MEC to investigate lightning

[highlight]MEC asks for a probe[/highlight] after recent spate of fatal incidents
Click to expand...

Someone please kickstart her brain (the one she sits on) with a taser.
 
Maybe the MEC was part of the glorious physical science lenna intake that managed to pass with a mark of 30% ... ?
 
MEC calls for lightning probe

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article833407.ece/MEC-calls-for-lightning-probe

"KwaZulu-Natal MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nomsa Dube called on the national department of science and technology to investigate the causes of lightning after seven people died in lightning strikes.

"We will do an investigation and talk to the department of science and technology on what is the cause of the lightning," said Dube."

I feel really sorry for the families who lost loved ones, but do we need MEC's of this calibre in our midst?
 
Old story...

Intention was to find out how to educate the locals so that they could better protect themselves against lightning strikes. Not to try and treat it criminally as they would death by poisoning etc. Stupid journos make a simple idea sound stupid. Not everyone understands how lightning works, and I for one agree that speaking to scientists, (if you don't understand lightning) would be a good idea to find out how to avoid getting hit by hit. Not a dumb idea, like OP suggested
 
SOLUTION!

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/412526-Lasers-can-redirect-Lightning-in-Mid-Strike

Laser light can not only trigger lightning but redirect it, causing it to strike in the same place over and over, according to new research. This means lasers could serve as lightning rods. Because that would be awesome.

Laser lightning rods have been a research subject for several decades, because they could trigger lightning and guide it to a specific place. Firing a laser would create an ionized channel in the atmosphere, which could conduct the lightning to the ground. Laser lightning rods could be an alternative to lightning rockets, according to Aurlien Houard of the Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée in Palaiseau, France, a co-author of this study. Lightning rockets can apparently trigger a lightning strike by bringing a conductive material, like some type of salts, toward the static layer of a thunderhead. But a laser would be easier to control than a rocket.


A team of French researchers set out to test how well lasers can harness and control lightning. They sent a laser beam past a spherical electrode toward an oppositely charged flat electrode. The laser stripped away the outer electrons from the atoms in its way, ionizing the pathway between the electrodes and creating a plasma filament — like lab lightning — that channeled an electrical discharge from the flat electrode to the spherical one.


Then the team added a longer, pointed electrode to their set of electrode shapes and watched what happened. Left to its own devices, lightning follows the path of least resistance, striking the first thing it comes across — in a thunderstorm, that’s the tallest thing, and in this experiment, it’s the nearest thing. With no laser lightning rod, the discharge predictably hit the tall pointed electrode first. But when the researchers used the laser filament to guide it, the electrical discharge followed the ionized path and hit the spherical electrode instead.

The team found they could pull this off even after the discharge was already on its way, meaning they could divert the path of lightning. The research appears in the American Institute of Physics journal AIP Advances.
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I have now received a couple of mails with this contents. What is interesting is how the story was changed to make it more racially, while nowhere in the original article it makes mention of it....
--------
Absolutely Sheer Genius ....


KwaZulu-Natal MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nomsa Dube
called on the national department of science and technology to investigate the causes of
lightning after seven people died in lightning strikes.



"We will do an investigation and talk to the department of science and technology on what is the
cause of the lightning, and if it only happened to the previously disadvantaged as I have never seen
any white people being struck by lightning." said Dube. She was visiting Mpumazi in Eshowe where
seven people from two families died after being struck by lightning on Sunday.
"Scientists from the department could perhaps help us and come up with instruments that could help
community members protect themselves against lightning. "The department has dealt with floods and fires,
but lightning was new to us," said Dube.
Our country is clearly in excellent hands.
 
Obronie said:
I have now received a couple of mails with this contents. What is interesting is how the story was changed to make it more racially, while nowhere in the original article it makes mention of it....
--------
Absolutely Sheer Genius ....


KwaZulu-Natal MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs Nomsa Dube
called on the national department of science and technology to investigate the causes of
lightning after seven people died in lightning strikes.



"We will do an investigation and talk to the department of science and technology on what is the
cause of the lightning, and if it only happened to the previously disadvantaged as I have never seen
any white people being struck by lightning." said Dube. She was visiting Mpumazi in Eshowe where
seven people from two families died after being struck by lightning on Sunday.
"Scientists from the department could perhaps help us and come up with instruments that could help
community members protect themselves against lightning. "The department has dealt with floods and fires,
but lightning was new to us," said Dube.
Our country is clearly in excellent hands.
Click to expand...

That surely can't be for real?

I thought their findings would have amounted to something like:

*que typical fat, useless, oxygen thief presenting itself on tv at press conference...*

"After many, many lunches...and the collective efforts of many, many task teams in eating those lunches whilst occasionally discussing the issue at hand, it has been concluded that the cause of the lightning enigma can not be understood with our current means. However, the best course of action when dealing with this lightning enigma is to retreat indoors when the sky grows dark during the day time. If the occurance happens during a time other than day time, for example, night time, then it is recommended that when the equally enigmatic accompaniment to lightning (called thunder) occurs, retreating to a safe indoor environment using the thunder enigma as an early warning system will suffice. If there is no safe indoor environment to retreat to during these high-threat periods, people should seek refuge under trees. We believe our investigation has been effective two-fold *facial expression grows more smug by the second* since the results provide not only course for safety when lightning is present but they also show that people will suffer fewer incidences of getting wet during these times. Thank you."
 
Fudzy said:
MEC calls for lightning probe
Sapa | 03 January, 2011 13:40

Thread fail. :D
Click to expand...
It still a laugh and will be for years to come, quiet entertaining

It is current because e-mails are NOW doing the rounds again ;)

Look at the dates ;)

http://www.markpilgrim.co.za/blog_files/archive-22-april-2012.html

http://gosouthonline.co.za/11347/yo...b-e-l-e-i-v-e-its-happening-in-today-in-2012/

See here
http://www.saaustralia.org/index.php/topic/35909-new-phenomenon-is-south-africa/

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/01/07/mec-s-ignorance-so-embarrassing

MEC's ignorance so embarrassing
I COULDN'T hold back my laughter on hearing that KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomsa Dube, pictured, is calling for a full investigation of deaths caused by lightning.
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503204_244903
 
graviti said:
Old story...

Intention was to find out how to educate the locals so that they could better protect themselves against lightning strikes. Not to try and treat it criminally as they would death by poisoning etc. Stupid journos make a simple idea sound stupid. Not everyone understands how lightning works, and I for one agree that speaking to scientists, (if you don't understand lightning) would be a good idea to find out how to avoid getting hit by hit. Not a dumb idea, like OP suggested
Click to expand...

Agreed. I doubt most of the guys posting here understand lightning. In fact it is not fully understood by anyone.

Wits electrical engineering is busy with studies into lightning and rural communities, trying to understand misconceptions rooted in traditional beliefs, in order to better educate communities into how to mitigate risk. You need only look at the lightning herder to understand that this is not as simple as it may seem to you and I. We have had the luxury of a mostly science based education whereas most South Africans have not.
 
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