Satellite image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) shows Hurricane Nicole approaching Bermuda on Oct 12. Send out an aircraft and drop a bomb on the hurricane to disperse the core and thereby reduce the strength of the storm. – AFP photo
THEY claim to be smart and can invent anything even out of thin air. They have invented bombs and call them by various names – atomic, hydrogen, mustard, cluster, chemical, mortar and hand grenade. These have been used by people to wipe out cities and kill thousands of other people during wars or sectarian conflicts.
They have also invented smart bombs – those that can look for their targets even inside a mountain cave.
They have invented rockets to take pictures of the moon and have sent astronauts to land on the moon itself. In 1971, I saw a piece of rock encased at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington – moon rock, said my guide.
They are designing rockets for use by people who wish to visit other planets before they die. Eventually, tourists loaded with laundered money on earth will be able to fly to the Red Planet by MARS Flight 2022. So those who have not been to see Mars, save now for that trip. Bon voyage!
They have also invented ballistic or heat-seeking missiles that are capable of shooting down aircraft flying over 20,000 feet above sea level. Remember how we suddenly lost our plane, a civilian plane, over Ukraine last year. Many precious lives were lost unnecessarily.
They have invented the Hurricane hunter planes that can fly 45,000 feet above sea level and into the eye of a storm or a typhoon. For fun! One report that I heard was how exciting it was for certain pilots to experience the terrible turbulence by going through a hurricane. I always thought that aeroplane pilots avoid storm clouds during flights if they can help it. Apparently some pilots enjoy the experience all right, but what good does it do in terms of discovering new technology by which way a typhoon can be reduced or weakened to the status of a mere tropical storm?
Despite all the millions of dollars spent on research and experiments, all these years they have not invented something that can effectively destroy hurricanes or typhoons and save the lives of many people and millions of dollars’ worth of people’s properties.
‘They’ herein refers to the scientists of the world – be they American, Russian, Israeli, Iranian, Pakistani, Chinese, Indian or Malaysian.
Why can’t they invent something that can prevent storms before they develop into killer hurricanes or typhoons?
All they are able to do now is to forecast the coming of a storm, calculate its strength, speed and direction, but they cannot stop the monster typhoon nor hurricane on its way to destroy homes, kill people and devastate landscapes.
Names of typhoons
They call typhoons and hurricanes by various names, mainly of ladies’ – Katrina, Hermine, Wilma, Sandy, etc. These typhoons and hurricanes don’t deserve those girls’ names. They are not ladylike at all. And running out of nice names they call them by the boys’ names – Alex, Andrew, Ivan and Gilbert and the latest is Matthew.
Another is called Chaba – that sounds like a Turkish name. Malakka sounds like a Malaysian invention. Hugo is like a Latin leader’s name. In the Philippines, the names range from Ambo to Zosimo.
Fires
They have invented the fire extinguishers. Yet they cannot or do not want to invent the most effective way of extinguishing big fires on tall buildings or forest fires. Vast areas of forests have been burnt down in Australia and America and in Borneo. The only extinguisher is the natural rain.
Why can’t they work on a technology that can extinguish longhouse fires. We need better system than what we have got (using water and foam) in Sarawak. The annual fires from plantations in Sumatra and West Kalimantan produce haze in Singapore and Sarawak. A new technology of firefighting is urgently required before the coming of the haze. Indonesian and Malaysian scientists need to start producing a technology to control fires on peat swamps.
Cloud seeding
They have invented chemicals to make rain, though; if bombed into the air, the chemicals produce ‘seeds’ and these seeds make the rain heavy and the artificial rain falls.
Earthquakes
However, I salute the Japanese scientists; they are now working on a technology so that they can forecast the occurrence of earthquakes – where and when they will erupt. That leaves ample time and opportunity for people to evacuate to a safer place. This Japanese technology would be useful for other earthquake-prone countries such as Indonesia and New Zealand.
You will have noticed that I have not touched on other scientists – food scientists, medical scientists, even the weather scientists. I have no quarrel with them at all. They are better scientists.
Back to Hurricane Matthew. In 1971, I was a guest of the Department of State under the International Visitors Program. One of the places that is a must-visit while in the USA was Cape Canaveral, to see the rockets that were being assembled before they were launched into outer space. Am wondering what has happened to many of those used rockets, which were on display all over the area. They were the monuments to the success of the Nasa space programme.
It is horrible the damage done by Matthew to the Haitians, especially the poor people of that country. Their country has been devastated and compounding the problem is the occurrence of the dreadful disease of cholera as a result of the contaminated water from the rain, which had been brought by Matthew.
Can’t something be done to attack and destroy Matthews and company?
Do the scientists care at all?
I think they do, but they have their own priorities: tourism projects to Mars and other planets. Wrong priorities.
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