![]() Thus it seems the lasers we have today would be capable of doing many of the things we see in Star Wars. But researchers say the laser could just as easily have melted it. MlRACL purposely did not destroy the satellite, since the test was designed merely to show that the laser could target and hit the satellite. ![]() In a 1998 test, MlRACL, a 2.2-megawatt laser, was able to hit a satellite in Earth orbit. A series of pulses can drill through hard materials like titanium or diamond.Ī megawatt laser can burn a hole through a jet up to six miles away-though it needs to maintain contact with the aircraft for one to two seconds. The amplified light of lasers can also be very powerful. Lasers can produce a steady beam for long periods, or they can produce a very intense beam in short pulses, occurring thousands or millions of times per second. While a laser is basically just light, it is light that can be focused onto a precise spot and can have high, extremely concentrated power. The Death Star's planet-destroying weapon is said in the Star Wars Encyclopedia to be a super-laser. Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the 1999 book The Science of Star Wars by Jeanne Cavelos. ![]()
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![]() Perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day comes a story about “second chances.” This week, Relativity Media will release Safe Haven, which details the story of a mysterious young woman (Julianne Hough) who arrives in Southport, North Carolina to find respite from her dark, elusive past. ![]() There is a familiarity to his books and films that draws readers in, yet each is unique and different. Romantic novels were always my favorite reads, so when I discovered author Nicholas Sparks, I immediately found myself drawn into the stories.relating to the characters he dreams up. My mother often told me that she hoped I would write a book someday, and I hope to be inspired this year to begin. ![]() High School allowed me the opportunity to begin exploring the creative writer within me, but it wasn’t until I started college that I realized how much I truly enjoyed it. and my passion for books was only matched by my love for writing. ![]() My mother used to tease me about my need to read a book anywhere and everywhere…at the grocery store, in the car, etc. ![]() Love can sometimes achieve the impossible – Nicholas Sparks, Safe HavenĪs a little girl, you’d often find me immersed in the latest tween novel sensation (I might have read the ENTIRE Sweet Valley High book series at least twice over the course of my childhood). ![]() ![]() ![]() Garfield survived the attack, but become the object of bitter, behind-the-scenes struggles for power-over his administration, over the nation's future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. ![]() ![]() But four months after Garfield's inauguration in 1881, he was shot in the back by a deranged office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, a renowned congressman, and a reluctant presidential candidate who took on the nation's corrupt political establishment. James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. The extraordinary account of James Garfield's rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy, from the bestselling author of The River of Doubt. ![]() ![]() ![]() Many characters in the Roy Grace books turn to Grace as a kind of shining light in their time of darkness. ![]() This explanation gives a very helpful insight into the mind of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a new kind of detective who is going through turmoil in his own life, as well as trying to prevent it from happening in the lives of others. His own personal losses and experiences, including the disappearance of his wife Sandy years before the novels began, leave him open to a variety of methods of police work and allow him to better find the truth about mysteries that he investigates, as well as assisting him in discovering the secrets about what happened to his wife. Author Peter James explains on his official website that Roy Grace is a different and new type of detective. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The small-town doctor is well-educated, of course, and as a lifelong resident, he has the good general practicioner's eye for detail and tolerant understanding of human behavior, along with an intimate knowledge of the residents, geography, and history of the city of Santa Mira, California, population 3,890. Miles Bennell is the perfect character to deliver this story. Point of view, style, and setting here work together to make the unbelievable seem completely possible. Jack Finney's 1955 The Body Snatchers is an exquisitely terrifying story of alien invasion which, despite the basics of its plot having become cultural tropes in the succeeding decades, remains as suspenseful as the day it was released. In any event, below is the review I posted at Goodreads: I gaped when, after finally having captured a cop ’s service revolver, the protagonist ends up throwing it away because he cannot carry it inconspicuously -Come on, Doc, no jackets in 1955.? Really, though, every sidestep and piece of self-doubt made perfect sense, and it simply set us up all the better for the time when the baddies trot out the fuller explanations. ![]() I frowned at their attempted rationalizations of the unbelievable things they had seen. I cringed whenever the main characters ventured out of each other ’s sight. Some time ago at The Reading Place in Charlotte, Michigan, I picked up a nice 1963 Dell reprint of Jack Finney ’s The Body Snatchers -no “invasion of” in the original title, apparently. ![]() ![]() ![]() Democracy in Chains names its true architect-the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan-and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority.In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elite’s power in the wake of Brown v. But billionaires did not launch this movement a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. Behind today’s headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. ![]() ![]() With what looks like a historic murder on his hands and the State Police happy to settle for the simplest answer Nate starts investigating and finds himself soon dealing with threats as someone obviously doesn't want him snooping in to what happened up on the mountain. When a dead body is discovered in the mountains it turns out to be Meg's father who disappeared 15 years earlier. Fortunately he he finds an ally, in fact more than an ally, in the flirtatious Meg (LeAnn Rimes), the town's pilot. ![]() And Nate soon realises that not everyone wanted him for the job especially as several locals also applied the position. ![]() ![]() After his partner is killed, whilst attending a crime, former Baltimore detective Nate Burns ( Eddie Cibrian - The Cave) moves to the Alaskan town of Lunacy to take up position as their new Chief of Police. ![]() ![]() I've read some reviews that thought it was hilarious but I was bored by it. Wallace the Brave sort of reminded me of a Charlie Brown comic but didn't strike me as funny at all. He's best friends with Spud, a kid with anxiety, and has made friends with new girl Amelia. Wallace loves playing pinball and enjoys reading comics, his mother has recently discovered her very own comic addiction, his father is a fisherman and is fairly laid back, and his little brother Sterling is a weirdo with a unibrow. He attends school at Moonstone Elementary where his teacher is Mrs MacIntosh. Wallace lives with his mother, father and little brother in Snug Harbour. Wallace the Brave takes us through a year in the life of Wallace, his family and friends from one summer school holiday to the next. ![]() ![]() ![]() Moore’s books are so well written, it didn’t make a difference. Having read the second book first, it only enhanced my understanding of the characters and plot situations when reading the first book and I didn’t feel as if I was backpeddling at all. I was annoyed with myself that I had to read the story out of sequence, but I was quite surprised. I truly enjoyed ‘You Suck’ and then I realized…”Bloodsucking Fiends” came before it. I approved and added the book to my library collection. I opened the book to skim its pages, as I usually do when book buying, to get a feel for the writing style. Perusing the local bookstore a year or so ago, I happened upon “You Suck” and was drawn to the open mouth, fang happy mouth graphic on the cover and the title, of course, which caused me to smile. His characters are comical and fun as they are dark and intriguing. Christopher Moore does not pen the typical vampire story. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Will, while never having forgotten his love for Julie, has fallen in love and is living with Sheila Rogers. On her deathbed, Will's mother tells both Will and his father that Ken is alive. Because of the amount of Ken's blood discovered at the scene of the killing, Will and his parents have always thought that Ken had died. The reason for this is that Will Klein's brother, Ken, was, eleven years previous to the beginning of the tale, accused of raping and murdering Will's former girlfriend Julie Miller. The author has made his protagonist a director of the institution albeit one who is kept away from the public gaze when it comes to fundraising and similar events. ![]() Coben's acknowledgments, it is obvious that he admires the work Covenant House does. This story is told against a backdrop of the fate of homeless kids in New York and Covenant House, a body that attempts to rescue those children from their lives of prostitution, drugs and all round general crime and utter despair. Coben's other novels - Darkest Fear, The Final Detail, One False Move, Back Spin, Fade Away, Drop Shot, Deal Breaker and Tell No One include a series featuring Myron Bolitar but Gone For Good, like Tell No One before it, is a stand alone adventure. With Gone For Good he has produced yet another of his mazes made words to mystify and delude his fans. By very definition, then, he must know what mystery readers enjoy. Harlan Coben has won the Edgar Award, the Shamus Award and the Anthony Award. ![]() |