quote:The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) believes the weapon could be used, for example, to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock. However, the DoD has yet to reveal details of how the laser works and has yet to respond to New Scientist�s requests for further information.
Laser weapons capable of blinding enemies have been developed in the past but were banned under a 1995 UN convention called the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. The wording of this protocol, however, does not prohibit lasers that temporarily dazzle a foe.
(I guess if this trends towards the ethical implications we can wander over to the Flameboard, if we feel we need to.)
((I probably wouldn't have mentioned this if it was just the name, but check out that photo.))
Registered: Mar 1999
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Can't blind them with brillance, dazzle them with your PHASR.....
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Just check out the Stunstrike online . . . it and the PHASR are going to have to compete for the title of "Weapon Most Resembling a Trek Stunt Double's Carved Rubber Weapon".
But I do like how the people who make the Stunstrike added random heat sinks to their green laser pointer dazzler thing, thereby giving it a Forbidden Planet look.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
Er...did we not sign a ban on laser weapons of just this sort under Clinton's administration?
The fear was that just these same sort of lasers would be used to permanatly blind a military force/civillians- leading to troop attrition wile the maimed are tended to.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
The weapon could be used to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock? That's not the greatest idea ever. Blinding a driver at the wheel of a 2000 pound automobile is like giving an M-16 to a five year old and telling him to play cops and robbers with old lady johnson down yonder...
Other than that it looks frickin sweet.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
Well, they could mount speakers and play "Blinded by the light" as they crash through...well...everything.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I'm sure the irony wouldn't be lost on the poor blinded bastard
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
I reckon it works by having some guy aim it and then 'the enemy' goes WOAH! COOL! and puts down THEIR weapon to come over and have a look.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Er...did we not sign a ban on laser weapons of just this sort under Clinton's administration?
If only someone would give us a hint.
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Laser weapons capable of blinding enemies have been developed in the past but were banned under a 1995 UN convention called the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons.
Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
ooh! I thought of another good (bad) example of how this weapon may be used to stop terrorists while casuing untold havoc and destruction.
A terrorist hijacks a plane and intends to fly it into the Empire state building. Sounds familiar huh? tho it's been done but not on purpose (1945 a b-25 crashed into the ESB in heavy fog) The "Good Guys" fire this "Phasr" at the terrorists in the cockpit, blinding them and causing them to veer off course...Into 3 Mile Island. President Bush is then praised for his handling of the situation and saving thousands of lives. But he conveniently fails to mention the deadly radioactive isotopes flooding the american northeast causing untold millions of deaths 20 years from now. But he doesn't care since he won't be president then...
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Or what if next we are invaded by aliens, only to find out they have no eyes?? Come on DARPA, let's be more realistic here.
Registered: Mar 1999
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