"Real" Phaser Pops a Balloon

[137th Gebirg]

Don't know if this has been discussed here yet but, I must say, this one looks pretty authentic. It appears as if someone managed to fit a high-intensity blue laser into what looks like a Playmates Diamond Select TOS phaser and killed a balloon with it - rather quickly, too. While it's probably easy to fake something with this with the right kind of post production tools, it would be interesting to know if this is the real deal or not. Anyways, here it is. Quite impressive, if true.

http://now.msn.com/now/0426-real-life-phaser.aspx#scptmd

Edit: another article on the subject: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/homemade-star-trek-phaser-really-will-stun-you-20120426/

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Wasn't Tachy working on something like this? However, it's still not powerful enough to deflect Nibiru.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

Poor Tachy. Obviously the best solution is to just leave earth and settle on Nibiru.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

At last we have a weapon to defend us against balloons.

 

[publiusr]

Just be careful with wicked laser one watters.

 

[Christopher]

That room must've been really full of smoke for the beam to be that visible.

 

[Methos]

not really...

i've got a 1w laser pen that is easily visible without any smoke in the room...

M

 

[Christopher]

^That brightly, though?

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, the beam did look a bit enhanced. But I'm certainly willing to be proven wrong.

 

[publiusr]

Lasers for asteroids
http://optics.org/news/3/3/38

Be careful
http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Spyder_III_Pro_Arctic_Series-96-37.html
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=14353
http://up-ship.com/blog/?p=11639

 

[Harvey]

That room must've been really full of smoke for the beam to be that visible.

It certainly looks like it's full of smoke to me. Is it not?

 

[zephramc]

I think what Christopher means is that the laser is very bright and vibrant. I don't work around these things, so I'd probably be the last to know, but usually lasers, even class 4 (which I'm assuming this one is considering how quickly it popped the balloon) look dull even in smoke.

 

[Psion]

I have a class III green LASER which I use to point out stars and constellations to my son. The beam is quite visible on a dark night with average humidity. It's pretty visible indoors, too.