Over in Allston/Brighton, Marcie Laden is advertising responsible, carbon-neutral snow removal, in other words, her daughters with snow shovels.
Contrast that with Mayor Curley's 1948 letter to MIT (found by BostonTweet), asking for the Institute's help in coming up with a way to use flame throwers or chemicals to shrink snow accumulations.
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Comments
why, the answer is simple
By Brett
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 2:44pm
ATOMIC snow melters! Given the age of the letter, I'm stunned it wasn't suggested.
(MIT has a research reactor, by the way, and it'd be funny if they figured out some way to use the waste heat to help melt snow. Everyone wins, right?)
Oh, sure, laugh now
By adamg
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 2:46pm
When Arthur Clark was mayor of Waltham (so this is going back aways), he proposed using laser beams to disintegrate the city's trash.
What would you expect from the guy who wrote "2001"?
By anon
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 4:27pm
I mean, duh.
Seems reasonable
By bph
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 6:49pm
By Thursday I think laser beams will seem like a good idea for melting the snow - maybe Mayor Menino can get MIT going on it?
laser beams
By sue
Sun, 05/22/2011 - 3:22am
what is your source about laser beams?? i have lived in waltham all my adult life and never heard such nonsense sounds like a 1950s get under your desk rumor
I don't have a specific thing I can point you to
By adamg
Sun, 05/22/2011 - 11:38am
But it was in the last years of his time as mayor, and received fairly prominent attention in the Middlesex News, which is where I read it.
(No subject)
By Anon²
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 5:19pm
[img]http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/2241/663872-v...
Does the nuclear reactor
By J
Tue, 02/01/2011 - 1:48am
Does the nuclear reactor generate excess heat? If so, instead of heating water and dumping it in the river, it could circulate through a network of pipes under sidewalks and streets to melt the snow.
Sort of like the front step of brownstones, that dont get snow because the lower level melts it.
I was wondering about black tarps
By cycler
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 2:56pm
If the city had a bunch of them, and laid them on top of the snow farms, wouldn't that help melt things pretty quickly on a sunny day like the last couple?
it seems like solar power is cheap and available- weather dependent obviously, but it couldn't hurt and might help right?
Draping an entire city in
By anon
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 2:59pm
Draping an entire city in black tarps? That wouldn't cost a billion dollars to big huge city sized black tarps and pay employees to secure them all over the city. Good idea.
not the entire city of course
By cycler
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 5:18pm
Just the "snow farms" where they're trucking and dumping the snow.
It would only melt the top layer, but then there would be a new top layer- lather, rinse repeat.
I think Christo is working on
By R Hookup
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 7:26pm
I think Christo is working on this as his next project.
If the city had a bunch of
By anon
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 4:09pm
No. Too much snow, to little warmth from sunlight during the winter.
Soot does have the effect of melting snow - the effect of soot from Asia on Arctic snow cover is well known - but the effect is subtle.
Curley was asking the local experts for help - exactly the right thing to do.
Solar Death Ray 5800
By anon
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 3:10pm
Why not try the Solar Death Ray 5800? The power of 5000 suns! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtzRAjW6KO0
Top rated Youtube comment: Do you think such a thing would get me out of shoveling the snow from my driveway?
Archimedes II
By Anon²
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 5:28pm
Would be more fun IMO:
[img]http://www.hiphopgamershow.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/New-Vegas-Archimedes-II.jpg[/img]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n1Zokq38hc
Humans are not carbon-neutral
By chicken
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 5:08pm
Food production to fuel us produces quite a bit of carbon, even if you avoid meat. Not to mention the exhaust we produce :)
Of course, it sounds a lot better than flame-throwers or chemicals. Funny how those were the only options requested.
we could figure something out
By Anon²
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 5:29pm
[img]http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2008/1-cowb...
There's a literalist in every
By riggssm
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 6:18pm
There's a literalist in every crowd, isn't there?
(Gently laughing with, not at you.)
In Central Square this
By anon
Mon, 01/31/2011 - 7:36pm
In Central Square this afternoon, I saw a semi trucking snow up Mass. Ave., away from the river, towards Harvard.
Seems expensive.
A day later the Globe picks up the Curley Flamethrower story
By anon
Tue, 02/01/2011 - 4:28pm
So, a day later Rob Anderson picks up the UniversalHub story without bothering to give credit.
Would it hurt him to give a small bit of credit? At least the TeeVee nooze program I overheard last night uttered the words "thanks to UniversalHub."
Now slashdot has picked the Curley/MIT flamethrower story
By anon
Thu, 02/03/2011 - 1:20pm
[url=http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/03/1529248/19... slashdot has picked it up, too.[/url]