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From: james@reality1.UUCP (james)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Recent explanation of distant "FTL" gas jets in Science News
Message-ID: <56@reality1.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 26-Oct-86 20:21:20 EST
Article-I.D.: reality1.56
Posted: Sun Oct 26 20:21:20 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 27-Oct-86 20:08:03 EST
References: <662@dg_rtp.UUCP>
Reply-To: james@reality1.UUCP (james)
Organization: Reality Computer Systems, Austin TX
Lines: 15

How about an effect with something like a lighthouse?  Have a bright beam
rotating very, very fast, with a long flat screen a fair distance from the
lighthouse.  If the lighthouse rotates the beam fast enough, the spot on
the screen moves faster than light.  You could achieve any speed you wanted
this way.  Nothing material is moving that fast, and there is no threat
to that precious causallity.  Yet the abstract concept of the "spot" clearly
can move faster than light.  If you had a hard time telling the difference
between a "spot" and a real object which looked like a spot...

I thought that the above was pretty much the conclusion as to what these
FTL objects were.  I don't know what could act as a screen here or what
could be used as a lighthouse, but such an answer seems somewhat more likely
than something actually moving FTL.
-- 
James R. Van Artsdalen    ...!ut-ngp!utastro!osi3b2!james    "Live Free or Die"