OT Death Ray?

[harryagain]

Sounds a bit fishy to me.

[Brian Gaff]

I have not actually read this, but my idea of a death ray involved adaptive optics as telescopes use to see stars without the twinkle. That works by an artificial guide star being projected into the high atmosphere, and the correction for that is used on the star. With a high power weapon, you need the same system, such as a pulsed low power beam to be used to see the target through the heated air in between as a guide for the adaptive optics on the powerful beam. Pulsing will also use the shock wave action to help penetrate any target. The problem I see here is making an adaptive optic system fast enough and strong enough to survive the high power beam. Brian

[GB]

USS Ponce? Surely not? It's utterly unlikely. Next you'll be telling me they let the Village People make a video on board.

[Davey]

[Nightjar]

Named for a city in Puerto Rico.

[Vir Campestris]

I was a bit thrown when I found out that the standard term for a Number Used Once in cryptography is a Nonce...

We are "separated by a common language" (Shaw)

Andy

[Mike Barnes]

Similarly linguists have "nonce words" which are words coined for only one occasion.

[Huge]

On 2014-12-11, Nightjar

[Huge]

N-once.

[john james]

[JimK]

/More likely they're both named after this guy;

/q

NSS

Jim K

[Nightjar]

[Judith]

From a programme about carrier battle groups from US:

"We make a determination if an incoming aircraft is hostile, if we determine he is we use the missiles to unhostile him real quick" .

[Brian Gaff]

I had a very weird dream last night in which a video o was made of YMCA using snails slugs and other small creatures as the village people with little mouths moving and if you have not seen a snail dance... I bet that would go down a storm on You tube. Brian

[Tim Streater]

That's what comes of being named Brian.

[JimK]

/ That's what comes of being named Brian./q

Manners Timothy...

Jim K

[Nightjar]

It is a magic roundabout reference.

[Another John]

[... and pronounced "pon-say", just in case anyone wondered!]

J.

[JimK]

/It is a magic roundabout reference. /q

Er... Yerrss....

Jim K

[Tim Streater]

In article ,