Slashdot Mirror
U of MI Produces Strongest Laser Ever
eldavojohn writes "Weighing in at a mere 20 billion trillion watts per square centimeter and containing a measly 300 terawatts of power, the University of Michigan has broken a record with a 1.3-micron speck wide laser. It's about two orders of magnitude higher than any other laser in the world and can perform for 30 femtoseconds once every ten seconds — some of the researchers speculate it is the most powerful laser in the universe. 'If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory ... To achieve this beam, the research team added another amplifier to the HERCULES laser system, which previously operated at 50 terawatts. HERCULES is a titanium-sapphire laser that takes up several rooms at U-M's Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. Light fed into it bounces like a pinball off a series of mirrors and other optical elements. It gets stretched, energized, squeezed and focused along the way.'" And ... cue the evil chortling.
The thing is, all the fuss people have caused here on Slashdot (including one kind soul that donated all his mod points towards rating my posts 'overrated' instead of the more accurate 'offtopic') did make me go and check elsewhere for a second opinion on this film.
Everyone else says it isn't a good film. Including several film reviewers whose opinions I respect.
Worse, the things they do think are good about it are the sort of things that I haven't enjoyed in other American films. The style of comedy appears to work well for all of you, but frankly I'm not from the US, I haven't been through the US educational system, I wont get the in-jokes, I don't have the cultural reference base and I just don't go for that style of comedy.
I'm half inclined to check the film just to see why everyone on here loves it so much. I'm just too certain I'd be setting myself up for disappointment. If I do spot it on TV while I'm doing something else then I may well stick it on in the background, but I'm certainly not going to spend money trying to track it down. (and I don't download movies. sorry.)
I'm only even continuing this conversation because I'm intrigued by the responses I'm getting. And because I'm bored. And because it's 7.34am and I don't have to be at work until 8.30 and it's a ten minute walk.