(continued)

CHANGE #3
Fewer felines
To reduce the city's unsightly clutter of 500,000 cats, officials have been aggressively disseminating info that cats carry diseases like SARS. As a result, panicked citizens are abandoning their beloved pets to kitty death camps—and, in the case of one overzealous kindergarten teacher, beating strays senseless.

CHANGE #4
Cloudless skies
With the opening ceremonies facing a 47 percent chance of precipitation, Chinese scientists are ready to preemptively fire silver-iodide-filled rockets into approaching clouds from 21 locations, making them rain before any important people get wet.