More bad press for HH Lasers

[paul1598419]

Yeah, I only said it was possible. I have not been to Cairo, so I don't have that experience to fall back on. If you say it is real, Ben, I'll take your word for it. It doesn't seem that it was hurting the laser pointer hobby any as they were all done in celebration.

 

[Benm]

Well, it's part of Arabic culture as well, to us it may seem a bit strange to pointer lasers a pilots that are our friends and even throwing out new little flags from the helicopters.

In these video's you also see some fireworks that go pretty far up in the air with helicopters fly over very low - apparently also without any damage though that could be more luck that wisdom (imagine a jet turbine ingesting a pyro shell, jeez).

Then again, those lasers will not impress these people. In Cairo it's not common, but in more rural areas it's custom to fire automatic weapons in the air when celebrating weddings and such. Obviously those bullets come down and can (and do) harm people so this isn't done in major cities, but in small villages where everyone is essentially attending the celebrations it's still quite common.

 

[paul1598419]

Firing automatic weapons into the air puts many rounds that will come down somewhere. And with a velocity that may approach muzzle velocity. I can imagine people do get hurt from these practices, but there is little that anyone from the west could say to stop it.

 

[paul1598419]

If that is truly the case, Chris, you might want to be careful what you eat or drink while you're there. I know that the pyramids and sphinx is a huge tourist trap and you'd think that they would have clean food and water, but you never know. There are diseases in the middle east and Africa that you would never see in Alaska. I would also wear deet based insect repellent too.

 

[paul1598419]

Good. Your food and water should be fine. It would be a shame to be there and not get to go see those sights. I would be very disappointed if I was there but didn't get to go.