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[Nikitas]

One well documented use of lasers was the deliberate blinding of Iranian pilots in the first gulf war by focusing laser range finders on their cockpits from British naval vessels. That was a long time ago by scientific progress standards.

[Nikitas]

"Nikita, the industrial laser cutters should run off three-phase generators… no?"

The machines used by mr Savas (who did my cutting) here in Athens are powered by the regular electricity grid, as are the rest of the machines in the shop. At least three firms have them in our vicinity and there are many more in the industrial area of Athens. Most sheet metal cutting these days is done by lasers. The cost is competitive because there is no need for edge finishing.

[Get Real!]

Nikita, this is the best I could find on the net close to what you described and apparently it’s being carried on a Boeing 747!

http://blog.800hightech.com/airborne-mi ... apons/932/

[Bananiot]

Anything that could make stupidity obsolete would be more welcome.

[Nikitas]

Definitely Bananiot. When you read the cost for a jet to fly an intercepting sortie it makes your hair stand on end.

During a major US-Turkish exercise in the Aegean in the 80s the Greek air force flew 800 interception sorties at a reputed cost of 50 million dollars, about the cost of ten good schools. Simply indicating to the pilost of violating jets that they are targeted and are about to get a laser up their ass would stop this nonsense.

[Get Real!]

Anything that could make stupidity obsolete would be more welcome.

That’s hereditary so we will just have to wait until the specific gene is isolated…

[Get Real!]

Definitely Bananiot. When you read the cost for a jet to fly an intercepting sortie it makes your hair stand on end.

During a major US-Turkish exercise in the Aegean in the 80s the Greek air force flew 800 interception sorties at a reputed cost of 50 million dollars, about the cost of ten good schools. Simply indicating to the pilost of violating jets that they are targeted and are about to get a laser up their ass would stop this nonsense.

So what did you think of the 747? Can you see that beast shooting down jets travelling at Mach II or III?

[Nikitas]

GR, the lasers developed by the US and Israel are land based and are primarily intended for shooting down missiles, artillery shells, and mortars. The information I came across was on US sites, mostly army news. I do not have the info on this computer, I will post it when I get to my office machine. The size was definitely that of one 40 foot container and in the initial tests it was succesful. The reference was to a solid state laser in the region of 100 to 400 kilowatts.

But even if the thing is mounted on any other platform, it still has the ability to strike any incoming object at the speed of light. Making the relative speed advantage of any other system kind of academic.

I do not know the technical details but the overall impression is that such a system, if and when it gets going, will make the jet fighter-bomber obsolete. In fact it would make an projectile obsolete.

[Oracle]

Anything that could make stupidity obsolete would be more welcome.

Stop breeding Bananiot ...

Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer

Shaoni Bhattacharya

Fifty years to the day from the discovery of the structure of DNA, one of its co-discoverers has caused a storm by suggesting that stupidity is a genetic disease that should be cured.

On 28 February 1953 biologists James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA - the chemical code for all life. The breakthrough revealed how genetic information is passed from one generation to the next and revolutionised biology and medicine.

But in a documentary series to be screened in the UK on Channel 4, Watson says that low intelligence is an inherited disorder and that molecular biologists have a duty to devise gene therapies or screening tests to tackle stupidity.

"If you are really stupid, I would call that a disease," says Watson, now president of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York. "The lower 10 per cent who really have difficulty, even in elementary school, what's the cause of it? A lot of people would like to say, 'Well, poverty, things like that.' It probably isn't. So I'd like to get rid of that, to help the lower 10 per cent."

[Nikitas]

Were not Mozart and Eistein bad in grade school? Would this Watson fellow have "cured" them? Would the cure leave the genius intact or simply reproduce medicrity that fits a statistical mean? In other words not getting on in school is hardly a sign of stupidity.