6/14/10

Is that a 1 watt laser in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?




"Warning: Extremely dangerous is an understatement to the power of 1W of laser power. It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts."

Just $200 for a very dangerous and very cool looking laser. Paging Safety Neal, our resident expert, on the personal defense applications. 

14 comments:

  1. The Spyder certainly looks like a bad ass!

    Although I'm not sure of its tactical application. The potential to *permanently* blind someone strikes me as a serious legal liability in a defensive situation.

    There are several high intensity flashlights on the market with a strobe feature that will *temporarily* blind and disorient an opponent at night and many are heavy enough to serve as impact weapons, such as the 5.11 Light for Life: http://bit.ly/rsNk

    Blackhawk has a video for their Gladius Maximus light at YouTube, http://bit.ly/97oU7U, and the video alone could bring on a seizure.

    There's also the Tigerlight, which is a flashlight with built-in pepper spray: http://bit.ly/bHYMTN

    But the Spyder sounds like just the thing to complete my Obi Wan Kenobi costume.

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  2. Neal, perhaps you are considerably smaller than I remember, but at (about) 9" long and an inch or so wide, I'm not sure this device would meet your Obi Wan Kenobi costume needs.

    I'll also admit to a fairly vast ignorance of the uses of hand-held lasers, but I can't come up with any beyond tormenting cats and pointing at PowerPoint slides, neither of which would this device be safe for. I think I read everything about the device in question on the linked site and I didn't find anything that described what one might do with it.

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  3. It's for BURNING THINGS.

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  4. Do you find a lot of things in your day-to-day life that need burning with a hand-held laser?

    I'm asking in all seriousness. I can't come up with a reason for this thing to exist. Is there a home protection angle? Is this a new frontier for the 2nd amendment originalists?

    I'm not even sure of the physics involved. Beyond the retinal and skin damage that the site warns of, what could the thing burn? Is this just another tool in the arsenal of the pre-serial killer animal cruelty community (just be sure to wear your eye protection, kids!) or is there some mundane task that I'm just unaware of that can only be accomplished with a 1w hand-held laser?

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. I can't think of a more pretentious way to start a campfire. (And y'all can keep the laser; I'm holding out for a sonic screwdriver.)

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  7. Anonymous19/6/10 06:36

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  8. I was looking at it from a home defense, or even better, a concealed weapon aspect.

    I mean, how does it stack up against a taser? There's no law (so far) against carrying one around.

    And if somebody threatens you in a dark alley, you can literally light them up.

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  9. I'd say that, since the safe use of the device requires eye protection, that the self-defense applications are questionable at best. Unless you can convince your dark alley assailant to wait while you put on your safety glasses.

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  10. According to the NRA, safe use of a firearm includes both safety glasses AND ear guards. With the laser, I don't even need the ear guards.

    Basically, I trust myself not to blind myself with a laser about as much as I trust myself to not shoot myself in the foot.

    So, about 65 percent trusting, if you want to put a number on it.

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  11. Maybe I'm wrong, but I took from the safety warnings that just looking at the light from the laser was enough to do retinal damage. Not that it had to be aimed at an eye, just that the eye had to be exposed to the light of the laser.

    And the NRA is famously full of shit. I have safely fired literally hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition in calibers ranging from .22 up to 152mm without eye protection.

    Ear protection is a different story. Wear your ear protection, kids.

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  12. wow, i would have to admit that i am really attracked by such wonderful gadget. this laser pointer is pretty cool

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  13. UPDATE

    Lucasfilm Ltd. agrees with Safety Neal

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/gaming.gadgets/07/06/light.saber.lucas/index.html?hpt=Sbin

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  14. cool! it's the first time i saw a 1 watt laser, anyway i am a little afraid of taking this laser in my pocket. A powerful laser it is.

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