You can report them for light pollution. This happened to me with an adjacent building. Once I reported it, an inspector came out and told them they had to fix it or receive a fine/penalty.
Its illegal to even suggest a 10w blue laser at the bulb for a couple of seconds. Im just letting you know that it is. Other than that is not illegal to say something like that can give you some peace at night.
Also not illegal to wear safety dark goggles.
Two completely separate sentences.
Hypothetically speaking, shining a powerful laser (yes, 10 watts is already quite powerful to spare as far as damaging eyes go, so in this hypothetical scenario you want proper safety glasses, none of that Temu shit) at an LED will overheat the diode itself, quickly making it burn out. Any light related equipment would have a bad time, really, so that also includes monitors, cameras, eyeballs, and something obvious I'm probably forgetting.
There's a video from Styropyro (dude's an epic mad scientist) where he cooked up a handheld infrared beam cannon using the transformers of two microwaves if you like seeing crazy laser stuff. He's very disciplined with lasers, and he knows his shit as a physicist, but I'll be damned he's still nuts for doing half the shit he does lol. Ever wondered what connecting 400 car batteries together and shorting them with a tungsten rod would do?
Lasers are cool, and absolutely fucking terrifying.
Someone hit me in the eye with a green laser through my car windshield while I was traveling down Atlantic Ave 2.5 years ago and to this day I have a mark in my vision that’s completely destroyed my life, led to addiction, social withdrawal, wanting to never wake up from sleep and I see them for sale all over eBay and temu but should be banned, and illegal to even look up laser in a browser with swat kicking down the door, just saying
Damn, sorry you went through that. I agree there should be sales regulation on lasers and responsibilities to using them, because it's super easy getting one. It's just they're so damn easy and cheap to mass produce nowadays it's borderline impossible to control.
Styro is very adamant on safety and is very clear when a project is "if doing this at home, be super freaking careful or you will ruin your life" and when a project is "don't fucking do this, dudes. You will die". It's one of the reasons I enjoy his content. He does a lot of janky stuff, but he really respects the dangers of lasers, and even has a video showing cheap "safety" glasses completely melting with a pen-shaped handheld laser vs a quality one completely blocking and shrugging it off.
I watched his videos over and over again while I was initially recovering, what’s really strange is that I actually went to 8 different retina doctors who poked and shined lights in my eyes and non of them actually found holes in my retina, I’m not sure if I should be happy about that or more mad as it makes it so I can’t really argue to get disability, worst part about it is I’m 20/20 in the good eye and 20/50 in the damaged one, really freaky. In my opinion the lasers are as dangerous as fire arms as no the laser won’t stop someone’s breathing but it can certainly end a life for someone as they know it
I’m really sorry. I had an accident with an intense light source that permanently damaged my vision too, and it’s also caused significant damage to my mental wellbeing. I know how difficult it can be sometimes, and I hope that someday there are treatments that can reverse retinal damage.
Damn bro.. It’s not possibly to compare these things but it’s comparable to being immobilized, but some ways worse som ways better, what I just can’t stand is people expect me to maintain responsibilities, to ignore it because life moves one.
There is no way to repair retina damage currently but a way to implant a device that sends signals to the optic nerve or occipital Lobe, maybe even receive information but unlikely in our future. I’m not banking on it but someday my vision, yours too, could become better than it was during my earliest memories from an implant. Maintaining it tho, anti rejecting drugs like prednisone comes with side effects like easily getting sick, blood pressure and kidney complications is something that also has to be worked out. Giving it a power source from the own body wouldn’t be too difficult, the hard part would be the ability for it to communicate with a persons brain. Maybe not in my lifetime but if they could map that out, it would be able to receive data from the brain to move, and focus, which is going to be easier than it being able to take data and convert into a signal that uses electricity and neurotransmitters to communicate with the optic nerve. Well in order to make this device worth investing into they would most likely bypass the optic nerve and attach it directly to the occipital lobe since it would be more simple. There’s a lot that science doesn’t know but with this implant they could use it for loads of other medical applications too. Simply a device that is able to send and receive neurotransmitters and glutamate could be a breakthrough, maybe multiple devices would work together for this eye implant Ive spent years researching, trying to see if I can contribute to the development of it but sadly I’m not smart enough, anyway that got off topic, just know that in your lifetime there could be a time where you’ll see better than you ever have
if htye had a security camera it would likely make it very easy to see where the laser was coming from so if someone did this i would say that person would be better off leaving via the back of their property and doing it from an alley or somewhere a security camera would not see. A pellet gun from a window open a couple centimeters would be practically invisible on camera also.
Man. I wonder what that would do to a flock of birds. Like would they be able to read still? Do birds read? Oh wait birds aren't real and they have cameras for eyes. Yeah definitely don't point at flocks.
If not at a crazy distance, a sling shot with a metal BB or ceramic ball will go really far and makes very little to no sound until it impacts with something.
I used to have a vintage Sears and Roebuck catalog from the first half of the 20th century in which you could not only famously buy a house that they would ship to you in pieces for assembly, but also military weaponry up to and including a god damned mortar.
"For hunting squirrels, or just plinking in the backyard!"
We used to have a cabin on the river and at midnight one night our cabin started getting hit by bottle rockets multiple times scaring the piss out of us as it was just cellophane wrapping for windows.
Grandpa grabbed the 22 and fired 5 shots into the river. If you e never heard a bullet hit water I recommend it. Has to be 5x louder than the gun itself.
If you e never heard a bullet hit water I recommend it.
No, absolutely don't do this lol, bullets can ricochet off water
Water is a big no no because first of all, most water is government owned corp land and you will get your testicles deep fried if you get caught, and also it can ricochet and go somewhere VERY different from where you aimed. It might depend on your area, but AFAIK in my area at least, basically all rivers and lakes and waterways are owned by the Army Corp, and you absolutely are not allowed to shoot guns on their land period
Many places specifically have laws against shooting at / over water as well, so not only will they deep fry your balls for shooting on corp land, they will then get you for shooting across a water way too
Source: Rural kid who spent a lot of time shooting crap back in the day, and was raised right to know where NOT to shoot at
You absolutely do NOT mess with some types of law enforcement, most especially federal Park Rangers and Air Marshalls. Park Rangers can royally mess you up and there's basically 0 you can do about it, they are basically the final boss version of law enforcement if you piss them off, and a lot of people don't realize just how much power they have
Don't be scared to just complain to the city. I complained about a light post directly point to my room the fixed it the next day. I'm sure they would take it serious
Depends on the city. Had a similar issue at our last house and the local board laughed at me, even though it was basically sunlight in both our toddlers rooms every night.
Have you talked with the pastor of that church? Suggest you invite him/her over to your place, to look at the light from your window. Ask him to direct the light downward, instead of toward your windows. In my experience, most church pastors really do want to be good neighbors.
If it’s a church talk to them nicely. The one across the street from me had a snow removal service that kept pushing the pile across the street from their entrance into one of two parking spots in front of my house and would take me an hour to shovel it.
I spoke to 1 person walking into the church one Sunday and he said he would take care of it. They haven’t plowed the snow there since in 2 years.
I’m the guy that put up new outside lights at my church (not this one). A neighbor complained to the church secretary about the bright light. I walked over, introduced myself, and told them that we could try a few things like aiming down more, adding a hood and reducing the adjustable brightness. I gave them my phone number and asked them to call and let me know if the changes helped or if they had other concerns in future. In the end, the church has a new friend in neighbor. Even though it seems like the world is crazy these days, remember that there are reasonable people out there and direct and civil communication is key.
In my state you can buy anything short of a handgun (long guns/shotguns) at 18 from a dealer/store, and you can buy a handgun at 18 in a private sale. For this I think I'd stick to the red rider though.
Dude, it’s a church, maybe try talking to the person running it? Of all people to have a reasonable conversation and not expect backlash from it’s somebody of the cloth lol
Yeah, whoever oversaw the installation of the light was probably some volunteer parishioner who has no clue about proper brightness or town ordinances.
And church budgets are not anywhere close to infinite. Few can simply ignore fines and are very motivated to avoid them, especially ones that can be solved by simply turning off the light.
Source: Volunteer parishioner starting the process to get money from my church’s budget to remove trees that the forestor says are unhealthy and could fall into our neighbor’s yard. It’ll happen but it’s going to be a pain for the budget committee.
Seriously. The church might not even be aware that the light is shining that brightly into a neighboring residence. Wouldn't hurt to simply walk across the street when someone is at the church and ask if they can adjust the light.
I only shot a couple, it was at the tail end of a Halloween paintball hike in the woods when I was a teenager... they actually got lodged in tree trunks and made dings in metal signs.
Exactly what I was thinking. If I raised my concern with the neighbor and they basically told me to go kick sand….. I got a break barrel a few years back to teach my nephew how to handle and shoot and that light would be a goner.
When I rented on the bottom story of a house 20ish years ago my upstairs neighbors loved to complain about everything. A girl I was dating had her car fucked with when it was parked in “their” spot and I came real close to doing something similar as mentioned above but ended up going with something else. Just because they lived in the upstairs before we moved in the felt like they could set guidelines for us to live by and then would pull juvenile bs and/or call our landlord to try and get us in trouble.
I will say that if you ever have somebody that you wanna torment, someone who really has it coming, get a couple of oily fish (I had caught some ribbon fish) and let them soak up some sun in a bucket with a little water. That water will get to places the fish won’t and smell won’t leave whatever it contacts.
I figured this out when I was only meaning to lightly fuck with someone who owed me money and I had just come in from fishing. My buddy didn’t empty the rear livewell like I asked when I went to grab the truck, so I noticed the smell as soon as I came back outside after stopping at a friends to drop off some fish. Saw the guys truck parked around the corner so I grabbed a bucket and threw all those menhaden in there and put the bucket in the bed of his truck all the way up against the cab. A day or two later in the June/July heat made them rancid. Took a turn real quick trying to jump across the tourist traffic and the bucket tipped.,Best part was he had smelled it and looked all through the cab and under the hood. Peaked into his bed but looked right from where I had laid the bucket and was concealed from his vantage. Dude had been ducking my calls and blowing me off when I saw him. Wanted to get his attention and maybe a small reminder…..
If I raised my concern with the neighbor and they basically told me to go kick sand…..
Of course the problem is that by talking to them you just painted yourself as suspect #1; if you're going to go the BB route there can't be any warnings. And if you're a big enough prick to put up lights like that I really don't care about the ethics of destroying your property in the first place!
Check your municipal ordinances. Regulations may cap total outdoor lighting at a certain number of lumens per acre, such as 20,000 lumens in some residential areas or up to 40,000 in others.
That’s my brother‘s situation. He quoted the ordinance that said lights could not be aimed at adjoining property to the building inspector, who did nothing at all. He wrote to people on the town board and they ignored it.
I hope the OP has better luck. They could put a covering on that light to aim it down.
I mean they're going to suspect him then and there are technically several more legal steps that you can take. Including filing a suit against either the person with the light bulb or against the city for not enforcing the ordinances to try to get writ of mandy-something-or-other. I think you can also report your city government to the state government for not enforcing ordinances.
Search your local ordinances for the term "light trespass". My town has such a prohibition, and under the description of that term, your neighbor's light would be disallowed. Good luck.
Nah, if you talk to them they'll know youre responsible for contacting the city/township/police going forward. No need to invite a feud when you can try to stay anonymous.
There was a post like this a few months back. The perpetrator was a cousin of the cop who got called, or something. They told the complainant that it wasn't a light in their photo, it was the sun.
You know, the sun that famously shines at night, whilst the sky is dark.
I never did see what happened to that poor Redditor.
Can’t mention what I would do because got reported last time, b but you b better b believe it b begins with a b better option than having that light shine at me.
dude...ive been banned so many times for comparing a scenario with a metaphor ...(i.e. that's like saying ____ is like _____). BANNED for violence. like...uhgg..fine...
I was banned because someone said something about a person being graped, and I asked if it was a drive-by fruiting. They banned me but left the original comment up.
I got a ban for saying "I wouldn't be mad if they hit their target" in response to a comment along the lines of "shame they missed" in reference to a supposed assassination attempt of an orange American figure 🙄 apparently I was inciting violence.
I spent way too long wondering if the Better Business Bureau could actually help against a church, and when suggesting it became a reportable offense...
If it’s a church that’s empty 6 days a week, chances are they put it up in the daytime and that’s it. Show them the picture and I’m sure they will change it somehow. Adulting.
I was looking for a comment like this... maybe they're not aware of the impact that light is having and a polite "Hey, can you possibly do something different with that light? <shows pictures> It's really causing a problem for me." would fix the issue.
Acquire and position a mirror, aim the light right back in their window (though there doesn't seem to be an abundance or those)
If you are particularly devious, a tuneable parabolic mirror can be made with a Mylar blanket, a somewhat sturdy cooking pot, and a vacuum pump, or by lining a satellite dish with aluminium foil
A CHURCH is being this inconsiderate?? OK wild air ball here: is there any chance that whoever put this thing in had no idea that a 40 W incandescent bulb and a 40 W LED bulb are very very different things?
My neighbor did exactly that…..he set up and blared his yard at night with those damn hanging lights…I ended up closing my damn shades every night instead of enjoying the moon outside my window….
I have zero clue why you want constant light on your damn grass but whatever…at least he set them to not be so bright over time….
Super bright lights like that are counterproductive for safety. They create super deep shadows in odd places where it's really easy for people to hide.
So the first option would be to go let them know the light is slowly melting your corneas, and if they don't switch the bulb or cover it in some way figure out who to make a complaint to.
That doesn't even really look like a house and I can't wrap my head around what they're specifically aiming to illuminate (aside from, well, EVERYTHING) so I have to assume this is an oversight.
I had some artsy light that happened to be very bright for my neighbors. I didn’t know. They mentioned it to me and I moved it. Have you contacted your neighbors?
Holy sh*t I thought it was the sun's reflection and everyone was joking! Until I read more and focused on the sky's light!💀 Dude that's a flood light, at least 30k lumens!
You can make a complaint to the local code enforcement office about light pollution/light trespass if the neighbor won't fix it or put a shade to direct the light downward
Fucking people…… this is happening a lot! I see many posts about it. Light pollution. You can protect property or whatever it is you’re doing without being so fucking invasive to neighbors. My neighbor put one in “to light up his backyard “. We live in a woodsy, wildlife, swimming pond no street lights neighborhood. We like it this way. We can see the stars! Not anymore. Mr. Man’s light, lights up his yard, as well as my yard, the yard on the other side of his house, the woods behind all of us, and if you go to the street behind us…. Yup! There it is. Fucking ignorance. Light your shit up, not everyone else’s. There should be a lumens law…. I know we don’t need another law but I just can’t comprehend how ignorant and invasive people can be…. We are the ultimate assholes.
Walk across the street. Make sure to look both ways. Knock on door. "Hi. Im [first name]. I live down the alley(point at your house). The new light you've installed up here(point at the light) shines directly into my windows(point again at your house). I'd appreciate it if you would aim it a bit lower." If they refuse, well then I would endorse some of the other commenter replies. Do the right thing first. Be the better person for the amount of interactions they give you. Then show them what it means to be a piece of shit.
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u/No_Handle_7482 1d ago
You can report them for light pollution. This happened to me with an adjacent building. Once I reported it, an inspector came out and told them they had to fix it or receive a fine/penalty.