Why Protesters In Cairo Use Laser Pointers

New submitter Ahmed Shaban writes "Why do protesters in Cairo use laser pointers? At the beginning, they were used to light up snipers on rooftops. Later, it just became fashionable to use them, and such things spread very fast among the youth of Cairo, who can find the high power laser pointers for sale on the sidewalks. The article contains amazing photos of a chopper lit up by green laser pointers."

Comments

No reason to light up snipers these days...

[Rockoon]

With the Egyptian military completely on board with the protesters this time around, I guess the laser pointers dont have much actual purpose anymore.

Its actually quite remarkable what is happening there. More people were protesting than had voted for the president because the president decided that their constitution didnt apply to him, so the military takes down the president in response but remarkably doesnt assume power.

How many countries actually have a military that would do this sort of thing? I'm fairly certain that mine, with a military that runs an agency well known now for violating the constitution, would not.

Re:No reason to light up snipers these days...

[Rockoon]

There are 4 main factions in Egypt, and certainly not all of them are happy with the military... clearly the muslim brotherhood is no longer happy with them. I imagine the minor groups like the Christians are extremely happy now.

I work with a man from Egypt, a Christian with family over there. I asked him what he thought about all this and his eyes lit up, "my family is finally free."

Re:No reason to light up snipers these days...

[Rockoon]

I dunno. If someone staged a coup in the US, I'd be 'encouraging people to be violent' against it as well.

What if 50 million people in the US took to the streets in protest of the government?

That is essentially what just happened in Egypt. 17% of the people took to the streets! The largest protest in the history of the world at 14 million people.

Its gotta be extremely bad to get 17% of the people actively protesting, so when you say 'staged a coup' I honestly wonder exactly how ignorant you are of what just happened in Egypt. Only read and watch American news?

Re: This Is Considered News??

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems the same in US too..

It depends.

[raehl]

Is that not the textbook definition of a coup d'etat?

Just because a government is democratically elected doesn't mean it's a democracy. History is full of democratically elected governments that then turn into totalitarian regimes.

If Obama woke up tomorrow and ordered that all Tea Party members be arrested, I would expect our military to essentially remove him from office - in the immediate case by ignoring him, and in the longer case by Congress impeaching him and removing him from office - which would still require the cooperation of the military (they'd have to decide to listen to Congress and not the President.)

In Egypt, there isn't really a constitutional mechanism to get rid of a leader who, while democratically elected, isn't fulfilling his responsibilities as a democratic leader, so the best thing they have is the Army takes care of it.

So while this may technically be a coup in that the elected leader is being removed from office through a non-elective means, it's not necessarily undemocratic, if you believe the elected leader is abusing the freedoms of the people and the coup is to create the opportunity for someone who does respect the rights of the people to be elected.

Re:It depends.

[bill_mcgonigle]

If Obama woke up tomorrow and ordered that all Tea Party members be arrested, I would expect our military to essentially remove him from office -

How about if he just had all of the newspaper editors arrested and jailed who were publishing stories in opposition to his policies?

Because that's what Lincoln did and the Army supported him. Both used / would used 'continuity of government' as an excuse to violate the laws that authorize that government in the first place.

Re:Whats the laser used in laser wars

[v1]

but I don't believe for a moment that it'll ignite anything at a distance of several hundred feet

Although atmosphere does reduce the power, it's columnated light and in a vacuum anyway it would not lose any of its power. Dust, fog, humidity in the air will lower the power, but also cause you to be able to see the beam in the air. If you can't see the beam of a laser, it's likely delivering very close to 100% of its output power on target.

Years ago, when laser pointers were expensive, I had a 5mw red laser that we tested at 1/4 mile. It lit up an entire dumpster very nicely. (lenses weren't that good back then, it wouldn't hold a point for more than 25 feet or so, and TONS of scatter)

But on the other issue of power, just because it's a laser doesn't make it any more destructive than something else of the same power. A 100w lightbulb puts out 100x the power of a 1w laser pointer. And you don't see lightbulbs catching helicopters on fire. (even if focused in a spotlight) The only reason 1w lasers catch paper on fire is they're concentrating 1w of power into a 2mm x 2mm area. That would probably feel like a match at 1/2", enough to light paper. That's not going to melt metal obviously, at any range. The laser just lets you project that "half inch from a match" out several hundred yards. It doesn't make it more (or less) intense.

Somewhat back on topic though... wow.... that flight had to SUCK for those helicopter pilots. Someone hits one 727 with a laser pointer and the whole city loses their mind and the swat team rolls. That heli looks like it had 3-4 dozen green and at least two blue pointed at it. They would have to be out of their minds to look down except through cameras, and imagine the refractions going on inside the cockpit, with greens and blues scattering off all the shiny things. I bet that is an incredibly effective deterrent for the pilots.

Ironic, they sent in the helicopters as a show of force, and got driven off by the demonstrators using cheap, commonly available tech. Sort of like making the water canon truck leave by throwing rocks at it. Embarrassing.