Careful Where You Point That Thing

Posted on January 2, 2005 by glasscastle

Teachers of America, beware! You
may be unwittingly armed with a dangerous terrorist weapon. We have removed
the batteries from our own laser pointer, just in case…

PARSIPPANY — The attorney of a Lake Parsippany resident questioned by
authorities about his suspected use of a laser light said Saturday her
client was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."

David Banach was showing his daughter a common laser pointer that he had purchased
on the Internet, said attorney Gina Mendola Longarzo. Longarzo said she met with
Banach on Saturday.

"At one moment he was in the backyard playing with his daughter," said
Longarzo, "and 10 minutes later 12 police cars descended and he was whisked
away by authorities and interrogated until 4 a.m."

from the Daily Record
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2 Responses to Careful Where You Point That Thing

  1. ian says:
    January 4, 2005 at 2:30 pm

    a little ignorance and an unfortunately unfunny comment here. As a former military pilot and a LASER Systems Safety Officer, I can tell you that your easily acquired class 3A green laser pointer doesn’t give someone flash blindness from an accidental sweep. And the only reason that technically a class 3A laser (power output below 5mW) is considered “eye-safe” is because it produces visible light energy and the eye will typically blink before retinal damage can take place. That does not mean that it can’t blind you temporarily or that it can’t cause retinal damage…ie, if your nervous response is delayed or if you are focused intently on an ocular target and therefore have a slower blink response.
    Simply based on the technical merits of how a laser operates, and specifically a class 3A green light laser operating around 532nm transmits energy and how the human retina receives/absorbs light energy, this guy had to have been deliberate about illuminating an aircraft…even if for a prank or to see if he could, a very immature and negligent thing to do.

  2. Sofia says:
    August 24, 2005 at 4:20 pm

    Thank you for the info. http://www.bignews.com

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