Weather control is not just for Reichians and warlocks any more

Last June Metro Systems built five ionising sites each with 20 emitters which can send trillions of cloud-forming ions into the atmosphere.

Over four summer months the emitters were switched on when the required atmospheric level of humidity reached 30 per cent or more.

While the country's weather experts predicted no clouds or rain in the Al Ain region, rain fell on FIFTY-TWO occasions.

The project was monitored by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, one of the world's major centres for atmospheric physics.

Professor Hartmut Grassl, a former institute director, said: There are many applications. One is getting water into a dry area.

'Maybe this is a most important point for mankind.' 

I wonder if this causes droughts downwind. BEGUN THIS WEATHER WAR HAS!

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News from Texas

It's snowing in Austin. Y'all Northerners are used to snow, but for us, this is a rare, non-accumulating treat.

Yikes

...the eye still hasn't even reached Galveston, and Buffalo Bayou is flowing in reverse. The upside of the fact that Houston is built on swampland is that the city has one hell of a drainage system, almost as if it were built on an immense delta of LA rivers. They're going to need all that capacity now, because as long as the Bayou is backed up, the stopper is in the drain.


Looks to me like Ike is headed up the ship channel, which I always heard was the worst possible thing a hurricane might do. The media doesn't seem to be saying so, though, so maybe that was just hubba hubba hubba.



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The view from Austin

The storm is looking pretty serious. CNN is reporting that as many as 37,000 people may require rescue in the wake of Ike. 

And while things are legitimately scary on the coast, here in Austin...

... people are freaking out! Even if Ike were headed directly at us--which it isn't--the damage to an inland city would likely be very minor. There is a reason that evacuees from the coast are being sent to Austin.

But that hasn't prevented hysterical Austinites from evacuating, buying up all the gasoline, and even closing schools early today. I went to the store for a jug of water, only to discover that in the whole store, there were only two jugs of water left. 

So naturally I bought both jugs. You know, just in case.

Bush's Catch 22

So, lets just say the hurricane hits some Gulf community--say, Lynchburg--and hits hard enough to warrant a federal response. What does George Bush do? Does he...

A) ... do the right thing, swing for the bleachers, and pull off a successful response, knowing that this will cement in some people's minds the idea that he didn't respond to Katrina because "George Bush does not care about black people?"

or

B) ... knowing the result of A, decide to pull a Katrina, just to prove he's an equal opportunity fuckup?

or

C) ... try for A but end up doing B out of genuine incompetence?

Discuss.

Why I'm not too worried about old Gus

My NOLA friends all moved inland a couple years ago. Caneys, we called them.

Quote of the month

"There's also the question of who would control the weather."

Indeed

Sometimes it just turns out that way

Ladies take note: If I can find my long underwear, I'm wearing it today.

In other weather related news, Heavy Weather is starts out as a pretty good contribution to the cyberpunk tornado chaser genre but falls apart in the last 30 pages or so.

Speaking of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, Children of Men is a pretty good contribution to the genre, even though it sometimes hits you over the head with its politics.