Friday, August 22, 2003
Absolutely incredible. MSNBC yesterday reported that possibly 10,000 people have died in France as a result of the heatwave and (presumably) the government's inattention to the problem. I thought wide-spread deaths due to excessive heat stopped in the 1950s, as air conditioning and an understanding of heat-related injury became more widely known, at least in the industrialized world. We have experienced widespread heat-realted death since then, when our electricity fails, think of Chicago back in the 1960s. And over 8,000 people in this country have died in the period 1979-1999 from heat-related injuries. That's a twenty-year period, not a one month period. I wonder, what are they (the government of France) thinking?
It is probably true that in many areas of France that the temperature rarely goes above 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) and that air conditioning is not needed in a temperate zone that doesn't get hot most of the time. Here, I think that education is called for, so that people know what they can do to mitigate the heat and save themselves.
One by-product of the heat may be a better wine-grape crop! Makes of French wine say that 2003 could be a legandary year, like 1997, 1976 or even 1947. But there are still reasons to worry as the sun could be too hot, burning the grapes on the vine. Interesting story.
And of course, you've updated your Windows systems and anti-virus protection against the "So.Big" virus and its deritives, right? Then how come a virus took down CSX Railroad train signals? Do train signals come with their own email addresses? Are they on the internet at trainsignal.com/habanera? How did this happen? A virus affected train signals in 23 states, come on now!
Personal note, a neighbor of mine died recently due to a heart attack, he was only 51. His widow is establishing a scholorship program for the theater arts in his name at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. I think that is certainly a noble gift to the arts programs at Classical. Wayne J. Enos will be missed by a lot of people.
À bientôt,
-Larry
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It is probably true that in many areas of France that the temperature rarely goes above 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) and that air conditioning is not needed in a temperate zone that doesn't get hot most of the time. Here, I think that education is called for, so that people know what they can do to mitigate the heat and save themselves.
One by-product of the heat may be a better wine-grape crop! Makes of French wine say that 2003 could be a legandary year, like 1997, 1976 or even 1947. But there are still reasons to worry as the sun could be too hot, burning the grapes on the vine. Interesting story.
And of course, you've updated your Windows systems and anti-virus protection against the "So.Big" virus and its deritives, right? Then how come a virus took down CSX Railroad train signals? Do train signals come with their own email addresses? Are they on the internet at trainsignal.com/habanera? How did this happen? A virus affected train signals in 23 states, come on now!
Personal note, a neighbor of mine died recently due to a heart attack, he was only 51. His widow is establishing a scholorship program for the theater arts in his name at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. I think that is certainly a noble gift to the arts programs at Classical. Wayne J. Enos will be missed by a lot of people.
À bientôt,
-Larry
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