We received the following email in July 2019. It has been slightly edited for clarity and to avoid identifying information.I just read your article on lasers and questions people emailed to you, all…
I just read your article on lasers and questions people emailed to you, all were very interesting.
In reading these it appeared to me most of these questions were based on Directed Energy Weapons - DEW (Microwave) rather than the laser beams per se. (i.e., laser beam in a pilots eyes).
I strongly disagree with you on the Cuban episode. First of all, I found your answer very naive, and I'm not trying to be mean, its just that you haven't done your homework on how those hell bent on hurting others obtain these military weapons! It's called Black Market, the Mexican Cartel (Sinanola or El Chapo) drug organization buy these DEW by the truck load from (hate to say this) crooked defense companies.
In turn these military weapons are given out like Hershey bars to Stalkers (MS-13) the large white van pulls up and delivers them right in your neighborhood purchased by the Cartel. Its big business. I'm assuming the Cuban government more than likely purchased these DEW weapons to threaten and hurt the Americans working in Cuba.
I keep reminding those that don't understand this Mexican Cartel they are extremely organized and extremely rich! They can and do buy anyone and anything! Most people don't even realize they have several submarines. This theory that everyone can get sick if enough people say they're sick, and blah blah blah, is just that, a theory. We're talking about the real world here. Unfortunately, it's the dark side, the hidden side that most don't even realize is out there.
So when these Americans complained about being hit and knocked down, believe them! My advice is do some studying on this weapon, yes its covert, silent and does shoot right thru walls,, it can hurt you and even kill you. Think of yourself as a potato, and what does it do if microwaved. My suggestion is get the book The E-Bomb: How America's New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Future Wars Will Be Fought. Unfortunately, you will NOT find any book in the library on this cartel, why? They're either stolen or lost.
You would not believe how many American citizens are now employed by this Mexican Cartel living right here in the good ole USA, and they ALL have this DEW weapon!
I would like to ask you if anything has been made to be able to catch a laser beam in motion and have it returned to the bad guy? I do not mean 'take' it to the bad guy (like a missile) I'm thinking perhaps a 'mirror-like' device.
[Name withheld; former employee at a defense contractor working on microwave devices]
Our response:
Thank you for your letter. I haven't done a lot of homework on DEWs since my main interest is in visible lasers. I get calls about once every month or two from people who have experienced heat or light that I cannot explain. That's why my webpage includes links to other directed energy information sources.I will say I'm not sure why Mexican cartels or human traffickers would target the people I hear from. They seem like normal people in residential neighborhoods. If the cartels wanted them gone, they certainly have other, much worse ways to do this.I just downloaded the E-Bomb book in Kindle format. I will read it soon.
About your letter... I do want to bring forth other views. Would it be OK if I printed all or parts of it on the "If you are harassed by lasers" webpage at LaserPointerSafety.com? Without your name or identifying information, of course.Finally, for visible lasers, you could use a retroreflector to return the light to the source. The beam may be degraded enough that if it could cause heat at the retroreflector, the returned beam (having gone twice as far and having bounced off possibly dirty or dusty surfaces) would be weaker and thus not able to harm anyone at the source area.
At a minimum, you would need a high-quality, industrial or research quality corner cube retroreflector like these. An inexpensive "cat's eye" bicycle retroreflector or similar would cause a bright glow to be seen at the source, but would not cause a coherent beam to be reflected back.
The original author's response:
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, it's appreciated.
Yes, you can use what I wrote if it helps the targets. To help you to understand why good people end up targets is because more than likely they have interfered with something the Cartel is doing, like selling drugs, or human trafficking, they might have alerted the police, or see something say something. It could even be someone hired stalkers to hurt you because of some vendetta, or just pure revenge!
They could/can kill you. But, in most cases they just want to provoke you or harass you while hurting you with this DEW weapon. It's called a 'slow cooker' for a reason. It's nothing but pure evil.
I would like to see this hand held DEW put out of business and the defense companies fined big time for selling it, especially to the Cartels but, I'm reading where Directed Energy is being used even more than ever by other countries within the military sector. Lasers as well. I'm not against high technology but I am against something like this getting into the wrong hands.
Read the original article
Comments
By javier_e06 2025-09-2620:169 reply My backyard neighbor installed a backup generator with a very annoying green led that shines right through my kitchen window. I hate HOA's and I don't live in one but I really lost sleep about this. One night I just went a back there and put a small green sticker on the plastic case. Still shines on but the annoying glow shines elsewhere. Inspection passed.
By AnotherGoodName 2025-09-2620:2911 reply There was a time in the electronics world when bright, house illuminating leds first came about and manufacturers used them in place of the dull red/green indicators. Black tape everywhere. Macbooks were one of the worst offenders. They had an extremely bright and worst of all pulsating led that was on when the device was in standby. Used to shine right through laptop bags and keep everyone nearby awake.
Fortunately that fad is somewhat over and manufacturers mostly learnt not to put in the brightest led they could source.
The situation still hasn't improved all that much. Just looking around I have electrical tape over the LEDs of my modem, router, computer monitor, soundbar, humidifier, fan, entryway intercom, thermostat. And these are all new devices.
By thewebguyd 2025-09-2621:131 reply The one that got on my nerves recently is a little bedside 3-in-1 wireless charger.
Has one of the brightest LEDs I've seen lately right on front of the charger whenever a device is on it. Why would they put a bright light on a night-stand accessory, and put it in the front where its shining right into your eyes as you try to sleep?
Or better yet, why have an LED on it at all in the first place? Any device I'm putting on it has its own charging indicator, I don't need the charger itself to have one.
I’ve clipped the RGB lights from multiple computer fans I’ve bought. Gawdy and unnecessary, and sometimes you can’t find items without them.
Don’t get me started on kids toys that are too loud!
By mikepurvis 2025-09-275:09 Many toys can be physically dampened, but another way is throwing a resistor in parallel across the speaker. I did this with a Little People princess castle my daughter had when she was very young and it was quite a nice way to do it— same bright and unmuffled music when you put the dolls on the stand, but at about 20% the volume.
By dotancohen 2025-09-2622:472 reply I much prefer two or three coats of black nail polish. It looks much nicer than tape, is more durable, and the light can barely be seen - just enough to see it when you want to. Like it should have been from the factory.
By doubled112 2025-09-2620:592 reply I use stickers designed for dimming LEDs. They’re almost like a thick window tint cut into various shapes. Dim enough to stop the LED from being annoying but you can still see its status.
A little more expensive, but they look a little nicer too.
By powvans 2025-09-271:50 You can buy a sheet of LED blocking stickers on Amazon for a few bucks. I keep some in my suitcase and leave every hotel room a little better than I found it.
By chiph 2025-09-2710:36 When I needed to dim the backlight on a new bedside clock, I asked a local window tint company for a couple of pieces of offcut film. I'm glad someone had the idea to turn that into a business.
By EbNar 2025-09-275:32 Very interesting and worldwide shipping for pennies! Thanks!
By doubled112 2025-09-2621:04 I think those are the ones. I’ve been working on the pack of them for years.
By ffsm8 2025-09-271:56 Most of my devices have had ways to turn them off.
Router has a button which disable all lights until it's pressed again, monitors have the setting in their menus.
The only device thats shining brightly in my home is a storage controller I've got in my home server, with no way of turning it off - or at least dimming it down
By fkyoureadthedoc 2025-09-270:461 reply yeah my routers' LEDs are obnoxiously bright, luckily they have an option in the app to turn it off on a schedule. The super bright green LED in my smoke detector unfortunately does not have this option. Nor do the blue LEDs in my smart outlets...
The smoke detector is mandated by legislation in a lot of places. The premise being it can break, you don't know, and thus die.
Not a fan of LEDs, but I at least understand why this as it is.
By withinboredom 2025-09-276:182 reply I had the tenant before me install fake fire detectors once. Always a green flash every few seconds but that was the only electronics in there. I only noticed because after a few years, I never had to change the batteries, so I decided to check them.
When you move into a new place, always check they are real and work.
By chiph 2025-09-2710:37 Also, shake the ABC fire extinguishers. The powder can clump in the bottom of the cylinder. Or replace them if they're 15+ years old - the local fire station will take them to use in their training classes.
By aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 2025-09-278:02 New anxiety source: not that I will move into such a situation as yours, but that I do so and not remember to check.
IME consumer electronics have gotten a lot better about this, but appliances and other things outside the tech sphere are still awful. My portable AC unit has a bright-as-hell seven-segment display for the temperature which shows "--" even when it's turned off!
By formerly_proven 2025-09-2622:391 reply This might just be amateur EEs doing their thing in an organization that doesn't constrain these aspects of the product. Data sheet says If(cont)=20 mA? Okay, 20 mA it is.
By Scoundreller 2025-09-272:26 At least it’s pretty easy these days to increase the résistance of an SMT resistor (if you can find it).
(Just scrape it down a bit)
By giantg2 2025-09-2620:33 I think I've used more electrical tape covering LEDs than I have for any other purpose.
By amelius 2025-09-2710:05 My electric toothbrush has a pulsaring led like that when charging. Which is especially annoying (in hotels etc.) because charging happens overnight.
By cdjk 2025-09-2620:55 The pulsing macbook leds were horrible. I was in college then, living in dorms or other shared housing where my laptop was always in my bedroom overnight. I got in the habit of putting a dark shirt over it.
My 2024 Lenovo Thinkpad inexplicably has that red light. Constantly fading in and out too. It could be my only reason not to buy a Thinkpad again.
By arp242 2025-09-273:29 Can't vouch for every model, but on all the ThinkPads I've owned every single LED can be disabled, including on the X13 I got last year.[1] This is actually one reason I buy ThinkPads. Other models I've had were T61, X270, E585, X280. I've heard the Carbon models are quite different from the T/X ones, so maybe you can't disable on those? That would be disappointing.
If you're on Linux the dot on the cover is /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::lid_logo_dot. See the other files in that directory for other LEDs.
I don't know about Windows off-hand because I don't use it, but the BIOS exposes the functionality so there should be a program to do it. In a quick search: https://github.com/valinet/ThinkPadLEDControl
FreeBSD doesn't support it, but quite easy to write a patch for it if you want it (I actually wrote a patch for this, but didn't really put the finishing touches on it and submit it as my previous one got no feedback at all, so *shrug* – I ended up just installing Linux again). Same for the other BSDs.
[1]: You need to compile your own kernel for the charging/power LED which wasn't needed on older models, because that's registered as "unknown LED" and protected behind a compile option. It's a tad annoying, but it's possible.
By dkenyser 2025-09-2621:48 My brand new Netgear router I just bought is so bright it's actually blinding if I catch a glimpse late at night so we might not be out of the woods just yet.
By zerocrates 2025-09-2620:40 I still have electrical tape right now over the power LED on my computer case: it's a pretty bright white LED that pulses in sleep and as far as I know my motherboard won't let me turn that behavior off. I guess I could have just pulled the leads to the LED instead.
Now that I think about it, that was probably actually one motherboard ago and it might be different now... but the tape's working just fine so who needs to check?
By kraussvonespy 2025-09-271:37 Although there are a number of charging stations designed for IOS devices that have bright blue LEDs that you can't turn off. Some good number of these devices are going on someone's nightstand where a bright blue LED is exactly what most buyers don't want.
By thr0w 2025-09-2620:35 Was just about to post this - thought I was neurotic for taping over LED displays in the 2000s. My sight and hearing get annoyingly sensitive when I'm in bed at night.
By brookst 2025-09-271:32 When blue LEDs first became available they screamed “premium” and “high tech” and it seemed like a race to put the brightest, most-blue LED possible in every device. That was hell.
By BLKNSLVR 2025-09-2623:25 That time is now
So the LED on these generators is intended to signal issues with the machine to the property owner. The green sticker might be fine at first glance (i.e., when the machine is healthy), but when it switches to yellow (routine maintenance alert) or red (will not autostart due to fault), the owner might not notice.
By garbagewoman 2025-09-279:55 Yeah no kidding the lights are meant to indicate things
What do you suggest I do about Ford pickup trucks with annoyingly high, bright high beams?
Maybe a light bar for the rear of the car and some reflective material for the sunvisor?
Flash brights at them, as you would do with anyone else. I drive a lifted 4x4 and through honest oversight failed to re-adjust headlights after the lift.
Just took a few people flashing brights at me to make me realize and do the (very easy) adjustment to proper specs.
Doesn’t solve people behind you, but it’s not like they’re going to pull over and adjust anyway. Flash brights and consider it a favor to the person in front of the offender.
By Xss3 2025-09-2711:18 People hate(d) teslas for a while because software updates reset their headlight angle and made them blind everyone, and recalibrating was apparently a bastard at the time
Telling people they're doing something annoying / dangerous / etc is surprisingly effective. Ask the person smoking next to you to move downwind. Ask the neighbor next door to turn down the TV. Ask the tourist in public transport to move their suitcase so it doesn't block the door. Works every time, most of the time.
By squigz 2025-09-2711:29 Doing so politely is effective.
But yeah, it's kind of shocking how often people are like "I hate this thing that person is doing" and I'm like "Have you asked them to stop?" and they haven't. Just... ask? Worse case scenario they say no and you're in the same spot you were.
By yard2010 2025-09-2710:11 Put tennis balls between your washer and the back windshield with a visible note "back off or feel my balls"
By pnw 2025-09-2623:28 Night driving glasses. They don't reduce the lumens per se, but they reduce the blue light, leaving a yellow light which is not as headache inducing.
By reaperducer 2025-09-270:331 reply Maybe a light bar for the rear of the car and some reflective material for the sunvisor?
I once came up behind a semi on a rural stretch of I-80 with my brights on. He hit me with a set of rear-mounted flood lights.
Probably illegal, but who's going to stop him? Plus, I got the message.
If you mean rear extra bright red lights those are for fog to prevent being rear-ended. If there was no fog it is illegal. Whether or not it is enforced depends on location, agencies, priorities. Example usage would be in Bakersfield, CA there is a location that at times goes from clear to not being able to see lights 2 feet away nearly instantly. Beyond pea-soup fog. It's a very unnerving experience if one is not ready for it.
By reaperducer 2025-09-273:091 reply No. Not red lights. Flood lights. Like you'd have to light up your backyard.
By icameron 2025-09-274:37 Those are standard equipment on many big rigs for backing up in the dark. I had the same experience as you when I forgot to dim my brights coming up on a trucker on the interstate at night!
By actionfromafar 2025-09-2622:15 Green stickers
By JumpCrisscross 2025-09-2621:192 reply > One night I just went a back there and put a small green sticker on the plastic case
Did you try talking to them about it first?
By actionfromafar 2025-09-2622:182 reply Depending on the neighbours, may be asking for more trouble.
By JumpCrisscross 2025-09-2623:244 reply > Depending on the neighbours, may be asking for more trouble
Idk, I’d consider it highly provocative if a neighbour installed anything on or tampered with my property without not only my permission but even the decency of notification. At that point, they not only lose the benefit of doubt but the benefit of civility since I’m not sure what other social conventions and laws they may be comfortable casually violating.
By TeMPOraL 2025-09-277:22 OTOH, if you talk about it first, then you forfeit the option to do the sticker thing later, because then the neighbor will know it was you who tampered with device. If you do it like OP did, then the neighbor will not be sure who was responsible, if anyone at all - they might assume they're just imagining things, or not even notice at all, because they're not paying attention. Asking first is a guaranteed way to make them pay attention.
Not advocating any course of action, just gaming out the options a little.
Yeah at that point you are almost obligated to confront the person who was trying to avoid conflict. Like, dude, just say something. Assuming the worst is a very bad habit and very antisocial.
By actionfromafar 2025-09-2623:27 Yes, I'm not advising, just an idle thought.
By godelski 2025-09-2623:15 Sure, but we don't know that. Besides, it's becoming increasingly common to avoid confrontation. A lot of people might consider it too much trouble because they don't know their neighbors. If you don't go in angry/"swinging" then people are usually pretty reasonably
This is more important, you have to give people a chance to rectify the situation.
By cwmoore 2025-09-277:35 Seems the authorities were here already.
By neilv 2025-09-272:19 > small green sticker
Two additional ways to calm an indicator LED are with the modern self-laminating labelmaker tape:
* White tape -- Put 1 or more layers over the LED, to dim and diffuse.
* Black tape -- Use a pin to poke a hole through the tape, from behind, before putting it over the LED. (If there's 3+ LEDs, like on a network switch or server front panel, it will look neater if you measure the pitch of the centers of the LEDs, then use a ruler over the back of the labelmaker tape to match that with the holes. If the back of the tape has two strips you peel off to expose the adhesive, you can use that as a guide for keeping each hole level.)
You could also put black tape over white, but I haven't had to do that so far.
Not to hijack your post with a PSA but I think you'll endorse it...
If you are building a product and it has any indicator lights please dim/diffuse/lightpipe them.
It seems to be a trend these days of ultra bright LEDs for indicators, I have so many devices I've either disconnected, dimmed or taped over the LEDs because it is so bloody bright.
Extra helpful if you can add a photodiode to the system that can adjust brightness accordingly. It costs effectively nothing in parts and should take any competent engineer less than 5 minutes to include it. Better, use multiple because redundancy is better! I wish my car had redundancy so it's entertainment panel could go back to adjusting from being visible during the day to not being blinding at night (it has brightness adjustments but that's insufficient for a car and living anywhere outside a major city)
For people doing software, press for the love of god just make that shit adjustable. Only fucking noobs hard code variables. Practicing good habits will help everyone, including you. Unless you got a serious reason not to, expose that to the users. Even if you don't think anyone will want it, I promise you, someone does. There's a lot of people and everyone thinks differently. So only lock down what needs to be locked down.
Unless you're trying to create e-waste or piss people off. Which in that case I only have two words for you and they aren't nice
By fecal_henge 2025-09-276:211 reply To reply to this and the above comment:
Cheapest light pipe on digikey: 16 cents Cheapest photodiode on digikey: 11 cents Cheapest LED (obviously that annoying blue): 625 milli cents!
Part costs matter! Its not just the BOM, its the NRE from the increased complexity. Im not saying saying its OK, just that its inevitable considering the economic conditions.
I do board level designs and drop down LEDs. If you are not specialising in indicators, its hard to visualise how bright 10mA through your diode is going to be. Add to this that sometimes you never even see the thing you designed!
On DigiKey the cheapest is $0.125[0]. On Alibaba I can find much cheaper, including less than penny [1,2]. Now pretend with me that you're building in lots. You're going to get cheaper than Alibaba, though maybe not by much.> 16 cents Cheapest photodiode on digikey
I think if it is annoying enough that at presumably >10m away it can keep the gp awake you don't really need to be that precise in your measurement. It's basically way too bright.> I do board level designs and drop down LEDs. If you are not specialising in indicators, its hard to visualise how bright 10mA through your diode is going to be.But if you want to get creative you could use the diodes in the circuit or even your led if you'll blink it. But that last one doesn't tell you the led brightness, only ambient.
[0] https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/harvatek-corporat...
[1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/1-4V-20-30-45-60_6253...
[2] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/JST3-3MM-receiver-pho...
By fecal_henge 2025-09-2711:02 The digikey costs are more (I quoted qty=1 prices though), its the ratio between the component types which is more interesting though.
I think annoying at 10m is sufficient power to require a 'power' LED, so that shouldnt be hard to avoid in a design I would agree. Annoying in your kitchen however is much harder to eyeball a value for (excuse the pun).
By paradox460 2025-09-270:311 reply You don't even need to do that. You can measure ambient light with the LED, using it as a photodiode
By godelski 2025-09-276:57 The sane one that's on? Is that light constant or blinking?
By Razengan 2025-09-270:23 The entire advertising industry is cancer.
This is actually one of the best things that Apple did with their devices (except a few like the MacBook MagSafe) that PC users with their 1000 lights on everything just don't get.
By 8n4vidtmkvmk 2025-09-277:56 Hey now, don't blame us PC users. It's almost impossible to buy decent hardware that isn't RGB`d up the wazoo. Do I want all that crap lighting? No. Do I have a choice? No.
By bboygravity 2025-09-2621:16 I can highly recommend aluminum tape or copper tape. Doesn't let any light through and super easy to apply.
By jeffrallen 2025-09-279:55 What happened when you talked to him about it and offered him the sticker?
By nenenejej 2025-09-2621:40 One night I just went a back there and...
Expects vandalism or more serious crime.
...put a small green sticker
Ok, good engineer!
A long page of human drama at https://laserpointersafety.com/sentences/sentences.html, e.g.: "Suspended sentence, rehab for 55-year-old who aimed a laser pen at a helicopter after it interrupted his audiobook".
It's amazing to see how people are getting thrown to prison for years in the US and the same criminals getting suspended prison time/community service in the UK.
"They try to build a prison for you and me, oh baby you and me" ;)
By rusk 2025-09-2711:32 all your taxes paid to wage the war against the new unrich
If you want more "human drama" read up on Hong Kong protesters' extensive use of lasers against police and security cameras. A powerful enough laser can pretty quickly render a security camera unusable. Ofc it can also blind someone (even indirectly looking at the beam) quite easily
By adolph 2025-09-2623:41 Cameras can also be sensitive to invisible to human wavelengths. I remember this story from a few months ago:
https://petapixel.com/2025/05/20/lidar-lasers-on-volvo-suv-f...
By Onavo 2025-09-2622:14 It can also set off the alcohol-in-tube fire alarms
When you have a helicopter circling your house for hours, you do start to lose rational thought.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-275:25 I understand the frustration but in the case of aircraft, that's a nope-not-ever. Even a 50mw handheld can wreak havoc on night vision equip. Put away lasers until they're gone.
A larger but somewhat different issue is that pilots have some obligation to report laser sightings. Most reports are beams waving elsewhere and not striking their aircraft.
But even those sightings are an issue because officials commonly (and misleadingly) present the stats as if they were all aircraft strikes. News orgs repeat the claims without vetting.
Generally, I treat handhelds of >1W with weapon-ish caution. I won't point them in a direction where people are likely to be.
I have an LEP light and I'm more flexible with that but I still keep it off of moving objects.
For nightly walks, I carry a 21k lumen LED torch that helps with oncoming highbeams. The highest setting is a reasonable response to lightbars.
Sure but this is in the category of "I decided to shoot at the plane with my gun" type logic. What possible outcome is someone expecting from aiming a high power laser at an aircraft expecting?
Like the top-end of that is "after considerable discussion they abort whatever expensive activity they are engaged in and return to base". Literally everything else ranges from "inflicting grevious bodily harm" to "mass casualty event".
The gravity of the crime to the one that commits it is lessened by the ease of committing that crime. Brutally stabbing someone to death is heinous because the person commiting that crime had to get up and personal with their victim and the weapon and the act. Meanwhile, if I angle my foot down by 10 degrees while in my car, I'm speeding, and hardly anyone considers that a reprehensible act that should ruin my life forever. The problem with lasers is there's no gravitas to them. They can be powerful and dangerous af, and barely make a sound. And they're way too easy to get off eBay. Shooting an RPG at a airplane... nevermind how big and heavy one is, how would I even get one? Operating one is non-trivial, too. Because a laser is a simple pushbutton to complete the circuit and turn it on, to the uncareful, and impulsive, you can commit a felony before your brain comprehends that it's even a crime in the first place. You have to really think things through before doing them an unfortunately not everyone is blessed with a brain that has that capability. I don't say this to excuse someone hurting other people, but to promote laser education.
By 8n4vidtmkvmk 2025-09-278:10 I do consider excessive speeding as reprehensible. A little over, fine, whatever, but there's a threshold where it becomes dangerously reckless. But otherwise I agree. Someone might not consider just how dangerous a laser pointer is. I do hope they know how dangerous their car is though.
A lot of helicopters today are being used to harass entire neighborhoods where complaints to local government go completely unresolved, so I can emphasize with that situation, not that I'd ever do something that stupid.
Its not uncommon to have them hovering for 1-2 hours straight 3-7 times a week, every week, at times with no active calls on the community police dashboard almost entirely between 11pm and 4am, often less than 1000 feet in altitude (high dBs enough to shake windows).
That aside, using a helicopter as a broadcast mechanism over a loudspeaker to a neighborhood is entirely unacceptable during hours people normally sleep.
Everyone is complaining and they've been doing that at least 3 years now.
How many times can you hear, "Missing person, or Felony Suspect", black shirt, denim pants, black suspect, call 911", or "suspicious person, black hoodie, call 911", before they lose all credibility. Around 10?
It seems really racist too, always hispanic or black, where the descriptions provided apply to most if not all people of those demographics.
Makes the average person feel like we live in a police state without due process or a rule of law when the only means to resolve is front-of-line blocked through local government which ignores complaints.
I shouldn't be hearing this at 2am regularly, some people work.
By tasuki 2025-09-278:51 > A lot of helicopters today are being used to harass entire neighborhoods
Where?
This is terrible behaviour on the part of the police.
An example of the solution being far worse than the problem.
Seems an awfully extravagant use for extended periods of time. The hourly cost of operating a helicopter, particularly a turbine ship, is very high, several hundred per hour.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-276:15 We're near a non-military regional airport. Apparently the military likes the airspace above our neighborhoods to train Blackhawk crews. IDK which branch because the craft have zero insignia. Flightradar24 only id's them as Blackhawks.
They fly 1-3 at a time in a several mile loop. The parade begins late afternoon and ends at 10pm. I'm grateful we don't get the giant all-night FU, that the GP gets from their local LEO.
By brookst 2025-09-271:39 But it costs the individuals nothing, and it sends a strong “we are watching you” message to the undesirables. Dystopian AF but I’m sure they rationalize somehow.
By CrumpledDossier 2025-09-2622:23 [flagged]
By LorenPechtel 2025-09-2622:35 [flagged]
Arecibo's radar had a EIRP of up to terawatts. They were basically pinging space for asteroids etc. It feels a lot like using lasers at a helicopter kind of thing. Quiet and suddenly a sharp pulse.
The cables snapped at some point. These things were tough, able to last decades. This whole thread made me think aliens cut it.
By immibis 2025-09-2711:13 The investigation pointed to lack of maintenance.
By nurettin 2025-09-2620:44 I have seen a crab brush his eye with one of his foldable mouth arms. We already have aliens. They are more weird than anything I saw on star trek.
By stepanhruda 2025-09-2621:131 reply Fighting noise pollution with light pollution
Wrong. Noise affects everyone around. The laser only affects the source of noise.
By ted_dunning 2025-09-276:361 reply And the people the helicopter crashes into after the pilot is blinded.
By WarOnPrivacy 2025-09-276:45 Excessive copter activity is abusive. In an ethical society, it is best followed by action-changing consequences.
The solution must never involve lasers.
Each of these observations stands properly on it's own. If we're making them compete, we've lost the thread somewhere.
By moralestapia 2025-09-2620:28 >A South Australia Police helicopter checking on COVID compliance during a three-day lockdown [...]
Whew.
The US military doesn't even use laser pointers much any more. Maybe for pointing at a map during a briefing, but not for pointing at the enemy. Single-pulse range finders, yes. Continuous laser designators are "Hi, I'm an enemy, kill me now." They were more popular in the 1980s before everybody else got IR sensing technology.
By LorenPechtel 2025-09-2622:29 Yeah, a beam of anything is asking for a beam-rider to find it. (Doesn't have to be a missile--wake-follower torpedoes are a form of beam-rider. They don't look for a ship, they try to follow a wake until they run under/into a ship. Passive so the enemy doesn't hear your sonar pinging, nor do sonar masking systems have any effect on it. The weakness is such torpedoes are very predictable and can be tricked into going for a towed decoy.)
True, but I think this post is for a more general audience. Where continuous (and visible) lasers are still found on many things, including weapons.
It's also worth mentioning that the power rating in many commercial laser pointers should not be considered reliable. It's also possible to overdrive them. I'll put out this way, in my undergrad I spent a lot of time in the optics lab and the post doc had a fun story about where she was working with IR lasers. Basically it was "There's light! Yay! It's working! ... oh fuck! There's VISIBLE light! I'm burning my eyeballs!" It's easy to do some serious damage even with cheap electronics and expertise. The big problem is that laser damage happens without you feeling a thing. If you do feel it, you're probably getting seriously fucked up.
I’m confused, how would she have seen the IR beam? Wouldn’t she be seeing some other effect, or was this literally so powerful it was in that realm of two-photon absorption
By ashdksnndck 2025-09-275:181 reply A beam of non-visible radiation can cause secondary radiation in various ways. Hopefully it’s the dust in the air fluorescing or being heated. Black-body radiation from some part of your eye would be concerning.
Additionally human eyes are sensitive to near infrared. Go look at a TV remote in a really dark place. Check with your phone because your phone can see it. If you can't then check with the nearest child, they'll tell you.
You lose sensitivity to this bandwidth as you get older. But if it's bright enough you'll see it. It's not like there's a hard cutoff in your eyes detection, it decays and you're very insensitive to big bandwidth, but not necessarily blind to them
By kulahan 2025-09-278:23 Now that you mention it, I do remember occasionally being able to pick up on a faint red light in the remote control back when I was younger. It was easier to see with a phone’s camera I think?
There are still a few laser designators and munitions that use them. Mostly LGBs, as far as I'm aware - JDAMs didn't eat everything yet.
By ghssds 2025-09-277:40 For the benefit of everyone -- including me -- not knowing the meaning of those abbreviations, I looked it up on the Interweb.
LGB : Lyrically gifted brother
JDAM : Japanese digital art museum
By joecool1029 2025-09-271:051 reply Um, they used laser dazzlers pretty commonly in Iraq back in the 2000's? Soldiers fucking around with them would sometimes make the news: https://www.wired.com/2009/03/dont-lase-me-br/
I don’t know if you’re ready to hear this, but the 2000’s was two decades ago…
By yard2010 2025-09-2710:34 20 years is like 3.5 years in military years
By subroutine 2025-09-278:56 HELIOS is currently on USS Preble.
