Laser pointers are one of man's most useful tools, whether it's adding that extra pizazz to your Powerpoint on deforestation in Guinea, driving your dog insane, or as the perfect gift for that 13-year-old who has everything. But a few bad apples keep pointing them at planes coming into New York City's major airports. The Post reports that 40 such incidents have been reported this year alone, which is more than double the number for the same period last year, and an "86 percent increase over 2009." How about people shine them at the operators of the porno-scanners instead?
Lasers are capable of lighting up the entire cockpit of a plane from miles away, and one JetBlue pilot describes being hit with one as "a blinding agent. You are temporarily disoriented." He was able to land the plane, but the FAA is concerned that someone will shine one in a cockpit during takeoff or landing. A teenager was arrested in 2006 after he shined one in an NYPD helicopter, but it's obviously difficult to determine who the culprit is from thousands of feet in the air. Laser pointers have been a scourge since the late '90s, but are still nowhere nearly as dangerous as Jnco Jeans or Furbys.
