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U.S. Developing 100-Kilowatt Laser for Strike Fighters
redwolfoz writes "New Scientist reports that American defence contractors, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, are developing a 100-kilowatt infrared laser weapon for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter that may be powerful enough to blind people on the ground, even if they are relatively far from the target."
Do I dare imagine a Beowulf cluster of those?
spell defense defence. I mean, it's not like they post on slashdot...
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
Sorry to dissapoint you, but nowadays that -2000 would translate to a less impressive "Bad" or "Poor"... or perhaps even, horror of horrors "Terrible".
It just isn't as impressive.
With my dying breath, I curse Zoidberg!
This is hilarious, someone mod it up
Yes, but what about the poor trolls?
I mean, they used to be able to say "I have -2000 karma" and all the other trolls would oooh and ahhh at the accomplishment.
Now they have to say "I have 'terrible' karma". In a troll community, what does that mean? Does it mean that the troll in question actually has good karma? (A negative karma being a status symbol). The confusion that the system change has caused is really quite disorienting. Poor trolls, they really don't have the mental facilites to deal with such things.
Of course, this message is quite off-topic. So um... how about those kW lasers!
With my dying breath, I curse Zoidberg!
Did you sleep through your history classes?
The US has frequently used reckless and indescriminate weapons against people that it claimed were under it's protection. If they were obstrepous. If they objected to being killed. Or even if it just wanted their property.
And it has done it in peace time against "friendly foreigners". (They're only indians!)
Intentional propagation of smallpox can hardly be considered a "peaceful" act. But the calvary sold blankets known to be contaminated while officially at peace.
You can, I suppose, claim that we aren't doing anything as bad as that right now. The trouble is, most of this only comes to light decades later, so why should we believe that it isn't happening now?
You can say that all weapons are gruesome (true), and that we must be able to defend ourselves. I see. That's why there are aerial assaults being carried out in the Afganistan. Most of the people who have been harmed weren't our enemies, before we attacked them. And the people that we are ostensibly after can't be shown to have been there anyway. (I feel that Bin Laden probably went back home to Saudi Arabia before we ever attacked Afganistan.)
I see no justification for this. Hitler was, I admit, an extreme case. But if I were looking for his parallel in today's world, I wouldn't look in the middle east.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I have very little sympathy for the Palestinians. They have suffered greatly under Isreali occupation, but they have resorted to utterly despicable methods for fighting off their oppressors. I have no problem with attacks on soldiers or even ADULTS in the settelments, but when they actually start to target teenagers, children, and babies, they have become just as bad, if not worse than the people they are fightning.i deast020628_bomber.html)
Also, the whole culture that glorifies suicide bombers is absolutley horrifying. I bet most of the bombers don't want to do it, but their entire culture is pushing them into it in one of the best examples of the worst of peer pressure. And finally, when they start dressing babies up as suicide bomers because "its cute", I wash my hands. (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/m
Smoking is an expensive, slow, and unreliable method of suicide.