Re: Blu-Ray TOS Phaser for Under $100 Bucks
Unsafe...oh my goodness.
Yes, and for heavens sake make sure your replica knives are not sharp as well...
...and watch out for bb guns too..you'll shoot your eye out, Ralphie.
Be afraid, be very afraid:angel
I guess I sound like Mr. Safety Weenie to you, but you know, fearlessness is just
dumb.
If you read various easy laser hack how-tos, and the comments on them, it's obvious that most people really don't understand the dangers of lasers the way they understand the dangers of knives and guns. Even if they're told they're dangerous, they don't really believe it because they don't understand it. (So here goes.)
For example, most people don't know that laser pointers are generally limited to 5mw, or why, or realize that a 30 or 60 mw laser is much more dangerous. It's not obvious from looking at the light spot it produces, either. A 6x or even a 12x higher powered laser doesn't look all that much brighter, because visual response to light is logarithmic.
If it appears significantly brighter, so that most people would think it's "2x as bright," it's actually putting out several times that much energy and is way more likely to burn somebody's retina with a stray reflection---even a partial reflection off a window or piece of metal trim or some other smooth surface. That's why laser pointers are limited to 5mw---so that a *partial* reflection off of glass or whatever is unlikely to blind anybody.
It's a lot harder to know where the partial reflections are going than is to aim the main beam, so the obvious advice---DO NOT LOOK INTO BEAM WITH REMAINING EYE---isn't always good enough.
For more powerful lasers than a laser pointer, you really have to know where the reflections are going, even if you're not aiming it at a mirror. If the laser is powerful enough, you could accidentally blind somebody by playing the beam across any shiny surface.
The non-obviousness of the dangers makes them worth pointing out. I don't think most people are stupid enough to do really stupid things with lasers, but plenty of people are *ignorant* enough to pass for stupid when it comes to playing with lasers.
If I see somebody waving a sword around carelessly, I know to stay out of reach. But if they're using something that acts like a laser pointer, I can't see the beam, it reaches really far, it can reach me around corners, and I can't easily tell if it's just a laser pointer, or something way more likely to injure somebody. I likely won't even notice what they're doing. It's like a magic sword that looks short and dull and predictable but is actually very long and sharp and screwy. Not something I want people goofing around with at cons, etc. (Or even trying to "try it out" responsibly, without actually knowing how.)
If you really want your very own blu-ray phaser laser pointer, knowing that it won't do what the movie shows it doing except in dim light and fog, by all means go for it. It is kinda neat.
Just keep it out of reach of children and ignorant people, i.e., almost everybody. It looks like a toy---a phaser couldn't be *real*, after all---but it's actually a fairly dangerous weapon, and that's a bad combination.
