NationStates Jolt Archive

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2004/12/10/776724.html

Eek.

All airline pilots will be issued mirrored, redneck sherrif style sunglasses. In the mean time all residents are advised to stock up on duct tape.

All airline pilots will be issued mirrored, redneck sherrif style sunglasses. In the mean time all residents are advised to stock up on duct tape.
you forgot the random chewing item to go with the glasses

A wad of gum or a stick of hay will do just fine. :D

What if I always wear my tinfoil hat?

What if I always wear my tinfoil hat?
Then add an extra layer.

What complete and utter bull.

Yet another fear tactic from the Bush administration.

I saw this on CNN.com last night. What kind of idiocy has pervaded the government....oh wait! GW disease. I keep forgetting. Hmmm.....must be trying to block it out.

Do they not have any conception of

A) How powerful that laser would have to be

B) How steady it would have to be

and let's not forget

C) How quickly you would have to adjust your aim?!?

I saw this on CNN.com last night. What kind of idiocy has pervaded the government....oh wait! GW disease. I keep forgetting. Hmmm.....must be trying to block it out.

Do they not have any conception of

A) How powerful that laser would have to be

B) How steady it would have to be

and let's not forget

C) How quickly you would have to adjust your aim?!?
A When I was a kid I mail ordered plans for a ruby laser that could vaporize steel. I would have built it too except I couldn't affort a silvered ruby rod.
B This will be addressed along with c
C Just build it with a solid base and use a rapidly oscillating mirror to make the beam scan rapidly over an area. Sort of a shotgun effect. It's bound to hit the guy in the eyes sooner or later if it's pointed in the plane's general direction.

I don't think it's being done by terrorists. Too much expense and too little payoff if it does work. A bomb on a train loaded with explosive or toxic cargo would give you more bang for the buck. I'm just playing devil's advocate.

Do they not have any conception of

A) How powerful that laser would have to be

B) How steady it would have to be

and let's not forget

C) How quickly you would have to adjust your aim?!?

D) ( Do they not have any conception of ) Just how paranoid they are becoming?

The British set up dozens of searchlights and mirrors to blind german pilots bombing the suez canal in WW2 it sort of worked.

I think if Al-Quaeda ever tries to bring down a plane I am on with a laser pointer I am going to open the emergency door to the plane just so I can point at the terrorists and laugh at them. I am a billion times more concerned with surface to air missles than lasers and I am a billion times more concerned that the pilot will simply get drunk on tiny little bottles of scotch durring the flight then I am of surface to air missiles. So I am not exactly going to be biting my nails over laser pointer attacks.

Now Dr. Evil's attacking too? Good thing England's on our side.

Yes, we'll fire our..."la-ser"...from our secret terrorist base on the Moon...

Powers will never again have his mojo!

Mwuhahahahaha...

A When I was a kid I mail ordered plans for a ruby laser that could vaporize steel. I would have built it too except I couldn't affort a silvered ruby rod.
B This will be addressed along with c
C Just build it with a solid base and use a rapidly oscillating mirror to make the beam scan rapidly over an area. Sort of a shotgun effect. It's bound to hit the guy in the eyes sooner or later if it's pointed in the plane's general direction.

I don't think it's being done by terrorists. Too much expense and too little payoff if it does work. A bomb on a train loaded with explosive or toxic cargo would give you more bang for the buck. I'm just playing devil's advocate.

At what range would it vaporize steel? The dissipative effects of a quarter-mile long column of air are quite high.

The mirror/base idea might work, but it would have to be set up somewhere inside the airport, probably on the tarmac. What terrorist cell is going to be able to do that in this day and age?

it now says it doesn't work.

Can somone give a link that works?

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/09/terrorist.laser.ap/index.html

Are these the same terrorists that were low tech and had to use carbombs?

I bet by "lazers" they mean "flashlights."

Remember kids-everytime you buy a maglight, YOU SUPPORT THE TERRORISTS!

You think the laser thing is odd? Well the Council on Foreign Relations, our most prestigious foreign policy think tank just put on a major article on the danger of Islamic terrorists teaming up with pirates. Thats right pirates. Not the kind that trade music over the internet but the kind that steal your ship and make you walk the plank. Apparently they never went away.

http://www.cfr.org/pub7545/gal_luft_anne_korin/terrorism_goes_to_sea.php

Here is an exerpt.

Such experts, however, fail to realize that the popular perception that the international community has eliminated sea piracy is far from true. Not only has piracy never been eradicated, but the number of pirate attacks on ships has also tripled in the past decade-putting piracy at its highest level in modern history. And contrary to the stereotype, today's pirates are often trained fighters aboard speedboats equipped with satellite phones and global positioning systems and armed with automatic weapons, antitank missiles, and grenades.

Most disturbingly, the scourges of piracy and terrorism are increasingly intertwined: piracy on the high seas is becoming a key tactic of terrorist groups. Unlike the pirates of old, whose sole objective was quick commercial gain, many of today's pirates are maritime terrorists with an ideological bent and a broad political agenda. This nexus of piracy and terrorism is especially dangerous for energy markets: most of the world's oil and gas is shipped through the world's most piracy-infested waters.