The joys and dangers of a high-power laser pointer

Dan over at Dan’s Data has put up a really nice article on the fun and dangers you can experience with a high power green laser pointer.

Bright lasers just cry out to be shone on things to see what happens.

Yes, farmers and plain old cruel people, they work as bird scarers. Freak out a couple of birds with a green laser dot, and their panic will set the whole flock off.

(I don’t know what happens if you try this with flightless domesticated fowls. Don’t expect me to send flowers if you take on even one emu.)

And you can, of course, use green lasers to induce your pets to do strange things – though given the eye-damage risk that I’ll get to in a moment, sticking with 5mW or lower pointers for this purpose is a good idea. Some cats and dogs are afraid of very bright laser dots, anyway.

Check it out.

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