"Fried Fridays: Rockets' Red, uh...Glare?"

I was musing out loud to my self just the other day about how I've let Thursdays be my "Travelogue" day dedicated to some hiking or driving destination where I share some of my nature photography with you...and in the very next breath I came upon the idea of "Fried Fridays" - after all, it's the end of the work week, most of us 'fried' as a result...and so I thought I'd present some ideas or news stories that seem a little 'fried' in their own right.

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This inaugural "Fried Fridays" post goes to the Chinese government for promising a rain-free Olympics in Beijing next summer...doing so during a pretty wet time, seasonally. How? By firing rockets into developing storm clouds. I kid you not. Click HERE for the wire story.

Weather modification efforts are not unprecedented, of course, even in China where they have historically manipulated storms to make rain...but never to disperse it. I remember reading about other such efforts years ago in Moscow, their government meteorologists trying to limit the city's rainfall...and they actually did lessen it. Keep in mind matter is never destroyed, simply displaced or reformed in some way...per the Russian story, their intercity efforts ended up increasing crop-killing rains 30 miles around the city's periphery. Peasant farmers lost most of what they had because of the excessive rains. As the old saying goes, you don't get something for nothing.

And so Beijing authorities are going to blast boiling storm clouds to fulfill a dry-sky promise while bringing in world class athletes with world class crowds and world class numbers of media, all for the sake of ego and honor and money...in a land with a highly disputable environmental and socio-economic record to begin with. The spin is always how this boosts the economy - but that is only one side of a very large coin.

(Beijing, China)

Even as a meteorologist, I'm not interested if it will actually work, said rocket experiment. I'm far more concerned about mankind's attitude that such large-scale modifications of Nature are harmless and without consequence, and should be done at all. So what if it's damp for the 440 relay...isn't this about the best athletes at that time, coming together in whatever the conditions, to compete for #1? You mean that if you pay $200 for a ticket you should be exempt from getting wet in an outdoor arenas? Or is it also part of our artificial narcissistic pursuit to keep setting records under ideal conditions to the point of making it somewhat artificial? Ethics are a personal thing, but I know enough to know that when you start impacting Nature on such a large scale, there will be a reaction...just what and to what extent is the great unknown.

Now, if only I could find a way to bottle our weekend weather coming up....enjoy!

(all photos from Reuters and AP wires)