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Captain Seafort wrote:Really? How else would you interpret that statement in the absence of running the numbers to realise that the required dwell time is far too long for an operational system? Even if you're being charitable, the tone of the article is that the next step is to go from prototype to operational model, rather than scaling up the proof of concept rig to something that can get the job done in a reasonable time (which I'd guesstimate as at 100+ kW). This is certainly an important step forward, but no more than that, and certainly not enough of one to say that anti-vehicle lasers are "here".

How else would I interpret it? As an interest-building tagline which only propagates the meat of the story, which is as I said an authorial technique taught at least as early as fourth grade here. I guess I got it right, because not once during my reading of any article relating to this story did I think, "Oh, hey, this must be almost ready for production!"

EDIT: OK, I see what the problem is here. Sorry, my choice of title for the thread was just a pithy joke relating to Peter Cushing's line about the status of the Deat Star in Star Wars: A New Hope, rather than a statement of fact about the status of Lockheed's design. I didn't mean to state that the Lockheed model was ready for operational deployment, I just thought that with the Sci-Fi bent of most of our members here, the joke would have been more obvious.

Mikey wrote:How else would I interpret it? As an interest-building tagline which only propagates the meat of the story, which is as I said an authorial technique taught at least as early as fourth grade here.

Taglines generally come at the start of an article, not the end - if that statement had been at the start I would indeed have dismissed it as hyperbole. The fact that it comes at the end means that it serves as a conclusion, and therefore means that the author either a) doesn't know what they're talking about or b) is deliberately trying to mislead their readership. If they wanted to have an attention-grabbing one-liner that bears some relation to the facts "laser weapons just got a big step closer" would have been far more appropriate".

I guess I got it right, because not once during my reading of any article relating to this story did I think, "Oh, hey, this must be almost ready for production!"

That's probably because you've got enough background knowledge of the subject to read between the lines. The wording of both the article and the conclusion is structured to lead those without such knowledge to the conclusion that this is close to being a deployable system.

EDIT: OK, I see what the problem is here. Sorry, my choice of title for the thread was just a pithy joke relating to Peter Cushing's line about the status of the Deat Star in Star Wars: A New Hope, rather than a statement of fact about the status of Lockheed's design. I didn't mean to state that the Lockheed model was ready for operational deployment, I just thought that with the Sci-Fi bent of most of our members here, the joke would have been more obvious.

My issue isn't with your title, my issue is with the way you're defending shitty writing.

Seems that your issue is with your ability to understand the written word.

Seems like a good point to grab popcorn...

Speaking of shots fired...

sunnyside wrote:Speaking of shots fired...

Hmm... The pun is borderline Internet win worthy.

Judges?

McAvoy wrote:

sunnyside wrote:Speaking of shots fired...

Hmm... The pun is borderline interest win worthy.

Judges?

*Confers* I say... yes. It IS worthy.