[IP] Jasper Green Lasers: useful tool or terrorist weapon?

[David Farber]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms at computerbytesman.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:46:02 -0500
To: <dave at farber.net>
Subject: Jasper Green Lasers: useful tool or terrorist weapon?

Yikes!  High-powered laser pointers do seem to present a problem to pilots.

Richard

http://www.bigha.com/blog/archives/000058.php?0

>From Saturday, January 1, 2005
Jasper Green Lasers: useful tool or terrorist weapon?
posted by Noah <http://www.bigha.com/meet_us/stories/noah.php> , at 2:52 PM
I'm sure we've all read stories like this one
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/09/terrorist.laser.ap/index.html>  or this
one <http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/1309846.html>  or this one
<http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050101/D87B2G180.html>  in the past week
or so. The theme is consistent: some dorkus is shining a green laser into
moving aircraft and temporarily blinding pilots. Not cool, obviously.

On Thursday I was contacted by the FBI. They were investigating a new
incident even scarier than the ones we've read about. The good news is they
are coming up with ways to track and catch the culprits. The bad news is, we
have reason to believe at least one of the culprits is using a Jasper. Wow.

The theory is this: the dorkuses possibly modified their lasers (this is
easy to do) to increase the power. and accessorizing it with a tripod and a
scope to track and aim at aircraft. Even the unmodified Jasper is plainly
visible at 10,000 feet. At 25,000 feet it is still visible, but it becomes
fainter and obviously much more difficult to aim from the ground. Since
there are so many reflective surfaces in the cockpit, it only takes the beam
landing on one of the cockpit windows for 2-3 seconds before it bounces all
around, and temporarily blinds the pilots.

We have been asked if there are any suspicious persons have purchased from
us, especially in areas like Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio and southern Oregon
where instances have been reported. We are trying to cooperate with the
authorities while at the same time respecting the privacy of our customers.

If you own or are about to purchase a Jasper, please do not point it towards
people or moving objects. It is dangerous. Please do not modify it to
increase the power output. It will void your warranty, harm your laser and
render it largely unuseful for serious pointing.

And if you are amongst the one or two losers amongst thousands of
responsible Jasper users, please be aware that you will soon be caught. The
next time you point your Jasper towards a plane, you will see a police
helicoptor or military aircraft flying around your area. They will see your
beam, which points right back to you. Then they will come to arrest you, and
hopefully put you in jail. Your Jasper will be confiscated, and you will not
be issued a refund.


Commenting is Closed





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