How Russia Transformed a Subtropical Beach Resort To Host the Winter Olympics 359
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Duncan Geere reports at The Verge that Russian resort as Sochi, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, is humid and subtropical with temperatures averaging about 52 degrees Fahrenheit (12 C) in the winter, and 75 degrees (24 C) in the summer. "There is almost no snow here — at the moment it's raining," says Olga Mironova, a local resident. It's estimated that the cost of staging the Olympics in Sochi has been greater than the previous three Winter Games combined — ballooning to a whopping $51 billion including the cost of implementing an extensive system of safeguards to ensure there'll be sufficient snow in Sochi for the games including the cost of implementing one of the largest snowmaking systems in Europe. The system includes two huge water reservoirs that feed 400 snow cannons installed along the slopes that can generate snow in temperatures of up to 60 degrees fahrenheit (16 C). If that snow isn't enough, then the authorities will fall back on 710,000 cubic meters of snow collected during the winters of previous years leading up to the games. To keep it from melting in the region's hot summers, 10 separate stockpiles have been kept packed tight under insulating covers high up in the mountains, safe from the sun's rays. Down in Sochi itself the other half of the games will be held in five indoor arenas that will host figure skating, speed skating, hockey, and curling, and an additional outdoor area will host the opening and closing ceremonies. In each of these indoor arenas, underfloor cooling systems are installed so that the ice stays frozen above it using propylene glycol, which doesn't freeze until temperatures reach 8.6 F (-13 C). Climatologists predict that even under a best-case scenario, almost half the venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics over the last century would be unable to do so by 2080 without resorting to extensive and expensive artificial snowmaking techniques.""
AGW is a scam (Score:1, Funny)
How do warmists explain that in my air conditioned house, temperature never goes above 70 farhenheit? AGW doesn't exist. What exists is AIC (anthopological indoor cooling).
Re:Celsius (Score:5, Funny)
It would even be clearer to most people here if you did it in kelvins rather than Fahrenheit.
You have to hand it to the Russians (Score:5, Funny)
Now, doesn't the lack of shower curtains and door knobs seem a bit pedantic?
Snow in Russia? (Score:2, Funny)
I guess they couldn't find a colder place in such a tiny territory
Re:60 degrees F and 710,000 cubic metres. Idiots. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh just wait until you come to Canada, neighboring the US especially in Southern Ontario or Alberta you have: Meat, veggies, fruit and bulk goods weighed in, grams and lbs. Lumber by the ft, and meter, road signs in various spots in mph and km/h. Liquid in containers, in fl oz, quart and ml, or liters. And to top it all off you get screwed over when buying gasoline.
Then again, you could go to the UK and get baffled by stones.
Fahrenheit is more naturally understood (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Seriously? (Score:3, Funny)
I always see this, and it never stops getting less stupid. I'm an American living abroad, and I switched over to the metric system about five years ago. You know the last time I needed to know how many centimeters in a kilometer? Never. It doesn't happen. This so-called advantage is nothing but. Humans respond well to whole numbers. 12 is a more round number than 10, and 60 is more round than 100.
Use the right unit for the right job. Nobody ever has to convert units. You know how many feet in a mile? Nobody cares. One is for measuring small distances, and the other for large distances.
Story time: after I started really using the metric system, I once met a group of Europeans on the street. Seeing that I was a fellow foreigner, they stopped to ask me directions to a nearby venue. I said, "Oh, it's about a hectometer that way," only to get blank stares. It was like I just stepped out of an alien spaceship. I had to explain to them that a hectometer was 100 meters. They had no idea despite using the metric system since birth.