StoopTroup
8/29/2009, 07:15 AM
Scientists doubt it...
(CNN) -- Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather.
Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes.
Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes.
Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures.
It's a noble idea, given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week.
The storm, which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana, was blamed for $81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men, women and children.
Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility.
"The enormity of it, in order to do something effective, we'd have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before," said Gabriel Vecchi, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The enormity of the project may be what inspires some to even try it IMO. Hell...we we're sure we could put a man on the moon or send a robot to mars but somehow we do it. I do think seeing Gates step outside his element is a bit odd and that the idea seems to have come about like he came up with it over a really good bowl of weed...but hey who knows....:pop:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science...ray/index.html
(CNN) -- Hurricane experts are throwing cold water on an idea backed by billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates aimed at controlling the weather.
Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes.
Bill Gates and scientists have applied for patents aimed at reducing the strength of oncoming hurricanes.
Gates and a dozen other scientists have raised eyebrows by submitting patent applications for a technology to reduce the danger of approaching hurricanes by cooling ocean temperatures.
It's a noble idea, given the horrible memories from Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the Gulf Coast four years ago this week.
The storm, which rated a frightening Category 3 when it made landfall in Louisiana, was blamed for $81 billion in damaged and destroyed property and the deaths of more than 1,800 men, women and children.
Skeptics applaud the motive of the concept but question its feasibility.
"The enormity of it, in order to do something effective, we'd have to do something at a scale that humans have never really done before," said Gabriel Vecchi, a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The enormity of the project may be what inspires some to even try it IMO. Hell...we we're sure we could put a man on the moon or send a robot to mars but somehow we do it. I do think seeing Gates step outside his element is a bit odd and that the idea seems to have come about like he came up with it over a really good bowl of weed...but hey who knows....:pop:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science...ray/index.html