SCIENCE / HEALTH - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Cold-war device used to cause Katrina? |
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from USA Today
Entered into the database on Sunday, September 25th, 2005 @ 17:59:04 MST |
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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." |