All practical lasers are IR, unless they’re used for spotting. Outputting a
visible beam is not as effecient, and results in a lower power beam.
These 532nm green beam laseres are made from invisible beam IR
lasers. They use a crystal to actually change the wavelength, squeezing it
down to 532, a more visible light to us.

The green beams we work on output less than 5mW, but average about
3. What’s telling, is they use an IR diode that output’s over 10mW. by
the time the wavelength is decreased, and a green beam produced, you
lose over half the power output.

I’m sure these crystals are more effecient, however.

With IR lasers, you dont’ see it. The only indication of a beam is the
pain in your retina, and the resulting damage. With a visible (green
especially ) beam, it’s so bright, you will likely shut your eyes reflexivly
even before the beam hits your retina.

You can temporarily blind someone (the USAF likes the term “dazzle”)
with a visible beam without doing any real damage – it’s just like being in
a dark room, having dialated pupils, and someone turns the lights on –
you’re blind for a second as your eyes are overloaded. High power IR
lasers will just fry your retinas.

The secret servie investigates any threats on the president – it’s a matter
of consistency. They have to investigate ALL of them, since they can’t
just pick and choose which threats to investigate.

The cartoonist an idiot? Why? Is he not entitled to free speech? It’s a
picture of mohamed with a bomb on his head, big deal. I’ve seen
pictures of Jesus that were far more insulting. People protested, of
course, but I do not remember the militant super fundameltalist christians
taking over embassies and threatenign to kidnap people over it.

This is just evidence that some members of Islam are nutcases, or as you
British folks say “nutters”.

I find it interesting that people are so concerned about stuff like this.
You think it should not be discussed because some idiot mght be
irresponsible?

It’s funny. At a gun show this weekend, there was a guy selling frames,
with grears, cranks and cams. You mount two AK-47 type guns (semi
automatic, and perfectly legal, of course), and install the mechanisms.
You are able to rotate it, and raise and lower it, as a WWII bomber
turret. You turn the crank, which is geared, and ti causes these little
devices to pull the triggers, alternating. Bambambambambam.

all in good fun.

You guys would have a heart attack at a US gun show! Not only can
you get these “dangerous” high power lasers, you can get semi automatic
guns to mount them on!

F-15’s have an awesome sound, but i’ve never seen one fly low and fast,
not like I’ve seen with other jets. The thunderbirds do a trick, which
they distract you with the formation, and sneak up form the left with a
solo, flying just below the speed of sound, and really low, along the
crowd. I know when it’s coming, but it’s still a rush.

The blue angles (seen them once) did something even better.
They distract you with the formation, in front, and the two solo jets
come from behind, both flying over the crowd low and fast – my brother
peed his pants, and we both fell down (we were kids).

Saw an F-22 last year. They held the reins on it though, and never
opened it up. It taxied, and one or two planes performed, and all of a
sudden, you see the thing come out of nowhere, taking off from the left,
with this strange combination of roaring and screaming, similar to, but
not exactly like the F-15. It then shot straight up, on 30% power (so
they announced). Awesome sign of things to come. While I hoped for
more F-22 action, the sight of an F-4, 15 and 22 in formation was
awesome beyond description. You literally see the evolution of fighter
design over 4 decades flying above you.

I’ve seen F-14,15,16,18,22, 117, 104, and a whole bucnh of other
stuff. By far, the most impressive thing was the B-1.

To see something so huge move so fast at low level was awe inspiring.
It didn’t fly over the crowd, just right along it, at low level. That was
enough. Wasnt’ necessarily louder than an F-15, but it had a bit more
bass to it.

The f-104’s were also impressive. You could tell they were old school
by the sound of their engines. very cool

Any idiot can misuse any thing. More murders are committed with
items with alterior uses than specific uses (guns).

These are pretty neat devices. I’ve worked with lasers for quite
sometime, and it’s interesting to see that more powerful handhelds are
now available. Sure, you can cause eye damage with one of these, but
it’s far easier to cause eye damage with a rock or a baseball.

Thanks for posting that link – I think my father will be interested in one
of those. We repair classIIIa lasers, so we usuall yhave to lower th
eoutput of everything to under 5mW total output. th egreen lasers, due
to the crystal, often have even lower output than the red ones, despite
being much brighter. a TWO milliwatt green beam has a spot that is
clear hundreds of feet away in broad daylight, you could probably see
th ebeam with one of these!

Awesome.

Actually, the THEL is a chemical laser, I’m pretty sure of it.

The Solid state lasers are not quite up to the power output of chemical
laser, not just yet. They do have the potential to be more powerful, but
cooling is an issue. They are certainly going to make most chemical
lasers obsolete once they are advanced a bit more.

Solid State lasers are already small enough, and powerful enough, to be
mounted under the wing of an F-16, and do moderate damage to
another aircraft/target – not quite enough to make it worth while on the
plane, but it could work, NOW.

They keep making advances in SS laser tech – major leaps. I think they
have kilowatt class lasers that take up as much space as a refrigerator.

The potential for lasers in combat is awesome. Let’s say we had a
predator spot a group of terrorists go into a building. We want them
dead, but we’d REALLY want them alive if we could. However, due to
time constraints and distance from allied forces, the options are few.
Now, we can have the predator launch a few hellfires into the building,
or at the vehicles, or an AC-130 pump some HE rounds into them.
Best outcome, they all die. If the AC-130 has a laser, we can disable
the vehicles, and, after lowering the output – set it to “crisp” and disable
the targets from afar. They’ll be too busy writhing in agony to run
away, and allied forces can capture them when they arrive.

Pretty nasty, but with terrorists, it’s certainly not impossible.

I think the psy-ops potential is great, in the future. Just fit a high
percision optic and computer controlled steering, and you can feed it
images or text, and it’ll burn them into the ground – “Surrender or Die”,
for all to see.. hehe

I have a few model airplanes – I’d have a lot more if I had time. The last
one I built, I found out I was pretty good with an air brush, but I havent’
worked on one in about 5 years.

I also am starting a gun collection. Pretty small right now, only a 22 I
got when I was 12, and a new 12 gauge pump I got for Christmas.
Next on the list is a pistol, probably a 9mm, and then , the next thing I
want is the semi automatic version of whatever the next rifle the US
military adopts.

My main collection is reptiles. I’ve got quite a handful of chameleons,
geckos, and other critters. I’ve got a couple gravid ones, whihc means
I’ll have 50 or so more in less than a year. I’m even planning a trip to
Tanzania in a couple years, where I’ll be able to do some field studies,
amd *maybe* some collecting.

The reason western culture was able to spread across the globe, and
dominate it for so long, is complicated, but can be summed up quickly.

The Med.

The Mediterranean Sea enabled anchient societies to trade with
otherwise idolated people. It allowed long distance ship travelling to be
developed.

The main reason Europeans became dominant is because trade thrived.
The Med was the ideal setting , and the roman Empire further joined the
lands with roads.

The landscape helped establish shipping, and the desire for further trade
fueled further exploration.

Had the people in the area been content, with no NEED for trade or
travel, no exploration woudl have been accomplished. the need for
trade fueled the need for exploration.

Nobody doubts the Chinese had the technology to explore and colonize
– but when you’re talking about sailing across the Pacific… they had no
reason TO do it. Asia is a far larger landmass. There weren’t as many
different, isolated cultures stacked on top of each other like they were
surrounding the Med.

Europeans had more reason to expand, and dominate the trade routes,
and colonize. China could have done it, but they had little reason to.