Well, it was bound to happen sometime. There are myriad stories related to Beijing's preparations to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, yet few of them capture the imaginations of foreign journalists as much as 1) authorities' efforts to control the weather, and 2) authorities' efforts to control the media. Today it seems that both stories collided on the fourth ring road, right across from the Olympics Tower of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Here's what happened. It was a typical August day in Beijing: muggy, hot, polluted. The sort of sauna-like weather that will bedevils visiting athletes during the Beijing Games, which open almost exactly a year from now, on Aug. 8, 2008. Pegged to the "one year to go" date,  Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called a press-conference-plus-street-demonstration at 3 PM to push for the release of detained journalists and more freedom of expression before the Olympic Games.