Sydney skies menaced by deadly raygun disco-ball
Most readers will be aware by now of the recent spate of laser-pointer yobbo dazzle harassment attacks on aircraft in Australia. Now, however, aviators above Sydney are being threatened by a new brand of malefactor - municipally-funded modern artists. It seems that Sydney traffic-chopper reporter Vic Larusso fell victim to the …
lemming alert.....cavity searching for laser pointers coming soon....these are NOT like the ones we lit 'things' with in university ;-)
on the eve of Anzac day the traffic reporter whose reports 'lights in the sky' decrees art as weapons----feh.
the Mericans been doing the reverse for years..
> the convicts of old Parramatta used to trap eels using laser guns.
Don't be silly, it was the eels that had the frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
I've found a link to a televised interview from what looks to be a local news agency with the artist behind the work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU
Paris because... Well, you'll see. The guy's "eccentric" to say the least. Plus, his last name's a little hard to pronounce. I keep wanting to say "Aztee".
Here's my entry for the Turner Prize this year - a giant radio transmitter in the shape of, I dunno, a banana eating itself, which at random intervals during the day broadcasts the RickRoll song in its entirety over the radio frequency used by the ambulance service.
You can see it here in this pdf: http://www.parracity.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/14012/CommunityBusinessDec-Mar2007.pdf
And it took me less than two minutes ;-)
welcome our new crazed political intelligentsia overlords
"Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture "
to
"Australian Institute of Laser Anarchy"
I would love to see.. maybe not.
Obligatory laser comments, DO NOT look into laser with remaining eye.
The goggles they do nothing!
Sharks with frickin' laserbeams on their heads.
If you just used mirrored sunglasses/nosecone/windshield...
Not saying that all laser stories are much the same but they do tend to go the same place.
There is a long history of 'artistic' lasers and perceived hazards. In fact the major danger to aircraft has always been artistic rather than handheld laser pointers.
For once Wackypeia has a reasonable article on the subject. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasers_and_aviation_safety
In summary, people shining powerful lasers in the sky need permission, and aircraft need to employ minimum safe distances from them. For all this there are published standards.
sounds to me like australian pilots need to wear reflective sunglasses.
i think that makes more sense than banning lasers.. soon anything reflective will be banned next at this rate..
shoulda gone to specsavers?
- mine's the reflective silver space blanket material one with sunglasses in the pocket. seeya!
There's a third video featuring a collaboration between both parties: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=_0719DxMOUY
... that's not an artwork, that's a lighting effect used at Hawkwind concerts for about the past twenty years.
Works very well when it's done right too, it creates an effect just like you're in the cockpit of the millennium falcon going into hyperspace with all these short abbreviated dashes of laser light shooting past you.
Well, maybe that was the acid. Works for me though, whatever it was.
Surely if it's potentially dangerous to a pilot, presumably at a range of >1000 feet, what the hell is it going to be like from 50 feet away, where the spread of beam reflections would be that much tighter.
Either there's going to be a Claims Direct outbreak in the vicinity, or the pilot is exaggerating the effects.
Paris, because it looked like green laser lighting in "that" video...
@Hans-Peter
Yep, that certainly does look like a half a load of eel-traps caught up in an ELF antenna. I was deeply moved and affected, but not as deeply as the bloke with an eyeful of coherent photons.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/laser-art-shut-down-after-attack/2008/04/24/1208743120821.html
