Yes yes yes, you are right right right! What fuels hurricanes is WATER VAPOR evaporated into the lower troposphere and then what further drives the hurricane is the LATENT HEAT OF CONDENSATION! A similar process drives nocturnal mid-latitude Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCCs) such as those found during the summer over the U.S. Midwest (I.e., the MCCs undergo genesis at NIGHT well after the Sun has set whereas most thunderstorms are diurnally thermodynamically driven). Its the latent head of condensation at night that fuels MCCs. Towering hurricane eye walls and the complex of feeder bands are not much different (I.e., if any of you have ever paid enough attention, hurricanes do not suddenly go quiet at night once the sun has set). Besides this, the thermodynamics of the hurricane are complicated (wind shear, or lack of it, is involved). You can't just aim a beam of energy into the "eye" of the hurricane and say "cool, we just zapped it so now its going to undergo cyclolysis). Also, what is this laser beam system going to do for a good several hours when it can't deliver a direct beam to the hurricane during the nighttime hours? Give me a break, this is POP SCIENCE. Why does ./ and Wired waste people's precious time and attention on crap like this?

Probably true. The big re-insurance companies such as Munich Re and Warren Buffet would love to get their hands on this. The problem, however, is that re-insurers also cover smaller systems (such as thunderstorms) and there is too much Earth convection to start beaming energy into thunderstorms all over the planet so this would at best be used for hurricanes. But here's a problem that no one on /. has addressed yet. The question is, at what stage of the cyclone development do you start zapping it? Not all tropical storms turn into hurricanes. Tropical depressions and storms are an important part of balancing the Earth's complex climate (including oceans) within the biosphere. So while it sounds great to be able to zap a hurricane, what are the unintended consequences for the biosphere of doing so? There would be enormous opposition to this (especially in the hands of a private company).

You're right. Any good meteorologist knows that hurricanes are naturally required to dissipate heat built up in the oceans (the oceans in essence get a "fever" and hurricanes are the analgesic). If the global warming alarmists are right, then oceans are going to be absorbing more heat (potentially) and the need for tropical storms to dissipate some of that will be important.

GE does, after all, own The Weather Channel now!

Hey hey, everyone forgot about the September 2005 CNet interview with Kurzweil, when bragged about how his algorithmic driven hedge fund would be " in the position of being the house in a casino ". So how is that hedge funding doing today in today's economic turbulence where hedge funds are getting redeemed and some might not make it? So now he's going to take people for $25K ride to make up for his probably flailing hedge fund that's flapping in the wind? I smell megalomania!

Here's the trip down memory lane:

http://news.cnet.com/Ray-Kurzweil-deciphers-a-brave-new-world/2008-1082_3-5885116.html?tag=mncol

You said at a speech last week in San Francisco that you were working on a project with former Microsoft CFO Michael W. Brown that'll result in a hedge fund. Can you tell me about that?

Kurzweil: It's been a major project for about six years. It's applying my field, detecting subtle patterns, and using technology forecasting. Six years ago the project wasn't fully feasible because we didn't have rapid access to all ticker data for stocks. You really couldn't place trades very effectively online. The technology wasn't there--it can't take two weeks for the computer to make a decision that needs to be made in five seconds.

(My system) doesn't make perfect predictions. But what we can do is predict them substantially better than chance. That puts us in the position of being the house in a casino. It places lots of bets, some win and some lose, but it consistently makes money. We haven't had a down month yet. It makes 80 to 100 percent returns a year.