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China Vows to Stop the Rain
Since the Olympic stadium doesn't have a roof, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has been given the task of making sure the games remain dry. According to Zhang Qian, head of weather manipulation (best title to have on a business card ever) at the bureau, they've had success with light rain but heavy rain remains tough to control. I see a hurricane cannon in some lucky country's future.
what the post-opening propaganda will be like if that day turns out to have sunny blue skies...
He always wanted to know "who'll stop the rain?" The Chinese.
P226
Am I the only one seeing this retarded mess of a theme on idle.*?
I think I'd prefer to get wet or use an umbrella than breathe the horrible smog that blankets Beijing. In fact, the rain is often the only thing that reduces the smog and air pollution for a shirt while.
NPR had a story about how they're forcing 1/3 of the cars to stay off the road and shutting down a bunch of factories to try to reduce the air pollution for the olympics. Maybe just letting (or making) it rain, instead of stopping it from raining, would do even more good.
everything in moderation
Not exactly 'new' tech...the silver iodide version's been around forever, and the liquid nitrogen version doesn't sound particularly revolutionary.
It does, however, go along with the Chinese cultural desire to control the elements, which heretofore has been embodied mostly with the rivers--the legendary "Yellow Emperor" was the first to stop the flooding of the Yang Tze; the current government has thrown massive resources into the Three Gorges dam. Controlling the rivers has been traditionally (as far as I recall, anyway) seen as evidence of controlling the land, and thus of being a legitimate government.
Controlling the rain, then, would be an extension of this.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
They don't actually *stop* the rain. It's most likely cloud seeding and similar... removing all the water from the clouds by making it fall early one way or another. Now, large scale weather manipulation is bad... but a few weeks in one city isn't going to hurt anything. Yea yea, butterfly effect and all... but also dynamic equilibrium.
My wife thinks cooking and fucking are two cities in China.
How would they pay off the various goldfarming shops that employ them?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
This thing isn't new at all: Eighteen years ago, at the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, the organizers already managed to control the rain quite successfully. For instance, the opening ceremony which would have been disrupted by rain without intervention, ran smoothly in fairly sunny weather instead.
The technique is simple: Detect in advance the clouds which could cause rain in Beijing, then send airplanes to spread special dust particles to cause those clouds to rain immediately, thus "empty" them before they reach Beijing.
I'm quite convinced the Chinese aren't the only ones who's done this.
So if they stop a hurricane in China, does that mean a butterfly here will stop flapping its wings?
I'm not an actor, but I play one on TV...