I didn’t know it would reach that far
A few nights ago, I was out in the yard playing a game with Politically Incorrect Dog. In this game, PID chases a laser from a laser pointer around the yard. Good exercise for him, minimal effort for me. Now, I may have inadvertently aimed it skyward a couple of times but I had no idea this would happen:
Authorities are investigating a mysterious laser beam that was directed into the cockpit of a commercial jet traveling at more than 8,500 feet.
The beam appeared Monday when the plane was about 15 miles from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the FBI said.
“It was in there for several seconds like (the plane) was being tracked,” FBI agent Robert Hawk said.
Sorry, guys. We were just playing.
December 31st, 2004 at 12:20 pm
Those little hand-helds aren’t that powerful, are they? And don’t the beams scatter after a relatively small distance. Certainly less than 8000 feet or whatever it is, yes? I wonder just what kind of lasers are being used here. Certainly getting your point to hit the cockpit glass of a jet liner moving at speed has to be a bitch. Even if you mounted a table-top laser )plugged into a wall socket) on a rifle stock, what kind of sight or scope can keep trained on a moving jet liner well enough and long enough for the pilots to notice?
December 31st, 2004 at 12:42 pm
Gasp. Local terror!
Perhaps I should send the TV news investigators after this major story. 8^)
December 31st, 2004 at 1:34 pm
You see!
THAT’S WHY we need to register lasers!
Actually, this characteristic is being used in marine safety as an adjunct to the traditional flares carried on boats to signal for assistance. That little battery-powered laser can hit a vessel for a LOOOONG distance and there’s no way it can be mistaken for a natural phenomenon.
January 3rd, 2005 at 12:50 am
Speaking of letting dogs chase laser pointers, my boxer has been banned from the laser pointer game. This is because he got remarkably addicted to that game. He would ask to go out, and then refuse to come inside. When you’d tell him to come in, he would stand there and look back and forth between you and the fireplace mantel (where we keep the laser pointer), as if to say “bring that.”
My arms get tired from holding the pointer out before the dog gets tired of chasing that damned red dot. He will run after it until he is literally foaming at the mouth if we let him (we don’t). If we go a few days without playing the game at all he gets a lot better about coming inside when called, but if we cave in even once he gets nearly impossible.
I know what you’re thinking: get him to chase the red dot into the house, and then close the door. He’s wise to that one. He hits the brakes before he gets within about eight feet of the door. Or of me.
So, no red dot for him.