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FAA Goes To the Web To Fight Laser-Pointing
coondoggie writes "The Federal Aviation Administration wants you to go online to help it battle the growing safety problem of people pointing lasers at flying aircraft. The FAA today said it created a new website to make it easier for pilots and the public to report laser incidents and obtain information on the problem which continues to grow by leaps and bounds. This year, pilots reported 2,795 laser events through Oct. 20. Pilots have reported the most laser events in 2011 in Phoenix (96), Philadelphia (95) and Chicago (83). Since it began tracking laser events in 2005 reports rose from nearly 300 to 2,836 in 2010, the FAA said."
I'd think it'd be pretty hard to accurately aim a laser pointer at a moving aircraft. I'm surprised it's such an issue.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Isn't it possible to lock a missile onto a laser source and eliminate the laser pointer?
I don't doubt that this is a problem, but I'd like to know what the pilots experience is when this happens. Does the laser light cause the entire cockpit to light up? What kind of disturbance does it cause?
First OWWWW MY EYES!
Clicked on a goatse link, did ya?
Fail. But here's your white cane.
Federal law requiring every laser pointer to be packaged with warning (in addition to the eye damage warning): pointing this device at aircraft is a felony, you will go to federal PMITA prison.
Laser pointers are tiny handheld devices that can be concealed or brought anywhere, so you'll never be able to track anyone down and stop them. If you're the type to actually get off on shining lasers at airplanes, then it's just going to make your day to see your latest venture reported on the website. I mean, when I see one of those radar equipped speed limit signs that tells you how fast you're going, I always end up seeing how fast I can get before I pass it. This is going to have the same effect on these people.
The biggest problems are when the aircraft is landing, not when flying at 10,000 feet. It is extremely difficult to shine a laser into the cockpit of an airplane if it is high above you, but as the aircraft is approaching the ground, it is easy for someone on the ground or in the airport to shine the beam into the cockpit as the craft gets closer and closer to the runway. The light bead could easily pass over any exposed eyes, temporarily blinding the pilots. It's not too big a deal for commercial aircraft since computers do the majority of the flying, but it can be dangerous for manually flown small aircraft.
At least these are still MODERATELY cost-prohibitive for most random morons: http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/S3_Krypton_Series-113-63.html
When your potential culprit is a six year old child, your weapon of concern is bought for a few bucks at Wal*Mart, and you're dealing with thousands of incidents, I think it's pretty clear that you need a technological solution for filtering laser light, not a massive network of informants.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
I'm sure we'll draw some 4th amendment allusion to the right to carry weapons but not to shoot at planes with them. The same needs to be said of lasers. All lasers, visible or not, of any power level should be considered at the minimum to be as dangerous as a taser and potentially worse than a gun at high power (seeing as they can take out ICBM's)
If it's not damaging, it's still distracting. I think all laser pointers are banned here (I forget if that is still the case) because of dipshit children shining them at their busdrivers.
Why don't they have cockpit windows that are specifically tinted to diffuse the laser light colors that most affect them (red and green). Similar to the glue on tints they have in cars. If it's tailored to specifically diffuse red and green it won't even have a huge affect on what the pilots can see.
Or the pilots could wear special glasses when landing that diffuse / absorb the light. Either way, both are potential solutions to this problem.
Do they track any of the stats regarding the pilots that experience these events? For example, pilots are supposed to fly at least 1000 feet above residential areas. In my area, we regularly have helicopters and small planes no more than a couple hundred feet above our houses and I have observed it is the same frequent offenders every time by writing down the (clearly visible to the naked eye) numbers on the bottom of the aircraft, when such numbers are present. I have attempted to contact local air control authority types but I can't get any more than a voice mail. They are so loud that it shakes my house and I could certainly understand how those who are willing to take the law into their own hands might decide to do whatever is necessary to discourage the pilots from skimming the treetops in their neighborhoods.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
They aren't going to stop people from doing this. They need to either coat the cockpit window with a dichroic notch filter for common consumer laser wavelengths. Or, issue sunglasses that remove the laser lines.
Create a problem, blame it on kids with lasers and then let the people cry to outlaw lasers.
Most of these incidents could have be committed by black ops, since there is no oversight of the government, there can be no facts, and therefor no trust.
If anything this will be used to prevent lasers from being available to mess with drones while they spy on Americans under this tyrannical police state with no rule of law.
Where I work, we've got plenty of these things. We already report to both the FAA and the DoD's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at... Vandenberg AFB, I think it is these days. Of course, this is maybe 30,000 laser-pointers worth... ;)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Fricken Lasers!
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
Okay, I followed your link (which wasn't really a link, by the way...), and this confused me:
A typical flash from a hand-held laser at 1000 feet lasts about 1/50 of a second. In the FAA simulator studies, the flash used was one second long. The animation above "splits the difference" by using 1/2 second flashes. We feel this is a realistic portrayal of how long a typical exposure might last.
There is a MASSIVE difference between 1/50 of a second and 1 second! And they're going to "split the difference"!!?
It seems to me like saying, "We're going to simulate eating rice to determine if it could be dangerous. An average serving is around 200 grains, so our simulator uses 3000 grains. Let's split the difference and test 1600 grains. Yup, looks like rice is pretty dangerous!" Well, YEAH, if you're eating eight servings in each sitting!
Not that I'm saying lasers don't pose some danger, mind you. Maybe they do, but this just doesn't seem like a very good-faith demonstration of that. I don't understand why they don't just record some of these actual flashes and show them to the public so that we'll actually see what the problem is. The fact that they don't kind of leads me to think that under just the right, extremely rare and fluky, circumstances it could cause an issue; but really, the danger is probably exaggerated to scare people into not doing it. Such is the problem with these warnings, it's hard to tell where it is in the spectrum (no pun intended) of warnings against stuff like texting and driving (very real and very dangerous) and stuff like using cell phones at gas stations (totally bogus).
Just allow the pilots to aim for the laser. Evolution should breed these morons out. /yoke
Flying a plane should still be safer than riding a car if each and every pilot would actually do this, but I suspect there would be some complaining...
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
Unfortunately there is no magic technology for this. Optical notch filters have quite high attenuation at all frequencies. Put 4 of those in succession, and you will have what are practically blackout goggles at all frequencies.
In Europe you would not be able to patent the idea because you actually have to present a workable technology. You might get away with it in the USA.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Why are this things always happening in the US? I never heard of such laser pointing in Europe or anywhere else....
Attempted mass murder should at least get you a few decades and they are well deserved in this case. Do that and make it widely public. Repeat every few months until the problem goes away.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
The technical/legal solution:This applies to all light (300nm-1090nm) sources capable of emitting more than 10mW radiant power or 0.5mW power/mm with a beam divergence of less than 1 radian/meter.
... {50 us GUUID pulse...}
1) At 10 millisecond intervals, the light must pulse a data frame containing Globally Unique ID pattern, followed by a dark interval of at least 1ms and optional packet data.
{50us GUUID pulse} {1ms dark interval} {5ms optional data packet or CW beam} {optional 0-50ms dark interval}
The GUUID pulse shall be modulated to carry:
{16 bit country ID, 64 bit Mfg ID, 128 bit User ID,3D GPS coordinates of device (optional),spectral code(optional) }
The dark intervals will for pulse-width dimming as well as magneto-optical and/or rotating shutter synchronization for mitigation of light pollution at observatories, airports and elsewhere. This light data frame standard is designed for all fast switch (e.g. LED) light sources and can be applied to streetlights, headlights, searchlights, insecurity lights...
2) All unidentified lights shall be considered contraband and will be targeted by laser guided Tsar bombs.
Lasers pointed above the horizon should be considered a special case of light pollution (light tresspass). I suspect more deaths are caused by morons installing 500W+ "insecurity lights" on their home or business and aiming them so that they impair the ability of drivers to see the road, cyclists, pedestrians... There is a tight curve in the road near my house and the business at the end of this road installed three 500W+ halogen security light aimed into the windshields of cars as they approach this curve. The lighthouses and light buoys here and in my hometown are almost invisible until you are almost upon the rocks because there is so much light pollution in the city behind the lighthouse. IMHO we should solve the incoherent morons with incoherent light problem at the same time as we solve the incoherent morons with coherent light problem.
Just think of all the jobs it would create :-) A green laser pointer economy... green... yes, maybe it could fly
Website? Laws? Punishments? Forget it. There can only be a technical solution. Find some way to make planes impervious to this kind of attack.
I personally would not have a problem with it, that when someone is pointing a laser pointer at a plane and is caught, she is skinned alive. But since 'idiot' and 'asshole' is among the most common human traits, this would hardly cause a ripple in the gene pool and would do nothing to improve the safety of planes.
Another possible solution would be to forbid laser pointers. Good luck with that.
Or are they more interested in feeling up little kids than in stopping actual attacks on aircraft?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I'm willing to wager that the number of laser devices in the hands of the public has not skyrocketed since 2005, but that the incidence of reporting airplane / laser incidents *has*.
It's like feeding the trolls on USENET, the more one tries to "correct" the problem the worse it becomes.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Super plan, boyscout.
Then some turkey mounts one aimed at the sky above your window. In your dystopia, you and yours are now the target of some manner of bomb.
There's no damn problem. A plane coming in to land is a VERY small target and holding it in your hand VERY carefully means you still have a wobble of about five degrees.
A four-foot target area extends five degrees of angle at about 50ft range.
Yeah.
LASER light is blinding because it's so intense. The watts per square meter is extremely high because a small amount of light is concentrated in a small area.
But if you spread that light through a large area, then it's not so intense any more.
A 100mW laser light may be much MUCH less blinding than that spotlight they have on the runway...
What's different about this compared to a lightning flash? I would expect the same momentary blindness from either event.
On a windy day the plane can slide all over the glide path if you just sit back and let it sink to the ground. To make a proper landing, you need to make constant adjustments to the throttle, stick, and rudder. Those are kind of tough if you can't see the 'bleeping ground; a crosswind gust and you are toast.
Yes, takeoff is the most dangerous phase of a flight, but it would be correct to say that landing is the phase that is the most dependent on what you see outside the windscreen.
Then some turkey mounts one aimed at the sky above your window. In your dystopia, you and yours are now the target of some manner of bomb.
We're talking about a laser guided Tsar bomb here. The correct pronouns are, Ye (medieval plural of you) and yours and his and hers and theirs and its and everbodys. The beauty of a Tsar bomb is your targeting only has to be accurate give or take a subcontinent.
I was pointing my laser at the moon when a plane crossed my line of sight. These planes are a menace and must be stopped.
FAA uses web to introduce millions of morons world-wide to a new and fun recreational use of their laser pointers. Pilot community thrilled. News at eleven.
You can attach boosters to anything. It just costs more. -
Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 07, @12:26PM
Helicopters can fly however low they want, within reason:
FAR 91.119(d)(1): (1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA.
And planes are only required to fly 1000 feet above congested residential areas:
FAR 91.119(b): (b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
Over uncongested areas, 500 AGL is fine.
And any altitude is fine if needed for takeoff or landing.
Before complaining to the FAA again, you should do your research. You also might want to download the approach plates (if any) for the airport to see how low they are supposed to be flying over your house.
Yes. For longer than a fiftieth of a second? Yes.
I know you have no math ability, you don't know the difference between 1/50th and 1/2, do you...
That doesn't make sense. Once the beam has diverged enough to 'light up the entire plane', or even just the cockpit, the light intensity is very small. A powerful laser pointer has an output of ~250 mW (milliwatts). 250 mW dispersed over 1mm^2 is very strong illumination. 250 mW over the whole cockpit is nothing - same as a 250 mW lightbulb. Unless the cockpit is pitch dark, you will not even notice it.
Is anyone surprised that Phoenix is on the list? Maybe if the airport's flight path didn't go right over Arizona State University, they wouldn't have this problem? I bet that most of these incidents are a bunch of drunk frat boys playing around with laser pointers on a Saturday night at the big parties,. . .
http://laserpointersafety.com/news/news/other-news_files/429de9e7f6bef34ed0d1ad9f78914f53-219.php
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Have any of you tried pointing a laser on the cockpit of a plane traveling at a couple of hundred miles an hour? It's all bull crap. Even if you could it's just a flash of light in the cockpit. if they are that sensative that the plane will fall out of the sky or the pilot so distracted that they will crash, then the planes and pilots need to be grounded because they are not as safe as have been claimed.
Let the FAA step up to the plate. I want to see some real video from the cokpit of a plane with a laser pointing in it while they are flying, then I want to see if a person can duplicate it from the outside by pointing a laser at a planes tale section, in a area painted the same size as the cockpit windows. This needs to happen while the plane is flying by at take off or landing speeds, and the person with the laser pointer needs to be in a location that the average person would normally be allowed durring that time.
Pilots, it's time for you to step up. Has this ever happened to you? Give details. Do you think YOU could duplicate that yourself?
How close can a person be to a comercial runway when a plane is taking off or landing? A car is larger than the windows of the cockpit. Let's have somebody drive a car down a road at the same distance from the laser pointer as they would be in a plane, and have them driving at 50 MPH.
I bet Mythbusters could prove it one way or another.
Most laser pointers operate on just TWO specific wavelengths, one in the red region and one in the green. It should be possible to produce a filter that blocks these specific wavelengths of light while allowing all others to pass (such filters are made for telescopes to block the specific wavelengths of light emitted by sodium and mercury vapor street lamps). Fit these filters to glasses that pilots could wear (or even to the cockpit windows) to protect the pilot's from being blinded by wayward laser pointers.
BTW, operators of star parties often use green laser pointers to point upward at sky objects (stars, planets) to identify them for their guests.
The TSA needs to be given greater powers to frisk and abuse people!
Anyone who lives within 5miles of an overhead flight path MUST submit to random frisking by TSA officials to make sure they are not carrying lasers.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Instead of yet another reason for police to kick doors in, let's just accept the fact that lasers exist. Either polarize the windows in the cockpit, or have the pilots wear polarized goggles when they look outside, or start not-using the windows so much - instrumentation is really good now.
I think, anyway this goes, that this "problem" isn't as worrying as they make out. I think it is a back door to outlawing lasers in civilian hands. Reason for that would be the inevitable evolution of handheld laser weapons, which would be noiseless, untraceable, and have a range of tens of miles. Sniper rifles for everyone, in their back pocket. I think they want to head that off at the pass.
We could build a personal laser gun now. Think of it: get a hundred low-power laser pointer emitters, and build a mechanism to aim all the beams at the same point - it would be devastating. And I'm surprised that someone hasn't tried it yet.
I'm not saying that the police and the military won't have laser weapons soon. I'm saying they don't want *citizens* to have them, and this "problem" is the pretext to make sure anyone with a laser goes to prison. New battery and fuel cell tech mean that laser guns are coming soon, and they will make the wielders more powerful than anyone with a gunpowder weapon. They want laser weapons to be classified as terrorist devices. Unless they point them at you, in which case they will be swell. Done rambling.
Hellfire missiles FTW.
Just needs to be a big enough missile, and laser-homing, to take out the douchebag who's shining the damn beam at the aircraft.
It's funny, you never know what people are going to pick on.
When I went to bed after posting that, I was like "damn, they're going to call me out on the fact that a transparent cell can't generate electricity because it doesn't absorb photons. I should have said translucent"
Instead, people are going after me for turning the whole windshield opaque, which is ridiculous.
I thought it was pretty obvious that you'd have a material that consisted of microscopic domains. Each domain is a cell-LCD pair. The windshield only darkens where the beam hits it, and it becomes translucent again when the beam is removed. I was anticipating that the beam might "fry" the screen, leaving a trail of burned-out cells. That's why you'd want to be able to pull it off.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
i can explain the phoenix laser events. they weren't laser pointers, they were laser sights for weapons. it's customary to show off the laser sight on your .45 by pointing it directly at a cockpit and brag to your friends about how you could take that sucker down, god bless america.
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
Since they threaten safety, lasers should be illegal to own. That position would at least be consistent with all the other legislative overreactions.
Let them try shinning a laser pointer at a predator. The predator will not only not be affected by the laser but also can automatically track down the person and fire a hellfire at him and eliminate the problem once for all.
I hate to say it, but you've just now encouraged hundreds of thousands, if not millions more people to perform this act. Smooth move there, FAA.
When you tell someone something is bad, they want to do it more. How many times does this have to be repeated before "we" learn?
Seems to me it would be fairly trivial to add two cameras to the wingtips and use them, the GPS coordinates of the plane, and some trigonometry, to automatically file a report with an FAA clearinghouse which forwards the laser's source position to the local authorities. Having a reliable response system in place would act as a significant deterrent.
I think a more scary scenario is when 10+W handheld lasers start becoming the norm. We're going to end up in a future of drive-by blindings and arson attacks if we're not careful. Seriously, who thinks a drunk asshole could resist the possibility of lighting some guys pants on fire across a crowded bar?
Speaking of lasers - what's the legality of pointing them at the sky if you don't see a plane? I was shining a 300mW green pen into the sky(from my neighbor's house :)) last night and noticed the local ghetto bird(police copter) taking an interest in our area for a bit. I was only pointing at jupiter, so I don't think I broke any laws, but for now I'm paranoid and won't shine it in the sky from my house.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
I remember hearing of an incident here in Sacramento where some adult was shining a laser into the cockpit of a police helicopter while it was helping to track a GTA in progress. Unfortunately for the person shining the laser, the helicopter had FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red) and was able to lead one of the squad cars to his location.
Congratulations: you just outlawed HID headlamps, HID street lamps, projector HID lamps, fluorescent lighting, and incandescent lighting all in one fell swoop - and you have just broken optical communications technology. Are you planning on a monopoly on LED-based lighting?
(unintended consequences such as above are usually caused by well-intentioned regulations envisioned by short-sighted numbskulls)
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
You just outlawed laser light shows, and also pointers used by astronomers at meets and classes. Another case of unintended consequences caused by a shortsighted numbskull who if a politician would cause more problems than they solved.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Congratulations: you just outlawed HID headlamps, HID street lamps, projector HID lamps, fluorescent lighting, and incandescent lighting all in one fell swoop -
No, such lights could also carry an ID pulse, though at a slower data rate.
and you have just broken optical communications technology.
No, the protocol I've suggested specifically allows for optical communication. LEDs and laser diode lights will be increasingly used for communication and area lighting. I'm suggesting that such a protcol should contain a GUID (as WiFi, CDMA already do) and synchronized dark intervals.
You just outlawed laser light shows, and also pointers used by astronomers at meets and classes.
I've never understood why these should be exempt from sensible lighting rules. Does it really matter whether your plane is brought down by a Pink Floyd concert, an 'astronomer' pointing out Alberio or man-child with a laser pointer?
Shortsighted numbskull who if a politician would cause more problems than they solved.
When someone is eventually killed or injured by abuse of these devices, lawmakers will respond with far more draconian rules. To assume otherwise is shortsighted. The U.S. is a knee-jerk "somebody do something" society and much of the world follows the U.S. in these matters. I would also like to keep these devices legal but I think the best way to do this is some sort of science based pre-emptive legislation along with technology which allows us to identify those who use these devices in a manner which may bring harm to others.
Scuba diving, model rocketry, ameteur radio and many other hobbies have managed to avoid excessive regulation by devising their own training and regulations. I suggest that we do something similar for lasers and other potentially dangerous portable light sources. My initial proposal should not be taken as the final but I think it should be a starting point for discussion. (e.g. I'd be willing to use a tactical nuke instead of a Tsar bomb)
I don't need a ;-) do I?
I am an amateur astronomer. Around 10 years ago laser pointers for aiming scopes in the sky and for pointing to objects in the sky --to show someone else what star you are talking about--started showing up in the market. Early ones were low powered and red, barely visible. Then green ones appeared, much more visible. I thought I wanted one, as it can be a nice tool to facilitate aiming at an object. Aiming a telescope has been compared to looking through a soda straw and trying to find the right star/object. It's a skill that like most things, you can get good at. But a techno-geeky thing like a laser pointer seemed to be a great tool. And there are those who swear by them.
Recently there was a long thread discussing the issue of laser pointers and plane safety. After looking into the issue, here is what I think now:
1. a laser travels much farther and higher than most people imagine
2. some people really stuck on 'this is my rights' aspect: see 4
3. I've given up the idea about getting a laser pointer for use with astronomy, see everything else on my post
4. comparing the rare risk vs the worst outcome of a plane crash... the worst outcome to me is the deciding factor
5. It is only a matter of time before a plane or helicopter crash is caused by a someone pointing a laser at a plane, intentional or unintentional. 100%
6. of lot of the instances have been yahoos aiming lasers at helicopters....and relatively slow moving planes on landing or takeoff at airports. Yes, hard to hit at 30,000 feet while going 500+ MPH, not impossible, but easier if it is a police helicopter or a plane going 125mph on a landing approach
7. It is only a matter of time before someone pointing a laser in the sky is shot by police. 100%
Hunt around this site: http://laserpointersafety.com/sentences/sentences.html
Lazy anonymous. Too lazy to register (also don' t want my name in any database, FBI, TSA, PTA, etc.)
Here is an excerpt from letter I dug up online from the FAA:
a. The purpose of the rule is to provide minimum safe altitudes for flight and to provide adequate protection to persons on the ground. Thus, it distinguishes flight over sparsely settled areas as well as large metropolitan areas from low flying aircraft. Thus, size of the area is not controlling, and violations of
the rule have been sustained for operation of aircraft: (i) over a small congested area consisting of approximately 10 houses and a school (Allman, 5 C.A.B. 8 (1940)); (ii) over campus of a university (Tobin, 5 C.A.B. 162, 164(1941); (iii) over a beach area along a highway, and (iv) over a boy's camp
where there were numerous people on the docks and children at play on shore. b. The presence of people is important to the determination of whether a particular area is "congested." Thus, no violation was found in the case of a flight over a large shop building and four one-family dwellings because, in the
words of the CAB examiner, "it is not known (to the court) whether the dwellings were occupied." In that case, the area surrounding the buildings was open, flat and semiarid.
(NOTE: The FAR references have changed since this letter was published.)
The full web page (with definitions from international authorities too) is here: http://footflyer.com/PPGBibleUpdates/Chapter08/congested.htm
there will be more reports filed
You like leave all doors open and go on a two week holiday to come back and find out the house has been emptied? So you blame it on the passers-by ? Or when a kid accidentaly succeeds in hacking into a military network from his little room in the attic and you don't blame it on the admins who are supposed to secure the nation ? Or like, if someone with a toy laser can bother airplanes actually you're going to ignore that if its harmful it can be used by actual enemies in actual warfare and just sue civilians for acting like baboons then ? right, i see your ... no i don't see your point, i see what you're doing tho, same as always, i think its best to hang some lawyers in a public place for malpractice or something to discourage them from encouraging stuff like this.
If it's harmful at military level, you should try to find a solution for it, not force ordinary people not to do it, because as with every so-called solution these days, that is NOT adressing the real problem ...humans ... tsssss
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?
Why don't you try *not* telling people that they shouldn't stuff beans up their nose? I had never even *considered* pointing a laser pointer at an aircraft before, but now I'm kind of tempted. And I live right under a flight path.
Seems the air force will deliberately shine lasers at aircraft when it suits them. Only when they do it "the lasers are harmless" http://articles.cnn.com/2005-04-15/tech/laser.warn_1_laser-beams-ground-based-lasers-airspace?_s=PM:TECH
UNIX: 'cuz you can tattoo it on your knuckles!
"You and yours" is correct English, referring to you and your family (and/or others closely related, intimates, close friends)- in this case, those who would be in, say, the home of the falsely targeted innocent subject of said bomb (which apparently destroys cities, a key fact of hyperbole I missed).