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I remember about 10, maybe 15 years ago all the rage were those laser pointers where you could actually use them to ignite a fire (instead of just using them to play with your cat or annoy an airline pilot or whatever). You could start a fire from a far away location with these things. I kind've expected to hear dozens of news stories about neighbors who hated each other setting each other's homes on fire, or pyromaniacs setting people's suits on fire at the park, but nothing really happened with them. What gives? Did they just ban them and that was that? If that's all it took, why don't they just do that with guns in America? How did these little tools of the devil not take over society like I expected them to?
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Feb 4, 2020 05:39
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The easily accessible ones can burn stuff like paper and matches, but not at instant contact. Also lasers aren't a constant-width beam of light: they focus to a point and past that point the beam starts to scatter so they can't actually set poo poo on fire all that far away. Even if the focus is super far away the atmosphere scatters the laser so it loses power over distance, and tiny movements from the hand holding the laser pointer are amplified with distance so the long time focus it takes on an object to light it on fire is extremely impractical to actually do beyond much more than like 30 or 40 feet. Also I'll get up on my soapbox and say please don't play with your cat/dog/whatever with lasers. You can easily blind them permanently. Resting Lich Face fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 05:44
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i used them all the time in C&C generals
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Feb 4, 2020 05:45
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IIRC there are real laser rifles and stuff but they're just way less effective at harming things than bullets or things that go boom
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Feb 4, 2020 05:48
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i only point them at police helicopters OP
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Feb 4, 2020 05:52
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Chinatown posted:i only point them at police helicopters OP pew pew praxisbeams
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Feb 4, 2020 05:54
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They're not quite illegal in the US, but they're a huge liability so nobody wants to sell them. They permanently blind you something like an order of magnitude faster than the human blink reflex is executed. Just looking at the dot on a wall will damage your eyes. Shooting them up into the night sky and blinding a pilot will get you jail time. Mix this level of danger with the fact that they look like cool light sabers and you can probably imagine how often idiots hurt themselves or others, or end up going to jail due to their misuse. That said, I love lasers and I own a few of these. The first one I bought was from Wicked Lasers, before they got spooked out of selling their handheld units, but they were totally overpriced anyway. There are tons of Chinese sellers but only a couple are trustworthy. https://www.sanwulasers.com/ is probably the most reputable. As for why they didn't take over society, I've actually found over the years that most people don't really give a gently caress about lasers. The typical response is "oh, that's kinda cool" until I tell them that it cost $250 and then they're like "ok so why did you buy it?" They're awesome for stargazing because you can point at something in the sky and everyone can see exactly what you're pointing at, but there's hardly any practical use other than I guess starting campfires in the nerdiest way possible. Devils Affricate fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 05:56
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Devils Affricate posted:They're not quite illegal in the US, but they're a huge liability so nobody wants to sell them. They permanently blind you something like an order of magnitude faster than the human blink reflex is executed. Just looking at the dot on a wall will damage your eyes. Shooting them up into the night sky and blinding a pilot will get you jail time. Mix this level of danger with the fact that they look like cool light sabers and you can probably imagine how often idiots hurt themselves or others, or end up going to jail due to their misuse. Wow I'd be scared shitless of accidentally blinding myself like a dorky dipshit if i had one around then 😳
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Feb 4, 2020 06:29
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Spinz posted:Wow I'd be scared shitless of accidentally blinding myself like a dorky dipshit if i had one around then sigh *removes goggles, sheathes class 4 laser into dedicated class 4 laser sheath* The Light is both a blessing and a dangerous curse For real though, they're very cool toys but unless I have the thing in my hand the batteries are removed, and every time I let someone else use them we have a serious informational talk. Devils Affricate fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 08:21
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Is the pointing at helicopters/planes legality issue only if you’re pointing directly at the aircraft? What if you decide to point really near the aircraft and track it but never have the beam actually touch it? Also what if you set up a beam pointing into the sky, leave it, and then a plane happens to fly in the the path of the unattended beam?
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Feb 4, 2020 08:36
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 I think you answered your own question there, champ.
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Feb 4, 2020 08:46
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PTSDeedly Do posted:Is the pointing at helicopters/planes legality issue only if you’re pointing directly at the aircraft? What if you decide to point really near the aircraft and track it but never have the beam actually touch it? Also what if you set up a beam pointing into the sky, leave it, and then a plane happens to fly in the the path of the unattended beam? Try it and find out.
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Feb 4, 2020 08:47
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PTSDeedly Do posted:Is the pointing at helicopters/planes legality issue only if you’re pointing directly at the aircraft? What if you decide to point really near the aircraft and track it but never have the beam actually touch it? Also what if you set up a beam pointing into the sky, leave it, and then a plane happens to fly in the the path of the unattended beam? Basically any time an authorized Sky Man says "ahh my eyes, a laser!" to the Ground Authorities they will set out to find you and gently caress you up, and just guess what sort of thing pinpoints your location no better than a bright beam of coherent light shined at a flying machine chock full of sensory and recording equipment
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Feb 4, 2020 08:58
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Resting Lich Face posted:Also I'll get up on my soapbox and say please don't play with your cat/dog/whatever with lasers. You can easily blind them permanently.
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Feb 4, 2020 11:31
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On a related note, what happened to hydrogen cells cars?
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Feb 4, 2020 12:39
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Devils Affricate posted:BTW this is dumb advice. The little toy lasers that people typically use to entertain their cats are rated at <5mW, which is a tiny amount of power; basically just enough to project a faint dot on a bright surface. If it were flashed in your eyes (or your pet's eyes) there would be no permanent damage at all. Even prolonged exposure would only cause temporary loss of sight at worst. Note how these things are commonly given away to children as arcade prizes. What about a 5MW laser?
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Feb 4, 2020 12:43
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https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro let me introduce you to styropyro op, where he bought a one million watt laser on ebay or overclocked a plasma globe to a million watts
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Feb 4, 2020 12:44
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I used to work with an irascible old dude who got fed up with the police helicopters over his trailer park. He decided to "defend his rights" by firing a laser at a pilot. The newspaper clipping-with mugshot-was hilarious and we hung it up on the wall of our warehouse.
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Feb 4, 2020 12:53
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Mnoba posted:https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro i was 100% sure he either killed himself or blinded himself after his 4 month upload gap, dudes insane
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Feb 4, 2020 13:09
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Any laser rated over 5 mW is illegal as gently caress here OP, which makes it a huge pain in the rear end to do holography. Technically most high power laser pointers are useless for that anyway, especially the green ones, as while they claim to be coherent, they actually aren't very. But some cheap red laser pointers can have coherence lengths of several meters even without stabilizing circuitry. Also you gotta watch out with the green pointers. They are produced by shooting an infrared laser through a frequency-doubling crystal, but the infrared laser also comes out on the other side. They are supposed to filter it out, but sometimes they just don't bother or do a poo poo job at it, and the cheap safety goggles they send may not block infrared light at all. Not only is getting hit in the eye with infrared laser light just as bad as any other color, the IR beam may even have more power than the green beam. So if you're buying some cheap poo poo from a random place, absolutely do not trust it until you or someone can measure the actual wavelengths and power it outputs. And under no circumstances wear sunglasses or welding goggles as protection you will go blind!!! With that said there is no way low power laser pointers will make you go blind even if you shine them directly in your eyeballs (but don't do this anyway) and you can mystify your pets with them all you like.
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Feb 4, 2020 13:37
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Mnoba posted:https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro this dude owns
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Feb 4, 2020 13:44
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You can get them from ebay/aliexpress, though the last one I ordered didn't make it through so maybe the customs are actually doing something.Fallows posted:What about a 5MW laser? Hey, just what you see, pal. mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 14:03
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Mnoba posted:https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro what the gently caress
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Feb 4, 2020 14:32
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Devils Affricate posted:They're not quite illegal in the US, but they're a huge liability so nobody wants to sell them. They permanently blind you something like an order of magnitude faster than the human blink reflex is executed. Just looking at the dot on a wall will damage your eyes Are they really that damaging? I would expect to see IR lasers used as terror weapons if it was that easy to blind people with them
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Feb 4, 2020 15:07
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When I was working with lasers they had us remove all metal jewelry because the light can refract and blind you. It can do permanent damage faster than you can blink. Now imagine hanging out in your living room, pointing a beam all over the place. You’re going to hit a reflective surface or trace it across your roommate’s face or drop it and shoot yourself in the eye
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Feb 4, 2020 15:07
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Flavahbeast posted:Are they really that damaging? I would expect to see IR lasers used as terror weapons if it was that easy to blind people with them Yup! Well, protesters anyway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICHLz7B6IDo
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Feb 4, 2020 15:12
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Flavahbeast posted:Are they really that damaging? I would expect to see IR lasers used as terror weapons if it was that easy to blind people with them Terrorists are in general extremely goddamn stupid, but also it's not like you can shine it in someone's general direction and hope to blind them you'd have to actually hit them in the eye. Diffuse reflections (e.g. from a laser dot on wall) can damage your eyes but you have to be pretty close to the dot as it quickly decreases in power as you get further away.
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Feb 4, 2020 15:31
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What's the most powerful laser. Is there a 5 GW laser?
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Feb 4, 2020 15:37
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central dogma posted:What's the most powerful laser. Is there a 5 GW laser? The lasers used for fusion research are in the petawatt range, but these are pulsed lasers firing for only a few picoseconds, so the actual energy delivered is not as high as it sounds.
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Feb 4, 2020 15:46
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Devils Affricate posted:BTW this is dumb advice. The little toy lasers that people typically use to entertain their cats are rated at <5mW, which is a tiny amount of power; basically just enough to project a faint dot on a bright surface. If it were flashed in your eyes (or your pet's eyes) there would be no permanent damage at all. Even prolonged exposure would only cause temporary loss of sight at worst. Note how these things are commonly given away to children as arcade prizes. My understanding was that the danger to pets is people who pick up a toy laser pointer for nothing off a rack somewhere and it's a cheap off-spec alibaba crap that omits the IR filter. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 16:55
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Mooey Cow posted:The lasers used for fusion research are in the petawatt range, but these are pulsed lasers firing for only a few picoseconds, so the actual energy delivered is not as high as it sounds. They are also massive arrays of many lasers put together and take up a whole building.
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Feb 4, 2020 17:16
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I was getting ads on facebook last month for a handheld laser and it showed the thing being used to casually cut wood and light paper on fire.
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Feb 4, 2020 17:18
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The Dregs posted:Yup! Well, protesters anyway. This owns
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Feb 4, 2020 17:44
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Bolter > Lasgun, that's why.
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Feb 4, 2020 18:19
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Mnoba posted:https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro Please don't dox my boyfriend
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Feb 4, 2020 18:36
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Quotey posted:what the gently caress These fusion research lasers sound pretty cool though. itry fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 4, 2020 |
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Feb 4, 2020 19:32
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Jay_Zombie posted:Bolter > Lasgun, that's why. 
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Feb 4, 2020 20:00
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Colonel Cancer posted:This owns It really seems like something out of some dystopian Gibson novel.
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Feb 4, 2020 20:03
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I’m pretty sure the US military has a prototype 747 with a giant laser inside it. Yes they did... Boeing YAL-1 A shame it was scrapped in 2014. 
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Feb 4, 2020 20:20
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ever since i became aware of rust-removing lasers i havent cared about any other kind
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Feb 4, 2020 20:34
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