Why Protesters In Cairo Use Laser Pointers 303
New submitter Ahmed Shaban writes "Why do protesters in Cairo use laser pointers? At the beginning, they were used to light up snipers on rooftops. Later, it just became fashionable to use them, and such things spread very fast among the youth of Cairo, who can find the high power laser pointers for sale on the sidewalks. The article contains amazing photos of a chopper lit up by green laser pointers."
No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:5, Interesting)
Its actually quite remarkable what is happening there. More people were protesting than had voted for the president because the president decided that their constitution didnt apply to him, so the military takes down the president in response but remarkably doesnt assume power.
How many countries actually have a military that would do this sort of thing? I'm fairly certain that mine, with a military that runs an agency well known now for violating the constitution, would not.
Re:No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:2, Interesting)
OK, not direct military control, but control by proxy.
Re:No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:2, Interesting)
How many countries actually have a military that would do this sort of thing? I'm fairly certain that mine, with a military that runs an agency well known now for violating the constitution, would not.
What you fail to realize is that the US military is ALREADY running the show.
The appearance that civilians are running the show is kept up to placate the
masses. You should join in with them in a chorus of "baaaa !!!"
It's horrible they caused that helicopter to crash (Score:1, Interesting)
Oh wait, it didn't crash! With hundreds of pointer directed at it, it didn't crash. I'm wondering, have there been any aircraft crashes attributed to pilot blindness caused by laser pointers reported anywhere in the world? It seems to me that the prohibition has more to do with law enforcement and the military not wanting people identifying where drones are flying overhead since the actual risk to pilots seems to be non-existent.
Re:No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:5, Interesting)
I work with a man from Egypt, a Christian with family over there. I asked him what he thought about all this and his eyes lit up, "my family is finally free."
Re:Whats the laser used in laser wars (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: This Is Considered News?? (Score:5, Interesting)
Seems the same in US too..
Re:No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:5, Interesting)
I dunno. If someone staged a coup in the US, I'd be 'encouraging people to be violent' against it as well.
What if 50 million people in the US took to the streets in protest of the government?
That is essentially what just happened in Egypt. 17% of the people took to the streets! The largest protest in the history of the world at 14 million people.
Its gotta be extremely bad to get 17% of the people actively protesting, so when you say 'staged a coup' I honestly wonder exactly how ignorant you are of what just happened in Egypt. Only read and watch American news?
Re:No reason to light up snipers these days... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not ignorant to what's happening, but what part of my sentence was factually inaccurate? Did the military not take over the country and appoint a new leader? Is that not the textbook definition of a coup d'etat?
I'm well aware of the various failings of the Morsi administration, but let's be clear: if 17% of the population of the US was protesting the Obama administration, and the Joint Chiefs had suspended the rule of law embodied by the Constitution to appoint John Roberts as President, it would not be "wrong" of the US gov't-in-exile to be like "these folks have usurped lawful authority, fire at will, if you can."
That's not to say that I don't personally think Egypt will be better, post-coup (just as that's not to say that I don't think America might be better after some theoretical post-coup situation), I'm merely stating the fact that it can't come as a surprise to anyone that the supporters of a government, usurped by military power, are calling for violent means to "re-establish the lawful order".
Re:Whats the laser used in laser wars (Score:2, Interesting)
You can see the ones in the Egypt videos because they're just really powerful. Far more powerful that what is legally available in the USA without a variance.
You didn't read the article at all did you?
As crowds packed Tahrir Square in the centre of Cairo to celebrate the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday night, three things filled the air - noise, fireworks and, unusually, laser beams.
Fireworks make lots of smoke
It depends. (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that not the textbook definition of a coup d'etat?
Just because a government is democratically elected doesn't mean it's a democracy. History is full of democratically elected governments that then turn into totalitarian regimes.
If Obama woke up tomorrow and ordered that all Tea Party members be arrested, I would expect our military to essentially remove him from office - in the immediate case by ignoring him, and in the longer case by Congress impeaching him and removing him from office - which would still require the cooperation of the military (they'd have to decide to listen to Congress and not the President.)
In Egypt, there isn't really a constitutional mechanism to get rid of a leader who, while democratically elected, isn't fulfilling his responsibilities as a democratic leader, so the best thing they have is the Army takes care of it.
So while this may technically be a coup in that the elected leader is being removed from office through a non-elective means, it's not necessarily undemocratic, if you believe the elected leader is abusing the freedoms of the people and the coup is to create the opportunity for someone who does respect the rights of the people to be elected.
Re:Whats the laser used in laser wars (Score:4, Interesting)
It's one of the big errors that scifi movies have with lasers in space combat (the other error being that laser pulses move slow enough to be seen). even with insanely powerful lasers, they'd be practically invisible in space because there's nothing for them to reflect off. Unless, of course, you want to pretend that all laser space battles take place in dust or gas clouds...
Thus the use of sandcasters in the Traveller RPG [wikipedia.org]. Basically dump bags of sand into space around your ship to absorb/reflect any laser weapons.
Re:It depends. (Score:5, Interesting)
If Obama woke up tomorrow and ordered that all Tea Party members be arrested, I would expect our military to essentially remove him from office -
How about if he just had all of the newspaper editors arrested and jailed who were publishing stories in opposition to his policies?
Because that's what Lincoln did and the Army supported him. Both used / would used 'continuity of government' as an excuse to violate the laws that authorize that government in the first place.
Re:uh uz they're idiots (Score:4, Interesting)
What makes it a laser is how the light is produced. In most cases the lasers available to consumers are just very bight lamps with narrow bandwidth, good collimation, and not monochromatic.
It takes extra care to build a laser that produces only one frequency and even more care for the output to be coherent for any distance which is why holography and interferometry have problems with solid state lasers and gas laser are still used.
Re:Whats the laser used in laser wars (Score:5, Interesting)
Although atmosphere does reduce the power, it's columnated light and in a vacuum anyway it would not lose any of its power. Dust, fog, humidity in the air will lower the power, but also cause you to be able to see the beam in the air. If you can't see the beam of a laser, it's likely delivering very close to 100% of its output power on target.
Years ago, when laser pointers were expensive, I had a 5mw red laser that we tested at 1/4 mile. It lit up an entire dumpster very nicely. (lenses weren't that good back then, it wouldn't hold a point for more than 25 feet or so, and TONS of scatter)
But on the other issue of power, just because it's a laser doesn't make it any more destructive than something else of the same power. A 100w lightbulb puts out 100x the power of a 1w laser pointer. And you don't see lightbulbs catching helicopters on fire. (even if focused in a spotlight) The only reason 1w lasers catch paper on fire is they're concentrating 1w of power into a 2mm x 2mm area. That would probably feel like a match at 1/2", enough to light paper. That's not going to melt metal obviously, at any range. The laser just lets you project that "half inch from a match" out several hundred yards. It doesn't make it more (or less) intense.
Somewhat back on topic though... wow.... that flight had to SUCK for those helicopter pilots. Someone hits one 727 with a laser pointer and the whole city loses their mind and the swat team rolls. That heli looks like it had 3-4 dozen green and at least two blue pointed at it. They would have to be out of their minds to look down except through cameras, and imagine the refractions going on inside the cockpit, with greens and blues scattering off all the shiny things. I bet that is an incredibly effective deterrent for the pilots.
Ironic, they sent in the helicopters as a show of force, and got driven off by the demonstrators using cheap, commonly available tech. Sort of like making the water canon truck leave by throwing rocks at it. Embarrassing.