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Israelis Sue Government For Laser Cannons

An anonymous reader writes "Residents of a southern Israeli town want a real-life laser cannon to protect them against Palestinian rocket attacks. And they're suing the national government, for failing to provide the ray gun defense. The U.S.-Israeli Tactical High Energy Laser project was widely considered to be the most successful energy weapon ever built. But the toxic chemicals needed to generate THEL's megawatts of power made the thing a logistical nightmare. It was scrapped. Now, the residents of Sderot want it back. And they're taking Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to court to make it happen."

8 of 736 comments (clear)

  1. This is so easy by wizardguy · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I have so many zingers here that I don't know where to start , so I am going to be smart and say nothing.

    Nobody (except me) gets bad karma for saying nothing.

  2. Don't give the fanatics more weaponry.... by sethstorm · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Just keep this thing out of Charlie Johnson's hands, or practically anyone who's part of that Pajama Media network.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  3. And I want a house made of candy... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    We all want things.

  4. sorry, the whole world is obsessed with jews by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    there are more sikhs in the world than jews, but no one argues about them

    personally, i don't like jews, i don't hate jews. i just don't care about jews, for or against

    and that makes me a small minority in the world

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  5. Re:Sweet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Not the point I was trying to make and not one I will argue. The Israelis are not firing rockets back at the Palestinians or, at least, they are seeking an option that doesn't require them to do that. This weapon is defensive in nature and meant to knock the rockets down preventing civilian deaths.

  6. Genetic Evidence of Jewish Ancestry by soccer_Dude88888 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    BUILDING THE HYPOTHESIS
    A genetic marker is a variation in the nucleotide sequence of the DNA,
    known as a mutation. Mutations which occur within genes -- a part of
    the DNA which codes for a protein usually cause a malfunction or disease,
    and is lost due to selection in succeeding generations. However, mutations
    found in so-called "non-coding regions" of the DNA tend to persist.
    Since the (male) Y chromosome consists almost entirely of non-coding
    DNA, it would tend to accumulate mutations. Since it is passed from father
    to son without recombination, the genetic information on a Y chromosome
    of a man living today is basically the same as that of his ancient male
    ancestors, except for the rare mutations that occur along the hereditary
    line. A combination of these neutral mutations, known as a haplotype,
    can serve as a genetic signature of a man's male ancestry. Maternal
    genealogies are also being studied by means of the m-DNA (mitrocondrial DNA), which is inherited only from the mother.
    Dr. Skorecki then made contact with Professor Michael Hammer of the
    University of Arizona, a leading researcher in molecular genetics and a pioneerin Y chromosome research. Professor Hammer uses DNA analysis to study the history of populations, their origins and migrations. His previous
    research included work on the origins of the Native American Indians
    and the development of the Japanese people.
    A study was undertaken to test the hypothesis. If there is a common
    ancestor, the Cohanim should have common genetic markers at a higher frequency than the general Jewish population.

    ASTONISHING RESULTS
    In the first study, as reported in the prestigious British science journal,
    "Nature" (January 2, 1997), 188 Jewish males were asked to contribute
    some cheek cells from which their DNA was extracted for study. Participants
    from Israel, England and North America were asked to specify whether
    they were a Cohen, Levi or Israelite, and to identify their family
    background.

    The results of the analysis of the Y chromosome markers of the Cohanim
    and non-Cohanim were indeed significant. A particular marker (YAP-),
    was detected in 98.5 percent of the Cohanim, and in a significantly lower
    percentage of non-Cohanim.
    In a second study, Dr. Skorecki and associates gathered more DNA samples
    and expanded their selection of Y chromosome markers. Solidifying their
    hypothesis of the common ancestor of Cohanim, they found that a particular
    array of six chromosomal markers were found in 97 of the 106 Cohanim
    tested. This collection of markers has come to be known as the Cohen
    Modal Haplotype (CMH) -- the standard genetic signature of the Jewish
    priestly family. The chances of these findings happening at random is
    greater than one in 10,000.
    The finding of a common set of genetic markers in both Ashkenazic and
    Sephardic Cohanim worldwide clearly indicates an origin pre-dating the
    separate development of the two communities around 1000 CE. Date calculation
    based on the variation of the mutations among Cohanim today yields a
    time frame of 106 generations from the ancestral founder of the line,
    some 3,300 years, the approximate time of the exodus from Egypt, the
    lifetime of Aaron the Cohen.

    TRIBAL DESCENT
    Professor Hammer was recently in Israel for the Jewish Genome Conference.
    He confirmed that his findings are consistent: over 80 percent of
    self-identified
    Cohanim have a common set of markers. The finding that less than one-third
    of the non-Cohen Jews who were tested possess these markers is not
    surprising
    to the geneticists. "Jewishness" is not defined genetically. Other Y
    chromosomes can enter the Jewish gene pool through conversion or through
    a non-Jewish father. Jewish status is determined by the mother. Tribe
    membership follows the father's family line.
    Calculations based on the high rate of genetic similarity of today's
    Cohanim resulted in the highest "paternity-certainty" rate ever r

  7. Re:Sweet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Who in the world just goes through and mods everything offtopic? Idiot, mod this offtopic, I dare you. Oh wait, you can't, you used all your mod points on people who actually were on-topic, now you're powerless to stop this AC post, already at a score of 0, not like you have the brains to notice anyway. You'd mod it even further down (if you could), which would be pointless, but that wouldn't stop you, would it? Anyone who mods down posts that most people aren't even going to see, like the posts in this thread, and especially those posted AC, has got to have the brain power of the average block of cheese. Seriously, isn't there anything worth modding up that you've got to waste your points modding down. What a dumbass.

  8. Re:solve the cause, not the symptom by oceaniv · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Ironic that YOU'RE missing the "cause"... you think there's a bunch of kids sitting there going oh I am bored "blow stuff up." That's very naive. In the past two weeks alone, 120 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military. The Palestinians have no weapons, no defense (other than those so-called "terrorists", no security, no jobs, no education... put that pressure plus the horror of seeing your friends and neighbors getting arrested all the time (hell a year ago the entire Palestinian 'pseudo-parliament' got arrested. You think that's not enough to put someone over the edge? Until Palestinians are treated like human beings by Israel, until Israel stops annexing pieces of their land, their farms in the name of "security" there will be no rest.