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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Affairs of State

As we all know, China has a planned economy. The government controls many things. It just does.

One thing the government controls is when the heat can be turned on in the buildings. They set a date (I hear it's November 15) and until then, no central heating. 

Before you all freak out, consider the pollution in China. (Note to self:  tell you about a couple of weekends ago.) Keeping the heat off saves something like, well, a LOT of coal. A shit ton, to be exact. (I did a quick google search, but I couldn't find a number that corresponds to that tonnage.) It's a pretty good reason to limit when the heat is turned on. (That is, unless you all like how much pollution floats over the Pacific to the U.S.)

The temperature dropped significantly on Sunday. Right now (at 6:45pm), it's 50 degrees. Highs today were around 59. Lows tonight are predicted to be around 38 degrees. Let's just say that it's a little cold right now.
But hey! It's just like living in the dorm back at Carolina. The heating was controlled by the Physical Plant there, too. 
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