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Laser Pointers: Should They Be A Banned Item?


BaldEd

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I can't believe people are complaining about stuff found in caches.

 

Hell, when I was a boy we used to find litters of hungry rattlesnakes or flimsy sacks full of mustard gas in the caches.

 

We would be taking our lives into our hands EVERY time we opened a box.

 

Explosions were commonplace.

 

The danger made us tougher and more aware of the invisible voices that yelled every time we got hopped up on homemade vodka.

 

believeyourbeliefs@juno.com

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Laser pointers are fun for cats... might even be useful for other things

 

They are annoying in movie theaters, concerts and sports games. I remember a concert I went to once were they stopped singing for a while because the lead singer kept having a laser pointer blind him. I have aslo watched a basketball game on TV were everytime they'd use a specific camera someone would shine a laser at it and render it useless... I'm sure they think its funny but its highly annoying for the rest of us. I can't even count the number of times I've seen them in movie theaters.

 

Personally the annoying out weighs the fun and useful in my opinion... I'd never leave one.

Edited by blazerfan
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Laser pointers are fun for cats... might even be useful for other things

 

They are annoying in movie theaters, concerts and sports games. I remember a concert I went to once were they stopped singing for a while because the lead singer kept having a laser pointer blind him. I have aslo watched a basketball game on TV were everytime they'd use a specific camera someone would shine a laser at it and render it useless... I'm sure they think its funny but its highly annoying for the rest of us. I can't even count the number of times I've seen them in movie theaters.

 

Personally the annoying out weighs the fun and useful in my opinion... I'd never leave one.

That's exactly what I wanted to say...I don't care if a kid is stupid enough to blind itself, but I'd rather not have laser pointers shone at me, or at something I'm trying to watch.

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We need to ban doors.

 

Doors are very dangerous! Have you ever approached a door only to have someone open it and hit you with it? It hurts - it could knock you off balance and cause you to fall, hit your head and die.

 

As a child a car door once pinched my fingers and I have avoided doors ever since! Doors can be a source of physical and pshychological damage and trauma, especially in children or the elderly.

 

I once was riding my motorcycle in California and some nut-job swerved over and opened his door, trying to hit me, so yes, doors can be used for homicide. (Actually, that may be normal for California - my ten years there was like living in a granola bowl - what ain't fruits or nuts is flakes! Strange place for a Southern boy!)

 

I had glass doors on my lake house and poor little birds flew into them regularly, breaking their wee little necks, so doors are a danger to wildlife.

 

Doors can be locked, and when you need to get in or out, you can't.

 

BAN DOORS!

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If some ultimate authority were able to "ban" every sophisticated piece of technology that had been reduced to a mere "high-tech toy," there would be no geocaching.

 

I don't have a problem with any legal and tradeable item someone might choose to leave in a cache.

 

But what does it really matter, anyway? From the logs I read, only a small minority of geocachers actually bother to trade at all ... that aspect of the game has, for the most part, withered and died. It probably won't be long before the commonly seen "TNLNSL Thanks" is shortened further to merely "SLT."

Edited by Bassoon Pilot
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But what does it really matter, anyway? From the logs I read, only a small minority of geocachers actually bother to trade at all ... that aspect of the game has, for the most part, withered and died.

 

Interesting! That's not the case in the 1000 or so traditionals I have found in 10 states and the dozens of threads on this and other geocaching forums!

 

Please remember that new cachers who do not yet know better read these threads and may tend to believe what the "established" community has to say about the game!

 

I don't deny your reported experience, only state that mine has been totally different! From my perspective this game is growing and improving daily, and trading trinkets is at the heart of it!

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But what does it really matter, anyway? From the logs I read, only a small minority of geocachers actually bother to trade at all ... that aspect of the game has, for the most part, withered and died.

 

Interesting! That's not the case in the 1000 or so traditionals I have found in 10 states and the dozens of threads on this and other geocaching forums!

 

Please remember that new cachers who do not yet know better read these threads and may tend to believe what the "established" community has to say about the game!

 

I don't deny your reported experience, only state that mine has been totally different! From my perspective this game is growing and improving daily, and trading trinkets is at the heart of it!

I see a lot of TNLN where I am from.

 

Some of my caches are still trade locations, but others are just a string of TNLN's.

 

The withering and dying part seems a little hyperbolic. Trading still goes on, but it seems to me that most of the cachers that persist beyond the 50 or so finds that mark the 50th percentile of all cachers, either start TNLNing primarily or trade sig items and TB's only.

 

The trade down syndrome eventually trashes the cache and it either gets restocked by its owner, or it fosters a bunch of TNLN's.

Edited by bigredmed
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For what its worth...

 

1. I think the vast majority of caches would be well out of reach of very small children who might injure themselves with a laser pointer.

 

2. Most very small children who DO hunt geo-caches usually bring a parent who might assist them in such adventures.

 

and, most bizarre of all...

 

3. The toy vending machines at the grocery store lobby near my favorite coffee shop will randomly vend a very small laser pointer complete with batteries for a "luck of the draw" shot of 75 cents. Other possible "rewards" from the same machine include a metal "toe ring" small enough to be swallowed and various mini automatic pistol replicas on keychains. All of these are about eye-level to a five year old from the machine's perspective.

 

I would campaign against toy vending machines in grocery store lobbies before I complained about the cache I hiked a quarter-mile to get at.

 

(I would just like to comment that I don't mean to down play the importance of child safety, nor do I mean to offend anyone who made any posts on this topic.)

 

I think the lunk-head who brought a laser pointer to shine in the cockpit of a commercial jetliner may have some explaining to do and a fine to pay, but I, personally, wouldn't have a rule against laser pointers in caches.

Edited by tabulator32
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