r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • Jun 05 '23
While in Canada the "father of radar" was reportedly caught speeding by a police officer using a radar-gun No text on images/gifs
[removed]
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u/UncleHec Jun 05 '23
Basically the same regret that Oppenheimer had.
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u/supercyberlurker Jun 05 '23
Now I am become speed racer, Destroyer of slow roads.
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u/FriesWithThat Jun 05 '23
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of arguing your way out of speeding tickets.
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u/FriesWithThat Jun 05 '23
He was approached by a representative from the Air Ministry of Britain and asked if he could create a ‘Death Ray’ using radio waves. A device that could, apparently, kill at long range and bring aircraft crashing down from the sky with a single pulse. The creation of a Death Ray had been (unsuccessfully) attempted by none other than Nikola Tesla, and Germany had falsely claimed to have already built one in 1933. However, at the time it was impossible* and Watt rightly dismissed the idea as a fantasy. He did, however, begin to consider how to use radar technology to detect enemy aircraft at long range.
*at the time?
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u/NoMoreOldCrutches Jun 05 '23
There are now military laser weapons that can swat drones and missiles out of the sky (though I don't think any have actually been deployed in combat). No reason they couldn't be used on planes. I guess that's as close to a "death ray" as anyone could want.
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u/matzan Jun 06 '23 edited Jun 06 '23
You just need strong enough power source, and with batteries getting smaller and denser... Star Wars.
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u/SecondAccount404 Jun 06 '23
The British are developing a laser weapon called Dragonfire, which with a name like that really doew sounds like its just a few iterations of something called the Death Star.
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u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Jun 06 '23
It still do, but it used to, too.
Edit: never mind apparently there’s death rays now
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u/BigNasty94 Jun 05 '23
Haaa that’s a great statement. Wonder if he got off
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Jun 06 '23
I mean Canadians are polite and all but we won’t give you a handy without at least dinner first.
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u/NoMoreOldCrutches Jun 05 '23
Pity Sir Robert Watson-Watt,
strange target of this radar plot
And thus, with others I can mention,
the victim of his own invention.
His magical all-seeing eye
enabled cloud-bound planes to fly
but now by some ironic twist
it spots the speeding motorist
and bites, no doubt with legal wit,
the hand that once created it.
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u/PimpLordAlphaZulu Jun 06 '23
There once was a man named watt
Who incured all the trouble he brought
When by ironic twist, all the trouble he wished
On others, to himself. What a thought.
(Yours is much better, inspirational even)
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u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Jun 06 '23
Wow. Slow clap; that was awesome.
I’m really impressed. You’re great at this.
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Jun 05 '23
Lol is it true? Because winning the ww2 was not a bad thing to do.
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u/ActualMis Jun 06 '23
I have a simple rule. Every "fact" given without sources or citations is bullshit.
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u/10strip Jun 06 '23
New tech will first be used to kill or subjugate populations, then it might trickle down to practical or fun things.
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u/asciiaardvark Jun 05 '23
[Citation Needed]
"reportedly said" - reported by who? This sounds like BS an AI would invent if you asked for an interesting fact.
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u/dispo030 Jun 06 '23
Nothing beats a driver's entitlement to break the rules and endanger bystanders.
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u/ActualMis Jun 06 '23
The people in this thread agreeing with the post are like, "Sure, millions of people will die, but I don't want to get a speeding ticket."
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u/Colonelfudgenustard Jun 06 '23
He had one of those smug bastard comments ready to go. "I invented radar, you know! You owe your very job to me!"
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u/ActualMis Jun 06 '23
"I'd have let millions of people die if I had known I'd get a speeding ticket."
Sounds like a real asshole thing to say. Of course it's likely bullshit.
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