Christ this was soooooooooo retarded I just had to dredge up this thread and post it.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/09/terrorist.laser.ap/index.html
Does it get any worse then this?
Why is this “retarded?”
This is something that ought to be ignored?
I think it’s about as unlikely as it gets. Should we guard against the terrorists repainting the center stripe on the runway 15 feet to the left? Why the planes might land in a ditch!
<Dr. Evil>
All I’m asking for is some terrorists with freaking lasers attached to their heads!
</Dr. Evil>:
No, but they might paint it in a curve leading into the airport.
Hmmm, the way I see it, many terrorists, along with innocent Muslims and Arabs have lost their lives.
Us Americans have lost our freedom and our respect from the world.
The only people that have really won anything are fat-cats like the Bush admin. I mean, that thar Duhbyuh has him a gal-darned man date!
Isn’t it clear yet? Tom Clancy is the biggest threat to the US. Flying planes into buildings? That was his. Using lasers to cause plane crashes? That was his also, hell it may have even been the same book as the planes into buildings thing. All his books need to be banned effective today.
And isn’t it just the strangest coincidence that when you go into the airport gift shops, the book section is stuffed floor to ceiling with Tom Clancy book? Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Me too, except for the fact that it’s apparently already being done by someone. I frankly doubt terrorists, but the FBI is just covering their bases; that’s their job.
As anyone in law enforcement will tell you, these sorts of “be aware of” memos go out all the time. Some are mundane, some make the cops roll their eyes. AP picked this one simply because “lasers” sounds scary.
This is so fucking silly. All you have to do is look for the guy toting around a friggen dolphin.
As an amateur (and I do mean amateur) astronomer, I know that laser pointers are used as a quick and dirty way for someone to help others point their binoculars and telescopes to certain fields of view without resorting to RA and Dec coordinates since some of us are "Push To"s (i.e.- hand assisted slewing) and don’t use "Go To"s (i.e.-computer assisted slewing). It can be very possible that nearby pilots might misconstrue this use of lasers as an “attack”, although they are certainly not. I’m not too sure about how easy it would be to view the shaft of light from a laser that’s a couple miles away from the pilot, but I imagine it would be tough for the pilot to judge the distance of the shaft of light from him/her.
Also, wouldn’t the fricken’ terrorists with laser beams attached to their heads have to be on the runway themselves to point their lasers directly at the pilots since their(pilot’s) eyes will be on the runway itself and not around the periphery? Huh?
Don’t you go trying to inject an air of reality into this discussion. We’d all rather be paranoid nutbags who fear everything than healthy-thinking adults who could quite obviously rule this crap out.
Sam
Let’s see. We’ve got some unspecifed intelligence that bad guys might seek to use laser beams. Nothing more than that. But then again, the FBI reported nothing more than that. We’ve got a couple of documented instances of pilots receiving eye damage from ground-based lasers, but not proof that the instances are terrorism-related. But then again, the FBI reported nothing more than that. And we’ve got the advice that if you find yourself piloting an airplane and being blinded by a laser, look away from the light.
Yeah, that adds up to a real fucking threat by the government to our basic liberties. I feel repressed already now that our nation’s airline pilots have been cautioned not to stare at any lasers they might encounter and law enforcement has been warned to watch out for evidence that the threat might turn out to be real. Surely they’ll be coming after me next.
Shit some of you people are annoying assholes.
Wolf!
Yes, some of you are.
Manny, no one mentioned this particular laser nonsense being a threat to our civil liberties. Warnings like this and their ilk worry me in two different ways. First that the morons are thinking this shit up are the ones “protecting” our asses. Second, that we’re wasting resouces, time and money on these “silly” threats when we should be focusing on actual threats.
Shine a laser light in a pilots eyes, jesus christ that’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard of.
Say, manhattan, do you still have your home covered in plastic wrap and duct tape?
What, you mean you don’t?
Not really. From 1998:
I see no reason to bring my sex life into this.
