I thought, "Hey, that's pretty cool," and then got to 1:07 in the video.
IT WON'T BURN YOU. Accidentally run it over your hand and you won't feel a thing.
The only real issue here is one of cost; the one kilowatt version we see in the video runs a cool $500,000. But the funny thing is, computers once cost a hell of a lot of money, too--and thirty years ago you couldn't buy a computer that does what my current desktop does for any price, let alone a week's wages at the median income.
Anyone who has ever had to remove rust from something prior to repairing or painting or what-have-you will immediately recognize how much better this method is. And $5 says that it works wonders for freeing up rusty nuts, too, as long as you can zap exposed threads.
You know, when the laser was invented, I don't think the people who did it realized what a technological shmoo it is. It seems as if there's nothing you can't do with a laser. Holy crap.
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And go to 1:10 here:
It cleans the writing and the grid lines off the paper, leaving the paper itself intact. DANG.
...imagine never having to scrape a gasket off again. Two seconds with the right kind of laser. WANT.
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This evening, we went to see Cirque du Soleil's new show Crystal, which was your typical Cirque show of amazing feats and impressive performances...this time, on ice. It was fantastic. I mean, fantastic. Any time I go to one of those shows I sit there dumbfounded with my mouth hanging open, but this show had it in spades. I mean, WOW.
And I can't help but think that Mom would have loved to see that show.