Directed Energy Weapons

submitted by FThumbStay thirsty, my friends from self.WayOfTheBern

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[–]Promyka5When in the course of human events... 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (18 children)

Here's a video from a short while back that I had to search to find, which I think is pertinent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHeoaIh7cx8

Again, mundane fires just don't burn this way.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (17 children)

Years ago I lost a Porsche to an engine fire. When the flames reached the gas tank, it didn't explode (because the tank was full), but it did turn the car into a ball of fire so intense you couldn't see the car through the flames. Burned this way for 15-20 minutes, with a fire crew standing by waiting for the fuel to be exhausted. The tires exploded, but the rims remained intact. The front hood, at the center of the fire-ball, was cut with giant fire-crew sheers so they could douse the tank and smoking wreckage. Meaning, even in that intense, sustained heat, no metal parts anywhere melted and had to be cut away.

In the linked video, entire vehicles, to the rims, had melted. That's not a normal fire.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (16 children)

Years ago I lost a Porsche to an engine fire.

The way the conversation is going, I have to ask....
How windy was it during the Porsche fire?

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (15 children)

There was a wind from behind, and the rear bumper looked untouched, but it also likely fed the fire that engulfed the rest.

Which is why I discounted the images of half burned cars. What remains suspicious are homes reduced to ash while the trees surrounding them retained their needles and small branches. Or the blue umbrellas fully intact next to the charred remains of the building. Or the intact and unmarked wood landing adjacent to the burned shell of the mobile home.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

What remains suspicious are homes reduced to ash while the trees surrounding them retained their needles and small branches. Or the blue umbrellas fully intact next to the charred remains of the building. Or the intact and unmarked wood landing adjacent to the burned shell of the mobile home.

With enough wind in enough different directions, and with enough data available to pick and choose specific fire weirdnesses...
It's not really that suspicious. After almost any major hurricane, reporters will go and find that one weird thing the hurricane did or didn't do.

Demolished doublewide no longer attached to untouched deck? Check. Demolished deck no longer attached to untouched doublewide? Check.

How much of that stuff didn't happen?

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

There was a wind from behind, and the rear bumper looked untouched, but it also likely fed the fire that engulfed the rest.

Do you think that a gale force wind would have made it much worse?

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Do you think that a gale force wind would have made it much worse?

It should have helped the fire spread to the Banyan tree.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The way I've heard this, the winds were not all going the same direction all the time.
Eddies could have happened. Eddies of fire, and eddies of not-fire.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Maybe a wind eddy surrounded the Banyan tree, but it still seems odd that none of its small branches or leaves, or the ground detritus, ever caught fire.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

it still seems odd

In a large enough sample size, you're gonna find some odd in there somewhere.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

A million monkeys have entered the chat.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

What remains suspicious are homes reduced to ash while the trees surrounding them retained their needles and small branches

Fire and wind combined does weird things, but it does not usually do that. There's usually a path. Most likely, either someone torched their own home for the insurance money and the fire didn't get there, or you saw selective footage that did not show how the fire got to the home in question. The fire could have gone in one slim finger to the house, torched it and stopped. Then the film shows a 350 degree angle around the house of unburned trees.

Huge wildfires have done stranger things. Such as embers reaching a house from above and creating a firenado.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Now look at the massive Banyan tree in the video. Structures on all three sides reduced to ashes, as well as boats in the harbor across from it. That's 360 degrees of intense fire surrounding a massive block sized tree that didn't burn, with park benches and ground detritus around it that also didn't burn.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Now look at the massive Banyan tree in the video....That's 360 degrees of intense fire...

Wait... what happened to the house? Was there not a 360 degree shot of lack of fire damage around it?

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I thought there was an image that showed the structures on all three sides of the Banyan tree reduced to ash, as well as the boats in the harbor in front of it. That's all four sides around it, and it wasn't burnt.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Try it this way: Suppose you have magic powers to control what the wind does, let's call it AirBending.
But only during intense fires.

Could you, through control of the air in a fire, make these effects happen?

Could you swirl a swath of cooler air around a favorite Banyan tree to save it while all around it burns? Yes.
Could you make it so that one quadrant of a car just melts but the opposite corner is still like new? Yes.
Could you make this stack of tires erupt in flame while another stack three feet away doesn't? Yes.

All that you could theoretically do through magic control of the winds, Wind and Fire is capable of doing, at least once.

Could you make a single nail in a tree burn part of a tree at point of contact, without harming the rest of the tree? Don't think so.
[Edit: you could, if you had some other metal attached to the nail that you could heat up instead of heating the nail directly.]
Could you, shown a pile of identical-looking tires, make only the ones containing steel belts burn? Don't think so either.

If that kind of thing happened, I would suggest focusing on those things that Wind And Fire in combination cannot do.
If you could do it through AirBending, it's possible that Wind and Fire in combination really did it.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Could you, shown a pile of identical-looking tires, make only the ones containing steel belts burn? Don't think so either.

Microwaves could do this.

[–]NetweaselContinuing the struggle 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

And if you have evidence of things that microwaves can do, but fire and wind cannot, go with that.

Adding in things that wind and fire can do just muddies your evidence. Like the nails. I had hopes for the nails.
Fire and wind would have a tough time getting a single unconnected nail hot enough to char wood without the fire and wind charring the wood at the same time.

But when you add in metal fencing connecting the nails, you've just built a wood burning kit for the fire to play with.
Remember wood burning kits? Basically a soldering iron to burn your initials into a plank with? You get metal hot enough and you can char wood with it.

[–]FThumbStay thirsty, my friends[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But when you add in metal fencing connecting the nails

In the video image it appeared there was a wood rail on the ground, not metal fencing. And four nails in a box pattern where the wood rails were attached.