bwf@ihldt.UUCP (Bill Fecht) (10/24/84)
Ok, here goes. Please bear with me. I was just told an amazing story about how the USSR is performing experiments involving a "giant magnet" in an attempt to screw up the weather for us, and make it better (a la agriculture) for them. In addition, we are countering with our own experiments - and our "giant magnet" is based somewhere near Chicago. Supposedly this is the explanation for why the weather has been so iratic lately. Hello? If you haven't lunged for you 'n' key yet - what I'm curious about is the following: Is this just some wierd story, or is it the by-product of a more rational, interesting story? That's all. I just need a little education before I go to net.physics with this. Thanks. bill (anonymous) fecht ihnp4!ihtnt!bwf
rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) (10/24/84)
[] The best bullsh*t always has a teensy bit of truth in it (.01% is enough). In this case, "giant magnet" near Chicago is obviously Fermi Lab. No doubt that instalation gets blamed for a lot in your area, like the weather, pregnancies, lack of pregnancies,etc.
rs55611@ihuxk.UUCP (Robert E. Schleicher) (10/24/84)
Another possible "explanation" for the giant magnet story is possible confusion with the giant sub-sonic antenna (proposed?, or already being installed?) across upper Michigan. This is for long-wavelength transmission to submarines, but there has been a lot of protest over alleged side effects, which I think included weather disturbances (I repeat, alleged, and I have no idea of the credentials of the people making the allegations.) Interestingly, the idea of such an antenna received a fictional treatment in a novel called Black Magic (I think), which I believe was written by either Whitley Strieber (The Wolfen and The Hunger) or maybe Peter Straub (more likely Strieber). In this novel, the Russians had discovered a means of mind control (more like mind deadening) using long-wavelength signals that corresponded to some brain signal. Thus, these large antennas were supposed to be some plot aimed at mind control, and the jamming of such signals. The premise is pretty stupid, and got worse when the author added in a telepathic individual, whose natural abilities at mind control were amplified by the fields generated by the antenna. Thus, when in the field, this individual exercised total mind control over others in the vicinity. The level of sciene in this book is indicated by the author's (if it was Strieber) previous books, about werewolves and vampires, resp. Interesting reading, if you can suspend your disbelief. Bob Schleicher ihuxk!rs55611
kdoyle@ihuxq.UUCP (J. K. Doyle) (10/25/84)
Wasn't there a plan to put a giant (miles on a side) antenna someplace in upstate Wisconsin, for communication with submarines while they were underwater? As I recall, the plan was scrapped because the Wisconsinners (sp?) didn't like the idea. Might this have been the "giant magnet"? -- kevin doyle ihnp4!ihuxq!kdoyle
seifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert) (10/25/84)
> In this case, "giant magnet" near Chicago is obviously > Fermi Lab. No doubt that instalation gets blamed for a lot in > your area, like the weather, pregnancies, lack of pregnancies,etc. It's not the giant magnet, it's those nice sub-atomic particles flying out! Would *you* live in West Chicago? (*) (*) West Chicago is a suburb, the particles exiting Fermi Lab are "aimed" at West Chicago. Look out! it's a quark at 2 o'clock high! AAUUGGHH! -- _____ Last one in the system buffer pool /_____\ is a rotten data block! /_______\ |___| Snoopy ____|___|_____ ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
sesv@ihuxp.UUCP (Steve Sommars) (10/25/84)
>> In this case, "giant magnet" near Chicago is obviously >> Fermi Lab. No doubt that instalation gets blamed for a lot in >> your area, like the weather, pregnancies, lack of pregnancies,etc. >It's not the giant magnet, it's those nice sub-atomic particles >flying out! Would *you* live in West Chicago? (*) Just for the record, today West Chicago gets negligible radiation from Fermilab. Depending upon accelerator usage, the main particles which escape and head to West Chicago are a very small number of muons, and a very large number of neutrinos. Neither of these pose a health hazard to citizens of West Chicago. Steve Sommars AT&T Bell Laboratories ihuxp!sesv
gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (10/25/84)
I suspect the Chicago giant magnet is just the opposite pole of the giant magnet the Russians are using. :-)
wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/25/84)
> I suspect the Chicago giant magnet is just the opposite pole > of the giant magnet the Russians are using. :-) If it was "the opposite pole", it would have to be near Warsaw... (Duck! Cringe!) Will
mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) (10/27/84)
=============== > I suspect the Chicago giant magnet is just the opposite pole > of the giant magnet the Russians are using. :-) If it was "the opposite pole", it would have to be near Warsaw... (Duck! Cringe!) Will =============== That's not the *opposite* Pole -- unless we're talking about the Eternal Triangular Magnet. (But it might be the apposite Pole -- No, the apostolic Pole's in Rome when he's home). -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsrgv!dciem!mmt
fowler@uw-beaver.UUCP (10/27/84)
The way I heard it was that they had latched onto the wonderful ideas of that neglected genius N. Tesla and were screwing up the earth's electric/magnetic field by doing weird DC things to their long distance power distribution grid. Oh yeah, they supposedly also use their power lines as the antennae for ULF radio for submarine communication. That seems more likely since the U.S. navy has an antenna for that purpose near here that looks for all the world like a high tension power line crossing a mountain valley. The source of the weather manipulation rumor was some guy who worked for Canada's National Research Council. Around 76-78 he was releasing (not necessarily publishing) a couple of papers a year about how the Soviets had managed to push Arctic storms over the pole into Canada and the U.S. The Vancouver papers would pick up on this and print filler pieces about this. Somehow their recent crop failures don't seem to support the claim that whatever they could have been fooling around with (if anything) could be a reliable weather control/modification mechanism. Just to keep the rumors flying, I once talked (read "swilled a lot of burbon") with a guy who'd done a lot of military/oceanographic/nuclear test detection instrumentation. He'd just given a talk about how even about 10 miles from shore on the ocean floor south of Long Island, N.Y. that ambient 60 cycle hum was a real problem. That struck a chord in me cause I'd just seen a movie with a bunch of European hippies (actually a film of a performance in Germany of Julian Beck's Living Theater) who were "OM"ing. Because they were doing it in Germany they were in tune with the 50Hz power grid. It sounded discordant, "out of tune with the universe" to me. Anyway, the instrumentation guy said that in the U.S. that only farmers complain that 60Hz high voltage lines screw you and your cows up psychologically. In contrast, he claimed that the Soviets had done a lot more studies of the biological effects of low frequence EM radiation and that as a result they had some very strict environmental regulations about what could and could not be done near the power lines. Anyone out there know anything about this? It's the kind of thing which (if at all true) would lend more credence to the "Giant magnet" rumor. -- Rob Fowler ( ...uw-beaver!fowler or fowler@washington)
karsh@geowhiz.UUCP (Bruce Karsh) (10/29/84)
> Wasn't there a plan to put a giant (miles on a side) antenna > someplace in upstate Wisconsin, for communication with submarines > while they were underwater? As I recall, the plan was scrapped > because the Wisconsinners (sp?) didn't like the idea. > Might this have been the "giant magnet"? I'm afraid that the navy is going ahead with project ELF in Nothern Wisconsin, near the town of Clam Lake. There have been lots of protests and lawsuits.
ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson) (10/30/84)
ihuxp!sesv-- > Just for the record, today West Chicago gets negligible radiation > from Fermilab. Depending upon accelerator usage, the main > particles which escape and head to West Chicago are a very > small number of muons, and a very large number of neutrinos. > Neither of these pose a health hazard to citizens of West Chicago. Perhaps more accurate: "Neither of these pose a known health hazard to citizens of West Chicago." -- ..decvax!seismo!elsie!ado (301) 496-5688 DEC, VAX and Elsie are Digital Equipment and Borden trademarks
jon@boulder.UUCP (Jon Corbet) (11/01/84)
[this space for rent]
Personally, I find it hard to see how one could seriously change the weather
with a magnet. I tend to avoid the weather-modification types around here,
but I see enough to know that none of them are experimenting with magnets.
The weather patterns we have seen are (at least in part) caused by (1) the
El Nino ocean current, and (2) normal cyclic weather changes.
--
Jonathan Corbet
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Field Observing Facility
{seismo|hplabs}!hao!boulder!jonhenry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (11/01/84)
> > ... the main > > particles which escape and head to West Chicago are a very > > small number of muons, and a very large number of neutrinos. > > Neither of these pose a health hazard to citizens of West Chicago. > > Perhaps more accurate: > "Neither of these pose a known health hazard to citizens of West Chicago." The citizens of West Chicago are probably exposed to more muons from cosmic rays than from Fermilab. And there are many thousands of neutrinos passing through your body at any given instant, most of them originating in the Sun. If either of these is a health hazard, the citizens of West Chicago have bigger worries than Fermilab. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
dhc@mouton.UUCP (11/05/84)
What's all this stuff about a giant maggot? Is it biologically possible?
chabot@amber.DEC (L S Chabot) (11/09/84)
"Giant Mango"? ? Is it in season? L S Chabot UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot ARPA: ...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
berry@zinfandel.UUCP (Berry Kercheval) (11/13/84)
"Giant Mongo" just Pawn in Game of Life... What? Oh! Never mind... -- Berry Kercheval Zehntel Inc. (ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!berry) (415)932-6900