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Shocking Clothing

harmonics writes "This is absolutely hysterical, it seems a "No-Contact Jacket" has been developed for women by MIT. This thing carries enough voltage to knock you on your duff (80,000 volts), and is decently stylish too. Now to find out how I can get my wife one. Just don't wear it in the rain!" The real question is whether the submitter knew the origin and full meaning of the word "hysterical".

6 of 603 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Duh ... by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's both.

    There's enough amperage in a AA battery to stop your heart, but not enough voltage potential for it to travel from one fingertip to another.

    By the same token, 50 amps at a couple picovolts wouldnt do anything either.

    That 300mA at 80,000 volts could kill you, because the current could then reach your heart or cause your diaphragm to convulse.

    People with weak hearts or other conditions could easily be killed by one of these. Thats why Tasers are illegal in many places.

    I see nothing but trouble the first time some helpless little old lady brushes against one of these chicks in the subway and winds up dead.

    I dont know if a prosecuter would look like walking around with a garment on thats potentially lethal to anyone who touches it would count as "reckless disregard for human life" or "negligence".

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  2. from merriamwebster.com by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://merriamwebster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book= Dictionary&va=hysterical

    One entry found for hysteria.

    Main Entry: hysteria
    Pronunciation: his-'ter-E-&, -'tir-
    Function: noun
    Etymology: New Latin, from English hysteric, adjective, from Latin hystericus, from Greek hysterikos, from hystera womb; from the Greek notion that hysteria was peculiar to women and caused by disturbances of the uterus
    Date: 1801
    1 : a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions
    2 : behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess
    - hysteric /-'ter-ik/ noun
    - hysterical /-'ter-i-k&l/ also hysteric adjective
    - hysterically /-i-k(&-)lE/ adverb

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  3. Completely illegal in MA, and hence, at MIT by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Informative

    Maybe the MIT boys shoulda thought of the fact that they're now in posession of an illegal item. From a self-defense-widgets store's "where you can legally have the stuff we sell" page:

    Massachusetts State Law. Ann. Laws of Massachusetts. Chapter 140. Sale of Firearms. Section 131J: Sale or possession of electrical weapons; penalties. Section 131J. No person shall sell, offer for sale or possess a portable device or weapon from which an electric current, impulse, wave or beam may be directed, which current, impulse, wave or beam is designed to incapacitate temporarily, injure or kill. Whoever violates this provision of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not less than six months nor more than two years in a jail or house of correction, or both.

  4. Re:Cruel Intentions... by Osty · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Anonymous Coward is right. Sexism, "discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women." (emphasis added by me)

  5. Is this really NEW?? by MrMac · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm pretty sure this has already been done.... About 10yrs ago I was looking at the 'stun guns' and other "non-lethal" stuff in a catalog that had a leather stun jacket, it had copper wire embedded into the surface of the leather and a switch that came out the sleeve into the hand... if anyone touches you (on the coat)... you turn on the switch and ZAP. Also they had a leather glove built the same way... switch and battery on belt opposite to the glove hand. This was geared towards bodyguards and bouncers. I searched the Pat office briefly tonight, but couldn't find the jacket, although I did find a 'Electric Glove" that might have been the prototype for the one I saw.

    http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm &r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=4,370,696.WKU.&OS=PN/4,370,696&RS =PN/4,370,696

    I did find a cool 'Counter-measure' jacket/garment.

    http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm &r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,272,781.WKU.&OS=PN/6,272,781&RS =PN/6,272,781

    Hope MIT dosen't have probs with patenting theirs.

    --
    *** I Know Everything, But Can't Remember It All At Once ***
  6. Re:Cruel Intentions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There isn't anything a man can do that a woman can't do, but there is something a woman can do that a man can't do.

    No, that's wrong. Both sexes can do things the other can't do (Without extensive medical tampering, anyway).

    Men:
    Can't give birth.
    Can't breast-feed.
    Can't arch their backs as far as women (the bone structure of the hips does not allow it).

    The range of motion in the hips and back serves no purpose for women other than to position for copulation, but the fact remains that men can't do that.

    Women:
    Can't impregnate anyone.
    Can't urinate without either assuming a vulnerable position or being unhygenic.

    Urination is a rather frequent activity in healthy adults, and being able to stay upright while doing it is a substantial advantage to a hunter or warrior (longer range of sight, and faster reaction as you're already standing).

    There are numerous other differences that are a little more variable, too:
    Men tend to be naturally bigger and stronger than women, and posess a superior sense of direction.
    Women have an easier time splitting their concentration amongst multiple tasks.

    "No man is an island", but neither is any woman.