It’s around 9am, and I’m browsing through my RSS feeds, and one headline leapt out at me (from technocrat.net):
By zogger Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:34:14 PDT Science
Permanently blinding laser weapons (and now strong LEDs) are allegedly illegal under international law, but if they make claims it is only temporarily blinding, that is enough to garner interest for some militaries and police forces….”
“Two versions of the portable non-lethal dazzlers, including a hand-held laser dazzler, are set to be inducted into the Indian armed forces for use in counter-insurgency operations. This will make the 21st century soldier a technology-driven jawan,” a top defence source told PTI.”….and
..”The device works by temporarily blinding and disorienting a person, said Bob Lieberman, president of Intelligent Optical. Once aimed at someone’s eyes, light pulses and colors can be triggered and the subject’s eyes can’t adjust.”…more tech like this along with the sonic and microwave weapons and public political protest is about over, there
Of course, referring to these weapons as “dazzlers” made me think of another source of laser-light: The Marvel Comics heroine known as The Dazzler.
A bit of trivia… did you know that the Dazzler was intended to resemble Grace Jones, but was changed to look “more like Bo Derek” because they wanted to cross-promote a movie about her? I think she might have been even cooler if they’d go with the original idea!
