{"id":8,"date":"2005-01-12T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2005-01-13T03:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dbnews\/2005\/01\/12\/latest-laser-sightings\/"},"modified":"2005-01-12T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2005-01-13T03:32:07","slug":"latest-laser-sightings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/2005\/01\/12\/latest-laser-sightings\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest Laser Sightings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a4459'><\/a><\/p>\n<table width=\"537\" border=\"0\">\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/ohassser.jpg\" width=\"180\" height=\"162\" align=\"left\">The rash of laser attacks on private and commercial<br \/>\n        airline pilots threatens to escalate into a media-driven panic on the<br \/>\n        level of Mad Cow Disease or the Beltway Sniper.&nbsp; Over 30 new incidents<br \/>\n        have been reported just in the last week.<\/p>\n<p>We have been dubious, to say the least, since the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/2004\/12\/13#a4291\">first<br \/>\n          reports<\/a> several<br \/>\n        months ago.&nbsp; Most of the laser pointers we have seen were pretty<br \/>\n        wimpy, even at short range. The idea that one of these innocuous devices,<br \/>\n        available for $5.99 at the local 7-11, could be hand-held, pointed at<br \/>\n        the sky, and have any discernable effect on an object several miles away<br \/>\n        and moving at hundreds of miles an hour seemed improbable to the point<br \/>\n        of rediculousness.<\/p>\n<p>Just goes to show how much we know. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/nation\/articles\/2005\/01\/12\/reports_grow_of_lasers_beamed_at_cockpits\/\">todays<br \/>\n          Boston Globe<\/a>,<br \/>\n        the devices in question are considerably more powerful than those we<br \/>\n        are familiar with. For example, the device that David Branch, the guy<br \/>\n        who got arrested in Jersey, is described as follows.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The laser pointer, which sells for $119, is the most powerful that can<br \/>\n          be used in a public place without government regulation, according to<br \/>\n          Bigha, the company that manufactures it.<\/p>\n<p>          It produces a bright green beam that can be seen up to 25,000 feet away,<br \/>\n          and is used by bird watchers, astronomers, and lecturers to point out<br \/>\n        faraway objects.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Although many professors swear by laser pointers, we have shied away<br \/>\n        from them after receiving one as an end-of-semester from a particularly<br \/>\n        demonic class a couple of years ago and promptly suffered temporary blindness<br \/>\n        after shining it into our eyes trying to get it to turn on.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, honest to God we are not making this up, listening to the Celtics<br \/>\n        game on the radio tonight we heard that the game was suspended while<br \/>\n        security guards searched the stands for a patron who had SHINED A LASER<br \/>\n        POINTER IN THE EYES OF A PLAYER TRYING TO SHOOT FREE THROWS. This opens<br \/>\n        a pandora&#8217;s box of potential hazards. Lasers in the eyes of a goalie<br \/>\n        trying to stop a penaly shot? A placekicker trying to make a game winning<br \/>\n        field goal? Drivers on the Interstates? Blinded meter maids trying to<br \/>\n        read meters and write tickets? This laser stuff is a slippery slope&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>article from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/nation\/articles\/2005\/01\/12\/reports_grow_of_lasers_beamed_at_cockpits\/\">Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rash of laser attacks on private and commercial airline pilots threatens to escalate into a media-driven panic on the level of Mad Cow Disease or the Beltway Sniper.&nbsp; Over 30 new incidents have been reported just in the last &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/2005\/01\/12\/latest-laser-sightings\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serious-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dowbrigade\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}