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Can Bill Gates Prevent the Next Katrina?
theodp writes "He once controlled the world's PCs. Now Bill Gates has set his sights on controlling the world's weather. And patenting it. On Thursday, the USPTO revealed that Gates and ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold have filed five patent applications that propose using large fleets of vessels to suppress hurricanes through various methods of mixing warm water from the surface of the ocean with colder water at greater depths. The idea is to decrease the surface temperature, reducing or eliminating the heat-driven condensation that fuels the giant storms. Hey, a guy can only play so much golf in retirement."
He'll have an island in the middle of the ocean with a volcano that has a giant face on it that looks like him.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
I hope it doesn't blue sky on us.
"Where do you want to blow today?"
I am the lawn!
"Face it - Bill Gates is a about a white Persian cat and a monocle away from being a Bond villain."
A co worker and I were already discussing this! Bill steals another idea and patents it... what's new?
Great - more vaporware from Bill Gates... ;-)
Computer Science is all about trying to find the right wrench to bang in the right screw. -T.Cumbo?
Where is the whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag when you need it?
I don't think there has ever been a more appropriate reason to use it....
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
I'd at least wait for the first service pack before I install it on my planet.
rewriting history since 2109
Weather man: The sky is lovely and blue today ...
Us: ZOMG! Blue skyz of deathz!
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
The catch is that as Bill would have to visit Magrathea to get the planet built, it would be cheaper just to engage them to fix the global warming on this one. (and add a few more fjords while at it.)
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Blue sky of death?
He just declares flooding as the new international standard
... he owes us one.
kulakovich
I guess Bill is taking what he learned from Windows and applying it to the weather...
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
GPF in Rainfall.exe. Abort, retry or ignore?
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
"wait for the first service pack"
Yes but what other "features" would be in that service pack?
(1) Clouds reformatted into Microsoft friendly format to show advertising for new products.
(2) Rains on Google offices 24/7
(3) Strong winds blows everyone toward huge advertising signs they cannot ignore.
(4) DRM infested sunshine we have to buy from Microsoft.
(5) Thunder storms raining chairs on Linux offices.
(6) Snow flakes spy on us all and then tell Microsoft what we like.
(7) Apple offices found 6 weeks later under mountain of huge hail stones.
(8) Profit.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.
Microsoft seems to have taken "cloud computing" a bit too literal.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Looks like the EU hit Microsoft with one to many anti-trust rulings.
Check out my lame java blog at www.javachopshop.com
Brigham Young, leave 'em old.