Word: weather
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Toowoomba and its environs might be in luck. This week, scientists in the area got one step closer to launching what could be the world's most advanced experiment in rainmaking - or, as it's known in weather circles, cloud seeding. It's the practice of injecting clouds with a foreign substance, usually silver iodide, salt or dry ice, to make the the cloud's water or ice particles bigger and yield more rain. The technique has been used in different parts of the world for more than 60 years, with varying success. But the improvement of weather technology...
...seeding was invented in 1946 by Bernard Vonnegut, older brother to essayist and novelist Kurt. Since then, it has enjoyed a colorful history. Countries around the world quickly adopted the technology, and over the three decades following its introduction, the U.S. spent many millions of dollars a year on weather modification. It was even used during the Vietnam War to increase rainfall on the Ho Chi Minh trail to hamper supply movement, until word got out and the U.S. agreed not to play with the weather while making war. In the 1970s, the science of cloud seeding acquired a whiff...
...inspiration--Diana, Princess of Wales, who died 10 years ago next month. Diana famously loved the U.S. for reasons that have seduced countless Brits over the centuries. On the western side of the Atlantic you aren't judged by your parentage or whether you streak your hair. And the weather is better...
...Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA doled out over 120,000 mobile homes to residents of the Gulf Coast. Many of those trailers have walls and cabinets made up of particleboard, which contains formaldehyde that can sometimes emit gas in hot, humid weather such as that found in Louisiana and Mississippi. The effect on humans (especially children) range from "burning sensations in the eyes, nose, and throat; nausea; coughing; chest tightness; wheezing; skin rashes and allergic reactions." As early as March 2006, FEMA began to receive complaints about formaldehyde odors. After one trailer was tested, an April 2006 e-mail...
...comes to Ireland for the weather, I'd been told over and over. Not for nothing has precipitation preoccupied Irish literary luminaries from Joyce (“It would rain for ever, noiselessly. The water would rise inch by inch…covering the monuments and mountain tops...”) to Frank McCourt (“Great sheets of rain gathered to drift slowly up the River Shannon and settle forever...”). But in July and August, I'd also been told, one could realistically hope for tolerable weather—even occasionally beautiful days...