March 31-April 6, 2005

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That's No Moon

For all you punks who get your kicks burning bugs with a magnifying glass, you'd better hope karma doesn't throw the solar death ray your way. We're talking the power of 112 tiny suns, son.

Created by University of Washington graduate student Louis Giersch, the solar death ray is a contraption that focuses 112 mirrors at a target area measuring about 4 inches across. The resulting effect, he estimates, heats objects to at least 450 degrees Fahrenheit. When he's not studying aerospace engineering, he takes suggestions for stuff to scorch and chronicles the photographic results on the Web site www.solardeathray.com. Judging from the 200,000 hits last week, people love to see random things get torched, and when the sun shines in Seattle, Giersch provides their fix, continually adding to a target gallery that ranges from a seared cell phone to a roasted rubber ducky. The death ray doesn't discriminate in its destruction. Thankfully, Giersch does, stating his refusal to burn "puppies or goldfish or anything like that." But that doesn't mean the SDR doesn't make him feel like a star. When asked if he still shows off the apparatus at backyard barbeques, he says, "No, but the parties are starting to come to the solar death ray." Now that's just hot.

—Nick Norlen