This week we learned that two upstate New York patriots have very active imaginations and maybe don’t like Muslims so much. Amateur mad scientists Glendon Scott Crawford and Eric J. Feight have been arrested for conspiring to build an actual remote-controlled, radioactive death ray that would fit inside a van and could be used to silently sicken, terrorize, and kill one’s enemies, for example Muslims (reverse terrorism?) What is most striking about this story to yr Wonkette is not that anyone would try to fund the construction of a death ray by shopping around the idea to both a synagogue (for to kill Muslims, duh) AND the KKK (they’re equal opportunity nutjobs), nor even that two dudes would try to build a death ray in the first place.
The problem with this idea is that it can be made to succeed; not by marginal isolated nutjobs, but I'm sure that DARPA has a serious effort underway somewhere to produce a deadly directed-energy weapon for battlefield use, and maybe political/military assassinations too. The highly collimated beam of microwaves produced by a MASER is an obvious candidate device. Remember that Reagan's 'Star Wars' initiative to destroy ballistic missiles rising into space wasn't derailed because such a directed-energy technology couldn't be produced, but because too many fraudulent targets could be generated by the missile launching source.
"No, we are most interested in how two people with engineering backgrounds [...] would actually waste so much of their time and effort on trying to do something that the laws of physics say you pretty much cannot do."
Well, you did note that Crawford worked for GE, so there's a big chunk of your answer right there. They smoke some really weird shit in the Electric City.
Plus 15 years of neglect have allowed most of my physics training to evaporate. I couldn't even find a Sturm Liouville eigenbasis any more, let alone solve a Feynman path integral.
It wasn't a deep tissue damage ray, it was a death ray supposed to achieve its end result "within days". Also, even with optics because of diffraction you simply cannot achieve a perfectly collimated beam and it's still an inverse square law, you've just applied a constant factor, unless you have an actual X-ray laser (which still self-diffracts, btw, but that's not important at this kind of range)
<blockquote>The central difficulty in building a working version of the alleged device is the nature of how radiation works. The intensity of radiation diminishes rapidly as you move away from the source &mdash; it&rsquo;s an inverse-square relationship between intensity and distance. </blockquote>
Actually, since this was a radiation death ray, it&#039;s worse than that. It&#039;s inverse square <em>in vacuo</em>, but with air in the way it&#039;s inverse square times exponential decay. The decay factor depends on the exact type of radiation - they were engineers so I presume it was gamma, because alpha wouldn&#039;t have made it out the end of the device and beta wouldn&#039;t have made it out of the van the device was going to be concealed in, but even so, to quote Napoleon Dynamite: &quot;Freakin&#039; idiot!&quot;
Then I revise my earlier statement. This was clearly NOT terrorism.
It is just a sad case of two men who have suffered and been persecuted too long by an intrusive and deceptive government. While what they did is inexcusable, it is certainly understandable, in light of the years of cruel oppression they have been forced to endure.
The sad truth is that cases like these are easily preventable by simply kow-towing to the wishes of even the most extreme fringe groups on the right.
(This is my FOX news demo. Whatchoo guys think, have I got a shot?)
My immense powers of logical deduction clearly show that this is not a case of reverse-terrorism. Just your run-of-the-mill Democratic Racist Terrorism. Alinksyism for those from the old school, Obamaism for those from the new.
The problem with this idea is that it can be made to succeed; not by marginal isolated nutjobs, but I&#039;m sure that DARPA has a serious effort underway somewhere to produce a deadly directed-energy weapon for battlefield use, and maybe political/military assassinations too. The highly collimated beam of microwaves produced by a MASER is an obvious candidate device. Remember that Reagan&#039;s &#039;Star Wars&#039; initiative to destroy ballistic missiles rising into space wasn&#039;t derailed because such a directed-energy technology couldn&#039;t be produced, but because too many fraudulent targets could be generated by the missile launching source.
&quot;No, we are most interested in how two people with engineering backgrounds [...] would actually waste so much of their time and effort on trying to do something that the laws of physics say you pretty much cannot do.&quot;
Well, you did note that Crawford worked for GE, so there&#039;s a big chunk of your answer right there. They smoke some really weird shit in the Electric City.
Phasers on stun.
He was killed by a Chevy?
I know that there feller on that there disc cover thingy!
Steve Irwin didn&#039;t believe in Death Rays either.
Not tonight, I have a headache.
Plus 15 years of neglect have allowed most of my physics training to evaporate. I couldn&#039;t even find a Sturm Liouville eigenbasis any more, let alone solve a Feynman path integral.
They needed the super awesome vapor death ray to eliminate threats to their freedumb.
Gotta be better than Sugar Ray.
It wasn&#039;t a deep tissue damage ray, it was a death ray supposed to achieve its end result &quot;within days&quot;. Also, even with optics because of diffraction you simply cannot achieve a perfectly collimated beam and it&#039;s still an inverse square law, you&#039;ve just applied a constant factor, unless you have an actual X-ray laser (which still self-diffracts, btw, but that&#039;s not important at this kind of range)
<blockquote>The central difficulty in building a working version of the alleged device is the nature of how radiation works. The intensity of radiation diminishes rapidly as you move away from the source &mdash; it&rsquo;s an inverse-square relationship between intensity and distance. </blockquote>
Actually, since this was a radiation death ray, it&#039;s worse than that. It&#039;s inverse square <em>in vacuo</em>, but with air in the way it&#039;s inverse square times exponential decay. The decay factor depends on the exact type of radiation - they were engineers so I presume it was gamma, because alpha wouldn&#039;t have made it out the end of the device and beta wouldn&#039;t have made it out of the van the device was going to be concealed in, but even so, to quote Napoleon Dynamite: &quot;Freakin&#039; idiot!&quot;
I see your inverse cube law and raise you an exponential decay from absorption.
When death rays are outlawed, only criminals will have death rays.
Second Amendment remedies come in all wavelengths.
I&#039;m withholding judgment until I hear from NDRA CEO Wayne LaPee&#039;er.
Then I revise my earlier statement. This was clearly NOT terrorism.
It is just a sad case of two men who have suffered and been persecuted too long by an intrusive and deceptive government. While what they did is inexcusable, it is certainly understandable, in light of the years of cruel oppression they have been forced to endure.
The sad truth is that cases like these are easily preventable by simply kow-towing to the wishes of even the most extreme fringe groups on the right.
(This is my FOX news demo. Whatchoo guys think, have I got a shot?)
Yes. A Liberal take on 1984, wherein they are the heroes.
NSA - the new Takers.
They shopped the idea to the KKK.
The KKK was founded by Democrats.
Therefore, these guys were Democrats.
My immense powers of logical deduction clearly show that this is not a case of reverse-terrorism. Just your run-of-the-mill Democratic Racist Terrorism. Alinksyism for those from the old school, Obamaism for those from the new.