Sunday, April 3, 2011

Qatar Will Use $500,000 Artificial Clouds for the World Cup

When I heard that World Cup 2022 was going to be in Qatar, I was confused like everyone else. Isn't it deathly hot over there? But they've got a solution: to make artificial clouds (something Bill Gates has wanted to do) to cool down the temperature.

Apparently, the artificial clouds, developed by scientists at Qatar University, are made from a "lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas." There are four solar-powered engines that will move the "cloud" (via remote control) to block the sun and make the temperature playable. This is cool! But this will also happen in 2022, a whole 11 years from now where we'll likely be using an iPhone 16 (which hopefully by then, will have its own artificial cloud) and seeing a dominant US soccer team win the damn thing. One or the other, at least.