http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/starwars/ en-us Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:37:18 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404399/posts It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for... Air and Space Smithsonian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404399/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:37:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404398/posts It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for... Air and Space Smithsonian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2404398/posts#comment Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:37:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403548/posts It sounds like something from a James Bond movie: a massive satellite, the largest ever launched, equipped with a powerful laser to take out the American anti-missile shield in advance of a Soviet first strike. It was real, though—or at least the plan was. In fact, when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev walked out of the October 1986 summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, because President Ronald Reagan wouldn't abandon his Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, the Soviets were closer to fielding a space-based weapon than the United States was. Less than a year later, as the world continued to criticize Reagan for... Air and Space Smithsonian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2403548/posts#comment Wed, 9 Dec 2009 09:42:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397918/posts This is a very funny video of a girl who has never seen Star Wars, explaining the plot as best she can. Youtube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2397918/posts#comment Tue, 1 Dec 2009 21:37:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369104/posts Scouting for a location to film a lavish new "Star Wars" live-action television series, filmmaker George Lucas says the Czech Republic probably won't get his business. A few years ago, it might have, thanks to a well-established reputation as a low-cost, high-quality Central European film production haven. But now neighboring countries, particularly Hungary, are offering superior tax incentives along with workers of comparable quality. "As a producer, I will always go to the country that has the best crew coupled with the most tax incentives," Mr. Lucas said in an interview conducted via email. Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2369104/posts#comment Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:10:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2360078/posts I'm such a nerd, I just got tickets to go see the Star Wars Concert, I couldn't help it I saw preview of it on PBS and it will be here next month. I hope it is cool. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2360078/posts#comment Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:20:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2348922/posts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eknuqWQ4-Mw Youtube http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2348922/posts#comment Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:50:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2347303/posts Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the "Star Wars" film saga, fans gather for Star Wars Celebration IV at the L.A. Convention Center downtown. Jasper Manning, 2, assumes the character of Yoda in the company of his father, Chad Manning. (Mel Melcon / LAT) The Force is weak in this one.... First we have Muslims crying foul when not allowed to "cover up"; and now this?! Unbelievable: Tesco has been accused of religious discrimination after the company ordered the founder of a Jedi religion to remove his hood or leave a branch of the supermarket in north Wales. Daniel Jones, founder... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2347303/posts#comment Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:45:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2342671/posts Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after midnight I was informed in a telephone call by President Barack Obama that (his) administration had decided to pull out from the planned missile defense shield installations" in the Czech Republic and Poland, the... Investor's Business Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2342671/posts#comment Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:50:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145217/posts Defense: A ballistic missile launched from Alaska is shot down by an interceptor launched from California. With threats from North Korea to Iran, it's time to ignore the skeptics and fully fund missile defense.It was the most realistic and most successful missile defense test ever in a Strategic Defense Initiative that could one day save an American city from a rogue missile strike. Yet the "yeah, but" media greeted this triumph with claims the concept is still unproven. It was as if the Wright brothers had announced man's first flight, only to be greeted with cries that they hadn't built... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2145217/posts#comment Tue, 9 Dec 2008 01:08:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2344596/posts Vicenza, Italy. President Obama’s decision to cancel our European ground-based missile defense system will prove to be very costly and his public rationale -- changed intelligence and improved technologies -- is far from the whole truth. This is a geopolitical disaster and risks our security as well. Last year, President Bush said “Iran is pursuing technology that could be used to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles of increasing range that could deliver them.” His administration successfully negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic to install a ground-based anti-missile defense system in those countries to counter the accelerating Iranian threat. Humanevents.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2344596/posts#comment Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:11:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2320042/posts Defense: The Air Force airborne laser program successfully completes a simulated kill from a plane able to find, track and destroy a live ballistic missile. We can shoot down enemy missiles. Instead, we're shooting down the laser program.The Aug. 10 effort was the third such test — sort of like a sniper sighting the target with the red dot of a laser without actually pulling the trigger. In early June, the airborne laser (ABL) program engaged two un-instrumented missiles. This was the first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile. A modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2320042/posts#comment Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:43:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343330/posts Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2343330/posts#comment Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:56:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096477/posts Strategic Defense: A new report says the United States must develop robust missile and space defenses to counter China. If you think the current economic crisis is something, imagine the effects of a nuke over Iowa.Imagine a world in which you can't get money from your bank or can't get a loan. You can't get money from your ATM even if it's within walking distance. You can't drive to one because your car won't work. No, it's not what would happen if the Congress doesn't pass a bailout bill. This is a small snapshot of what would happen if a... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2096477/posts#comment Fri, 3 Oct 2008 10:09:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2342444/posts Strategic Defense: With Iran on the verge of a deliverable nuke, the administration tells our allies in the dead of night that we will scuttle missile defense plans in Eastern Europe to please the Russians.Czechs are used to betrayal by their Western allies. It was at Munich in 1938 that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sealed their doom in exchange for a piece of paper promising "peace in our time." The fact that this further gutting of missile defense came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on Sept. 17, 1939, is an eerie coincidence. "Just after... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2342444/posts#comment Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:25:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2187970/posts National Security: The proposed missile defense system for Europe may be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Russia. Is Ronald Reagan's "We win, they lose" now "Let's make a deal"?When President Reagan began the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, the only ones who took it seriously were the Soviets. Their global ambitions depended on an America inhibited and even intimidated by the threat of nuclear war. They still do. Just ask Georgia. When Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev met Reagan in Reykjavik, Iceland, in October 1986, he hoped Reagan would be willing to trade SDI away in exchange for... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2187970/posts#comment Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:45:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213082/posts Alliances: The U.S. has expressed a willingness to barter away missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Now the Polish foreign minister says he hopes his country doesn't regret trusting the United States.The Brussels Forum is a privately organized high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic. One of the pressing issues discussed at this year's conference was whether the U.S. is serious about bartering away plans for missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic in exchange for... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2213082/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:53:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309200/posts SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2309200/posts#comment Thu, 6 Aug 2009 00:30:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2342102/posts News comes on the 70th Anniversary of Soviet Invasion of Poland in WWII!Remember all Obama's talk during last year's presidential campaign about improving our relations with other nations? Well, today, President Obama gave a huge slap in the face to Poland and the Czech Republic, two allies who went out on a limb to support U.S. plans for a missile defense shield needed ever more so in an era when Iran and North Korea are threatening the world with these dangerous weapons.The move is a transparent bid to appease Russia, which continues to refuse every plea that it help us... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2342102/posts#comment Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:15:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2328165/posts RUMOR MILL (as of yet unconfirmed since the report has not been made public yet): Per Investor's Business Daily Friday, there's a report going around that the O'admin has decided to renege on building a missile defense system in Europe to protect Poland and the Czech Republic. If it's true, Obama has... once more... indicated to our allies that Obama's "remade America" is there not to protect them, but to betray them. The U.S. has abandoned plans to install a missile defense system in Europe, according to a report. If true, this is a major strategic error that will have... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2328165/posts#comment Sun, 30 Aug 2009 22:16:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2326188/posts WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2009 – Boosted by a few strong years of testing successes, much of the United States’ missile defense technology that once was questioned is now ready to be fielded. The destroyer USS Hopper launches a standard missile 3 as it operates in the Pacific Ocean on July 30, 2009. The missile successfully intercepted a sub-scale, short-range ballistic missile launched from the Kauai Test Facility at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii. The launch was the latest Missile Defense Agency test in conjunction with the Navy. U.S. Navy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.... American Forces Press Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2326188/posts#comment Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:38:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2321756/posts A test-firing of a high-energy laser beam aboard a modified Boeing 747 has been called a success, the Missile Defense Agency said. A team from Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin conducted the Airborne Laser (ABL) test Tuesday over the California High Desert. The laser was fired into an onboard calorimeter, which captured the beam and measured its power. The test is preparation for an upcoming demonstration in which the laser will be fired through a nose-mounted turret on the aircraft toward the target. In a test Aug. 10, a low-power laser beam hit an instrument-equipped missile. "This test shows... Huntsville Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2321756/posts#comment Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:37:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320683/posts John Scalzi's Guide to the Most Epic FAILs in Star Wars Design I'll come right out and say it: Star Wars has a badly-designed universe; so poorly-designed, in fact, that one can say that a significant goal of all those Star Wars novels is to rationalize and mitigate the bad design choices of the movies. Need examples? Here's ten. R2-D2 Sure, he's cute, but the flaws in his design are obvious the first time he approaches anything but the shallowest of stairs. Also: He has jets, a periscope, a taser and oil canisters to make enforcer droids fall about in... AMC TV http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2320683/posts#comment Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:07:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224498/posts Defense: Overlooked in the defense budget cuts is the decimation of missile defense systems. As North Korea tested an ICBM, our defense secretary was scrapping a system that could have destroyed it with a single shot.We will miss the F-22 Raptor, perhaps the only plane that could evade the sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system Russia is selling to Iran. Russia's S-300 system is "one of the most lethal, if not the most lethal, all-altitude area defense" systems, according to the International Strategy and Assessment Service, a Virginia-based think tank. But the aircraft we and the nation will miss the... IBD Editorials http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2224498/posts#comment Wed, 8 Apr 2009 01:10:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2316530/posts EDWARDS AFB, CA - The Boeing Company and the US Missile Defense Agency successfully completed the Airborne Laser's (ABL) first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile, achieving a historic milestone.During the test, the modified Boeing 747-400F used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicolas Island, Calif. The battle management system aboard ABL issued engagement and target location instructions to the beam control/fire control system, which acquired the target and fired its two solid-state illuminator lasers to track the target and measure atmospheric conditions.ABL then fired a surrogate high-energy laser at the target, simulating a... Boeing Missile Defense Systems http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2316530/posts#comment Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:46:14 GMT