>

How about use this to harness the energy and store it? Free energy
Aren't lighting rods less expensive? >

Right, for protecting high value structures like launch pads, airports. Once off the ground planes & rockets are designed to handle lightning strikes themselves. Not to replace lighting rods for our homes.  
Neighbor's house had roof work done - workers stripped out & stole the copper lightning protection.  House was struck in the next storm, caught fire, several thousands in damages...  Thanks, Ben Franklin! >

What a cunt, I hope that worker gets arrested for murder >

No murder, just theft / property damage, could've been much worse.   Srsly though if you're having contractor work done -- monitor your stuff, minimize opportunity theft.  Had home water damage, dozens of random workers in & out over months.  Sometime later realized my VERY OLD but trusty extension ladder is gone.  Annoying...  :-/ >

To be fair, there is a non-zero chance someone on the crew thought that was their ladder and threw it back on the truck at the end of the day. With different crews, day laborers, etc, stuff really does get mixed up sometimes. >

Thx, I do appreciate giving some benefit of doubt; I appreciate the positive professional work that was done & don't leap to blame working people.
In this case the work was all interior, no use for an extension ladder, ladder distinctively lacked the pull-up rope.   Pros should label / scribe their tools anyhow to be clear. >

laser guided smiting >

I'm picturing special ops priests using their child-predator drone to designate targets to be smote. >

You mean drones to find the kids and smite the parents? More orphans for the church to groom >

I like the implication is mitigating lighting strikes to protect infrastructure when there is a good chance its just going to be used to kill people overseas >

I'd be cool with execution by laser lightning >

In the classic RTS game Total Annihliation, this is what I remember as the backstory for the ARM Rebellion's Zeus tier 2 unit.  But it's been so long that I'm having trouble finding a reference to cite. >

Imagine being able to trigger a lightning strike, and guide it into a battery for storage. 1.21 Gigawatts directly into the grid. >

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 83%. (I'm a bot)


Paris - Scientists said Monday they have used a laser beam to guide lightning for the first time, hoping the technique will help protect against deadly bolts - and one day maybe even trigger them.
Now, in a study published in the journal Nature Photonics, they describe using a laser beam - shot from the top of a Swiss mountain - to guide a lightning bolt for more than 50 metres.
"We wanted to give the first demonstration that the laser can have an influence on lightning - and it is simplest to guide it," said Aurelien Houard, a physicist at the applied optics laboratory of the ENSTA Paris institute and the study's lead author.


Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: lightning^#1 laser^#2 Scientists^#3 beam^#4 Houard^#5 >

It says they've been trying for 20 years, but this sounds familiar. Maybe I read about their early attempts. I also read about many of the Navy's attempts and building beam weapons, I may be conflating this with that. The Navy,  as I recall, was attempting to fire an ionizing laser across the electrode of a massive capacitor bank in an attempt to direct the discharge at a target.  Not sure if that ever panned out either but they tried.