Why Are You Even Here? The Surprising Attitudes of Some Expats in Thailand

[webfact]

Artificial rainmaking underway in the North to replenish dams



BANGKOK, 22 September 2015 (NNT) - The Northern Royal Rainmaking Center is planning to raise water levels in five dams, following less-than-expected rainfall this year.

The center has conducted nine cloudseeding flights today. The rainmaking effort is aimed at raising water levels in the Bhumipol, Kiu Lom, Kio Kho Ma, Mae Ngat Somboon Chon and Mae Kuang Udom Thara Dams.

It also targets provinces in the upper parts of Thailand, including Chiang Mai, Lampang, Phrae, Lamphun, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Nan and Phayao.

The Northern Royal Rainmaking Center Director Nuengruethai Tantiplubthong said the rainmaking project will continue until the end of October or November, depending on the water levels in the dams.


-- NNT 2015-09-22

[ukrules]

When they do this does anyone know if there are significant results ?

[fireplay]

We have been getting heavy rains in cm

[Eddy B]

SShhh! Don't upset them, they like to go up-diddly-up and down-diddly-down in their little planes and give themselves a pat on the back when we get a splash of rain. Shame they could not of sucked up the excess water that just flooded Pattaya. Using the septic tank trucks, I am sure they could have sucked up the water and then put it into the nearest dams. No planning!!

[FangFerang]

The real problem is that rainmaking is most effective just before sundown, when the temperature drops and clouds can more easily form.

[brain150]

If rain making [the way they do it] would actually work then there would be no drought in the first place !!!

Pure state propaganda and absolut rubbish !

[chainarong]

This rain making is just a procedure, it results in nothing , has contributed nothing and is a waste of time and money , all because someone with great power and influence said decades ago, it would be a good idea, that folks is the reason today for cloud seeding, as we know any country that has drought problems would be using it , OZ in the 70's tried it and it was a scientific failure..

[sawadee1947]

superstition and belief...or short: Thainess

[chiang mai]

SShhh! Don't upset them, they like to go up-diddly-up and down-diddly-down in their little planes and give themselves a pat on the back when we get a splash of rain. Shame they could not of sucked up the excess water that just flooded Pattaya. Using the septic tank trucks, I am sure they could have sucked up the water and then put it into the nearest dams. No planning!!

If I understand your post correctly, you're proposing a 500 mile plus pipeline from Pattaya to Chiang Mai, either that or a giant suction machine to transfer rainfall to the dams, which?

[brain150]

This rain making is just a procedure, it results in nothing , has contributed nothing and is a waste of time and money , all because someone with great power and influence said decades ago, it would be a good idea, that folks is the reason today for cloud seeding, as we know any country that has drought problems would be using it , OZ in the 70's tried it and it was a scientific failure..

It is possible, proven fact demonstrated back in the 1950s and now done in Algeria in a project called "greening the dessert"

BUT as the technologie is rather cheap and based on Dr. Wilhelm Reich we are not supposed to know anything about it.

Google it and be amazed on what's possible with the right technology !!!

[bangrak]

If rain making [the way they do it] would actually work then there would be no drought in the first place !!!

Pure state propaganda and absolut rubbish !

Hush, the idea supposedly came from very high up, don't expose yourself to LM charges! And in a country where it is officially considered possible to push water to the (higher) sea with thugboat propellers, fantasy can have no limits, the more so when it comes from high enough up to make the gullible Thais bow their head for, isn't that what the (des-)education system trains them for anyway...? Have another glass of chilled 'absolut' and don't play Don Quichotte.

[bangrak]

This rain making is just a procedure, it results in nothing , has contributed nothing and is a waste of time and money , all because someone with great power and influence said decades ago, it would be a good idea, that folks is the reason today for cloud seeding, as we know any country that has drought problems would be using it , OZ in the 70's tried it and it was a scientific failure..

It is possible, proven fact demonstrated back in the 1950s and now done in Algeria in a project called "greening the dessert"

BUT as the technologie is rather cheap and based on Dr. Wilhelm Reich we are not supposed to know anything about it.

Google it and be amazed on what's possible with the right technology !!!

I wish the Algerians a sweet green 'dessert', but, when counting on that only, parts of Thailand may well become a 'desert', as for 'the right technology' the Algerians might have such, and make a correct use of, but the Thais, well, I'll avoid being accused of 'Thai bashing'...

[maidee]

mhhh, all the tasty chemicals used

that will make the rice grow

alu particles, make the soil infertile ...

[blackcab]

SShhh! Don't upset them, they like to go up-diddly-up and down-diddly-down in their little planes and give themselves a pat on the back when we get a splash of rain. Shame they could not of sucked up the excess water that just flooded Pattaya. Using the septic tank trucks, I am sure they could have sucked up the water and then put it into the nearest dams. No planning!!

If I understand your post correctly, you're proposing a 500 mile plus pipeline from Pattaya to Chiang Mai, either that or a giant suction machine to transfer rainfall to the dams, which?

You didn't mention the 300 metre elevation.

[fred Kubasa]

Maybe, combined with prayer, hoping, and wishing, a few drops will emerge !

[Reigntax]

The real problem is that rainmaking is most effective just before sundown, when the temperature drops and clouds can more easily form.

Even more successful just before its about to rain. Or looks like it will!

[Reigntax]

I wonder if the cockpits of these planes are covered with lucky amulets?

[gandalf12]

When they do this does anyone know if there are significant results ?

It can work but nothing is certain.

[LomSak27]

Cloud seeding of course works and that is a fact. Of course it does not work 100 per cent of the time, or even 50 per cent. What you need, what you have to have is water vapor, humidity, in the atmosphere. That is indeed something that Thailand has during the monsoon season. Seeding is an attempt to cause it to precipitate the moisture and yes cause it to rain. Not that this is a miracle cure by any stretch of the imagination.

For the TV EXpat brigade members who mention Algeria and Australia. Those countries are poster children for an atmosphere that is devoid of humidity and water vapor for great lengths of time. Trying to make rain in those conditions is like trying to get water from a rock. Doh

For you too far gone on your Fosters, uh, er, Leo that, means cloud seeding would have an extremely high chance of failure there and yes would be a complete waste of money.

[DeepInTheForest]

This rain making is just a procedure, it results in nothing , has contributed nothing and is a waste of time and money , all because someone with great power and influence said decades ago, it would be a good idea, that folks is the reason today for cloud seeding, as we know any country that has drought problems would be using it , OZ in the 70's tried it and it was a scientific failure..

It is possible, proven fact demonstrated back in the 1950s and now done in Algeria in a project called "greening the dessert"

BUT as the technologie is rather cheap and based on Dr. Wilhelm Reich we are not supposed to know anything about it.

Google it and be amazed on what's possible with the right technology !!!

Okay, I googled it. Boy oh boy, are we ever delving into the arcane on this forum. An unkind person might say 'loopy'. You're referring to Wilhelm Reich, the Austrian psychotherapist who had a theory of "orgone energy". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich It would seem to be quite a long journey from psychotherapy to rainmaking, but hold on, we'll get there. Reich's idea was that this energy permeates the universe, from sub-cellular right on up to galaxies. Yep, according to Dr. Reich, galaxies are just huge clouds of orgone energy. Not surprisingly, by the way, according to the theory, this energy found its expression in the human in the form of-- you guessed it-- sex. One surmises there could be a whole lotta clouds of orgone swamping a certain SE Asian country, but I digress. Neurosis could be cured by releasing energy trapped in the body via the release of a powerful, uninhibited orgasm. Ahem.

Reich fled Germany in the 30s because of the persecution of Jewish people, and settled in the northeastern US, in Maine. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich His psychoanalytic work, which he called 'character analysis' (as distinct from Freudian psychoanalysis), was done before his increasingly obsessive interest in the orgone side of things. It became hugely influential in psychotherapy circles, and indeed its influence extends to this day. According to wikipedia, schools of practice such as Gestalt therapy, bioenergetic analysis, primal therapy, and body psychotherapy owe a debt to him.

Reich believed that orgone energy could be harnessed not only in medical treatments, but also technical applications. Hence the development of cannons, called 'cloudbusters' that could supposedly fire orgone to produce rain. The idea was that the cannon would draw the orgone energy out of the clouds, producing precipitation. You couldn't make this up.

Cannons were actually produced, and Reich performed experiments using them in a research effort he referred to as "cosmic orgone engineering". The cloudbuster boasts its own wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbuster . It's can't-miss, check it out.

His story ended unhappily. The US government prosecuted him for fraud (there were 'orgone accumulators' being sold around the country for human use), and he died in prison shortly before he was eligible for parole. For more on him and his incredible life and theories (and we haven't even mentioned the Kate Bush connection), by all means google, as brain150 suggests.

No idea whether the cloudbuster has been tried yet in Thailand, but if we gave the pride-of-the-UK GT200's a go, well... why not. If there's orgone energy anywhere, it's probably to be found here.

We humans are a wondrously varied bunch, aren't we?

Edited September 23, 2015 by DeepInTheForest