Chinese gun crews ready to blast
clouds © Reuters

China has had a bad press recently – and it is about to get worse.

First there was the Olympic torch fiasco; now it seems the Chinese hate clouds enough to blast them out of the sky.

News reaches us from a reliable source (Reuters) that China is preparing to fire rockets at any clouds threatening to rain on the Olympics opening ceremony at the roofless stadium in Bejing.

Crews surrounding the city will be on alert to fire rockets or cannons containing silver iodide at approaching clouds in the hope of making them rain before they reach the stadium, says the report. Three aircraft will also be on standby to drop catalysts to unleash rain from the clouds.

Our thanks to the appropriately-named Glenn Rainey (member 146) for spotting this story.