It was a discrepant, rainy and magical night in Paris for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics. A 3.5 mile flotilla on the River Seine, carrying 10,500 athletes on 94 boats.  Lady Gaga and  Aya Nakamura  performed.  The whole spectacle ended on a high, with the  lighting of a floating cauldron  and a courageous tour de force of  Celine Dione  singing Edith Piaff's  L'Hymne a L'amour . There is a lot of history. It was in Paris way back in 1783 that the very first flight took place, on a hot air balloon before King Louis XVI.  On board were a sheep, a duck and a young rooster.  They survived. A few days later, Jacques Charles used a hydrogen-filled balloon from the same spot in the Jardin des Tuileries in front of 400,000 people. The ballon is filled with hydrogen, but the cauldron is not a fossil-fuel flame.  Electricity is fed to 40 LED spotlights to illuminate a cloud of water using 200 high-pressure mist...

  I keep hearing rumors that COVID-19 is back this summer, especially in the USA, and, more specifically Hawaii.  Positivity is somewhat high, but this graphic from   KFF   indicates that nothing much is happening in the U.S.  Map of COVID-19 cases this past week. Update on Paris Summer Olympics. Temperature  has not been a problem. Today, 68F low to 83F high with a little bit of rain. Tomorrow, 64F-76F and cloudy. The next week will see highs from 70F on Saturday with some rain to 90F on Tuesday with clouds, but down to 79F by Friday, August 2. Looking into the month of August , the highest I see will be 87F on August 5, with most highs in the high 70Fs, with mostly clouds. You want to see all the event results,  click on this . If you're looking for soccer, no such thing in France.  Look for football. Today, the USA women's football team beat Zambia, 3-0. Today, the USA men's rugby team beat Uruguay, 33-17, and Fiji beat France, 19-12.  The...