Greg In The Desert

In 2005 I found a cool framed illustration at Goodwill. It was marked for $16 but was on sale for $8. Other than being a “Electron Beam Propagation Experiment” my google searches tell me this is some sort of weapon made at Sandia Labs. The original frame has been replaced since it broke (it was ugly and damaged anyway).

Today someone left a comment with a little more info on Flickr.

Score! I’ve been researching pulsed power experiments at Sandia, and I just stumbled across mention of the RADLAC machine. RADLAC was built for the USAF & the SDIO to evaluate ultra-high-power, pulsed electron beam accelerators as potential “Star Wars” directed energy weapons.

Wanna sell it?

Heck no I don’t want to sell it, it’s one of my favorite pictures.

Autoblog discusses the Ford Ranger from this Forbes article.

Ford sold 75,673 Rangers to Nissan’s 42,229 Frontiers in the first seven months of the year. Forbes brings up the dismal crash test scores and owner satisfaction. What is the explanation for this sales volume? American loyalty for domestic trucks, deep discounts, and the Ranger name are all cited. There are some serious discounts on this truck, even before the Ford Family Plan you could get $3000 in rebates. The Ranger nameplate still has some solid value, and Ford would be wise to heavily revise this vehicle before they totally destroy its goodwill.

I have a 1996 Ford Ranger, so I read these things with interest. The Ranger is a good truck but it’s hardly changed. It would be cool if they came out with a hybrid version.