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Recently the AFP reported that China was experimenting on dispersing clouds to prevent rain during Olympic events. Conversely, officials claim that China has already set up an extensive system that may be able to make it rain during the games if needed. Now wouldn't this kind of thing be useful in the winter. Especially after the winter we've just had on the east coast with very little in terms of actual snow fall. A little rain would also be useful in fighting the forest fires that recently ravaged the western United States. On the other hand, this could also turn out to be just another modality to spread disease.

It was August 10th, 2007 when the AFP reported that chinese scientists were "conducting high-altitude tests to eliminate clouds and stop rain [from] spoiling next year's Beijing Olympics."¹ This was achieved by dispersing silver iodide and Diatomite into the atmosphere. These two compounds are thought to prevent moisture from forming into rain drops. Silver iodide is used as an antiseptic and diatomite is a naturally occurring, soft, chalk-like sedimentary rock so conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that the process is safe. At the very least, spectators at the 2008 Olympic games have little chance of catching some form of an infection while chinese scientist are pumping the air full of antiseptic. The idea of controlling the weather with chemicals does, however, raise a small red flag in my mind, although maybe I just watch too many James Bond type movie with over the top, megalomaniacal villains.

The one thing that I find most interesting about this is that silver iodide, having a crystaline structure similar to ice, can induce freezing to the moisture in clouds when disperssed in the air (in China they use old anti-aircraft guns to shoot cans of the compounds into the sky). The first idea that came to my mind when I learned of this was that this seems like a feasible way of making it snow. I suspect that if done properly, this could also be much more effective than arrays of snow cannons on your favourite hill, or even better, combine the two.

Apparently this technique called cloud seeding is not new which makes me wonder why I hadn't heard of it until now. Had I known about this, I would have focused my energies last year on cloud seeding the skies over Vermont and western Quebec instead of wearing my pyjamas inside out and flushing ice cubes down the toilet (which is commonly thought to be a fundamental part of the snow dance). Perhaps the researchers who study this know something that we don't such as: a) cloud seeding is prohibitively expensive or b) cloud seeding is a potential health hazard. In the first case, I feel bad for the people of China who will have to foot the bill for this when the Olympics come around in 2008. In the second case I feel bad for the people of China who will be exposed to cloud seeding and the side effects of this technique, probably even after the Olympics are done and gone. In either case, it looks like I feel bad for the chinese. In the meantime, I'll be accepting donations to the "seed the clouds to shred the gnar" fund in an attempt to raise money, kind of like a snow insurrance policy, to seed the skies if we are again in dire need of snow this winter. I give you my assurances that this fund will be used only in cases of emergencies, namely on days where I'm snowboarding and can't find any freshies. The governing body of this fund will not be elected for obvious reasons.

So next winter when your hitting the slopes and you notice a little precipitation starting to fall. Look up in the sky, you may be getting a random dose of anti-septic for a few fresh lines. One way or the other, the important thing here is to...

Keep shreddin' the GNAR!

References

1. China working to make clouds vanish during Olympics, http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070810/sc_afp/oly2008chnweathercloud_070810064642, Fri Aug 10, 2:54 AM ET.

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So I definitely think it should snow in Calgary, because it hasn't. And i disagree with this fact. School starts again which means less snowboarding. More of the fun stuff we love and have come to know by the name of education but thats cool im down. Does anyone know how to do a snow-dance?

(Everything is one year!!!!!)

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There was this one time I was going up the chair on the best mountain on the planet and I was thinking, "man, this is gonna be the best Christmas ever." 

Then it started raining

And it didn’t stop.

But then the chair stopped. 

Then I got a bit grumpy and all I could do was growl for the rest of the day as the rain washed all the snow off of mighty Blackcomb. 

The mountain, she cried today.

For all the times we drove instead of walked. 

For all the paper we waste printing off TPS reports for people who barely glance at them.

For all the time we glanced over an article about the environment and then turned to the sports page. 

For all the times we used that extra 4 sheets of shi*t tickets when we wiped our arse.

For the times we kept our mouths shut when people littered or when they left their car running while someone ran into the store. 

For all the people who thought global warming was a myth. 

And all the people who thought governments would keep their environmental promises since it was spearheaded by Canada.

For all those people that make fun of environmentalists.

For the people who give no thought to the amount of energy they consume and the amount of garbage they create. 

For SUV’s, cutting down trees and CFC’s. 

I don't have time to finish this but you get the idea so....

Do your snow dances and stuff and lets try and have a better new year.

Shoutouts to the K-Town bandits - the countdown is on, all the lonely people, 4:20, Insomniacs everywhere and Patience.

Rhyme of the blog:
"You can’t come close like an order of protection, to distance myself from the pack was sorta my intention, slaughter anybody steppin n callin out my profession, any more questions?  Taught em a lesson.. A demonstration, takin em all the way home while you stuck at first base, and, it’s like havin relations without penetration.  Basically, you nothin, you a waste o time, always chasin mine is how you contemplate your mind."

-New Kweli

Track of the Blog - "We came to step it up" -Rhombus

Merry Christmas to one and all, hope to see you all rockin along in the new year, should be a beauty.

Peace,

C.ROK

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Here are some stories form the past couple days at school...

   One of the boys in the grade 7 class, Zac, is an avid snowboarder.. he's about a foot taller than me, and looks older than me, and we usually get along really well when i'm not failling him.  Anyway, we were talking about the slopes and how we'd probably end up at he same hill and how he'd kick my ass, until we started to actually talk about boarding and he ralized i,d probably kick his... so long story short, he ended up stealing my keys, digging up my cell phone and trying to call the school to get us out of class so that we could go boarding!

   Today, the grade 6/7 class got a little rough, and one guy went to jump on another, in the process throwing his agenda on the ground. So there I go to jump in and stop my second fist fight of the day, and slip on that gawd damn agenda and smash right into the counter. Everyone in the class just froze, I calmly got up, with tears in my eyes, and said 'so who's failing french this year' as i picked up the agenda... 'Clinton, sucks for you doesn't it!'.  Clinton being the smart ass he is replies with a  'Yeah but it's snowing!! aren't you happy???" (I usually get overly excited when it snows and do my snow dance!!) and I replied 'I would be happy, except now that my wrist is broken i can't go boarding now can I?'   He felt so bad i had to tell him i was really okay, just a little bruised and swollen, but i'd live.. and he won't fail french if he brings me lots of chocolate! haha

anyway, i,m happy about the 45 cms of snow we're supposed to get overnight... but with all the people planning on it being a snow day tomorrow, you know it won't be :(

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