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China Vows to Stop the Rain

Posted by samzenpus on from the way-ahead-of-the-germ-warfare-division dept.

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.

6 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Someone tell John Fogerty? by Fysiks+Wurks · · Score: 5, Funny

    He always wanted to know "who'll stop the rain?" The Chinese.

    --
    P226
    1. Re:Someone tell John Fogerty? by croddy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Really? Have you ever seen the rain?

  2. Cloud seeding and cloud freezing? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Cloud seeding and cloud freezing? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Controlling the water means you control the people, as well--remember, China has been, traditionally, a largely agricultural country, dependent upon a certain flood cycle.

      If you control the rivers, you control the land they feed and drain. If you control the feeding and draining, you control the people who need that feeding and draining to survive, and to grow food. If you control the people who grow food, you control the people who need food--and that's more or less everyone.

      It all comes back to the water.

      --
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure dome decree
  3. Re:Action/Reaction? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  4. Mad Scienteists by Laguerre · · Score: 5, Funny

    Zhang Qian, head of weather manipulation (best title to have on a business card ever)
    Mad scientists can't start out being James Bond villains. This seems like a great place for an aspiring mad scientist to work, fresh out of mad grad school.