I was working on finding a fast, free weather feed for the site and realized, why not turn to the government." So I found that the government has tons of free information in xml format, which is really convenient.

While perusing through the various weather data, I found a FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions section regarding tropical storms. Mind you this is on a real government site funded by our tax dollars. It just shows what an inappropriate response americans take toward any sort of threat if this qualifies as a frequently asked question.

The Frequently Asked Question is:
Subject: C5C Why don't we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?

You can find the answer in case you arn't sure.

For those of you that are too lazy, here is an little excerpt, it is mucho entertaining.

. . .for a more rigorous scientific explanation of why this would not be an effective hurricane modification technique. The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required. A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x1013 watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 1013 watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane . . .

I decided to realize my dream of enabling further mobile phone functions for the site via the WAP broswers on most cell phones. This all goes back to when I lived in Arizona in 2001. I received my usual computer programming magazine that had a special artilel about WAP and the future of mobile computing. It was my dream to get involved but I never had time, by the time I had the time and skill to work it, the sidekick came out and i moved onto that.

Now I realize that the rest of the world still has WAP browsers and so I would like to allow them to use the site over their phones.

The site is almost 100% functional on the t-mobile sidekick but the extension to WAP browser is a really great addition. Currently, at elmwoodstrip.com/wap you can view who is online, the last 12 entries by user - title, and by clicking on the entries you can read the full entries which are currenly not stripped properly of excess crap like formatting tags. However, Ii only had an hour and a half to work on this and I have to get going. Check it out.

If anyone who is rich and generous would like to support the continued development of the mobile features of elmwoodstrip.com, please donate for the software required for development. The cell phone emulator software that I need for development costs ~ 249 pounds, it can be found here . The software allows me to test the page on various cell-pone models online without having to own the actual phones which would cost a fortune. Feel free to simply buy a license and send me t he software!!

Does anyone know of any grants I could apply for to cover costs like this? I am offering to give up tons of my free time to offer services to the public but having useful ideas is limiting when I don't have the cash flow to make them happen. Alternatively, I could pick up another job but then the site development would would be on the back burner because of lack of time. It's a vicous circle.

In regards to my helium question[inlink]paul,1935[/inlink] I finally got a repsonse from ajay [inlink]ajay,122[/inlink]. I have been asking this question for about 10 years now and just kept hoping I would meet some person who understood physics and could give me an answer.

I am not sure what I want to send up but I am sure that I want to send something up as a promotional gimick for the site. I don't want to send anyone into the atmosphere but I would like to make an airbus that can hold one person and float them down elmwood about 5-15 feet off the ground. Like a parade float but in the air. From there they could give out flyers or candy or something. Do you have any ideas which materials would be best for this? I think it would be the most fun project ever.

The more I think about it, the more I think that it would be best to build it out of many little helium balloons because then if one popped we wouldn't lose the whole thing. Kind of the same idea as a multi chamber blow-up raft. Unfortunately, the extra surface area would add extra weight, right? Any ideas?

I really want an answer to what seems like a simple question. How much helium does it take to lift a hundred pounds? Anyone know?

Who posted this link to our site on slashdot ?