Al Qaeda is Using New Weapons Against Americans

[Tyrannical]

They point and they are lasers. They are laser pointers. Or do you prefer to call them weapons of mass destruction? I'm sure Saddam had a few laser pointers somewhere....

[Jason]

The lasers that have been causing problems to pilots are more powerful than simple lecturer's laser pointers...

Yep about 5w

I thought 1w was the legal limit? Where do they get these lasers?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

They point and they are lasers. They are laser pointers. Or do you prefer to call them weapons of mass destruction? I'm sure Saddam had a few laser pointers somewhere....

And Nerf guns are the same thing as Schwerer Gustav, ja?

[Jason]

Laser Pointers Are a Very Big Problem for Aircraft, Apparently

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released two videos that together form a cautionary tale about the dangers of sending your laser pointers to the sky.

Apparently, there were 2,836 "laser events" logged with the Federal Aviation Administration. That's nearly double the number of "laser events" from 2009. In the video above, you can see how a person with a laser pointer was tracked down and arrested. Can you imagine what that would be like? Shine a pointer into the sky and minutes later, you're carted off by the cops! In the video below, the FBI tells the story of how it happens and even drags the poor guy who got nailed to the microphone.

There is a real safety issue here, it seems. When you aim a laser pointer very far away, the cone of light it emits grows with distance. So, by the time it reaches a helicopter or plane, it can light up the cockpit and blind the pilots.

WTF? You Americans are getting even more Orwellian and chicken. I've had worse driving on the highway and looking at passing cars. So using a laser pointer now gets the FBI on you and 20 years in prison? Seriously?

And your FBI produced videos are hilarious! I thought they were spoofing something it was so badly made and forced. But anything to scare the American sheep, right?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... ly/245784/

That's really old news, I wonder how it came up again. I saw that video like a year ago. :/

[Gawd]

The lasers that have been causing problems to pilots are more powerful than simple lecturer's laser pointers...

Yep about 5w

I thought 1w was the legal limit? Where do they get these lasers?

My flashlights all do more than 5 watts.

[Seth]

The lasers that have been causing problems to pilots are more powerful than simple lecturer's laser pointers...

Yep about 5w

I thought 1w was the legal limit? Where do they get these lasers?

My flashlights all do more than 5 watts.

Only a moron fails to understand the difference between a flashlight and a laser. It's no fucking joke, it's exactly as the videos pointed out; a serious hazard to pilots and their eyes, and anyone flying with them.

By the way, there is no such thing as a "green laser." It's actually an infrared laser diode 100 to 500 times more powerful than the output beam that's manipulated to create the green light. Red laser diodes do, however, directly emit a red light.