Tomorrow's Forecast: Sunny Skies

The 32nd G8 summit just finished up on Monday in St. Petersburg, Russia. I found something pretty awesome as I was reading about it.

The day before the summit, three Russian Airforce M-17s flew over the area releasing a bunch of chemicals into the stratosphere. This induced heavy overnight rainfall and cleared the air of excess humidity. Russia did this to ensure sunny, pleasant weather for the summit. Sure enough, St. Petersburg had clear, blue skies and 68-degree weather this weekend. They also kept some planes on standby over the weekend as a contingency plan in case bad weather cropped up again.

Apparently, Russia has used this technology to guarantee nice weather for some national holidays too, according to trusty ol' Wikipedia. Goodness! Isn't that crazy?! And awesome?! I mean, what if you could do that to make sure your rafting trip doesn't get rained out. Or you could ensure clear skies for those pesky Trick-or-Treaters on Halloween. OR if you wanted, you could purposely induce a blizzard on the night that your evil in-laws were supposed to be flying in for Thanksgiving dinner. Hmm.

Too bad it cost 20 million rubbles for the G8 summit. I'm sensing a market that needs to be expanded. Any entrepreneurs out there who feel like entering and dragging down some prices?

what's in my cd player

Spending two weeks with my parents in Illinois generally translates into me staying up uselessly late in front of the downstairs TV... alone. Just over 2 weeks ago, that's exactly what I was doing one night. Don't ask why, but I got sucked into this obscure PBS Letterman-esque talk show at like 2 in the morning. He was wickedly Republican, but really interesting, and he had the most fabulous singer on at the end of his show. Thank goodness I was up late watching it, because I've found my new musical addiction.

Corinne Bailey Rae. She's like 26 and from England. She just got released in here in the US in June. I love her cd so much. Really, it's constantly playing in my car.

I found a few of her videos on YouTube. I'm not the biggest fan of the videos themselves, but I'm absolutely crazy about her voice and style. It makes me want to start writing music myself... but... I probably won't.

Anyway, here we go:

LIKE A STAR


TROUBLE SLEEPING


PUT YOUR RECORDS ON


Hope you enjoy 'em.