Indonesian authorities are turning to the technique of cloud seeding to try to stop more rain falling in the flood-hit capital Jakarta. Planes have been sent to inject chemicals into clouds in an effort to alter precipitation. Jakarta and surrounding districts have struggled to cope since a storm on New Year’s Eve left large areas underwater.

At least 43 people are known to have died, with some 192,000 evacuated, and more rain is expected.According to Reuters news agency, two planes have been sent up to shoot salt flares into the clouds, which will hopefully make them break before they reach the Jakarta region. “All clouds moving towards the Greater Jakarta area, which are estimated to lead to precipitation there, will be shot with NaCl (sodium chloride) material,” Indonesia’s technology agency BPPT explained in a statement.(bbc)…[+]

In August 1991, an 11-year-old Canadian penned a brief note to his future self. Mitch Brogan got the idea from his late grandfather Charles – to answer a list of 11 predictions and seal them up in an envelope until 1 January, 2020.

The letter stayed hidden away in a book in his grandfather’s office until his death in 2006, when his grandson came across it by chance. He waited to open it as promised until New Year’s Day. So what did he get right about life in 2020?

The 39-year-old from London, Ontario, said he couldn’t recall much about what he’d written in the note. Inside the envelope was a thin, folded piece of paper and an old, ratty Canadian $1 bill from 1954. But he said when he opened the note, “it all flooded back”. “Looking at my words on the page, I sort of remember [making] the strokes,” he told the BBC.(BBC)…[+]

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran has announced she is pansexual and in a relationship with a woman. The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, who previously only had relationships with men, told PinkNews she is in a relationship with ex-Lib Dem press officer Rosy Cobb.

Pansexuality describes those who are attracted to a person regardless of their sex or gender. “It’s about the person themselves,” said Ms Moran, Speaking to the PinkNews website, Ms Moran – a potential candidate to become the next Lib Dem leader – also criticised Parliament as a “weird, backwards place” for LGBTQ people.

She said coming out in the context of being an MP had been “slightly more difficult” than telling her friends and family. The MP also shared a picture of herself and Ms Cobb on Twitter, writing that she is now “just happy”.(BBC)…[+]