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Filinadian · Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 27

I was surfing the net today and I found this crazy article on www.usatoday.com
Check it out:

Cold-war device used to cause Katrina?
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) � An Idaho weatherman says Japan's Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb attack � and that this technology will soon be wielded again to hit another U.S. city.

Meteorologist Scott Stevens, a nine-year veteran of KPVI-TV in Pocatello, said he was struggling to forecast weather patterns starting in 1998 when he discovered the theory on the Internet. It's now detailed on Stevens' website, www.weatherwars.info, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported.

Stevens, who is among several people to offer alternative and generally discounted theories for the storm that flooded New Orleans, says a little-known oversight in physical laws makes it possible to create and control storms � especially if you're armed with the Cold War-era weapon said to have been made by the Russians in 1976. Stevens became convinced of the existence of the Russian device when he observed an unusual Montana cold front in 2004.

"I just got sick to my stomach because these clouds were unnatural and that meant they had (the machine) on all the time," Stevens said. "I was left trying to forecast the intent of some organization rather than the weather of this planet."

Stevens said oddities in Hurricane Katrina storm patterns underpin his theory.

And, according to his website, so does the fact that Katrina and Ivan � the name given to a destructive hurricane that hit Florida in September 2004 � both sound Russian.

Scientists discount Stevens' claims as ludicrous and say they run contrary to the second law of thermodynamics, that energy can be neither created nor destroyed.

"I have been doing hurricane research for the better part of 20 years now, and there was nothing unusual to me about any of the satellite imagery of Katrina," said Rob Young, a hurricane expert at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C. "It's laughable to think it could have been manmade."

Stevens' bosses at KPVI-TV say their employee can think and say what he wants � as long as he keeps the station out of the debate and acknowledges that his views are his own opinion. Bill Fouch, KPVI's general manager, compared Stevens' musings to political or religious beliefs that journalists suppress on the job.

"He doesn't talk about it on his weathercast," Fouch said. "He's very knowledgeable about weather, and he's very popular."

taikibansei · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 811 Location: Japan

Hey, don't bag on our very popular local weatherman!

And you guys probably thought I was making these crazy Idaho stories up.... Wink

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

Weel like you say Filinadian "Imagination is more important than knowledge"

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Don't you think the Yakuza would have better things to do with a hurricane-control machine than hit Florida and New Orleans? I mean, with the dozen or two typhoons that hit Japan every year, some of them must inflict damage on Yakuza turf, so it only makes sense that they'd actually try to DIVERT such storms first.

Of course, if it is the Yakuza and Aum Shinrikyo (as the link suggests), who knows why they would use such a machine?

And, why would the Russians have it and give it away anyhow? Sounds like a plot from the 1998 The Avengers movie, if you ask me. (or was it Our Man Flint vs. Galaxy? or the 1981 April Fool's Day hoax in England? http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/af_1981.html )

Revenant · Mod Team Joined: 28 Jul 2005 Posts: 1109

I'd like to see an actual link to this bunk.... a general link to USA Today doesn't validate the authenticity of the supposed article....

taikibansei · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 811 Location: Japan

Henry_Cowell · Joined: 27 May 2005 Posts: 3352 Location: Berkeley

markle · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Posts: 1316 Location: Out of Japan

This shoit was on CNN this morning, Lou Dobbs is having a really slow news week.

osakajojo · Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 229

sounds like something from the Onion
ww.theonion.com

ndorfn · Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 126

Why anyone would want to wreak havoc and destruction on a belligerent country like the one bush runs is not hard to understand, but why did they use their tricky device to help England win the Ashes?

And yes, " a little known oversight in physical laws", truly a classic phrase, right out of monty python.