It's official - U.S. Navy depoying ship with LaWS (Laser Weapon System) energy weapon this summer!

...and in other news..........the US remains the last developed country without universal healthcare!   hehe 

Did she just say "honor"?

"Ponce"?

Perhaps a dictionary might help when they're choosing names....;p

That they have money for...but health care? Education? Feeding poor folks? There's an s-load of more important stuff than lasers as weapons (unless used as weapons against disease).

Yeah I remember seeing an interview with Bill Gates a while ago where he reaffirmed his dedication to helping eradicate disease.  The disease currently his focus was Malaria, and not to miss the irony I believe he was mentioning some sort of laser-system used to 'shoot' the infected mosquitoes down. 

At least they didn't put it on the USS Gigolo.

I do have to admit I like the sound of this from the link:

"While the Navy will still depend on missiles and guns to defend against bigger targets, the LaWS system is designed to cost about a dollar a shot without the fuss and muss of the depleted uranium bullets spewed by the Navy’s Phalanx Close-In Weapons System (CIWS)."

Just trying to find the upside of my tiny little piece of my shiny new laser.

I've see it demostrated on a youtube video..all thirty seconds worth. Didn't do much except take out a ballistic misslie. Thing is the weapon has to focus on the target for a period of time, the test I saw lasted more than ten seconds. Could be they improved on it.

"Stop moving around please, I'm trying to burn a hole through your hull."

You'll shoot somebody's eye out with that thing....

...meh, it can probably be defeated by a guy in a rowboat with a roll of aluminum foil.

Truer than you think Wiz. Reflective surfaces can deflect an incoming beam but they have to be oriented just right.

Yup, thought the same thing when I saw the 'name'.... but as with a lot of other English words, not to mention spellings, the Yanks have probably changed the meaning.  It probably means 'oh mighty ship of men, filled with tons of shit to blow other shit up', or words to that effect.

Yeah, don't it just make you want to sit down and cry... that billions can be spent on weapons to take life, but not for things to save and/or improve life.  Trouble is, while you've got a bunch of politicians who go to work each day with a war mentality, nothing's going to change for the better.

Yes, the USa could be such a shining example of implementing the dream.  I remember singing, in grammar school, so many songs that touched on this theme.   It actually convinced me, for a time, that USa really wanted that dream to become reality.   G.d Bless America, America the Beautiful.  I especially remember the line I thought, for many years, was a guide in American politics: "Thine alabaster cites gleam, undimmed by human tears."  We were so close, back in the 60's to winning the war on poverty, and focusing on exploration.  Humanities were not a discipline looked down upon because it did so little to equip college students for careers in business.  Yes, the war machine has always been there.  But, it once coexisted well with the American dream.  Now the war machine is consuming it all.  No real money left for human needs, fulfillment, etc.  The dream is becoming, for many people, a nightmare.  They are destroying the "US" in USa.

Yes the singing of those 'patriotic' songs in schools was indoctrination... pre-conditioning kids to toe the line and not question 'patriotic' thinking as adults.  So glad I didn't have to put up with that sort of crap when I was in school during the 60's... I hated being told how to think even as a kid.

The same thing is happening here in Australia, but for different reasons. The great Australian dream of owning one's family home is all but a fairy tale for most... unless both parents work 12 hours a day while their kids are in care facilities or left to their own devices, as is too often the case and juvenile crime spirals out of control. We have heartless bankers, greedy real estate agents AND politicians to thank for this, as housing property values also spiral out of control.