Bill Gates envisions disarming hurricanes by siphoning the high seas

nola.com ^ | 07/14/09 | Mark Schleifstein

[TornadoAlley3]

If you thought domination of the world's software market was cool, get a load of Bill Gates' next technological vision: giant ocean-going tubs that fight hurricanes by draining warm water from the surface to the depths, through a long tube.

A second tube could simultaneously suck cool water from the depths to the surface.

Microsoft founder Gates and a dozen other scientists and engineers have a patent pending for deploying such vessels, which they say would collect water through waves breaking over the walls of the tub. Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water.

[IbJensen]

Nuts.

[Steamburg]

Yes, Liberals do suck hard, but not that hard. Anyway can you imagine the environmentalists filing suit on that one.

[gjones77]

Nope, don’t forget, he’s worth billions and is a liberal, so he’s “eccentric”.

[unixfox]

Nuts.

Maybe. But at one time two guys had an idea they called an airplane.

[TornadoAlley3]

taxpayers will fund it when Obama learns what a neat idea it is:)

[Da Coyote]

Hey Bill...your operating system is the epitome of inane, outmoded design.

Your business model is right of Chicago politics.

Your are not a scientist. Never were, cannot ever be.

Go away. Forever.

[tips up]

And the unintended consequences are??

Hurricanes provided much needed water to many areas. Maybe not a good idea eliminating them.

[Sacajaweau]

Let’s take a wild guess that these storms and water temperatures provide a stabilizing factor to the world as we know it.

[SlowBoat407]

This is what happens when you think man has any kind of influence whatsoever on the environment.

You just go BA-ZING! wHAck WHOOP-De-DOO!

[Da Coyote]

OK, OK, it’s you’re, not your...

So I have had an Obama moment.

What are you gonna do? Let me run a car company?

[Loud Mime]

The Blue Sea of Death comes to mind. His OS (Oceanic System) will crash.

[VicVega]

Let's hope they don't work like the windows operating system or we will get the blue screen of death.

From a poster on nola.com. LOL

[ClearCase_guy]

Some people have a godlike need to control the foundations of the earth. Warmer? Colder? Stormier? Calmer? You tell me what you want, and I will wave my magic wand and make it happen.

How about we just build nuclear power plants and let the earth do what the earth does?

[Daisyjane69]

I wish he’d stick to straightening out the security issues on his operating systems.

Seriously.

[x_plus_one]

Bill Gates + Algore = Big Bore

[Travis T. OJustice]

Some variations have the water moving through turbines on their way down, which would in turn generate electricity to suck up the cooler water.

SWEET! A perpetual motion machine!

[Travis T. OJustice]

But at one time two guys had an idea they called an airplane.

Airplanes dont' violate the laws of physics.

[frithguild]

New Orleans residents might be keen on at least two other ideas for which Gates and his allies have sought patents: an insulated container that can be used as a beer keg and a fence using photons -- particles of light -- to shoo mosquitoes away from homes.

oh-k

[growingpains]

Maybe Bill and Algore can be the ones to go out and test it!

[Boiling point]

Why not take some of those evil unwanted nukes, and air burst them in the eye while it is out to sea away from any population and snuff it out like a candle. ;^/

[ExpatGator]

Hurricanes are necessary processes that moderate ocean temperatures, provide water for numerous continents and are the world’s largest pruning service. Interfering in that process would be a mistake.

That said, it is hard to imagine a machine big enough to exchange enough surface/deep water to have an effect.

[kenmcg]

Me thinks..... Mr. Gates should spend some time on the high seas before he wastes his money.

[mountainlion]

Now they want to kill the fish and mess up the ecology of the gulf. Nice.

[SERKIT]

When it needs to be rebooted, you get the deep-blue screen of death. Actually it sounds like a giant toilet, much like Microsoft.

[Theophilus]

Me thinks..... Mr. Gates should spend some time on the high seas before he wastes his money.

All he has to do is get government to pay for his futile invention, then instant profit!

[TangoLimaSierra]

Bingo

[plsjr]

Maybe part of the design is for Gates and ALgore to “talk” the water down the tube. They ARE a couple of blow-hards. It might just work if we can get all the leftists in DC to join them (I can dream, can't I).

[plsjr]

Maybe part of the design is for Gates and ALgore to “talk” the water down the tube. They ARE a couple of blow-hards. It might just work if we can get all the leftists in DC to join them (I can dream, can't I).

[plsjr]

(patience, plsjr)

[smokingfrog]

[jrd]

instead of on ships put it on a platform around our coastal cities and use to direct the storm away from cities such as New Orleans...

[MrEdd]

Dozen other scientists and engineers?

Bill Gates is neither.

He is the world's foremost lawyer.
He is always looking for intellectual property to steal from someone who lacks the money to defend their property in a long drawn out court battle.

Let's first be honest on who the players are.

[SJSAMPLE]

Bill Gates wants his own “Cobra Weather Dominator”.

Cool.
He’s finally getting some balls.

[jdub]

somebody spent too much time watching “superfriends” as a kid....

[Clara Lou]

Yes, Bill. Even if we are able to do what you suggest regarding the pumping, what would be the environmental effects, Bill? Tampering with nature’s cycles opens other cans of worms.

[PapaBear3625]

Let’s take a wild guess that these storms and water temperatures provide a stabilizing factor to the world as we know it.

Hurricanes moderate tropical ocean surface temps by sucking heat up from the water and transporting it to the upper atmosphere where it can radiate away.

We don't want to fiddle with ocean temps without knowing what we're doing. The warm water of the Gulf Stream keeps Britain and Europe at a reasonable temperature (look at a globe - Paris France is at a higher latitude than the northern tip of Maine).

[Iron Munro]

How dare they prpose anything manmade that would alter the oneness of Gaia!

Paging Al Gore. Paging Al Gore.

[Bigg Red]

Sure, Gates, go ahead and mess with the planet’s way of maintaining homeostasis. Idiot!

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Bill - your time is better spent concentrating on making your operating systems work right.

[reagan_fanatic]

And how many dolphins are gonna be killed by this machine???

*sob*

[dogcaller]

Ever try to fight a wildfire with a garden hose...brought to us by the same wizards who blessed us with kudzu for erosion control.

[Titus-Maximus]

Next Bill is going to get a big rocketship and then run it around the Earth counterclockwise, real real fast, and bring us all back in time to the point where we can all buy Microsoft stock for 3 dollars a share.

[onedoug]

Talk of messing with the eco-system....

[chevydude26]

The unintended consequences scare me but let them keep funding that research without taxpayer money. I can see them creating tidal waves by accident why don’t they try to zap tornadoes first

[okie01]

Talk of messing with the eco-system....

Unlike the "global warming" scam, there is no telling how this kind of action might affect the climate. Nor how significantly.

We may not understand it, but hurricanes play a role in worldwide weather. And messing with them could have all kinds of consequences -- any of them bad, because we'd be unprepared for them.

[norwaypinesavage]

"But at one time two guys had an idea they called an airplane."

Actually, tens of thousands of people had the ideas for airplanes. The Wright brothers happened to be the first to succeed with their ideas. They used analysis, prototypes, wind tunnels, and many other techniques to perfect their designs before the final success. The preceding work that led to the successes spanned centuries. Gates should stick with software. His software sometimes works.

[Jeff Chandler]

at one time two guys had an idea they called an airplane.

Yeah, and the Nazis had pieces of flair that they made the Jews wear.

[MediaMole]

He’ll build this right after he finishes his lair inside a volcano.