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Laser Painting Could Lead to 25-Year Prison Term
lowy writes "According to this USA Today article, a New Jersey man was charged under federal anti-terrorism laws with shining a laser beam at a jet flying over his home. The Feds arrested him after he flashed a police helicopter searching for the source of the beam. He now faces up to 25 years in prison under Patriot Act charges." It seems to be happening around the country, as our earlier post makes clear.
Granted I've never flown a plane, so I don't know how farfetched the idea may be... but isn't piloting a potentially computer-controllable task? After all, planes fly pre-arranged flight plans, land on carefully-scheduled runways, etc. In the plane, most of the work consists of pointing in the right direction at the right time, and being at the right altitude for the flight plan, no? And not only are computers harder to blind (with proper design) they are also harder to highjack (with proper security).
Just a thought
RTFA
Don't believe everything you read.
a laser was aimed at an airplane
An airplane flew past a laser aimed at the stars and the pilots were all stoned and drunk so they reacted in a paranoid manner. In order to gain credibility they had to drum up the story to include "blinding light".
then at a helicopter
The police, hearing the pilots yammering on the scanner, noticed the laser across the sky and similarly approached it. As they approached the laser danced about from constellation to constellation, so they figured that close enough counts when writing a report to include probable cause.
It's called critical reading. Try it sometime.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
I find it extremely disturbing that you think that only high powered lasers exist.
Where do you get your facts from, Bill O'reilly and Ann Coulter?
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
I am absolutely tired of hearing all of this FUD about the USA PATRIOT Act. Have any of the people that are against this thing even read it? Or, is it that they do not comprehend it? Or, perhaps it is that they just want to lie and mislead of others about it? Surprisingly, the document is written in clear and consice English... and very comprehendable. Also, the document does not make new laws or precendents... is merely makes small modifications to existing laws.
The best thing about the USA PATRIOT Act, in contrast to other items, is that individual portions can be made invalid if found to be violating rights, and that the document stipulates that the Constitution of the USA should be used to determine anything questionable. Sounds like the same foresight that has let the Constitution itself transcend time.
The point is, this is all FUD. I do not care if I get modded down; it will just prove what ignorance exists (the people who mod me down will be objected to the USA PATRIOT Act and be offended by what I have stated, but they most likely have not read the document).
Politics, Life, and More on my Aspiring for the Future
I wish they'd arrest the guys who lied to start a Terror --er, "Shock and Awe" campaign in Baghdad in March of 2003.
They really messed up the Middle East with that one.
In their next issue, another physicist proves that bees can't fly. Any empirical evidence to the contrary is just superstition and mass hysteria.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat