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From: sam@colossus.stdavids.picker.com (Sam Goldwasser)
Subject: Re: Laser Safety
In-Reply-To: rstevew@armory.com's message of Sat, 8 Oct 1994 16:48:53 GMT
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	<36i7k8$60t@nntp1.u.washington.edu> <Cx52Gs.A5y@armory.com>
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Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 02:50:52 GMT
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In article <CxD5DI.K13@armory.com> rstevew@armory.com (Richard Steven Walz) writes:

--- much stuff deleted ----

>   do holography. I'm no dummy! You clowns try to trot out ole "unsafe at any
>   wattage" and it just doesn't cut it. If you can see light from off to the
>   side and you move and you can still see it and you move aagain and you can
>   still see it, what does that mean to you??? It means that a small amount of
>   Watts is getting spread all over hell!! And the invisible is doing the same
>   as the visible!!! Dispersion difference with frequency is not THAT great!!!
>   -Steve Walz   rstevew@armory.com

Apparently you need to have the last word.  OK, I will try hard not respond
after this.  I liked the previous poster's comment about you sitting in the
emergency room.  I would like to extend the scenario at bit.  Someone
gives you a laser diode they got out of a piece of junk they scavanged.
'Hey, it's a red laser, try it out.'  So you hook it up, and yup, there's
nice red laser light... doesn't seem that powerful... Hum...boring.  Turn
up the current.  OK, that's a little better.  Not really too bright, though.
Must be defective...  Only, it really is a 2W IR laser diode with that darn
spurious low level output around 670 nm... So now you have nice patterns
permenantly burnt into your retinas.  The hospital staff is very sympathetic.
You are heard mumbling about coherence length, dispersion, Airy disks,
the poor performance characteristics of diode lasers, and the Consumer
Products Safety Commission.  Where is Ralph Nader when you need him?

Take care.

--- sam

