A laser has been used to generate small clouds on demand in lab, and real-world experiments suggest this could be a way to call down rain when it's needed.
People have experimented with cloud seeding for decades in the hope of boosting rainfall, usually by sprinkling silver iodide crystals into clouds high in the atmosphere.
These crystals encourage large water droplets to form around them, and the droplets then fall as rain – in theory, at least. "The efficiency of this technique is controversial," says Jérôme Kasparian at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, one member of a research team that think lasers may be a better way to trigger rain on demand.
Kasparian and colleagues have just reported the first successful use of this technique to summon clouds from air both in the lab and in the skies over Berlin, Germany.
Erin Andrews tells Access’ Shaun Robinson how hurt she is by Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s comments over her wardrobe choices on “Dancing with the Stars.” Also, what does her “Dancing” partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy have to say about the situation?
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Overmorgen dan gaan de Britten naar de stembus. Verkiezingen die spannender zijn dan ooit. En die mogelijk tot grote constitutionele hervormingen leiden. En dat allemaal dankzij de zoon van een Nederlandse moeder. Nick Clegg, de leider van de Liberaal Democraten. Zijn optreden in het eerste tv-debat dat ooit werd gehouden in Groot-Brittannië, maakte een enorme impact.
Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide (potentially) spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world
"Well if you say the fire hose has a 70,000 psi pump on the other end yes! No comparison here. The volume out rises geometrically with pressure. Its a squares function. Two times the pressure is 4 times the push. The Alaska pipeline is 4 feet in diameter and pushes with a lot less pressure. This situation in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning dangerous." -- Paul Noel (May 2, 2010)
Former FEMA director Michael Brown is not backing off his charge that the Obama administration wants to use the Gulf Coast oil spill as a plot to put an end to offshore drilling.
"They want a crisis like this, so that they can use a crisis like this to shut down offshore and gas drilling," he said Tuesday night on CNN's "AC 360°."
His remarks came a day after he told Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" that the oil slick is "exactly what they want, because now he can pander to the environmentalists and say, 'I'm going to shut it down because it's too dangerous.' While Mexico and China and everybody else drills in the Gulf, we're going to get shut down."
Pressed by CNN for evidence to back up his claim, Brown pointed to an interview that then-Sen. Barack Obama gave to The San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008. Obama told the Chronicle editorial board that he wanted cap-and-trade legislation to be as strong as possible.
A Pennsylvania store says it has video of the suspect in the failed Times Square car bombing buying fireworks there.
Bruce Zoldan is president of Ohio-based Phantom Fireworks. He says Faisal Shahzad bought fireworks from the company's showroom in Matamoras, Pa., within the last eight weeks.
Zoldan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Shahzad bought a consumer-grade product that was not nearly powerful enough to detonate a bomb.
Lee County Sheriff Michael Scott was in New York City over the weekend and shortly after taking part in a New York City bomb squad training session, he found himself at the scene of a bomb scare in Times Square. Sheriff Scott spoke with WINK News. (See video.)
Meanwhile, a law enforcement official says the registered owner of an SUV used in a botched bombing in Times Square told investigators he sold it for cash three weeks ago.
The official tells The Associated Press that the Connecticut owner questioned Sunday about what happened to the SUV says he sold the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder to a stranger.
Nigel Farage, the Ukip candidate, has had an extraordinary escape after his plane towing an election banner crashed into a field.
Mr Farage, was pulled semi-conscious from the wreckage with blood running down his swollen face after the light aircraft crashed upside down at Hinton-in-the-Hedges airfield, near Brackley, Northants.
Amazingly the politician, who is contesting Speaker John Bercow’s seat in Buckingham, walked away from the crash with only minor head injuries.
The aircraft was pulling a purple and yellow Ukip banner which allegedly got caught up in the tail fin of the aircraft when it took off just after 8am. The banner carried the slogan "Vote for your country - Vote Ukip".
Mr Farage, 46, was found still strapped into his cockpit seat, bent double and face down under the plane. He was pulled from the tangled wreckage still dressed in a pin-stripe suit, blue shirt and tie, with a Ukip rosette attached.
Bret Michaels' press conference has just ended. Michaels' doctor, Dr. Joseph Zabramski, spoke about his condition saying that the highest risk is within the next six months. The doctor also announced that Bret Michaels has been discharged from the hospital and will be going home to finish his recovery.
This is excellent news for the ill rocker. His sister told MTV that he is itching to go home even though he is in a lot of pain.
Although Michaels is still very sick according to the doctors, he is in stable condition. Michaels received his care at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix where he has been since April 22, 2010. Zabramski also said that he expects the rocker to make a full recovery.
Bret Michaels is very lucky in that respect since only 10-20% of people are able to resume their normal activities after the brain hemorrhage like he had.
