The video is from 2010 and I haven't heard anything from the idea since then.<div><br></div><div>It's probably best suited for developing countries actually, because the sky is full of airplanes here in the US and a device like this is going to get your house raided inside of a day, and you'll be in the news for automating terrorism. Only in those countries do you have the freedom to point lasers in the sky.</div>
<div><br></div><div>The company doesn't seem inteested in manufacturing the device, only coming up with the original design, according to this wikipedia page:</div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser</a></div>
<div><br></div><div>An actual device made on this concept would be exactly as sexy as any existing mosquito zapper, because the laser beam would have to be enclosed in a box to surmount the otherwise insurmountable legal issues.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Also, in Florida mosquitoes are infinite and they do not obey laws of physics. They actually re-spawn like in games.</div><div><br></div><div>-a<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Dave Aitel <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dave@immunityinc.com" target="_blank">dave@immunityinc.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria.html" target="_blank">http://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_zap_malaria.html</a><br>
<br>
So there's a number of reasons to hate this TED video, and only some of<br>
them relate to the sweater. But to start off: some context. I live in<br>
Miami, next to the Everglades. You can buy, for basically pennies, a<br>
fairly effective insecticide that will kill whitefly, butterflies,<br>
mosquitoes - just really anything. You spray it around while trying not<br>
to breath, and your yard is a plant paradise for a few weeks. After a<br>
while all your lizards die off, and then the local stray cats die, etc.<br>
But for a while you are mosquito free. I never do this because it seems<br>
like a hugely bad idea to hang out in a place full of poison and a yard<br>
without thousands of lizards and live things to look at seems super<br>
boring, but to each their own. That means I have mosquitoes.<br>
<br>
Now, our dear friends in the TED talk above (who work for the world's<br>
biggest Patent Troll company) think that they are the only people who<br>
could ever think up the idea of lasering mosquitoes, which is the<br>
obvious fantasy to anyone who's ever sat in a dark yard getting bit. But<br>
I think there's something hilarious when they start out saying they are<br>
trying to help the world, especially the world that has intermittent<br>
power, and then move to a system for killing mosquitoes that requires<br>
quite a lot of power. How do we know this?<br>
<br>
One year for Christmas every Immunity employee got a 1 Watt Blue Arctic<br>
WickedLaser. You can't use it without special glasses or you'll<br>
inadvertently blind yourself. So, laying around under a mosquitoe net, I<br>
spent some time trying to kill mosquitoes with it. The bugs were at<br>
best, mildly annoyed. In theory they should be blinded, but it didn't<br>
seem to effect them in any particular way. I'm not sure what power<br>
lasers they use in their demo to blow the wings off a mosquito, but<br>
let's just say it has to be quite a bit greater than 1 W, and if it<br>
shines anywhere near a human eyeball, you're going to be in lawsuit heaven.<br>
<br>
Of course, there's a host of other issues with their "technology" they<br>
could learn about if they spent some time in Florida. For example,<br>
moquitoes rarely hang out on nice white backgrounds. They're covered in<br>
camouflage and fly in a pattern designed to confuse visual (and I bet<br>
sonar) sensors and when they land, it's on a dark or mottled background.<br>
<br>
Also, it's unclear if killing mosquitoes, even a large quantity of them,<br>
has any impact on their population size (in fact, their own data would<br>
probably counter-indicate this, as they model mosquito population based<br>
on breeding locations, not by predation).<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
-dave<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
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April 2013 in Miami Beach<br>
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<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>_________________________________<br>Note to self: Pillage BEFORE burning.<br>
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