Dyn-O-Mat!

This guy claims he can reduce a hurricane by about 20% by dropping (10) 747's full of diaper gel into it.

How can you argue with such spunky, cockeyed optimism? At least the guy is trying to do something. The feds think he's nuts of course.

His residential products are intriguing. I've always wanted my lawn and shrubs to have a glossy gel-like appearance. But who hasn't, am I right?

Hat tip to scott.

Ace's Update: Maybe Not Completely Spunky, Cockeyed Optimism! The government has done experiments, with actual hurricanes, and they have noticed some ameliorating effect... sometimes:

But it wasn't until 1961 that initial tests were conducted on Hurricane Esther with a Navy plane releasing silver iodide crystals. Some reports indicate winds were reduced by 10 percent to 30 percent.

During Stormfury, scientists also seeded hurricanes in 1963, 1969 and 1971 over the open Atlantic Ocean far from land.

Researchers dropped silver iodide, a substance that serves as an effective ice nuclei, into clouds just outside of the hurricane's eyewall. The idea was that a new ring of clouds would form around the artificial ice nuclei. The new clouds were supposed to change rain patterns and form a new eyewall that would collapse the old one. The reformed hurricane would spin more slowly and be less dangerous.

Sometimes, the experiments appeared to work. Hurricane Debbie in 1969 was seeded twice over four days by several aircraft. Researchers noted that its intensity waxed and waned by up to 30 percent.

FWIW, the article denigrates the idea of just blowing up a nuke in the middle of a 'cane, noting that the energy of a hurricane far exceeds that of even a bunch of nukes.

posted by Laura. at 12:35 PM

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