Qatar's World Cup in the clouds
A report of a remote-controlled, solar-powered hovering shade, which could be used to cool soccer stadiums in Qatar, has taken on a life of its own.
- So almost a week ago, the Peninsula newspaper wrote a brief, three paragraph article describing research at Qatar University for an "artificial cloud" that could be used to keep stadiums cool, attributing the story to an Arabic newspaper:
QU designs cloud to cool your corner of the EarthQatar News,peninsula,peninsula Qatar,Doha News,The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily- Two days later, the story made it onto the BBC Sport page, this time including an animation of the artificial cloud from Qatar University.
BBC Sport - Football - Artificial clouds could help cool 2022 Qatar World CupScientists in Qatar develop artificial clouds to provide shade for stadiums and training grounds at the 2022 World Cup- And then the next day, it was on CNN:
- And by now, it's had a run in Time, NBC Sports, Fast Company, Bldg Blog, the Daily Mail, Engadget & io9, to name a few.
- Perhaps the most amusing - and most retweeted - take on the story though, was by Yahoo! Sports:
Qatar stole its artificial cloud idea from The SimpsonsComprehensive World Soccer news, scores, standings, fantasy games, rumors, and more- The claim that Montgomery Burns first came up with the idea of using an artificial construct to block the sun, even illicited a response from former Simpsons writer Bill Oakley:
- In its many iterations, the World Cup "cloud" story has illicited thousands of tweets.
Qatar to make man made clouds for the 2022 World Cup... anyone ever heard of sunblock? bit.ly/ghd2Ur
Nice! Qatar University to create artificial robotic cloud; potentially drop temps significantly on World Cup pitches t.co/RnleHP9- Some joked:
- While others have expressed exasperation at the seemingly endless life of this thinly-sourced story.
@james_Corbett this cloud story is spreading like wildfire-no connection at all to Q2022 - one prof at qatar uni muses on his research..boom
