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[Flying Dice]

I found a small flashlight/laser pointer that looks like a pen in my school, and I've already been finding so many uses for it, including messing with people.

Make sure to be subtle. Lost more of those fuckers to wised-up administration back in the day than I can count.

[Eric Blank]

You're not in australia, are you? I heard rumors that those are treated as a deadly weapon in legal terms :v

[Rolan7]

Just don't point it at an airplane - someone actually got in a lot of trouble for that, IIRC.

[Shadowlord]

Yes, because it can blind the pilots.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Yes, because it can blind the pilots.

I will not even attempt to calculate how miniscule the odds of that happening are. Consider: you need to first get your beam to hit a space a square centimeter in area, in a plane high above your head, at an altitude at which the merest trembling of your wrist would translate to like a hundred meters of deviation. Second, your beam needs to avoid being dispersed in the atmosphere to a point in which it would no longer blind anybody. Third, it would need to actually blind the person - I know that when the beam of a household laser pointer just slides over your eye, you do not go blind. Fourth, that person would need to make a mistake (while being blinded in only one eye) that would be so severe that a plane designed for maximum safety and aerodynamic stability would become permanently uncontrollable.

If we consider such events in our law-making, we might as well forbid throwing rocks toward planes in case a freak gust of wind carries them right into the turbine.

[TheBiggerFish]

There's more than just that, it can probably blind the autopilot too.

[Avis-Mergulus]

There's more than just that, it can probably blind the autopilot too.

...Ah,now you're dicking with me. Sorry, I never know when to take things seriously.

[Rolan7]

Some quick googling shows that it's not actually about lasering someone's eye such that they go blind, it's more like a distracting diffuse flash each time the laser passes over the cockpit.  The windows apparently scatter it quite a bit.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/65424/what-pilots-see-when-you-shine-laser-pointer-aircraft

[Avis-Mergulus]

Huh. That's interesting. Does it only work with those green lasers, or would a handheld red pointer be powerful enough?

[hops]

I actually learned it from Bay12? I distinctly remember Cinder referencing this at least twice in the past.

Now I have to ask Cin where they learned it.

You mean you don't click on disambiguation pages and spend half an hour reading about things ranging from ant reproduction, the Norman conquest, and pederasty, all from a single wiki walk?

[Shadowlord]

I do, but not those specific topics yet. Since the election, I've been spending a ton of time here and on twitter.

[Eric Blank]

Reading the reproductive habits and anatomy section of every organism's wiki page is a favorite pastime of mine. All the stupid shit critters get up to to get it up is quite amusing.

[Frumple]

It... it's been a long time since I've listened to merzbow. Noise music in general, for more than a few minutes. ~Twenty in right now. It's still nice ;_;

[AzyWng]

Reading the reproductive habits and anatomy section of every organism's wiki page is a favorite pastime of mine. All the stupid shit critters get up to to get it up is quite amusing.

I can be amused by the stupid shit humans alone get up to.

[hector13]

Why would you ever pour alcohol away? Such a waste.