Originally enacted after the Civil War to honor the Union soldiers who died while in military service, it was first called Decoration Day.  After the horrors of World War I Decoration Day became Memorial Day, and was broadened to honor any American casualties of every military action and war.  It is a day of flowers on graves and flags.  It is a day of mourning and remembrance.  It is a day of honor and respect for the sacrifices made for our country and our freedom.

Memorial Day

As you flit about from sale to sale today and enjoy that BBQ on your 3 day weekend, remember that.  Remember them.

Men and women died.  For your ancestors.  For you.  Soldiers, now in the grave, defending our country, defending their loved ones, defending democracy, defending freedom.  Remember them.

Well, we all know that the Japanese have a superhumanly strong exoskeleton suit for “gardening”.  But now the American military has something similar!  Lockheed brings to the US military the Human Universal Load Carrier, or HULC.

What is there to say really?  It’s an exosuit.  It quickly folds up for carrying.  You can run forever in it.  You can lift heavy things with it.  It’s the robot-man without fear of androids taking over the earth.  And at least Lockheed isn’t coy enough to try to pass off this great invention as a spade.

I would say “Happy Veterans Day”, but honestly, I’m not sure that happy is the right word for it.  But it is Veterans Day.  A day to honor the brave men and women who served (and those who still serve) in the US military.

Originally it was Armistice Day, and honored only World War I veterans.  But it has been expanded into Veterans Day, and honors all veterans.

And so it is not necessarily a “happy” day.  War is not exactly something full of joy and glee.  But on this day, you can make a veteran happy.  Give them the honor and respect that they deserve.  Give them your support.  Show them that you care.

Some of them may have just been cooks or secretaries who have never even seen a war.  Some of them may have been soldiers who saw things that those who didn’t will probably never fully comprehend.  But regardless of what they did or didn’t do, they all took a moment out of their lives and dedicated themselves to protecting our country.  Not every hero killed fifty men.  Soldiers can’t march on empty stomachs.  And soldiers can’t fire weapons without requisitioned bullets, delivered to where they’re needed.  Everyone who serves in the military serves a higher purpose.  And for this, they all deserve our respect.

So if you can, please, do something to show it.

It sounds cool.  Northrop Grumman, makers of many fine military technologies, has delivered the first production-line quality laser ray gun to the United States Air Force.  A fine achievement indeed.

At first glance anyway.

The Joint High Power Solid State Laser program is intended to one day deliver a 100 kilowatt cannon capable of all sorts of cool things.  Only it has yet to deliver a final end product, as the production of the electricity to power such a laser gun in any sort of mobile platform involves extremely hazardous chemicals.

So insetad of delivering that, we get the Vesta II, a teeny tiny little 15 kW laser. It’s hard to even classify it as a weapon, in that about all it can really do is hurt a lot or maybe, with enough time, explode exposed explosives.  (Say that ten times fast.)

Still, that we’ve got a production-line quality laser “weapon” at all is a huge step forward … I guess.  I mean it’s better than, say, not having any production-line quality ray guns for our military to play with.  I guess it at least allows all sorts of testing and design and consideration to be done.  It’s a step along the way to something cool, even if it’s kind of a letdown itself.

In a time when national financial stability is so questionable though, it could be the wrong time to trumpet any project that fails to deliver bang for the buck.