Lasers on the news

[hakzaw1]

great input all.

I am just guessing but.. except for pilots who are already pretty pissed off about lasers on aircraft.... just ONE flash may not & should not be seen as intentional lasing..

That depends upon the mind set of the pilot- IIRC the FAA only now requires incident reports on INTENTIONAL lasing-- son shooting beams around your yard etc should be something we can still do and enjoy w/o fear of arrest--HOWEVER the nervous nellies quick to call 911 for alomst anything anybody likes to do-- I would worry more about them thasn pilots. I know many and they are not all that fearful-(or laser 'haters') as fixed wing the danger is landing and take-off only at night-

if you read about all those arrests at laserpointersafety.com you will see that many caught were lasing helis and if thats not stoopid enough- medi vac and police choppers and sometimes both-- one was life-flighting an injured child and a 'couple' lased them(a lot)- the 'po po' was alerted and when on scene they lit them up too- She got 6 months he got a lot more--

so be pro-active - i share my lasers and safe/sane use with all I can.. young and old- sometimes its shocking how niave some are- a little like guns- if you learn the safe way with a BB gun asa a youngster - then on to more dangerous weapons (like hunting)hopefully you will do the riight thing later in life. We should not assume everyone is up to date with todays lasers as most are still thinking red cat toy laser 1 mW.

Forbidden fruit and stolen watermelons are the sweetest-

with so many handguns going to school --laser must seem pretty tame in comparison.

here in TX just this week several toddlers were killed by parent's handguns VERY sad.

lock up guns and all lasers >1 mW
end rant

 

[hakzaw1]

I myself am keenly interested in this subject and the possibility of such craft visiting the earth,

'they' called and said you need to put your location in your profile if you still want to be picked up.

 

[kotootl]

On the topic of UFOs and extraterrestrial life. I think a civilization that has developed the ability to confidently and consistently travel vast intergalactic distances would have the technology to easily filter any type of electro-magnetic radiation from entering their craft. Additionally it also stands to reason that such an advanced race would also be able to easily monitor Earth from great distances precluding the need to send craft into NEO or intra-atmosphere.

 

[Teej]

A few thoughts:

1) The odds of an alien craft making it through the intergalactic space, but being disabled by a laser pointer is probably small enough to not consider.

2) The odds of said craft reporting the laser shot to our authorities is also significantly unlikely.

3) The odds of you seeing an alien craft, and, hitting it with a laser pointer, combined with the odds of that being a problem AND them reporting it to our authorities, is MUCH smaller than the odds of the unidentified craft being earth-based albeit unidentified, by you.

4) If you've seen pics of the natives in remote tribes throwing spears at helicopters, etc, I'm pretty sure that's what even our best weapons would be viewed as by a civilization that could visit us. IE: The odds of this advanced civilization not considering that they could be attacked, and making appropriate plans/measures, seems unlikely.

If we did find that for some bizarre reason, advanced craft capable of traversing the galaxies could be downed with simple hand held laser pointers...fine, if they prove hostile, we are better prepared than we would have thought.








For privately owned drones, etc...I think it would be akin to throwing a rock at someone's kite. If that kite was in a space that could be considered yours, as in infringing upon it, the change in conditions would then also be expected to be proportional.

The gov has already said THEY can take out drones around certain areas, such as nuc power plants, etc, for security purposes.

If a filming drone is in a space that a person with a camera could also legally be and take your pic, etc...the "invasion of privacy" aspect would be nil. If you had a high fence and the drone is hovering over your pool, I think you'd have a case though, and so forth.

If you damage the drone hovering over your pool, that's where things get sticky...but, that gets back to the rock thrown at the kite issue.

 

[Alaskan]

I hope you understand I was being a bit tongue in cheek regarding the alien complaint possibilities, LOL, I guess I deserve getting the same back. In all seriousness though, I wouldn't worry one moment about flashing a extraterrestrial craft, as rare as such an occurrence would be, I've only seen two or three my entire life of near 60 years, but a "UFO", you are more likely to be flashing a airplane, jet or helicopter and risking much if they complain and you can be found. As a "UFO" you don't know what it is and odds are, it isn't a flying saucer unless distinctly identified for characteristics none of our aircraft can have and even then, you could make a wrong judgment call, risky business. If someone wants to play UFO hunter I think a lower powered IR laser would be much safer at a great distance than visible light, likely benign and no one, unless they happened to have a camera which could pick it up, would know. Maybe not even the "UFO", but my guess is they likely have some kind of advanced Star Trek sensors on board which could pick up a wide range of wavelengths - Sorry for my humor, I couldn't resist.

Regarding the damage to someone else's property or a drone, if in public spaces, I can see that as a problem, but if hovering around your house and snooping, I just don't see it that way. Of course, someone can take you to court when you are in the right and due to the cost of defending yourself, still a problem. Police do this all of the time to get at individuals they otherwise would legally have no ground to stand upon as far as a conviction, but with charges filed and on record, even if dropped, and the cost of legal representation, you are punished anyway, even if no wrong doing occurred.