Zap

I will freely admit I think a vast majority of my tax money goes to things that are either constitutionally suspect, generally worthless, or overpriced. However, if the government is going to spend my money on things, I expect results.

I'd say a megawatt class laser destroying a ballistic missile during boost in under 2 minutes qualifies. Besides, it's a megawatt class laser. That's cool in and of itself. For purposes of comparison, the little laser pointers everyone uses to annoy cats are in the milliwatt range. The laser they used on Thursday is a billion times more powerful. I'd like to think Ted Maiman would be impressed.

If that's not enough 'splodey goodness for the morning, somebody went and built himself a gauss pistol. (Thanks Tam!) A little unwieldy and a lot underpowered, but technology proceeds apace. I have confidence that someday we'll get the power density high enough for a smaller and more effective version. We may be building a dystopian nightmare after all, but we'll have some cool guns to enforce and/or revolt against the system.