What the FBI says about the green lasers

[NNN0LHI]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6785297/

FBI shines light on laser's use, dangers

<snip>Experts - from the FBI to those in the laser industry - believe the most recent incidents do not stem from illicit use of powerful military laser weapons or the less powerful lasers used by the entertainment industry, both of which require high power supplies and bulky cooling mediums.

Rather, they think the mischief is being caused by laser pointers that project a green beam of light that have recently been imported from China and Russia. They are increasingly available on the Internet.

The hand-held lasers, powered by batteries, project a green beam that can be 50 times brighter than the more common red-beam pointers and can travel 8,000 to 10,000 feet into the sky.

Although the federal Food and Drug Administration limits the power of laser pointers, there are several Web sites and electronic bulletin boards that explain how laser enthusiasts can easily double the power of the green lasers, which sell for as little as $50 and as much as $600. One company boasts it can increase the power of its green pointer so the beam of light can travel 25,000 feet into the sky. snip

"Some of the hand-held lasers being sold over the Internet are frequency-doubled, and that's kind of scary," said Bill Ertle, president of Rockwell Laser Industries, an Ohiobased company that sells laserrelated products to industry and medical users.

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[purduejake]

1. Yep, and I am sure a ton of people...

buy lasers with tracking devices on them and have a hand stable enough to BURN the retinas of pilots. How ridiculous.

[theycanbiteme]

2. Exactly....

lasers used to "dazzle" aircraft pilots are military-grade lasers and
not mw500 green lasers.
These people should take a friggin clue pill.

[aeolian]

7. Holy shit, dude!

(I assume you meant "500 mw", or "five hundred milliwatts")

Dude, a 500 mw green laser would easily burn your eyes out! Shit, the HeNe greens sold for lab use are only 10 mw, and those hurt when you look at them!

...and there's no such thing as a "military grade" laser.

But beside that quibble, the whole "laser/airplane" thing is fucking stupid.

[theycanbiteme]

16. my bad...5mW

better?

On edit:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/

[aeolian]

19. lol! thanks! :)

http://www.newport.com/store/productmain.aspx?lone=Lasers&lang=1



Go ahead, try and aim one of these lasers at a moving jet. You'll need at least $100,000 worth of extra hardware, including pizeoelectric translation/rotation stages, interferometric-quality front-surfaced mirrors, and a computer tracking system (which involves a damn good radar or long-range video system with software), all mounted on a vibration-compensating optical table. And even if you succeed, all you'll do is put a small dot of light somewhere on the plane.


Yep, sounds like a bunch of stone-age religious zealots from the desert to me.

[tridim]

3. This is such BS

Laser pointers are only a problem when idiots bring them to the movie theater. They're just trying to keep us scared so we'll let them take away more rights.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. This story pisses me off more every time I hear it

In the first place, I don't believe it. How many of you have ever stood on the ground, looked up and saw a jetliner flying overhead? Seems like you would have to have sight of the plane in order to aim at it with anything.

In the second place, how fast do these planes fly? Let's pretend you DO see the plane. Do you really think you can target it and shoot at it while it is going hundreds of miles per hour over your head?

In the third place, let's say you do blind the pilot with this laser. Wouldn't there be a co-pilot to take over flying the plane?

This story is BULLSHIT. It's a diversion. I want to know what else is going on that the media isn't telling us while they throw this ridiculously stupid story at us. Kinda like we are being bombarded with stories about the Gonzales AG nomination this week (which will undoubtedly be approved) while we should be hearing about the electoral vote coming up on Thurs.

I also liked the response posted here a month ago the first time I read about this 'problem' right here on DU. Someone did research and posted statistics about birds and other wildlife actually causing plane crashes. The moral - birds are a worse hazard to airplanes than non-existent lasers.

DUers, rise above these nonsense stories. Be smarter than the media expects you to be. As long as there is an audience for this crap, we will continue to be bombarded with it.

[annabanana]

5. You can tell these stories on corporate media are baloney.....

because they never mention anything about the type or strength or size of the suspect lasers. Plain sense would tell you that those little $9 pocket pointers wouldn't do what is being claimed.

[RC]

6. And this means what?

"Some of the hand-held lasers being sold over the Internet are frequency-doubled,..."

On Edit, I should have added this: ...and that's kind of scary,"

[CatholicEdHead]

8. Wavelength of light

Lasers are just light coming out in a narrow beam. The frequency of the light wave is just increased (or doubled in this case).

[aeolian]

9. color

light is a wave. therefore, it has a frequency.

a frequency-doubled laser uses a special crystal to change the output of the actual laser source from the invisible infra red 1000 nanometers to the vibrant green 500 nanometers. (doubling the frequency is the same as halving the wavelength)

bottom line, it means the color of the light is changed. "frequency-doubled" sounds impressive, but it's irrelevant.

[ET Awful]

11. Thanks, you explained it much more clearly than I did :) n/t

[Jesus H. Christ]

12. Gee, thanks Eisenstein.

Now can you explain what the FBI agent meant about how nowadays you can by lasers over the internet that are frequency doubled?

As in, what kind of bullshit fear mongering is that?

[aeolian]

13. what the fuck?

I answer a question and I get the grade-school "thanks, Einstein" response?

No wonder I haven't been here for months.


What did the agent mean? He was probably as ignorant as 99% of the rest of Americans as to what he was talking about. Probably read it on a staff report and thought it meant something.

What does that sentance mean in the real world? It means that people can buy green laser pointers at Radio Shack in stead of red ones.

[NNN0LHI]

23. Jesus H. Christ likes you aeolian. That is just the way he shows it

We all have our idiosyncrasies around here. But really. He does like you. I can tell. He never called me Einstein. I don't think he likes me too much. B-)

Don

[aeolian]

24. :)

Well, if that's the case, then I owe JHC an apology. :)~

[exploited]

25. Do you still owe that apology??

Before you pay up...
please note he called you Eisenstein, NOT Einstein.

No doubt he was drawing a parallel between your vast knowledge and that of Dr. Gadi Eisentein, Professor of Optoelectronics at the Barbara and Norman Seiden Advanced Optoelectronics Center.
http://www.ee.technion.ac.il/people/gad/

I could now make a reference to the ignorance of '99% of the rest of Americans' but I see you've already done that for yourself.

/end satire

[aeolian]

27. HAHA! Well done!

Well done, indeed!

[ET Awful]

10. That term isn't really out of place

lasers to operate at a set "frequency", and frequency-doubled would be exactly what it sounds like.

[mainer]

14. I SAID these guys with lasers were probably just geeks.

Nice to see that MSNBC agrees with me.
The green laser pointers cost about $150. I bought one for my astronomer husband for Christmas.

[aeolian]

15. your husband

is a very lucky astronomy geek to get such a gift from his wife.

*shows post to girlfriend. hint, hint*

[NNN0LHI]

18. You ain't lying

Took me a month of Sundays to talk my wife into letting me get a new Tactical LED flashlight. The thing is brighter than heck too.

Don

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. Question on military hardware.

Are surface to air missiles laser guided? Are we being set up for an attack on an airliner?

[NNN0LHI]

20. I think most are heat seekers?

A heat seeker you can fire and drop. A laser you would have to stand their until impact painting the object with the beam. There may be some laser guided surface to air missiles but I am not familiar with any.

Don

[RaleighNCDUer]

21. Whew! (I cautiously remove my tinfoil hat).

Thanks.

[aeolian]

22. laser-guided munitions don't need to be tested

they already work just fine. There'd be no need to "dry run" something like that. I'd bet that even a 50-year-old rader-guided missile could hit a commercial airliner.

Besides, they generally use infra-red laser beams, which are invisible to the human eye, to paint the target. And I'm not even sure that there are any laser-guided interceptor missiles. Missiles for fixed targets, sure, but not for moving ones.

So my answer is "no."

[soothsayer]

26. These laser stories are among the stupidest I've seen. I wonder

what the angle is?