The memory of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina are still fresh in all of our minds; I know that if any one of us had a way to avert such a disaster again, we would do it. Well everyone's favorite billionaire, Bill Gates, may have the answer to stopping hurricanes in their tracks.
Mr. Gates along with a Nathan Mhyrvold (I'm not even going to try pronouncing that last name) has applied for five patents with regards to a system for stopping hurricanes. What exactly does this system entail? I'm glad you asked.
The patents discuss something along the lines of creating a fleet of ships that would be placed in front of hurricanes and that would lower the surface temperature of the ocean around them; this is done by pumping water from the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean up to the surface. The idea is to cool the tropical waters which fuel the storms.
I suppose in theory this is a great idea, except how are you going to pay for the gazillion ships you would need to cool an area like say the Gulf of Mexico? Bill, being the brilliant man he is, has a solution for that too; one idea is to sell insurance to areas that get hit by storms often, and use the money to fund his scheme... erm I mean plan.
Well Bill if you can pull it off, that's great! But I really don't feel like paying anyone to control the weather, I mean come on, shouldn't such a service be free, Bill; you do already donate so much of your money anyways, and Microsoft ain't going away any time soon. Just a word of advice though, watch out for Apple, they might come out with some kind of iHurricane; Hurricanes, there's an app for that.
Bill Gates to fight hurricanes
