coal for heating and cooking and they are also drinking the same water from the same river that they "deficate" in. I suspect the majority of pollution is coming from coal burning rather than industrial smoke stacks.

Are these guys ready for "prime-time?"

U.S. Olympic Officials Call Beijing Pollution Levels 'Awful' [Link]

Chinese people eat dogs but next month they are off the menu: [Link]

The picture to the right came from ABC News.com. I copied the photo and adjusted the levels in Photoshop since the photo they have up is not displaying the correct color information. Their photo looks like pee-soup. This photo is more accurate and it is still bad.