Geoengineering a Snow-Free Winter Fails In Moscow 202
dinoyum writes "Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov's promise of a winter without snow in the capital city has fallen short. While cloud seeding is not a new concept for Russia, often used on major holidays, geoengineering snow has never been done to that magnitude. Carrying off the $6 million procedure required jets to spray silver iodide into coming clouds, ensuring that all precipitation fell before it reached the capital. However a combination of disrupted radar, wind control, and faulty weathermen have been blamed by Luzhkov for his failed attempt at playing with mother nature. For now, Russia can go back to enjoying snow."
In Soviet Russia (Score:3, Funny)
Winter geoengineers YOU!
Moscow without snow? (Score:4, Funny)
That would be like Paris without dogshit.
In soviet russia... (Score:1, Funny)
Snow geoengineer you..
Re:Huh (Score:5, Funny)
Dome cities...
EPA Soldier: I'm afraid we lost them, sir.
Russ Cargill: Damn it! Well, then you find 'em, and you get 'em back in the dome! And to make sure nobody else gets out, I want roving death squads around the perimeter 24-7! I want 10,000 tough guys, and I want 10,000 soft guys to make the tough guys look tougher! And here's how I want them arranged: tough, soft, tough, tough, soft, tough, soft, soft, tough, tough, soft, soft, tough, soft, tough, soft!
EPA Soldier: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
Russ Cargill: Of course I have! Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring, no one listens to you!
Re:Snow falls in Russia - Film at 11 (Score:3, Funny)
In Communist Russia Snow controls YOU!
yet again a failed promise made by a politician, does it ever CHANGE?
Re:Moscow without snow? (Score:1, Funny)
Morons?
Re:Madness (Score:5, Funny)
That always was my favorite part about the Soviet Union. None of this whiny "but we'll get cancer" crap. In Russia, a guy would be lucky to see his sixties and not die of alcohol-related disease.
My favorite was Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy [wikipedia.org], which was a much bigger version(i.e. over 200 nuclear explosions!) of the US's Operation Plowshare (a mere 28). They made a lake, went prospecting for diamonds and oil and gas and all sorts of neat things to do with "peaceful nuclear explosions." I believe the Soviets also found a way to make cattle feed directly out of petroleum (though I haven't been able to source this), I suppose in case of nuclear winter. I think the Soviets were also thinking of working with the USA to intentionally melt the Arctic ice sheet via damming up the Bering Strait or something. They were going to use the Energia rocket (designed for their Buran Space Shuttle) to orbit a giant orbiting mirror to illuminate arctic/Siberian towns during the cold, dark winters there.
You learn how to fight to win in the struggle of Man vs Nature when you live in a place as cold and desolate as Russia.
I think the Russians actually WANT global warming. I doubt they'll ever start doing anything meaningful to stop it. Heck, an ice-free Arctic would mean a lot more viable trading ports for Russia, something it has always been in very short supply of (compared to the United States, which has ginormous, ice-free trading ports on the two busiest oceans... this has been an enormous engine of growth and geopolitical power for the USA). Also, they would likely substantially increase how much arable land they have available if the temperature rose a few degrees. The only people who have more to gain from Global Warming is probably Canada.
And if global warming is ever a big enough problem that we just HAVE TO lower the temperature a few degrees via some geoengineering scheme, the Russians are the ones to go to who have the gonads to do it and the industrial capability to pull it off, although China could probably do it just as well.
Poor Russian snow (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Faulty weathermen" is a bit redundant (Score:3, Funny)
They typically do really well, actually. People just remember the abject failures and overgeneralize
That's what I've been telling the ladies.
(No, just kidding, virgin in reality.)
Re:Huh (Score:2, Funny)
Wouldn't homeopathic silver iodide have such low concentrations that there wouldn't actually be any silver iodide at all and therefor safe? :D
Re:Hmph (Score:2, Funny)
Baltic fleet? Seems rather inconvenient.