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New Laser Makes Pirates Wish They Wore Eye-Patches

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday January 9, 2011 @07:10AM from the scuttle-the-lens dept.

vieux schnock writes "The New Scientist has an article about a new laser developed by a company in Farnborough, UK, that aims to deter modern high-seas pirates. Devised as a 'warning shot' to 'distract suspected pirates rather than harm them,' the meter-wide beam can scan the pirates' 6-metre skiffs and make it difficult for them to aim their AK-47 or rocket-propelled grenades at the ship."

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Cue something about sharks by vakuona · 2011-01-09 07:12 · Score: 5, Funny

in 3...2...1
1. Re:Cue something about sharks by badran · 2011-01-09 07:13 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Sharks
meter-wide bean? by theskunkmonkey · 2011-01-09 07:19 · Score: 5, Funny

> meter-wide bean
That's a huge bean!
Re:I have a better idea by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-09 07:24 · Score: 5, Funny

It's actually quite difficult to snipe from a moving ship.
That's non-sense. These pirate boats are six meters per TFA. I used to bullseye womp rats in my T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters.
Re:I have a better idea by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2011-01-09 07:31 · Score: 5, Funny

Luckily, active-duty Navy SEALs are approximately representative of the sniping ability of your average nautical rentacop, so there should be no difficulties with applying this scheme more broadly...