Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg, and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced in 2016, a $100 million initiative called Breakthrough Starshot. Chief engineer and former Director of Engineering, NASA Ames Research Center, Peter Klupar noted on November 1, 2018, at the Economist Space Summit, a 100-gigawatt laser “beamer” would be powerful enough to “ignite an entire city in minutes” if it were reflected off a mirror in space and back to Earth. Vaporizing cities is not the goal of Starshot, of course, says Peter Klupar
100-gigawatt laser powerful enough to ignite and vaporize an entire city. – Business Insider
Never watch wildfires like these
California burning: ‘I’ve never seen a fire move so fast in my entire life’ – WP
Wildfire in California is so hot it’s creating its own weather system – CNN
California Firefighters Say They’ve ‘Never Seen’ a Blaze So Extreme – AP
Firefighters battling inferno ‘have never seen anything like this’ – LAT
“This is an extremely dangerous and exceptional event that has few parallels in U.S. history,” said Dr. Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground. – WC
A proposed Congressional Bill mentions targeting populations with space-based laser weapons– Library of Congress
Physicists are planning to build lasers so powerful they could rip apart empty space – SM
2006: Lasers, high-powered microwaves and particle beams almost ready for space warfare – NBC
Ericson Report 