Ray Guns, Electric Cannons, and the Mind of the Lemming

Once in a while, the Lemming feels a need to explain just what's so "apathetic" about this blog. This is one of those times.

"...Apathy, of course, was anathema to the anguished campus activists of the sixties and seventies. The cultural pressure to care - deeply, passionately, hysterically - led to the slogan 'Apathy is Rampant, But Who Cares?' I still treasure the sight of those words, emblazoned on a bumper sticker. Or maybe it was in a magazine...."

"...Apathy can be defined as not caring about what is supposed to be important. What is considered important, and what's not, in America seems to be determined in the coastal cultures. Since my priorities don't even come close to the stereotype Starbucks-frequenting, Armani-wearing, New York Times reader, I must be 'apathetic.'..."

That page was written before the Lemming started writing quite so many posts in the third person: and that's another topic.

More about the Lemming, on a page called (what else?):

• "About the Lemming"

Now, here's why the Lemming thought it was time to say just what sort of "apathy" you're likely to see in this post.

"Sci-Fi Weapons," Budget Concerns, and Living in 'the Future'

"Railgun, Laser Weapon Lose Senate Funding, Face Uncertain Future"
FoxNews.com (June 20, 2011)

"The Navy's most futuristic weapons will remain more fi than sci.

"The Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday voted to eliminate funding for two of the Navy’s still-in-development guns: the free electron laser, essentially a super-powered death ray, and the railgun, which shoots bullets powered not by explosions, but by energy.

"The Navy had planned to incorporate these sci-fi weapons in a revamped fleet of the future, and asked for $60 million to continue research and development. Those plans may have to change, following the tersely worded cuts -- unveiled on Page 21 of a lengthy press release outlining the Senate's completion of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012...."

Don't misunderstand - the Lemming likes science fiction. The Lemming even enjoyed watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004).

On the other hand, the Lemming will be 60 years old this year: and has been living in "the future" for quite a while. It's not quite 'as advertised:' no flying cars or floating cities. Actually, we've had quite a few flying cars, but they never took off in the commercial sense.

Phrases like "sci-fi weapons" and "fleet of the future" remind the Lemming of the sort of "World of Tomorrow" future that folks may have taken seriously when Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon first appeared on the silver screen. Now that "silver screen" is used when someone wants to evoke nostalgia, a different sort of future seems to be in fashion. And that's almost another topic.

The point is that, although the Lemming enjoys alliteration, "fleet of the future" is emphatically not how the Lemming would describe something that was supposed to be taken seriously.

Electric cannons and ray guns? The Lemming's pretty sure that you'll find practical, level-headed folks who are convinced that those staples of (occasionally atrocious) science fiction stories are as much "science fiction" as spaceports. Of which America has about a half-dozen so far - and it's not just this country. Which is yet another topic.

Great Scott! These Things Work! QUICK!! CUT FUNDING!!! DO IT NOW!!!!

Back to that article:

"...'[The Act] directs the Navy to develop a broader affordable strategy on laser systems and terminates the Navy's free electron laser due to concerns over operational technical challenges. In addition, [it] terminates the Navy's high-risk Electromagnetic Rail Gun,' the release reads.

"Neither the Navy's Office of Naval Research, which has been actively developing the two technologies for several years, nor senior Navy officials were willing to comment on the news, pending the release of the full bill later this week.

"The cuts come on the heels of major successes by both weapons: In February the free-electron laser set a new power record, bringing it closer to the goal of megawatt-class power. In December, the railgun produced a walloping 33-megajoule blast, three times the power previously achieved...."
(FoxNews.com)

The American federal government, along with quite a few others around the world, seems to have discovered that spending more money than you take in has consequences. Not-nice ones, eventually. The Lemming thinks America's politicos are to be congratulated for noticing this awkward little point.

What's even more remarkable, in the Lemming's view, is that Congress is putting on a pretty good show of wanting to discuss doing something besides taking more of somebody else's money to pay for their pet projects. The Lemming's discussed this before, in connection with the NASA budget.

If you're expecting a rant about the absolute necessity of more and more military spending, no matter what: That's not gonna happen.

The Lemming also isn't going to do the conventional hand-wringing (paw-wringing?) about the Evils of War and how Yankee imperialism and CIA plots cause tooth decay - or whatever.

Maybe - just maybe - the Senate's decision to (apparently) scuttle these particular weapons development programs is based on something practical. That's possible: at least in principle. There are, probably, comparatively sober members of Congress who do something besides keep chairs warm and/or send naughty photos of themselves to coeds.

On the other hand, the Lemming remembers the 'good old days' when being anti-war, anti-military, and anti-fuzz was groovy. Pulling the plug on weapons systems when they seem to be working seems like politics-as-usual from folks whose hearts may be in the right place.

The Mind of the Lemming

The Lemming thinks that there's a difference between having idealistic goals, and trying to attain them - and deciding to live in a fantasy world. Not that everybody who disagrees with the Lemming is delusional, stupid, and probably wants to destroy the planet. This is not, as the Lemming has said before, a political blog.

The Lemming thinks that scrapping weapons development programs when they're starting to show practical results - - - might not be a good idea.

This could be seen as proof that the Lemming

• Is a red-white-and-blue-blooded 100%-American Patriot
• Is a heartless dupe of imperialistic capitalistic aggressors
• Wants to destroy the planet

Or, maybe something else is going on. Here's an over-simplified, superficial, look at part of the mind of the Lemming:

Does the Lemming think that weapons are nice? No. On the other hand, does the Lemming think:

• Weapons should be forever banned, right now?
  • No
• It would be nice if everybody would agree to be nice?
  • So we wouldn't need any more
    • Police
    • Jails
    • Guns
    • Anything icky like that
  • Yes
• It would be nice if bad things never happened?
  • So nobody ever
    • Got sick
    • Died
    • Felt bad
  • Yes
• It would be nice if everybody was just simply perfect?
  • You know -
    • Smart
    • Good-looking
    • Athletic
    • Stuff like that
  • Yes.

Does the Lemming expect to see any of the above, in the foreseeable future? No.

That doesn't mean we should stop trying to fix what's wrong with society, support what works, and help folks who need help. And that's yet again another topic, for another blog.¹

The Lemming recognizes that folks don't always play nice, even if they're asked nicely. That is, granted, an opinion: pretty much like it's the Lemming's opinion that water is wet. Except during Minnesota winters, when it's a mineral.

"Megajoule?" What's a Joule, and Why Call Them Mega?

Time to get technical: a megajoule is (what else?) 1,000,000 joules. A joule is a watt second, or "a unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second." (Priceton's WordNet) 33,000,000 joules is - quite a lot of energy.

Let's put it this way: an outlet in your house might have a 500 joule surge protector. The Lemming isn't sure what would happen if a burst of 33,000,000 joules hit something that was designed to protect against 500 joules of power: but you might notice the results.

A rail gun that pumps 33,000,000 joules of power into a solid projectile with modest efficiency? Again, you might notice the results. "...A single megajoule is roughly equivalent to a 1-ton car traveling at 100 mph. Multiple that by 33 and you get a picture of what would happen when such a weapon hits a target...."
(FoxNews.com)

Destruction equivalent to 33 one-ton cars going 100 miles an hour, all smashing into something at the same time? Is that nice?

And the Lemming's been over that before.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Science Fiction Weapons, and Keeping Up With Last Year's News"
  (January 7, 2011)
• "Railgun: From the 1933 Electric Machine Gun to 2010 Cannon"
  (December 11, 2010)
• "Ray Guns are Science Fiction: Energy Weapons? Not So Much"
  (July 22, 2010)
• "Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real"
  (February 20, 2009)
• "Boeing Building Laser Gunship: No, Really"
  (December 15, 2007)

---

¹
The Lemming's take on 'relevant' issues, in another blog:

• "Charity Demands Environmental Awareness (and God Doesn't Make Junk)"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 12, 2011)
• "Wealth, Poverty, Stereotypes, and Snidely Whiplash"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 8, 2011)

That's right: the Lemming's one of 'those' people. Yet again another topic.

Lemming Tracks: Science Fiction Weapons, and Keeping Up With Last Year's News

This is an exciting time to be around: blink, and you may miss something.

Getting distracted while writing another post ("Lemming Tracks: Sudan, Africa, Independence, Unity, and Getting a Grip") today, I found some interesting assertions about 'science fiction' weapons. Here's a sample:

"Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better"
Television Tropes & Idioms

"The story is set some high-tech and/or futuristic society. There are massive computer networks, sentient robots, and ships that can zip across space with the same amount of effort it takes you to go to the store down the street. Despite all this technology, however, combat isn't all that different. Battle armor may have some gizmos on it, the guns may have higher muzzle velocities and an ammo count greater than the population of several rural communities, war vehicles may be able to do some fancy new tricks, but combat is the same at heart. If there are energy weapons in the universe, they are either horribly disadvantaged with fewer shots before a replacement is needed, experimental, hard to get, or are wracked with issues like overheating, and that's supposing anyone other than the attacking alien race/evil faction even has access to them. And that's if you can get them to actually be capable of hurting things.

"A theme in many sci-fi works, especially newer ones. It is not a bad thing; in older science fiction, portrayals of energy weapons were usually very inaccurate, showing them as simply better because they were more high-tech. This is a surprisingly common misconception; if a category of technology is more 'advanced', it must be better than something less 'advanced.' This is the same logic that has Star Trek medical isolation use 'high-tech' forcefields instead of boring old walls, despite the fact that boring old walls don't vanish if you unplug them.

"Real life energy weapons haven't really made it far from the labs just yet...."

The page makes good points: today's directed-energy weapons often use chemicals that make them at least as dangerous to the operators as to the target. The things are fragile, and - worse - comparatively ineffective.

An important point, the Lemming thinks, is: "...Real life energy weapons haven't really made it far from the labs just yet...." [emphasis mine]

Energy Weapons are so Fifties

Another point is that 'energy weapons' have been around for over a half-century now:

• "First Hydrogen Fusion Bomb Test, 1952: a Video"
  (January 13, 2010)

That post discusses the test of a fusion bomb, which converts hydrogen to helium: releasing quite a lot of energy in the process. It's essentially the same process that happens every second in the star that Earth orbits.

Fusion bombs were recognized as a theoretical possibility since the 1930s. Serious folks assumed that they were impossible to make, since the fusion process won't work unless hydrogen is squeezed and heated to levels you'd find inside a star.

A scientific curiosity, something for theoretical physicists to discuss: but something that'll 'never happen.' Like Alcubierre's warp drive. (June 12, 2009) Which is another topic, sort of.

Producing conditions normally found inside a star was a practical impossibility in 1940. By 1950, it was merely difficult. ("Hydrogen Bomb / Fusion Weapons," Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), GlobalSecurity.org)

But - 'science fiction stuff' like weapons that shoot balls of lightning and lethal beams of energy? The Lemming will skip the conventional hand-wringing about how nice it would be if everybody would only be nice: You've probably heard it all before, anyway. For the record? It would be - nice.

Weaponized Ball Lightning, Commercial Laser Cannons

There's a fellow who's trying to generate stable magnetoplasmoids: a five-dollar word for ball lightning. Generating the things isn't the problem: getting them to last long enough to make an effective anti-missile weapon is. (February 20, 2009)

And earlier this year Raytheon's latest laser weapon system shot down a UAV. (July 22, 2010)

Like the Lemming said, blink and you'll miss something.

Change Happens: A Lot

As far as it goes, the Tropes page makes good arguments. But the Lemming thinks that the writer overlooked how much technologies can change. Weapons that shoot projectiles went from the blunderbuss to the (now old) M16 in under three centuries.

Three centuries from now? The Lemming suspects that change will still be the rule in this world: and that weapons technology won't be quite what it was in 1700 or 2000.

Keeping up isn't easy in eras like this, when cutting-edge technologies like wire recorders and eight-track become museum pieces in a person's lifetime. (more: recording-history.org)

Then there was the fellow who'd compiled an impressive collection of photos and artwork displaying Dubai's remarkable architecture. Including what the writer thought would be the world's first spaceport. Just one problem with that: although the passenger terminal wasn't finished, there already was a commercial spaceport in operation at the time. (October 25, 2008)

Horse-Driven Airliners, Supersonic Dirigibles, and 'Impossible'

The Lemming tries to avoid falling into the habit of assuming that the way things were is the way they are. Or that new technologies are pretty much the same as what was around in 'the good old days.'

That last point has some merit, since a jumbo jet does pretty much the same thing that a horse-drawn wagon does: get people and goods from one place to another. Only faster.

On the other hand, there's a reason why we don't have horse-driven airliners. The strongest, fastest team of horses in the world can't generate the sort of energy it takes to move hundreds of people from one side of a continent to another - through the air - and still be light enough to fly.

That doesn't mean that Boeing, have been selling credulous airlines vehicles based on the design principles of the emperor's new clothes.

Or that propulsion systems that need more energy than we can generate today are "impossible."

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Railgun: From the 1933 Electric Machine Gun to 2010 Cannon"
  (December 11, 2010)
• "Ray Guns are Science Fiction: Energy Weapons? Not So Much"
  (July 22, 2010)
• "Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real"
  (February 20, 2009)
• "Boeing Building Laser Gunship: No, Really"
  (December 15, 2007)

Railgun: From the 1933 Electric Machine Gun to 2010 Cannon

---

Preface: It would be nice, in the Lemming's opinion, if everybody would always be nice. That doesn't happen. I've discussed niceness, war, and reality, in "War is Not Nice," Another War-on-Terror Blog. The Lemming will omit the customary hand-wringing in this post, regarding the need for weapons.

---

A railgun is a staple science fiction weapon. Unlike guns that use a small explosive charge, or compressed gas, to accelerate a projectile; a series of electromagnets in a railgun's 'barrel' act on a projectile, one after another.

As the projectile reaches each electromagnet, it shuts off and the next one is turned on.

Theoretically, very high muzzle velocities should be possible.

This isn't a new idea. A 1933 patent application describes a machine gun that uses magnetic flux instead of "gun powder or the like." We don't have electric machine guns today: quite likely because back in 1933 we didn't have high-output portable generators.

As David S. Zondy said, in his Tales of Future Past page on railguns, "...Mr. Virgil Grigsby of San Augustine Texas went for the small-scale version of what today is known as a "railgun" when he patented his electric machinegun, which would have revolutionised warfare if the extension cord had stretched a bit further...." ("Railgun," Tales of Future Past)

That was then. This is now:


(U.S. Navy video by John Williams, via FoxNews.com, used w/o permission)

"Navy Sets World Record With Incredible, Sci-Fi Weapon"
John R. Quain, Military Tech, FoxNews.com (John R. Quain)

"A theoretical dream for decades, the railgun is unlike any other weapon used in warfare. And it's quite real too, as the U.S. Navy has proven in a record-setting test today in Dahlgren, VA.

"Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the technology uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7.

"The result: a weapon that can hit a target 100 miles or more away within minutes.

" 'It's an over-used term, but it really changes several games,' Rear Admiral Nevin P. Carr, Jr., the chief of Naval Research, told FoxNews.com prior to the test.

"For a generation raised on shoot-'em-up video games, the word 'railgun' invokes sci-fi images of an impossibly destructive weapon annihilating monsters and aliens. But the railgun is nonetheless very real.

"An electromagnetic railgun offers a velocity previously unattainable in a conventional weapon, speeds that are incredibly powerful on their own. In fact, since the projectile doesn't have any explosives itself, it relies upon that kinetic energy to do damage. And at 11 a.m. today, the Navy produced a 33-megajoule firing -- more than three times the previous record set by the Navy in 2008...."

33 Mega-whats?!

The energy involved, 33 megajoules, may not seem like much: although "mega" is an impressive syllable. Briefly, a joule is a measure of energy. A megajoule is, what else? - 1,000,000 joules. A joule is the energy involved in moving one meter with the force of one newton. A newton is the force it takes to accelerate one kilogram at 1 meter per second per second.

Another way of putting it is that the energy in one kilowatt-hour is about 3.6 megajoules. On the unlikely chance that you want more of that, Australian Academy of Science and GCSE.com websites define these and other terms.

33 Megajoules: How Bad Can That Be?

If the Lemming did the math right, at typical American energy costs, that 33 megajoules of energy costs between 20 cents and two dollars. That's according to EnergyVortex.com. We're apparently supposed to feel guilty about the power grid, by the way. Destroying the environment and all that.

The FoxNews.com article translates the railgun's destructive potential in a less geeky, more readily understood way. In the Lemming's opinion.

"...A single megajoule is roughly equivalent to a 1-ton car traveling at 100 mph...."
(FoxNews.com)

So: let's say one of those semitrailers that carries maybe a dozen cars is barreling down a freeway at 100 miles an hour. And hits a bridge piling. It's going to be bad for the driver: also anybody driving nearby; the bridge piling; and quite possibly the bridge.

33 megajoules is a lot of energy.

Why Railguns?

The Lemming could insert the conventional hand-wringing about the not-niceness of violence here: but you've heard it all before. Moving on.

Since railgun projectiles are essentially solid pieces of metal, with no explosives: if one is dropped, it won't explode. Navy crews who handle munitions would have one less thing to worry about. The railguns themselves don't use explosives to accelerate the projectiles: so that's another worry gone.

There are logistical and tactical advantages, too - discussed briefly in the article.

Impossible? In 1933, Yes

Navy ships with railguns won't be around for several years. There are still very serious technical issues to be ironed out. Back to that article:

"...The projectile is no cannon ball, either. At speeds well above the sound barrier, aerodynamics and special materials must be considered so that it isn't destroyed coming out of the barrel or by heat as it travels at such terrific speeds.

"Then there's question of electrical requirements. Up until recently, those requirements simply weren't practical. However, the naval researchers believe they can solve that issue using newer Navy ships and capacitors to build up the charge necessary to blast a railgun projectile out at supersonic speeds. Ellis says they hope to be able to shoot 6 to 12 rounds per minute, 'but we're not there yet.'

"So when will the railgun become a working weapon? Both Ellis and Carr expect fully functional railguns on the decks of U.S. Navy ships in the 2025 time frame...."
(FoxNews.com)

Video, and the Boom Explained

A Wired article's video includes USN footage of the recent railgun test:
"Video: Navy's Mach 8 Railgun Obliterates Record"
Spencer Ackerman, Danger Room, Wired (December 10, 2010)

"There wasn't much left of the 23-pound bullet, just a scalded piece of squat metal. That's what happens when an enormous electromagnetic gun sends its ammo rocketing 5,500 feet in a single second.

"The gun that fired the bullet is the Navy's experimental railgun. The gun has no moving parts or propellants — just a king-sized burst of energy that sends a projectile flying. And today its parents at the Office of Naval Research sent 33 megajoules through it, setting a new world record and making it the most powerful railgun ever developed.

"Reporters were invited to watch the test at the Dalghren Naval Surface Warfare Center. A tangle of two-inch thick coaxial cables hooked up to stacks of refrigerator-sized capacitors took five minutes to power juice into a gun the size of a schoolbus built in a warehouse. With a 1.5-million-ampere spark of light and a boom audible in a room 50 feet away, the bullet left the gun at a speed of Mach 8.

"All that energy was 'dump[ed] in 10 milliseconds,' says Charles Garrett, project manager at Dahlgren for the railgun.

But since there no explosion powering the projectile, why should the railgun have made any noise at all? Answer: the bullet went so fast it released a sonic boom."

The video's been making the round: on usnavyresearch's YouTube channel and cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com, for example.

Here's that YouTube video reduced to fit in this blog. The full-size display is on YouTube:

"Electromagnetic Railgun world record setting event"

usnavyresearch, YouTube (December 10, 2010)
video, 0:50

"The Office of Naval Research Electromagnetic Railgun located at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, fired a world-record setting 33 megajoule shot, breaking the previous record established January, 31, 2008."

Related posts:

• "Spaceships Launched on Rails: Not-So-New Idea Proposed"
  (September 15, 2010)
• "Ray Guns are Science Fiction: Energy Weapons? Not So Much"
  (July 22, 2010)
• "Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real"
  (February 20, 2009)
• "Binder Clips and #2 Pencils: Deadly Weapons?!"
  (September 2, 2008)
• "Boeing Building Laser Gunship: No, Really"
  (December 15, 2007)

Like this post? Tweet it: Tweet Or, not: your choice.

Gun Law Case: Stark Raving Mad

Brian Aitken is serving seven years in prison.

Because he made a purchase. Legally. Even the FBI approved.

Then, Mr. Aitken stored the products he purchased.

Safely. According to legal code.

So, he's spending seven years in prison.

That's because he made the purchase in America.

And is subject to American laws.

Which, in the Lemming's opinion, are

• STARK
• RAVING
• MAD

Like the fellow said: "Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't." (Hamlet, Act II, Scene II, Famous Quotes by William Shakespeare)

There's a perfectly reasonable (given a particular set of assumptions) explanation for why Mr. Aitken is in prison.

Those products that he purchased: legally?

They're big, scary guns!

And that, in some parts of America, changes everything.

The folks in New Jersey are, apparently, scared silly of guns.

So Mr. Aitken is spending seven years in prison.

Here's what set the Lemming off:

"New Jersey Gun Case Exposes 'Patchwork' of State Laws, Experts Say"
Joshua Rhett Miller, FOXNews (December 2, 2010)

"The case of a New Jersey man who is serving seven years in prison for possessing two locked and unloaded handguns he purchased legally in Colorado is a perfect example of how a law-abiding citizen can unwittingly become a criminal due to vastly differing gun laws among the states, gun rights experts say.

"Brian Aitken, a 27-year-old entrepreneur and media consultant with no prior criminal record, now spends his days 'bored and depressed' behind bars at New Jersey's Mid-State Correctional Facility, his father, Larry Aitken, of Mount Laurel, N.J., says.

"Brian was trying to get his life back on track two years ago when he moved back to New Jersey from Colorado to be closer to his young son and estranged wife. But on Jan. 2, 2009, his mood darkened when his planned visit with his son was canceled at the last minute. His mother, concerned for his safety, called the police, and when the police located him, they searched his car and found two locked and unloaded handguns in the trunk.

"Aitken had purchased the guns legally in Colorado, and he passed an FBI background check when he bought them, his father said. And he said Brian also contacted New Jersey State Police before moving back back home to discuss how to properly transport his weapons. But despite those good-faith efforts, he said, Brian was convicted on weapons charges and sent to prison in August.

" 'I don't think there are words yet invented that could characterize the -- I guess anger would be one word, but it's a lot deeper than anger,' Larry Aitken told FoxNews.com on Wednesday. 'Whatever the word is that's a combination of anger, shock, disbelief, horror and a desire to expose all of this -- that's the word.

" 'This can't happen. I won't let this happen to my son.'..."

Scared of Guns? Move to New Jersey: You'll be 'Safe' There

The Lemming's guess is that Mr. Aitken's estranged wife has something to do with his prison sentence.

Maybe she was protecting her son from those big, scary guns.

The Lemming has lived in America for the last half-century or so, and understands the sort of hysterical fear that big, scary guns inspire in some of the more sensitive and high-strung folks who live here.

Looks like New Jersey is one of the safe havens, where folks are protected from big, scary guns.

Now, "understanding" isn't the same as "agreeing." The Lemming grew up on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, and doesn't have quite the same delicate, refined sensibilities as the folks in New Jersey apparently have. Certainly not where it comes to big, scary guns.

In another blog, the Lemming has discussed this distinctly counter-cultural attitude toward dangerous technologies: like guns, LP gas, and computers. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 27, 2008))

Now, are guns dangerous? Yes.

The Lemming thinks that there should be laws, regarding who uses guns and how they're stored. Just like there are laws about who may use LP gas, and how it's stored.

Maybe there should even be laws about folks whose mood 'darkens' - along the lines of Andy Capp's "I thought he was going to hit me, so I hit him back first."

But - and this is where the Lemming is counter-cultural - I think the sort of fear that put Mr. Aitken in prison for a seven-year sentence is: stark - raving - mad.

I also think that guns don't 'make' people do things - any more than Road Runner cartoons do. ("Demons aren't Dull," A Catholic Citizen in America (November 30, 2010))

Ray Guns are Science Fiction: Energy Weapons? Not So Much

"Laser weapon system shoots down UAV"
R&D Magazine (July 20, 2010)

"Raytheon has just publicly revealed its next-gen directed energy weapon at the Farnborough Air Show in Australia, and has released a video showing its Laser Weapons System (LaWS) -- a six-laser weapon that focuses on a single target -- engaging and then destroying an unmanned aerial vehicle from the deck of a Navy vessel at sea.

" 'These engagements validate the operational viability of the Phalanx-LaWS combination at sea,' said Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence, president of Raytheon Missile Systems. 'The Raytheon- Navy team demonstrated the systems' capability to detect, track, engage and defeat dynamic targets at tactically significant ranges in a maritime environment.'

"The tests, conducted in May and June, show the LaWS illuminating and then heating the underside of a drone aircraft shortly before it goes up in flames and loses trajectory, plummeting into the ocean below. Guided by Raytheon's Laser Close-in Weapon System (CIWS), a sensor suite that locks onto and guides the energy weapon, LaWS shot down three similar drones during the tests, which mark the first time a solid-state laser has shot down an aircraft on the wing over open seas...."

Solid-state lasers are a sort of good news/bad news matter. Good news, they're smaller and don't require toxic chemicals and are smaller than their chemical cousins; bad news, they don't generally produce as much power.

Still, it looks like Raytheon worked the bugs out of surface-to-air energy weapons. No small feat, considering the knack our atmosphere has for absorbing energy: particularly if there's a lot of water vapor present.

Related posts:

• "Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real"
  (February 20, 2009)
• "Boeing Building Laser Gunship: No, Really"
  (December 15, 2007)

More:

• "Raytheon's Phalanx Sensors Used in Laser Shoot Down of Airborne Targets"
  News Archive, Raytheon (July 19, 2010)

First Hydrogen Fusion Bomb Test, 1952: a Video

"Nuclear Bomb - First H Bomb test"

jpnovak, YouTube (July 2, 2006)
video, 2:19

"Ivy Mike was the first H Bomb test, it was exploded at 7.15 am local time on November 1st 1952. The mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. 80...."

I'll skip the conventional hand-wringing about how nasty war is and how nice it would be if everybody would be nice. You've probably heard it a thousand times. I'll also skip the agonizing over how we're all gonna die in a nuclear holocaust, or have to deal with giant mutant frogs. (Would the Lemming kid about something like this?)

Oh, Dear: Why Post Something This Dreadful?

I've got two reasons:

1. History
2. Language

The Lemming saw this video in a Wired article today:

"Classified Recordings of First Fusion Bomb Test Found in Old Safe"
Wired Science (January 11, 2010)

"The long-distance scientific recordings of the blast wave from the first hydrogen bomb test have been rediscovered in a formerly classified safe at Columbia University.

"On November 1, 1952, physicists created the second fusion explosion the solar system has ever known. The first occurred around 4.5 billion years ago and ignited the ongoing fusion reaction in the sun. The second, the Ivy Mike experiment, was shorter lived and detonated on an atoll in the South Pacific. This 10-megaton blast was five times more powerful than all the explosives used in World War II combined, including the nuclear-fission bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"The blast set off a low-frequency sound wave beneath the human hearing range, which was recorded halfway around the world at special listening stations designed by the Lamont Geological Observatory in Palisades, New York, for monitoring just such an event. The microbarographs measured changes in atmospheric pressure, and were particularly well-suited to detecting a nuclear explosion. As the wave passed, the ink-filled needles of the instruments scribbled on paper rolling around a drum.

"It was the first time a nuclear explosion had been detected from such a long distance and it marked the beginning of international test monitoring, a key element of nuclear non-proliferation plans...."

Lamont's former security director Ray Long found the paper recording while cleaning out the safe, and worked with Air Force brass to get them declassified. That wasn't as easy as it sounds. The American military does this according to procedures - and there wasn't one for handling this particular sort of record.

Anyway, the Wired article includes this video, a photograph of the squiggles that were recently declassified, and a brief discussion of nuclear test monitoring technology.

For me, it's interesting both from the technical and historical point of view.

Your experience may vary, of course.

Yes, there was color film in 1952

Some documentary directors have the habit of reprocessing just about any motion capture done before about 1980 into grainy sepiatone. That may give some of the younger generation (for me, that's anybody under about 35) the impression that color film didn't exist back then.

It did.

Announcers really did talk like that, though. Remember, this recording is something like 57 years old. American English may not have changed all that much: but fashions in broadcasting have.

Pay attention, the next time you listen to the news on television or radio. Not the words: the way the people say them. Odds are pretty good that they don't talk like that when they're on coffee break: and I'm guessing that you don't either.

In 2067, you (or your grandkids, if you're my age) may think video of the CBS Evening News from this year sounds funny, too.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "Asteroid 99942 Apophis: Radical Waves in 2036?"
  (December 31, 2009)
• "Inventions: Strange; Feared; and Yet-to-Come"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 25, 2009)
• "- - - 'And We're All Gonna Die!' "
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (June 30, 2009)
• "CERN's Large Hadron Collider: A List of Posts"
• "Plutonium Powered Pacemakers: Americans with Atomic Hearts"
  (March 22, 2009)
• "Common Sense Knows No Boundaries: Neither does Bureaucratic Vindictiveness"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (February 14, 2008)
  • You probably owe your life to Stanislav Petrov

Set PHASERs on Stun: Koloc's Kugelblitz Research is For Real

"Scientist Looks to Weaponize Ball Lightning"
Wired (February 20, 2009)

"Two hundred years ago this week, the warship HMS Warren Hastings was struck by a weird phenomenon: "Three distinct balls of fire" fell from the heavens, striking the ship and killing two crewmen, leaving behind 'a nauseous, sulfurous smell,' according to the Times of London.

"Ball lightning has been the subject of much scientific scrutiny over the years...."

An Aside About Sprites, Hallucinations, and Video Cameras

David Hambling, who wrote this article, is almost certainly younger than I am. Ball lightning may have received "much scientific scrutiny over the years" - but I can remember when quite a number of scientific experts poo-poohed laymen who thought that ball lightning existed.

Or, that thunderstorm sprites weren't hallucinations. I remember when people like Stuart L. Becher were vindicated. Before the 1989 STS-34 Shuttle mission, pilots, soldiers, and other 'credulous' non-scientists saw lights shooting up from thunderstorms. The usual 'scientific' explanation was that they were crazy. A video camera on the shuttle recorded sprites.

Given a choice between saying that a video camera was hallucinating, and acknowledging that laymen had noticed something that scientists hadn't, scientists started studying sprites.

Smart move, I'd say.

Back to Ball Lightning

From the looks of it, scientists have decided that ball lightning exists, too. Also a smart move. I think video cameras and funding for high-energy physics helped.

Anyway, physicists haven't decided what ball lightning is, exactly. Actually, quite a few have: but they've come up with a whole lot of different explanations. A few more years - or decades - of this, and they'll probably work out a description of ball lightning that fits all the facts. Maybe several descriptions: I suspect there could be more than one sort of 'ball lightning.'

Although the natural phenomenon hasn't been quite nailed down, a scientist named Paul Koloc, has developed a technology that makes plasmoids (chunks of really hot stuff) about a foot in diameter. Problem is, they're not stable: yet.

Dr. Koloc's goal is to make stable magnetoplasmoids that would last about one to five seconds. Compressed and accelerated to around two hundred kilometers a second, the things would make an ideal anti-missile weapon.

Koloc called the weapon system "Phased Hyper-Acceleration for Shock, EMP, and Radiation." That's right: PHASER.

If he ever works out the kinks, the PHASER could - in theory - be a real-world equivalent of Star Trek's phaser - possibly the most well-known science fiction stun gun. At relatively low power, it could - again, in theory - scramble a car's electrical system: giving law enforcement another tool for ending high-speed chases.

And, a similar technology could - in theory - maybe - be used to contain fusion reactions.

Exciting times, these that we live in.

The Wired article includes this YouTube video:

"Ball Lightning compilation"

NaturalPhenomena, YouTube (October 20, 2008)
video (5:44)

Binder Clips and #2 Pencils: Deadly Weapons?!

"Binder Clips into Office Weapons"
Shoplet.com (August 18, 2008)

Wow, if you thought working at your white-collared job, sitting in your well equipped air-conditioned office, thinking that this is probably one of the safest place to be… you may just want to think twice about that. The office is a jungle. Beside having to watch your back...."

The process of weaponizing binder clips, rubber bands, and pencils is described and illustrated with photographs.

Very interesting. Also, one of the few times I'll have a disclaimer. I don't recommend the use of weaponized binder clips. This post is for informational (and entertainment) purposes only.

Possible Wasp Knife Misuse Troubles Some, Terrifies Others

Before anything else, a disclaimer: This is disgusting.

I usually put the title first, then a short excerpt, then what I think of a post or article. Not this time.

"Wasp Knife?" Never Heard of It

The Wasp Knife can be a lifesaver for a pilot who was obliged to land in water occupied by sharks, or a hiker with an aversion to becoming a bear's main course.

Wasp Injection Systems, Inc makes it clear on their website's homepage that the weapon is not to be misused -

"The WASP Injector Knife is ideally used as a:
- Diving Knife
- Hunting Knife
- Tactical Knife

WASP Injection Systems, Inc. does not condone the killing of innocent creatures."

That warning may be justified, since the "Wasp Knife" is a bit unusual. It injects compressed gas into its target, through channel in the blade. I couldn't recommend it as a hunting weapon.

On the other hand, given a choice between letting sharks convert someone to chum before having a quick snack, or providing a bear with an easy meal, and letting people who are likely to encounter large carnivores with a Wasp Knife, I'd say let them have the knife.

"Knife Crimes," British Police, and Scary Things in the News

No surprise - there are (reasonable) concerns that someone, sooner or later, is going to misuse this technology.

"Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs"
Daily Mail (UK) (July 17, 2008)

To begin with, unless British English is a great deal more unlike American English than I think it is, the Wasp Knife doesn't have an exploding tip. It does, however, release compressed gas. Back to the article:

"Senior police officers have been warned to look out for a new knife which can inject a ball of compressed gas into its victim that instantly freezes internal organs.

"The 'wasp knife', which can deliver a ball of compressed gas capable of killing its victim at the press of a button, may be heading for Britain, the Metropolitan Police fear.

"A needle in the tip of the blade shoots out the frozen ball of gas which instantly balloons to the size of a basketball, freezing organs.

"The Metropolitan Police have told colleagues in the West Midlands to be on the lookout for the blade, which is designed to kill sharks and bears...."

That bit about "freezing organs" actually is on the company's website, in the "Hunting" page.

I'm inclined to agree with at least one statement in the article: "Labour MP for Perry Barr in Birmingham, Khalid Mahmood, said: 'Weapons like this are absolutely disgraceful and there is no reason at all why people should be walking around the streets with them.' "

True enough. There just aren't that many bears and sharks roaming the streets in Birmingham, England. And, it sounds like the British police are, quite sensibly, trying to prevent a problem, rather than react to one.

A little more background: England has had a bit more than the usual number of stabbings lately, including a high-profile crime earlier this month: "Students stabbed and set alight" (BBC (July 3, 2008)).

Facts and Fears

The Wasp Knife is a fine survival tool, and could save lives in some of the wilder parts of the world. On the streets of Birmingham, I'm almost inclined to go with the Labor MP's take on the topic. It doesn't belong there. My exception? I'll get back to that.

The British police and the Daily Mail are being calm about this new technology. Predictably, others aren't.

From comments on "
Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs" (Current.com (July 17, 2008)):

• "Who on earth was twisted and demented enough to create a weapon like this?"
• "Just a second - 'Police are concerned that the knife could fall in to the wrong hands'.
  "Surely this thing is deadly whoever happens to be holding it! Why on earth is it even legal to build something like this?"
• "This is just terrible, what is their problem? Why can they not just be normal!"

My guess is that most of the people writing comments like this live in a paved and patrolled area.

As to "why is it ... legal to build something like this," there are places on Earth where large things with sharp teeth try, and sometimes succeed, in converting a person to kibble. The Wasp Knife could save someone's life, and is small enough to fit into an emergency pack.

Why Bother Posting About the Wasp Knife and British "Knife Crimes?"

There seem to be at least two ways of looking at this bit of technology:

1. Calmly - As a practical concern for law enforcement
2. Anything but calmly -
   • By people who are terrified of the scary knives
   • By people who are disturbingly eager to use the things

I'm in the first camp, and want to get some facts together, in one place, that may help others make rational decisions.

I will admit to a bias. I come from an area that's mostly agricultural, and have been aware of potentially dangerous technologies all my life. I know that it's not a good idea to step in an operating grain auger, or grab an electric fence.

That may be why I'm cautious, but not terrified, of things like bang sticks, cattle prods, and mousetraps. Both are, used properly, useful - and might save a human life.

I still run into people who think that particular devices, like cattle prods, are evil by themselves. I don't agree - but I'm more inclined to look at who is using a technology, than the device itself.

Two more points, then I'll stop:

• I posted about the funny side of dangerous technologies last year: "Tale of a Man and a Pocket Taser" (November 23, 2007)
• Words of wisdom: The only dangerous component in any piece of equipment is a daft operator.

---

Update (July 18, 2008)

What a coincidence. I post this, then:

"Bear bites camper sleeping inside tent; authorities close 2 campgrounds near Yellowstone park"
Minneapolis Star-Tribune (July 18, 2008)

"...The camper suffered bite and claw marks on his arms while protecting himself. His name and age weren't disclosed. Authorities said he was taken to West Park Hospital in Cody, Wyo., which refused to release any information...."

Don't worry too much about that poor bear. "...The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks will decide how to deal with the bear. In previous cases, problem bears have been relocated to more remote areas."

Boeing Building Laser Gunship: No, Really

A megawatt laser with a four-inch-diameter beam that can cut through metal at a range of nine miles. Science fiction when I was growing up, a Boeing Integrated Defense Systems project today.

• Fox News: "Boeing Testing Another Powerful Airborne Laser"
• Boeing: "Boeing Installs High-Energy Laser on Laser Gunship Aircraft"
• Boeing: "Missile Defense Systems / Airborne Laser Backgrounder"
• GlobalSecurity.org: "Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL)"