Laika,
Your URL wasn't broken. The problem is that the article requires a UserID and PW.
Anyway, the issue with the bent laser wasn't whether or not a laser can be bent. It can.
Photons respond to gravitation. That photons do respond to gravitation was proven in 1921 and was the first experimental confirmation of general relativity. During a full eclipse fo the sun stars in the background near the limb of the surface fo the sun were displaced ~1.75 seconds of arc precisely as predicted by GR. The surface gravity of the sun is ~28 g's.
And that's the issue with Titor's Laser Gag. His laser is bent through at least 45 degrees, 25 times greater than what the surface of the sun can do. The laser is being submitted to a force of at least 700 g's. Mr. Fat Finger, sitting in the car next to the twin BH's should weigh in at about 140,000 lbs and be crushed, stretched and rended to dust by the tidal forces. The car should be crushed similarly to dust. But they aren't. In fact the only gravitational "effect" present in the photo is the bent laser beam.
And remember - the laser and Mr. Fat Finger are both ~1 meter from the BH's CG (center of gravity). Gravitation changes by the inverse square of the change in distance from the CG. The passenger seat and passenger door are at most 1/2 meter from the BH CG. If the gravitational force at 1 meter is 700 g's then at half that distance it is 2800 g's. The Magic Box that contains the BH's is at most 1/4 meter from the BH CG. Gravitation there should be 11,200 g's. Now imagine the gravitational forces on the components sitting right next to the BH's. They should be encountering hundreds-of-thousands to millions of g's. Yet there they are in the photo entirely unaffected by gravitational tidal forces.
The photo discredits itself.
