back to article 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 …

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  1. s. pam Silver badge
    Flame

    time for the disco biscuits .....

    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..

  2. Ralph B
    Jobs Horns

    Killer Eels

    > 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!

  3. Ash
    Paris Hilton

    After 4 long, arduous minutes...

    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".

  4. Spleen

    God I love modern art

    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.

  5. Seán

    @Ash

    You mean http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=jnA94BERJsw

  6. Hans-Peter Lackner
    Black Helicopters

    "Extensive" Research

    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 ;-)

  7. Dave
    Thumb Up

    I, for one,

    welcome our new crazed political intelligentsia overlords

  8. Dave
    IT Angle

    time for a rebranding

    "Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture "

    to

    "Australian Institute of Laser Anarchy"

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds cool

    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.

  10. Jerry
    Boffin

    Prior Art

    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.

  11. Sillyfellow
    Coat

    need sunglasses?

    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!

  12. Ash
    Joke

    @Sean

    There's a third video featuring a collaboration between both parties: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=_0719DxMOUY

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Lasers shining off mirrorballs...

    ... 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.

  14. Dan White
    Paris Hilton

    errr....

    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...

  15. Jonathan Richards

    Eel-traps

    @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.

  16. Markie Dussard
    Unhappy

    Vince 1, Flock 0

    http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/laser-art-shut-down-after-attack/2008/04/24/1208743120821.html

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