Gates and Tubs - Hurricane Killers

Tired of weeding bytes in the keyboard colony, Bill Gates is using some of his Microsoft millions to fight hurricanes. The scheme Gates is promoting consists of giant tubs in the ocean with two tubes descending to the depths. One tube "drains" warm water from the surface and the second tube sucks cooler water from the depths.

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.

As many as 200 vessels could be placed strategically in the predicted path of a hurricane, and they could be designed to be reused or to sink in place and decompose underwater. The vessels could be moved into place by towing or by dropping from airplanes.

A second patent application describes how part or all of the cost of building and maintaining the hurricane-killer ships could be raised by selling insurance to coastal residents whose risk would be reduced by using the new system.

So, the idea is to work fast to put out a bunch of tubs in the ocean when a hurricane is coming and then the storm is supposed to fizzle out. Good luck with the scheme, Bill. I'm skeptical.

In any event, I wonder if a correlation exists between winning the Nobel Prize and trying to control the weather. Both Al Gore and Bill Gates are giving it a shot. Unfortunately, nature is a mother. I predict both will fail.

Tip: Charley Nestor

Companion post at The Jawa Report.