I love to read about scientific breakthroughs. That is why I visit my National Geographic site more than a couple times a month. 

I also enjoy reading Homer. I really do. Origins are important to me. I can read one of the first 'epics' as well as one of the first 'novels' written by man.

But I cannot read Greek. I mean I need a translator.  Which means I can never be an Homeric Scholar.

And when I read of scientific breakthroughs, I need translators. At times I am stuck 'assuming' certain things. Like when I assume that the translator knows what she is talking about. National Geographic will show me pictures of deep sea monsters--aliens really--that have never been published before. I assume.  I have not met the person who took the pictures. How do I know the pictures are not just computer recreations. I mean I do not have a year to do proper research on the matter. So I 'log' the pix and go my merry way.

They have those exercises in group therapy where the subject must fall backwards and assume that his comrades will catch him before he hits the ground and cracks his skull.

The teeter totter certainly teaches children TO NEVER ASSUME AND NEVER TRUST ANYONE. I do not think I met one tot who would not jump off while I was up in the air.

Boo-hoo. Boo-hoo. Now I would like to talk about my mother.....

I was totally astounded to discover that we have working laser weapons. We have weapons that will not only disrupt communications. We have weapon attachments that guide the ammo with the aid of Laser Technology. But we really have real  lasers that will shoot down real missiles.

January 10, 2010 - The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) research and development platform successfully fired the onboard High Energy Laser (HEL) to engage an instrumented target missile, called a Missile Alternative Range Target Instrument (MARTI). This test demonstrated the full functionality of the ABTBL system to successfully acquire, track, and engage a boosting target. Test instrumentation aboard the MARTI collected data to evaluate ALTB laser system performance. This test engagement was not intended to lethally destroy the missile. The MARTI was launched from San Nicolas Island, located in the Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range, off the central California coast. This test provides data to support the ALTB platform's attempt of the first lethal shootdown of a boosting ballistic missile using directed energy technology, scheduled for 2010.

I mean you have to see the videos on this. I do not exactly 'see' what in the hell they are talking about by the way. I do not really see anything but a straight line of light coming from one lighted 'object' to another lighted 'object'.  I mean it looks like something you would see on one of them thar Gameboys machines.

http://www.mda.mil/news/gallery_abl.html

http://www.stratfor.com/memberships/154400/analysis/20100212_us_airborne_laser_hits_its_mark

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Feb. 12, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) transitioned from science fiction to directed energy fact Feb. 11 when it put a lethal amount of 'light on target' to destroy a boosting ballistic missile with help from a megawatt-class laser developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC).

While ballistic missiles like the one ALTB destroyed move at speeds of about 4,000 miles per hour, they are no match for a super-heated, high-energy laser beam racing towards it at 670 million mph. The basketball-sized beam was focused on the foreign military asset, as the missile is called officially, for only a few seconds before a stress fracture developed, causing the target to catastrophically split into multiple pieces. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/globenewswire/184242.htm

I mean JESUS CHRIST!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?pagewanted=2&ref=magazine&adxnnlx=1266005956-KdwVDre8CY2eC7oZYYkaEw

Oh de plane, de plane. I learned all this for the first time last night while watching a technological presentation of sorts on  the History Channel. The narrator was that expert Jonathan Frakes who actually spent time as a crewman on Star Trek Generations.  According to my expert Frakes, one plane costs one and a half BILLION DOLLARS.

The military has been tinkering with "megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser beam" weapons since 1996. But the Pentagon isn't happy with the price tag. Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled the original order for a second airborne laser system, but held onto the original aircraft for further experiments.   http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2010/0212/Airborne-laser-shoots-down-missile-in-mid-flight

It does seem to me that conspiracy theorists can go nuts will the information contained in these articles. The amount of money going straight to capitalist defense contractors is astounding.  If working groups of conspiracy theorists can still maintain that we never made it to the moon, how the hell would you convince them that our military can destroy air borne missiles with laser beams?

But they have sure sold me.   

The agency said in a statement the test took place at 8:44 p.m. PST (11:44 p.m. EST) on Thursday /0444 GMT on Friday) at Point Mugu's Naval Air Warfare Center-Weapons Division Sea Range off Ventura in central California.

"The Missile Defense Agency demonstrated the potential use of directed energy to defend against ballistic missiles when the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) successfully destroyed a boosting ballistic missile" the agency said.

The high-powered Airborne Laser system is being developed by Boeing Co., (BA.N) the prime contractor, and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Boeing produces the airframe, a modified 747 jumbo jet, while Northrop Grumman (NOC.N) supplies the higher-energy laser and Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) is developing the beam and fire control systems.

"This was the first directed energy lethal intercept demonstration against a liquid-fuel boosting ballistic missile target from an airborne platform," the agency added...The  airborne laser weapon successfully underwent its first in-flight test against a target missile back in August. During that test, Boeing said the modified 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base and used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island, California.

The plane's battle management system issued engagement and target location instructions to the laser's fire control system, which tracked the target and fired a test laser at the missile. Instruments on the missile verified the system had hit its mark, Boeing said.The airborne laser weapon is aimed at deterring enemy missile attacks and providing the U.S. military with the ability to engage all classes of ballistic missiles at the speed of light while they are in the boost phase of flight.

"The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers (miles), and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies," the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1111660620100212?type=marketsNews

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/12/boeing-747-destroys-ballistic-missile-with-laser/

Other apps http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/11/microvision-laser-projection-gun-hands-on/

Like so many other triumphs of science, the laser has become a double-edged sword. Capable of producing an enormously powerful, very narrow beam of light, it has been used to perform delicate surgery on the retina of the eye, puncture tiny holes in material as hard as diamonds, produce three-dimensional pictures called holograms, and even measure the distance from earth to the moon (with an error of only a few inches). But the laser can also be used for less peaceful purposes. It provides, for example, the guiding light for the Air Force's extremely accurate "smart bombs" (TIME, June 5). Even more ominous, the laser may be on its way toward becoming a military weapon that until now has existed only in fiction: the death ray.

What may well be the most important goal of military researchers at Kirtland and elsewhere is to project a laser beam that could intercept and destroy a fast-moving intercontinental ballistic missile when it is most vulnerable--before the booster separates from the warhead. Long a subject of fanciful speculation, such long-range rays may soon become possible because of recent technological breakthroughs like high-energy gas dynamic lasers, which produce beams of laser light when their internal gases are rapidly heated, expanded and forced through tiny nozzles at supersonic speeds. Some new lasers have given off bursts of power equivalent to billions of watts, enough to light briefly all the lamps in a major city.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,910406,00.html#ixzz0fQBowU4Y

I apologize for reproducing so much from these articles here, but really, the links provide much more information than I have clipped here.  I have come to a conclusion.

Thirty years ago the Reagan Administration sold Congress on a silly Star Wars technology. Democrats just scoffed at the whole idea. But some of us felt, that there could be huge developments in this area over a decade of research and testing. And my goodness, what could be developed in twenty or thirty years.

On this one Reagan was right. I choke as I say this. But if this kind of tech is already available, I can only imagine what is to come. And in space, there are fewer atmospheric problems to deal with. I suppose our enemies could begin terrorist attacks upon our communication satellites some day.

You know that if we develop these types of weapons, the corporations will be selling the tech for big bucks to other countries. As many on this site attempt to point out almost daily, the corps care about money not patriotism.

There are certainly plusses and minuses to all of this. But I grew up during the dawn of space travel. I was seven when Sputnik was launched.

Scary or not; WE LIVE IN EXCITING TIMES.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53DQgbj2mIc