Thursday, September 1, 2011
UK Daily Mail
- Technique could unlock the secrets of weather cycles
- Humans could decide where and when it rains
Now, according to scientists, it seems they will soon be able to create their own washout conditions.
Using a powerful laser, researchers have created water droplets in the air.
The technique, called laser-assisted water condensation, could one day unlock the secrets of weather cycles and enable humans to decide where and when it rains...[Full Article]
Labels: laser, weather modification
Monday, August 23, 2010
"Assault Intervention Device" comes to Pitchess Detention Center
Guards at the Los Angeles County jail complex in Castaic will start using a newfangled weapon that produces a deep burning sensation -- which is not to be confused with a “warm fuzzy feeling” -- in whomever it is aimed at.
The 7 1/2-foot-tall “Assault Intervention Device,” which sheriff's deputies demonstrated Friday at the Pitchess Detention Center, emits an invisible beam that causes an unbearable sensation, reported the Daily News.
The device will be mounted near the ceiling in a unit housing about 65 inmates, sheriff's Cmdr. Bob Osborne of the sheriff' Technology Exploration Program told the newspaper.
“We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam,” said Osborne. “So that we have fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things.”...
[Full Article]Labels: Assault Intervention Device, county jail, laser, Los Angeles
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
[From CBSNews.com]
The U.S. Navy has used a a laser weapon to shoot down four unmanned aerial vehicles in a test that rings up memories of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" missile defense shield in the 1980s.
The Phalanx Close-in Weapon System.
(Credit: Raytheon)
The successful test of the Laser Weapon System off the coast of California was announced during the Farnborough International Air Show, which is taking place this week in England.
The technology, jointly developed with Raytheon, used industrial strength lasers, is more than just your run-of-the-mill PR exercise. In its write-up of the technology, Scientific American correctly notes that the shoot-down of the drones over water constitutes an advance over previous Raytheon tests which focused on static targets.
Mike Booen of Raytheon gave USA Today the money quote for the day: "The targets came in over the ocean, and it was a good day for lasers, bad day for drones."
Still, don't expect deployment any time soon. Even if the follow-up tests come through with flying colors, the technology is likely going to take several more years before it's ready for combat situation. (Coincidentally, the breakthrough made the rounds on the anniversary of the day that U.S. astronauts walked on the moon in 1969.
Labels: drones, laser, U.S. Navy
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The Pentagon ramps up efforts to field directed-energy beam weapons for land, air and sea
After more than a century of popular sci-fi fantasies that feature deadly energy weapons, including War of the Worlds, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Star Wars, it looks like the ray gun has finally arrived in the real world.
And even if the first ray guns out of the lab can barely fit on the bed of a 30-ton off-road truck rather than in a soldier’s palm, the novel, "speed-of-light" capabilities that lasers could bring to the battlefield has drawn the keen interest of the Pentagon brass, which spends about $400 million a year on directed-energy beam weapons...
[Full Article]
Labels: directed-energy beam, laser, ray gun
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