Russian Scholar Warns Of US Climate Change Weapon 415
According to Russian political scientist, and conspiracy aficionado Andrei Areshev the high heat, and poor crop yields of Russia, and other Central Asian countries may be the result of a climate weapon created by the US military. From the article: "... Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the US Defense Department and the University of Alaska. HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection. Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction 'in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries.'"
Yeah (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
US weapons, airframes, sigintel, uniforms, food, oil
Most of the above are in private hands or have shareholders that get a nice return on investemnt for any new system tested, deployed or upgraded.
To them distant death is a car, holiday, better private school, medical care, extra homes, toys.. the good life.
Any US politician talking of arms reductions would by
Truth is perspective (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Or the moon landing [xkcd.com].
(Obligatory I know, and someone else undoubtedly will beat me to it)
Re: (Score:2)
(Obligatory I know, and someone else undoubtedly will beat me to it)
Nope, you got it first - you win the prize*!
*Contest prizes may not actually exist.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-Prize [wikipedia.org]
Re:Truth is perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, when someone in America believes in a crazy theory we get an avalanche of posts excoriating the American educational system for producing such a person, American culture for being so anti-intellectual, American politics, etc., which we don't seem to get when any other countries' conspiracy theorists get mentioned.
Re:Truth is perspective (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Plus, the weather phenomenon which caused the Russian heatwave also caused the floods in our ally, Pakistan, which are threatening to topple their government. Does he really think the US is willing to destabilize nuclear-armed Pakistan in order to give Russia a heatwave?
We do have a climate change weapon, mind you. It's called carbon dioxide. They have it, too. Both forecast and observed effects include the tendency for the polar jet to shift northward and strengthen, which is what caused their 20F+ hot
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Except of course that Science as a system proves and then verifies proofs. Science does not disprove except in so far as invalidating unverifiable proofs such as hypotheses, theories, and laws.
Theist: I hypothesis that God exists but I cannot offer verifiable proof.
Atheist: Then you cannot hypothesis that God exists.
Theist: But I feel that it is correct. And besides, you're a jerkface for making me feel bad.
Atheist: I'm sorry your feelings are hurt, but Science cannot be objective if it is subordinated to
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, way to miss the whole point of my post. I seldom have seen any level of deliberate self-obfuscation. Bravo sir, your doublethink skills are the acme.
It is impossible to disprove the existence of ANYTHING. Science only proves existences. Science disproves only hypotheses, theories, and laws.
Re:Truth is perspective (Score:4, Interesting)
Most people on Slashdot are in the US or Europe. Fixing Russia's educational system or culture is not our problem. People in the US and Europe who genuinely believe that hurricanes are caused by god's hatred of gay people, or that 9-11 was a conservative conspiracy to kill liberals, is our problem.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
"Senator Dole, why should people vote for you instead of President Clinton?"
"It makes no difference which one of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed. DOOMED!"
Re:Truth is perspective (Score:4, Funny)
You want us to elect Sarah Palin as anything more important than the mayor of Wasilla?
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Like Governor of Alaska?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
In Russia?
Listen, I remember a show on Americans on television accusing Russia of having a weather altering device about 15 years ago (following a year we had a lot of reported weather activity. I don't recall what year or what weather events occurred, except that it was a year that many potatoes were ruined by floods in the Midwest.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of a Japanese news site I follow... it is always fascinating to see the site report on the same stories as American ones and having a completely different tone.. sometimes even different (but not contractory) facts presented.
Re: (Score:2)
My guess is that it's RT [rt.com].
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No conspiracy or control needed.. just simple economics and self interest on the part of the networks.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I would less call it 'censored' and more selectively reported in order to appeal to viewers, since viewers are what drive advertising revenue. People generally do not want to hear bad things about their country unless it is bad things they can attribute to people they already do not like.. and when they do, they vote with their dollars and view elsewhere. No conspiracy or control needed.. just simple economics and self interest on the part of the networks.
EIther way the media controls public opinion and the media is driven by an agenda. In some ways a conspiracy would be "better" since it would likely make mistakes at some point. No, this is worse. This is the work of "true believers". A conspirator in the usual sense knows he is lying, knows he is up to no good, has to keep his story straight. None of that applies to a true believer who can see it no other way.
If you want a fascinating look at the way our media is, just do some research on how they
Yes, (Score:5, Funny)
It's called "SUV".
Re: (Score:3)
Actually that is also a myth. Well more of an exaggeration. Autos do contribute to CO2 production but they are not the big problem. The big problem are coal fired power plants. Yes every little bit hurts but the SUV has gotten an unfair amount of blame because it is such visible example of people choosing to waste fuel.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
no, the problem is selfish and greedy attitudes, and "but he's worse" finger pointing.
running of suburban SUVs or subsidized coal fired power stations are both just symptoms of this.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
The big problem is CO2 production to the atmosphere. It doesn't matter if its a car or a plant or a human breathing that creates the CO2, we need to find more efficient ways to deal with it. For a plant, it might be storing the emissions till they can be converted into something useful (like seperating the C from the O2 to get oxygen and DIAMONDS!). And with vehicles it's making them emit less and less CO2.
What we need is for people to look at whats emitting CO2, and reduce it, regardless of what else is em
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to post something but the idea of making a power plant split the 0 from CO2 just about put me into a fit of laughter.
That would be unburning the coal. And would take more power than you got from burning it in the first place.
Please just stop at this point you almost made mr=y drink come out my noise. BTW you are emitting CO2 but I suggest that you do not stop as that would be bad.
Really the point was that when people rant about SUVs they are looking at the spec in someone else's eye but missing
Re:Yes, (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, yes, HAARP.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh, yes, HAARP.... (Score:5, Funny)
What? You also have a giant immersion heater in the Yukon river?
You American bastards!
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Oh, yes, HAARP.... (Score:4, Funny)
yes yes it is....
you see the Russians have been trying for years to stop our agents...
See! See my russian friends! Your failure to make big trouble for Moose and Squirrel has allowed US to create the best doomsday machine ever.
Rocky P Squirrel is our BEST climate change scientist.. and His Moose friend is a failed Magician in disguise... He really is the money behind the brains....
YOUR FAILURES HAVE DOOMED US ALL!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Oh, yes, HAARP.... (Score:4, Informative)
Technically, the problem with heatwave in Russia and floods in Pakistan comes from unusual change to local jet stream, which typically separates hot and cold fronts. This ear, jet stream was a bit unusual, on one hand bringing the heat front far north to Moscow (and parts of eastern Europe), and at the same time interacted with seasonal monsoon clouds in Pakistan causing them to become larger then normal and causing floods.
Now, if US indeed has a way to change direction of jet streams, most of the things described by conspiracy theorist are indeed possible. Problem is that energy carried by jet stream, and potentially required to significantly modify it's direction is quite immense, and would probably be detected easily even if such a feat was possible.
This is of course, hypothetical, and if someone has a degree in meteorology with specialization in jet streams and their impact on weather patterns would be welcome to chip in. Is it hypothetically possible to affect small portions of the stream to cause a domino effect? If so, even a scale suggested by parent would be workable.
So, Conspiracy Theories Are /. Worthy Now? (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't a bunch of whackjobs a few years ago try and claim that Hurricane Katrina was the result of some Weather Control Device created by the Axis of Evil?
Re:So, Conspiracy Theories Are /. Worthy Now? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
No. Don't be silly. That's just crazy talk.
It was the Russians that did it with THEIR weather manipulation device.
Duh.
Re: (Score:2)
"So, Conspiracy Theories are /. Worthy Now?"
Have you been reading the same Slashdot as the rest of us? I'm just glad when the article links don't go to YouTube videos of drunk squirrels.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't Slashdot itself a Commie Pinko Cyber-Warfare Conspiracy to lower IT productivity in english speaking countries?
Sorry, Comrade (Score:5, Funny)
We already made the unfounded claim that all natural disasters and climate related problems on the Earth are due to women dressing immodestly.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't you remember?
There was a moderate earthquake while the scantily clad women were trying to prove that immodest dress didn't cause earthquakes.
Pretty funny actually.
Re: (Score:2)
> There was a moderate earthquake while the scantily clad women were trying to prove that immodest dress didn't cause earthquakes.
Links please :).
BTW, seems that killing and eating animals can cause women to become scantily clad: http://blog.peta.org/archives/nude/ [peta.org]
Re: (Score:2)
How did this garbage get posted? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hey, do you think I can get an article posted if I post a link to a paranoid rant about Obama's birth certificate?
Re: (Score:2)
Only if you are a political scientist spreading propaganda in addition to being a wackjob conspiracy theorist.
Then it's ok.
Re: (Score:2)
No.
But try the one about his Connecticut-issued Social Security Number.
This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re: (Score:2)
All your precious bodily fluids belong to us.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, I have to disagree with you, that site is amazingly ridiculous. At least HAARP is actually shooting radio waves at the upper atmosphere, which means there is at least something could fool the ignorant that the US may be messing with the weather (a basic understanding of radio waves will clear this up for you, though).
Alexi Chiu is just downright out there. Wear this ring and take my Gorgeouspil(tm) and within one day your bones will start to restructure! You will be beautiful and immortal!
The saddes
Yes, and I can't wait for next year's model (Score:2)
The one bought last year doesn't look deadly enough:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/cash-for-clunkers-shock-horror-hummer-bought-with-c4c-cash/ [thetruthaboutcars.com]
Snowglobe (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
What other nation is fighting in the war?
Re:Snowglobe (Score:4, Funny)
You don't get it, man. Like, government "leaks" are just distractions to shift attention away from their true goals. But the true genius is how they make everybody believe they're incompetent! Don't you see?!? If everybody thinks the government is incompetent, then nobody's going to believe they're capable of pulling off such a HUGE conspiracy, and anyone who tries to tell the truth, like me, is labeled as a raving lunatic!
Duh, science vs war conspiracies... (Score:2)
Somehow people think we can come up with a grand scheme to manipulate the weather of foreign nations, put it into action, _and_ keep it quiet, yet our government can't figure out how to win a simple war and keep the documents classified during it (WikiLeaks/Afghanistan)?
Well yeah. Wars necessarily involve many thousands of people and many planners at all levels. Even if you have a genius general, their subordinates still have to make decisions, and the general is unlikely to have a complete view of the th
Standards have surely fallen (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Standards have surely fallen (Score:5, Insightful)
Then Block Idle Already (Score:2)
The best part is.. This is great.. It's filed under "Science".. I would have chosen Idle, but Conspiracy theories are Science now and fully /. worthy.
Actually it's filed under both science [slashdot.org] and idle [slashdot.org] so to be fair it would have been blocked if you took the time to block 'idle' in your preferences. I've probably outlined how to do that a hundred times in posts [slashdot.org] and heavily recommend it so we don't have to continually put up with discussions on why Slashdot is so craptacular. Your other option is to just stop reading it all together as I'm sure most of the people that complain don't bother to tweak the preferences options that have been there since as long
Re: (Score:2)
Well of course (Score:2)
Because it combines two things Slashdot seems to love: Global warming and the US being evil.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought it was funny. Maybe there should be a "Unintentional Comedy" section.
Re: (Score:2)
If something like this makes the front page at slashdot, what's next? Roswell aliens, JFK Conspiracy theories, how about the 9/11 conspiracy saying the fed's were behind everything? Is it possible to have the slightest bit of editorial standards at this website?
Failing that, I want an article saying Roswell aliens killed JFK and caused 9/11.
Re: (Score:2)
Better targets (Score:3, Insightful)
If it was real you would think we would pick better targets such as:
Oh but I guess picking bad targets must be part of the conspiracy because that would hide the conspiracy. But then, knowing that I know that they know that I know then they would pick good targets.
Re: (Score:2)
That was my thought.
These guys need to wake up: the cold war ended decades ago, when Russia fell to pieces.
Re: (Score:2)
We tried... The origional version had only 2 settings... Good and Evil.
we tried evil and it started targeting Washington DC..
So the scientists redesigned it to have levels of evil and it seems that it's not a fine enough of an adjustment yet.
Somebody has to do it... (Score:5, Funny)
OK I'll take the bullet and get the meme out of the way so we can focus on serious-business /. discussion.
"In Soviet Russia, Climate changes you!"
Re: (Score:2)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these devices. We could terraform Titan!
Why don't the just... (Score:3, Funny)
Contradiction in terms? (Score:5, Insightful)
One might be a "Political Scientist" in much the same way as one might be an "Honest Politician".
Re: (Score:2)
Political science is a legitimate field, the study of politics as a social phenomenon. In this instance it's completely irrelevant to the topic, suggesting they mentioned it primarily because it includes the word "science" and makes it sound like he might have more of a clue about HAARP's abilities than your average internet conspiracy theorist.
Impossible, Russians have prior art (Score:4, Funny)
Couldn't possibly happen, because the Russians have prior art on this: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Russian_Woodpecker [wikimedia.org]
The conspiracy-theories for the Russian Woodpecker were primarily mind control and weather modification.
But then again, if they didn't patent it, maybe we could use it after all.
Sarcasm alert - I know that citing patents and prior art against secret government weapons is silly. Sometimes the secret government weapons are, too.
Aural? (Score:2)
That would be Auroral, not Aural
Proof they sell Tinfoil in Russia (Score:2)
Don't blame us.... (Score:2)
We only come up with crude versions of a technological idea...
The Japanese roll all of our technological breakthroughs into perfection and spread it around the world.
The real name of the weapon.... (Score:2)
... is the AUTOMOBILE!
Duh duh duuunnnnnnnn!
And so... (Score:2)
I thought Putin wanted it warmer (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, wasn't Putin saying something a few years ago that he would welcome global warming, inasmuch as Russia would benefit due to longer growing seasons, more tractable land, etc.?
Here we go: 'Putin pointed out that "an increase of two or three degrees wouldn't be so bad for a northern country like Russia. We could spend less on fur coats, and the grain harvest would go up".' [newscientist.com]
According to the article, there was some disagreement if this was just snarky or held a "grain" of truth.
Re:I thought Putin wanted it warmer (Score:4, Interesting)
Putin is actually quite correct. Russia is one of the few countries on that planet which would significantly benefit from global warming. Most of its populated areas are well above and away from the reach of any rising water levels, and the climate in them would only get milder. On the other hand, it would result in a lot of permafrost in Siberia thawing - some of that would end up suitable for agriculture, but even where it's not the case, it would provide for easier access to natural resources stored within.
I suspect it might be why Russian official science organizations are very much in denial about the whole AGW thing...
However you feel about HAARP... (Score:2)
However you feel about HAARP, Russia also has a similar program (in terms of hardware)
Dictators always need external enemies (Score:2)
American climate weapons fits in a bit too well with:
Dictators must have external enemies. And people in non-democracies tend to believe in conspiracies -- after all, they live in one.
Let us hope this is a crank, or we should be sad (and scared!) about where Russia is going... :-(
I assume it is the Russian oil's fault. Countries with too much of their export income from natural resources never become democracies, if they weren't one already. (See "Resource curse".)
Global Thermo War (Score:2)
Shades of Tom Bearden! (Score:2)
To me, the most amusing aspect of this conspiracy theory is that it so perfectly mirrors the conspiracy theory that Tom Bearden (www.cheniere.org) has been spouting over the years, i.e. that the Russians developed "scalar electromagnetic" weapons during the Cold War, and have been using them to create earthquakes, steer hurricanes at the U.S. (e.g. Katrina), and cause most of the unusual weather (heat waves, cold snaps, droughts, etc.) that the U.S. has experienced in the past couple of decades.
So now I gue
Slashdot. (Score:2)
News for Nutcases. Stuff that oh my god the evil government control rays and the zionist lion tamers with the hurting my brain Matters.
HAARP (Score:5, Interesting)
It's just a big microwave pointed at the sky. It illuminates a stream of charged particles which circle the earth at high latitude, known as the electrojets. By heating and cooling this stream of particles in the ionosphere, we were able to modulate a signal onto the electrojet (since it's conductivity is temperature dependent), turning the electrojet into a gigantic low frequency antenna. We used the signals generated to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the earth.
As much as I would like to be able to claim that it can be used to control the weather, such far-fetched notions are pure fantasies, spawned from the minds of those who don't understand the physics of space plasmas. Or have any notion of what a plasma is. Or how weather patterns are created. I mean hell, we were barely able to use it to generate a coherent signal using the electrojet (already quite the feat of science). How the hell could we use it to affect the weather???
Re:HAARP (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, yes, yes... that's all very nice, but how good is it at making popcorn more efficiently?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's exactly what the conspiracy would WANT you to say...
Evil plot mechanisms. (Score:3)
As much as I would like to be able to claim that it can be used to control the weather, such far-fetched notions are pure fantasies, spawned from the minds of those who don't understand the physics of space plasmas. Or have any notion of what a plasma is. Or how weather patterns are created. I mean hell, we were barely able to use it to generate a coherent signal using the electrojet (already quite the feat of science). How the hell could we use it to affect the weather???
Let's put on the tinfoil propeller-
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I do it all the time, after a fashion. It's amateur radio, and we use ionospheric skips to get over the horizon.
It's True! (Score:2)
HAARP? (Score:4, Funny)
Not a problem... (Score:3, Funny)
This can be defeated by the: Guided Universal Indepednant Not Near Earth Survival System, or GUINNESS.
Wanna See Something Interesting? (Score:3, Interesting)
Go to the HAARP website, and look up the online data [alaska.edu]. Call up the Magnetometer Charts, specifically the archives.
Look at a few of the charts, zoom in, zoom out, change the dates, play with it a bit.
Now...
1. Go to a "history timeline" website, one that specifically deals with major events in the last decade. This is a reasonably okay one? [mapreport.com]
2. Go back to your magnetometer chart. Zoom in to a 2-week data range, starting 1 week before a major event, and ending 1 week after.
3. Look at how the dataline is relatively flat. RELATIVELY flat, mind you, compared to the other data.
4. Look at the massive spike either just before, or right AT the event. For example, look at the data for the morning of 9/11.
5. Now look at the data for every single major security scare, national security event, or even a major natural disaster where everyone got worked up into a froth, or there were a lot of people injured or otherwise killed.
Isnt' that interesting?
Now then, I am NOT suggesting that HAARP was responsible for 9/11 or the Haiti earthquake. Please, don't even go there.
What I am suggesting, is that major catastrophes have an effect on the magnetosphere, effects that can be measured.
Now here's the $100,000.00 question?
Exactly what is it surrounding these events that is affecting the earth's magnetosphere? Radio traffic? Cellphone traffic? Pumping up the satellite feed to overcome interference?
Some have suggested that human emotions are responsible. That's a bit of a reach, though. Isn't it?
Re: (Score:2)
"Damn you, sir...AND DAMN YOUR CHAIR!" /Sealab 2021 reference
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No Mr Bond, I expect you to fry
Re: (Score:2)
+1 funny, please.
Re: (Score:2)
Truth?
Justice?
The American way?