Bored With PCs, Bill Gates Sets His Sights On Controlling the Weather

Truly this is the age of Greenfinger: Billionaire Bill Gates has patented the idea to halt hurricanes by decreasing the surface temperature of the ocean.

The patent calls for a large fleet of specially equipped ships which would mix warm water from the ocean surface with colder water down below, according to five new patents that include Microsoft’s chairman as a co-inventor. That could then reduce or perhaps eliminate the heat-driven condensation which hurricanes feed upon, thus significantly reducing their intensity.

Patent-watcher “theodp” first spotted the new patent filings, and told TechFlash that the scheme reminded him of something Mr. Burns might have concocted in “The Simpsons” — if the fictional industrialist hadn’t already blown his master plan on blocking out the sun.

The hurricane-stopper plan apparently hatched from a meeting of Intellectual Ventures, a patent house which regularly gathers scientists and technologists to brainstorm together. TechFlash notes that the official filings came through an Intellectual Ventures affiliate, Searete LLC.

Full story here.