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The Northrop Grumman laser I linked to already combined multiple lasers, using 15 kW blocks, to achieve 100 kW power.

The issue with a 1 MW solid state laser beam would be in power generation and heat dissipation. These lasers are still quite inefficient so you need a lot of juice to achieve the rated lasing power. They usually "solve" this by using pulsed beams and massive capacitor banks with some sort of thermal engine providing the mobile electrical generation capacity. So you probably will want a trailer truck or two to carry your laser around. This is one reason the US Navy is so interested in lasers. Basically you can just divert power from the large gas turbines used to drive the propellers towards electrical generators and you have massive amounts of electricity to power lasers or railguns. You also can use the ocean as coolant. Their problem is lasers dissipate somewhat in steam and fog. Railguns still have rail erosion issues.

I have considered for a long time that a revolver or Gatling like design would be useful for lasers because of the cooling issue. You can just have multiple laser banks and shoot with one bank while the other banks are cooling down. Another possible solution is just to dissipate the heat into some sort of fuel used in some weapon delivery mechanism or whatever.

The only viable 1 MW military laser sources are chemical lasers like COIL where you get the laser light by mixing some chemicals together. Unfortunately those are not very portable either, still generate a lot of heat, plus the chemicals are usually quite toxic.

Another terrible article summary.

In 2010, a solid-state device at 0.67THz was achieved. In 2012, that effort is up to 0.85 THz. Progress is slow, but continuing.

Diode-type CMOS imagers for terahertz radiation have been built. Those convert terahertz radiation into DC, which can then be amplified by standard techniques. But diodes don't have gain. That's why the original article emphasizes that this new device has gain.

There are terahertz lasers, waveguides, antennas, and other components that work up there. The situation is much like radar during WWII; there were a few components that could do specific things at radar frequencies (then 60MHz to 1.2GHz), but general electronics wasn't there yet. Most of the electronics in radars of that period ran at far lower speeds. They still worked.

Why does transmission have to happen in the "room", and not, say, "outside the room", to, say, a satellite 50,000 miles away?

And, why only 3 Gbps??? Check this one out: http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=118076

Definitely infrared (THz for some definition of THz) carrier, with up to 40 Gbps datarate, able to go to and from a big router in space...

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been working on a small part related to that program in my past, so immediately reacted along the lines of "Wait a minute, what about Northrop LaserComm???"... ;-)

Paul B.
     

To demonstrate the concept, Northrop Grumman's test team developed and installed on Global Hawk a new 1.4 terabyte (1500 gigabyte) computer server capable of storing all of the imagery and sensor data recorded during a complete Global Hawk mission.

With a 42 hour mission time that computes to just under 10MB/s or approximately 80Mb/s bandwidth. That sounds more reasonable.

I'd like to point out that the F-22's APG-77 radar can already act as a data link.http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=121273 Other news sources seem to indicate this test was using a standard 802.11g link.

Low Power Setting Provides nominally 100 watt alignment beam

Article is here.

"Alignment beams" are normally low-power (a few milliwatts) visible beams used to indicate the path of an invisible beam. I guess with this one you'd point the alignment beam, move the glowing/smoking spot to your intended target, then hit the big switch.

The iPhone can play music in three clicks.
The iPhone UI automatically rotates the screen when you rotate the display.
The iPhone UI resizes the text to fill the screen when you double-click on a text-container.

The innovation here (and the invention) is a new UI. In 1984 Apple released the first WiMP (windows/mouse/pointer) system widely accepted by the world after first purchasing the rights to it from Xerox in exchange for stock options.

In 2007 Apple has released the first multitouch UI widely accepted by the world after purchasing Touchstream. It has gestures (which other systems have had, such as Opera), it has multitouch (which other systems have had), and it has a touchscreen (which other systems have had). What Apple has done is integrate all of it, and well.

Someone else did have something similar in 2006:
http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.mhtml?d=106083

A 45" multitouch table. Apple's solution is more widespread and more portable :)

Here's a press release, with a picture.

This thing is for real. The predecessor system, the Tactical High Energy Laser, has been shooting down stuff in tests for several years now. It's a joint effort with Israel, which has an ongoing problem with incoming short-range rockets.

Here's a 7-minute video, on YouTube.

It's not yet a battlefield weapon - too bulky. But for fixed point defense, it can work.

Disclaimer: I too am a skeptic, and for good reason. I would call that a proper scientific attitude.

There appears to be a reason why a search for "Ceragenins" turns up zero results. So far as I can tell, up until this Press Release the term did not exist in the knowledge of the general public. The new compound appears to be named after a company called Ceragenix Pharmaceuticals who performed the laboratory tests on the compund, likely funded associated research at BYU, and was granted the sole license of sale for the compound.

Please don't call HIV/AIDS the "AIDS Virus". This is misleading. AIDS is not a "thing", it is a condition. AIDS can be caused by a wide range of immuno-destructive "things", such as the "HIV" virus which due to a lack of understanding (and intentional dumming down) shares the same namespace as AIDS. To state what is probably obvious, he AIDS condition is a condition where the body doesn't have the resources to remove or kill off something that is damaging the body. The HIV virus must achieve a level of concentration high enough to cause AIDS (now called 'full-blown AIDS' to create distinction). This can happen over time (run your air conditioner at the highest setting 24 hours a day, with all your windows open), or it can happen when some other factor causes an immune deficiency in relation to the progress of the HIV virus (Go outside naked in freezing rain for five or six hours while you have a nasty flu). Eventually the immune system wears down, can't do it's job as well, and something is going to get the better of it. The body is not incapable if destroying HIV, it just isn't geared up for the rate at which it infects healthy cells in the body, healthy immune system or not. Some interesting thoughts come to mind when considering what HIV itself actualy does, in contrast to other infectious viruses. Indirect vs. Direct.

AIDS as you know it today is "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome". AIDS is also "Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome" (or Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome). Today the two terms in long-form are used almost interchangably to refer to HIV or "HIV/AIDS", adding to the confusion. AIDS, as a whole, shares a common set of general symptoms such as wasting, and the general inability of the body to handle with grace the wide range of attacks it endures every day. A person or animal with the so-called "Auto" version of AIDS, is similarly unable to handle the common cold, the flu, a sunburn.. as the person with the "Acquired" version. One might even be tempted to reverse them.. or in frustration throw them both away and create terms that are a little more clear. Anyway, all of this deserves greater research on the part of the public in general to be understood.

I welcome the thought of a compound, a drug, a chemical, a substance, which will work alongside the immune system to combat deadly conditions imposed upon us by our physical nature. I also fear it when it doesn't come from the sometimes delicate hand of nature. Consider the long term effects of drugs like penicillin. Such amazing drugs have saved many lives, reduced symptoms for so many more.. but viruses and bacteria are alive too. They evolve under pressure and become resistant to the drugs we develop to combat them. Imagine a virus similar to HIV, now resistant to the point where we must all take our "ceratabs" every morning in order to stave off the next generation of AIDS causing nasties, whatever we choose to name them at that time.

Clearly the above is not inclusive.

I'll be hopeful, optimistic, concerned, and skeptical. All at the same time.

Proceed with the bashing...

It's hard to get that excited about an "in vitro" ("in glass") result. Lots of things work in vitro. There's no indication of whether this works in animals. When they can show it working in mice with human immune systems (there are genetically engineered mice with human immune systems, used for this kind of research), they'll have something. This is a long way from an "AIDS cure".

The reason nobody can find the term "ceragenins" in Google is that compounds of this class are called "cationic steroid antibiotics" in the literature. "Ceragenins" is a PR term.

This company also claims that these compounds can be used to treat cancer, macular degeneration, and multiple-antibiotic resistant infections. They also can be used for skin cream for dry, itchy skin. There's an proposed antiterrorism application, to make smallpox vaccination safer.

However, there are no claims that these compounds improve gas mileage.

Ticker symbol: CGXP.OB. Up 122% today on this press release.

It's hard to get that excited about an "in vitro" ("in glass") result. Lots of things work in vitro. There's no indication of whether this works in animals. When they can show it working in mice with human immune systems (there are genetically engineered mice with human immune systems, used for this kind of research), they'll have something. This is a long way from an "AIDS cure".

The reason nobody can find the term "ceragenins" in Google is that compounds of this class are called "cationic steroid antibiotics" in the literature. "Ceragenins" is a PR term.

This company also claims that these compounds can be used to treat cancer, macular degeneration, and multiple-antibiotic resistant infections. They also can be used for skin cream for dry, itchy skin. There's an proposed antiterrorism application, to make smallpox vaccination safer.

However, there are no claims that these compounds improve gas mileage.

Ticker symbol: CGXP.OB. Up 122% today on this press release.

It's hard to get that excited about an "in vitro" ("in glass") result. Lots of things work in vitro. There's no indication of whether this works in animals. When they can show it working in mice with human immune systems (there are genetically engineered mice with human immune systems, used for this kind of research), they'll have something. This is a long way from an "AIDS cure".

The reason nobody can find the term "ceragenins" in Google is that compounds of this class are called "cationic steroid antibiotics" in the literature. "Ceragenins" is a PR term.

This company also claims that these compounds can be used to treat cancer, macular degeneration, and multiple-antibiotic resistant infections. They also can be used for skin cream for dry, itchy skin. There's an proposed antiterrorism application, to make smallpox vaccination safer.

However, there are no claims that these compounds improve gas mileage.

Ticker symbol: CGXP.OB. Up 122% today on this press release.

It's hard to get that excited about an "in vitro" ("in glass") result. Lots of things work in vitro. There's no indication of whether this works in animals. When they can show it working in mice with human immune systems (there are genetically engineered mice with human immune systems, used for this kind of research), they'll have something. This is a long way from an "AIDS cure".

The reason nobody can find the term "ceragenins" in Google is that compounds of this class are called "cationic steroid antibiotics" in the literature. "Ceragenins" is a PR term.

This company also claims that these compounds can be used to treat cancer, macular degeneration, and multiple-antibiotic resistant infections. They also can be used for skin cream for dry, itchy skin. There's an proposed antiterrorism application, to make smallpox vaccination safer.

However, there are no claims that these compounds improve gas mileage.

Ticker symbol: CGXP.OB. Up 122% today on this press release.

It's hard to get that excited about an "in vitro" ("in glass") result. Lots of things work in vitro. There's no indication of whether this works in animals. When they can show it working in mice with human immune systems (there are genetically engineered mice with human immune systems, used for this kind of research), they'll have something. This is a long way from an "AIDS cure".

The reason nobody can find the term "ceragenins" in Google is that compounds of this class are called "cationic steroid antibiotics" in the literature. "Ceragenins" is a PR term.

This company also claims that these compounds can be used to treat cancer, macular degeneration, and multiple-antibiotic resistant infections. They also can be used for skin cream for dry, itchy skin. There's an proposed antiterrorism application, to make smallpox vaccination safer.

However, there are no claims that these compounds improve gas mileage.

Ticker symbol: CGXP.OB. Up 122% today on this press release.

The reasoning for the functioning of a CSA as an antiviral seems fairly sound to me- the molecule structurally resembles peptides called defensins, which have potent activity against bacteria and viruses. The method of action, attacking the viral envelope, may make it more difficult for HIV strains to develop resistance. Current HIV drugs target specific molecules involved in the life cycle of HIV- reverse transcriptase, proteases, and the receptors involved in fusion with cells. Minor changes in these molecules could result in resistance to the drugs that target them. An approach based on the general properties of the viral envelope might be more difficult for HIV to sidestep (but by no means impossible).

That being said, I'm curious to know how specificity for HIV will be possible with this line of attack. One of the issues with defensins is that in addition to their direct attack on antigens, they stimulate the immune response in a more general fashion. Which sounds good, except that this stimulation includes inducing mast cells to release histamine, and encouraging the production of cytokines. Too much of those, and you can get anaphylaxis and septic shock, respectively. While this seems like a ludicrous notion for immunosuppressed AIDS patients, it's worth noting that one of the functions of the helper T cells that HIV destroys is to help put the brakes on the immune response once the threat of infection has passed. I'm not saying all CSA drugs would necessarily cause shock in all, or any patients, but I am tossing it out as an example of the sorts of hurdles this and every other promising compound in vitro can face on the way to becoming a drug approved for use in humans- a lot of complicated things are possible in vivo.

Ok, so I missed that word. I did RTFA but I'm still skeptical.

Viruses and bacteria are so different to me, rarely a treatment affects both.

CSA, in fact, stands for Cationic Steroid Antimicrobial and almost every piece of research involving them is centered on attacking bacteria.

How come zero hits turn up for Ceragenins when I search for it?

This article didn't include much of the above information and seemed to give a completely different name for CSAs than what they truly are--compound steroids used to primarily combat bacteria.

Teoma, is owned by Ask Jeeves and both search engines use the same technology.

Northrop Grumman and Boeing are getting prepped for the CEV, the successor to the space shuttle. According to this page, they are expecting flight demos in 2008 and manned CEV flight by 2014. If Griffin (the new NASA administrator) has his way, this will be fast-tracked to 2010. Exciting times are ahead...

Northrop Grumman has a substantial part of the JSF contract. http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_rele ases.mhtml?d=76986

http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_rele ases.mhtml?d=71298 And of course, I'm a little biased since I work for NGC.

Ask Jeeves also posted year-end search trends, but it picked different information to highlight than either Lycos or Google.

Yearly: frequent searches, news-related searches, health, CEO scandals, music artists, vacation destinations, products and brands.

For each of the top 5 news stories, the year-end page includes several popular questions related to the news. For example:

2. September 11th Memorial
-- How many people died on September 11, 2001?
-- Is 9-11 a holiday?
-- What events are taking place on September 11, 2002?

Weekly: frequent searches, general advancing queries, movies, and news.

Some of the advancing queries are questions ("What is Kwanzaa?") and some are searches ("Saint Nicholas"), but I don't know whether that difference reflects actual differences in the way people search on aj.com for different types of information.

Some .com's can be non-profit too. Just Ask Jeeves about that!

Also of potential interest are a couple of links at the bottom of each search results page [to] try your search on AskJeeves.com or DirectHit.com. [I]t seems somewhat odd that they'd include links to what most people [...] consider to be inferior search engines instead.

Complete the thought. Ask Jeeves, Inc. owns both Teoma (September 2001) and Direct Hit (January 2000). The selected URLs prominently display that owership relation.

. .who more than 4 million registered users in 2,500 cities across the United States all using Java.
___

www.imesh.com
www.hotlinehq.com
there are plenty of ways to trade all kinds of files. this means:
-stopping napster (and its users, if dre is willing to go that far) won't do anything
-music/files will ALWAYS be traded for free-- encryptions will be broken, people will always go for the free stuff if they can avoid paying as you say, mp3 is now effectively ineradicable
Sony just introduced a new method of distribution for music on the internet.. it doesn't say it in that article, but in Billboard magazine they quoted a price of about $2.95 per song, to be distributed in conjunction with CD Now. Who in their right mind would pay three bucks for a song they can get free? The internet is changing all kinds of media, and the only thing we know for certain about where it's going is that record companies are being FORCED to stop overcharging for music, copyrights or not.