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Anti-Missile Laser Weapon Successfully Tested
xPertCodert writes "A latest attempt to build a futuristic laser weapon appears to be a success.
Joint Israeli-US developed laser destroyed a large caliber rocket in a latest New Mexico test. The press release also contains links to some interesting video and photo material, related to THEL (Tactical High Energy Lasers) defense systems."
are here.
WMP or QT are availabe.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
A sufficiently powerful laser beam will ionize air due to the electric field strength within the beam. This can be achieved on a desktop scale with a small Q-switched YAG laser (I've done it). When the air ionizes, it begins to absorb the beam, which results in even more heating. You get what appears to be a spark floating in air. This is not wavelength dependent (except that field strength depends to some extent on wavelength), and is not related to the absorption of the beam by the gases in the air. In fact, at high enough intensities, the same effect occurs in a vacuum due to particle pair formation. Fun stuff.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
The THEL was not developed with anti-nuclear capabilities in mind. It's designed to protect cities, troop movements, bases, etc from cruise missiles, artillery shells, and the like.
Now, the Airborne Laser was developed as SDI, but it only covers an area of a 100 mile circle around which it's deployed. That's not going to generally help against a large country...but instead was designed for actions against megalomanical 3rd world dictatorships, like say, North Korea.
One of those apparently sourceless quotes made all the more suspect by the attribution itself. The United States does not have a parliamentary system - the only "ministers" in the US are charged with church congregations. Second, the Department of Defense did not exist until 1947, and was not so named until 1949 - Newton D. Baker was Secretary of the War Department under Woodrow Wilson, from 1916 to 1921.
Yeah, I know - offtopic. Whatever.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
The next time you want to make a call on your cell phone, see your baby on an ultrasound monitor, or you need an MRI scan to detect the cancer in your body, Israel has done something nice for you.
Israel is not a money pit. It is an investment! It pays back dividends every day. On the battle field, on the farm, in the hospital, in the research lab, in the plane, at the computer, and much more. Every country of the world is being blessed by the things coming out of Israel, from agricultural innovations to medical equipment inventions to biotechnology and pharmaceuticals to telecommunications to intelligence on terrorist plans.
RTFA, for one. Israel benefits us in many ways, mostly with their brain power. We use a lot of their technology for our defense. U.S. troops were trained for urban combat by the IDF. Did you know that Saddam's Iraq used to have a nuclear reactor? It was destroyed by Israel in 1991. Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who died in the Columbia shuttle disaster, helped to destroy the reactor. The world should profusely thank Israel for sparing the world from having to deal with a North Korea in the Middle East. They did something very "nice for us."
Israel is the West's buffer zone in the war on terror. They were fighting the war for us before the Sleeping Giant realized that IslamoNazis were pulling it into a war. Israel is fighting at the front lines for America and Europe and the civilized world. They live at the front lines. Israel is the beacon of intelligence and enlightenment in a vast Islamic wasteland of medieval warlords and clan feuds. It is very much in our interest, for security reasons if for no other, to help Israel financially and otherwise.
Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can make claim to the following:
The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
Most of the Windows NT operating system was developed by Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX and Pentium M chip technologies were designed in Israel at Intel.
Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
The technology for AOL Instant Messenger was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
The first PC anti-virus software was developed in Israel in 1979. With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and start-ups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world (apart from the Silicon Valley).
In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.
Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U.S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.
Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
Israel is ranked #2 in the wor