Sure you could carry an umbrella if it rains but if you are China, you have a major problem... You make the umbrellas for the world but you are so busy shipping the umbrellas to other countries that you don't have any left for your own citizens.

This sad state of affairs can only be solved with technology and some lead. You see the Chinese government has been experimenting with ways to reduce rain by shooting rockets at clouds and seeding them with liquid nitrogen which should shrink the size of the water droplets.

Is this a joke you ask? Certainly it isn't to the 1,500 weather modification professionals directing 30 aircraft and their crews, as well as 37,000 part-time workers--mostly peasant farmers--who are on call to blast away at clouds with 7,113 anti-aircraft guns and 4,991 rocket launchers!

I should point out that this effort is part of the government's way of reducing the chance of rain over an open stadium during the upcoming Olympics. The games take place during the country's rainy season where the chance of rain each day is 50 percent.

[Technology Review]