Reagan's Star Wars initiative spawned handy tech gadgets

Reagan's Star Wars initiative spawned handy tech gadgets
Someday, Ronald Reagan's technology legacy might trickle down to everyday life, maybe by creating a way to remove back hair at the atomic level with one blast from a home X-ray laser. Zzzzzt!

But, so far, that hasn't happened. The civilian legacy of Reagan's major technology program — the Strategic Defense Initiative, otherwise known as Star Wars — is pretty esoteric. Still, SDI-inspired technology can help fight cancer and keep your kids from seeing naked Paris Hilton photos on the Web, which is something.

SDI technology has a long way to go to match the stuff that evolved out of the Apollo space program. Apollo was amazing. The nation spent $24 billion in the 1960s — $124 billion in today's dollars — to put a man on the moon at a time when all of NASA had less computing power than a single Apple iMac. Aside from space bragging rights, out of that we got important advancements for humanity, such as golf grips and stadium roofs.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2004-06-08-star-wars-initiative_x.htm

made such tech mainstream.

Also, illegal gambling payoffs uncovered and shut down... more expected