Slashdot Mirror
Next Generation Stun Guns?
RoyalCheese writes "Well, I've just been reading an interesting little article on New Scientist's website about new crowd control weapons that electrocute/stun the targets. Seems we will soon be at risk of being stunned by ionised air generated by laptop sized lasers..." Reader Spetiam adds "News.com.au reports on a new weapon that will be able to zap you from afar, wires not included: 'We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep,' XADS [Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems] president Peter Bitar is quoted as saying." So, this company has a free-hosting website and and a free-email address for their "president", and the photo looks like cardboard tubes wrapped with green camouflage tape. Hmmmm.
Sharks with frickin' ... !
Man watching 6 MSCE's around a sun box, looks alot like the opening scene's of 2001:space odyssey...
when we have photon torpedos
They put all their money into their death ray. /frink quotes to follow.
Well, that sounds legitimate. And they only sell to military people and the police, who I'm sure are DYING to get a hold of this jok^H^H^Hevil deadly weapon of terror.
Any bets this site is by a 10 year old with far too much time on their hands?
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
That "weapon" looks straight out of Lost in Space. At least GI Joe in the picture seems to be pretty hardcore.
Cant they somehow strap this frickin laser beem to that frickin guys head?
Im the president of this frickin company for frickin sake.
I ask for a car and I get a computer. How's about that for being born under a bad
We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep
Batman: "Slake your thirst. You'll have worse than a parched sensation when we're through with you!"
Do we really need another way to hurt people? What is wrong with water cannons?
We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose
The Ghostbusters were already doing that 20 years ago...
Yep, that's what I thought, another Homeland Security scam. Nothing to see here. Carry on.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Surely it would be possible to deflect the beam by carrying a charged sphere (or similar device) next to you to attract the charged/ionized particles...
Due to lack of disk space this user has been discontinued
"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep,"
As long as I don't have to do this vs. Sentinels...
.
uR iGn0ranc3, Their Power
Demonstrators at a protest in the United Kingdom were seen running around with lengths of copper wire trailing across the ground from their trouser-legs.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Potato canon technology is now within reach of the US armed forces.
You want fries with THAT! and THAT! and THAT!
kulakovich
Maybe they're hoping that the target will just fall down, laughing at this thing.
Free website, anonymous email, cheap looking product. Am I the only one who sees this as just apipe dream by some 14 year old kid who got bored one day and fed it to a news source. I see no info that is credible at all.
Stay tuned for new sig...
nothing like a good laugh in the morning! i think i made a potato gun once that looked better than that thing...
stunning how far technology has come...
I predict that Faraday Cages will soon be a popular fashion accessory.
Seriously though, is there a way (except the aforementioned) one can protect oneself? Connect capacitors to your skin an allow them to charge but not discharge? Any ideas?
I read something about this in T3 magazine a few years ago. They have one of those "Articles from the future" features, and an ionization stun gun was there. I'll try to find a link
We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep
Holt Crap! A weapon that will specifically target me in my tin foil hat!
so what's a good defense if you expect this to be in use and your a protester? A foil suit? Maybe clothes with a wire mesh fully enclosed faraday shield? It'd be neat to have the pigs firing at you and you just keep walking.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
...my tinfoil hat is more than adequate
Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
The laser "is said not to harm the eyes," New Scientist says. oh... thats ok then - all you will have to worry about is the 50,000 volt shock it is going to hit you with... you may be toast but your eyes will be ok to survey your charred corpse
Take a mirror with you.
I'm all for it. There are a lot of bastards out there who deserve to be stunned/electrocuted! :)
(I hate people)
the police using those bean bag guns, "non-lethal" rounds and tear gas. I've seen people get really hurt by these things. And anytimes, those "non-lethal" rounds get mixed up with lethal rounds. ...plan to use a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse lasting just 0.4 picoseconds - equating to a momentary power of more than 10 million megawatts
Another plus -
the crowd would get an instant tan!
But the (smaller) gun fires a single shot with a range is limited to 7m, which makes it nearly useless for crowd control, especially in hotspots such as Iraq...
Yeah, I seem to remember a lot of situations in Iraq where there was a crowd rioting, and everything would have been better if only we'd had a stun gun to take them all out at once...
Oh, no, actually that really only applies from Saddam Hussein's POV. Take out your crowd of demonstrators, you know? The insurgency in Iraq has been made up largely of well-timed attacks against weak points. They're looking for the spots where we're not vigilant. If we knew where they'd be next, we could use a stun gun I guess... But we don't.
This is a weapon designed to use in case of protests or riots. What kinds of governments need this sort of weapon? The nearest thing to a potential use I can think of in the US would be the Rodney King verdict riots, maybe -- and would you want that? Would you want the LAPD to have this weapon?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I wonder if someone can resolve a problem I have about this article. I have a vague memory about someone in the early 20th century building just such a UV taser. It was either Alexander Graham Bell or Tesla, though I think it in fact was Bell. I know Bell worked on a UV beam to successfully send sound directly to a remote human ear without a receiving device via modulated UV intensity, but I think he also worked on a taser thingy. Anyone know ?
Bitter and proud of it.
This is a massive growth area for all sorts of companies - usually ones who have been in the traditional defense markets for years until it became unpopular. Basically they carry on doing the same sort of thing as normal, just point to the non-lethal weapon line and say "Hey, at least these don't kill people"
Yeay, right. Cos' a jolt that'll put you down and twitching isn't going to stop a weak heart, or mess up a pacemaker.
It's like the pulsed "non-lethal" laser - the first shop vapourises a small section of the target's surface , and the next ignites the cloud of gases. On low power it knocks people down with mild burns(hope it didn't hit your face), on high it chews through brick walls.
Why are these so bad? Simple - by the simple act of labelling these as non-lethal the authorities greatly increase their ability to use them in all sorts of situations.
After all, a "democratic" government that authorised use of automatic weapons on a rioting crowd would have a few questions to answer - But hey, CS gas, Rubber bullets, tasers are all fine...
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
"Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (Xtreme A.D.S. or XADS), creator and developer of the StunStrike, Directed Energy, Non-lethal Weapon System, introduces the StunStrike CQSR (Close Quarters Shock Rifle). " I hear its secondary fire shoots a ball of plasma out, then if you hit it with its regular fire mode...
For years now, I have been looking for Xtreme Defense Systems to meet my needs. All of the mainstream methods were just not the type of Xtreme I was looking for.
Thanks to Peter Bitar and his Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems, I can go on that Xtreme Defensive Electrocution Spree and not be worried about being too cliché.
You now have a non-lethal means of effectivly silencing protest!
No longer will your govenment have to put up with protestors! Unruly tree-hugging anti-capitalists will stumble away even more confused than when they came in! But why stop there!
The mass tesla cannon(tm) can halt all kinds of protest! Even mass protestations against the president can be easily quashed in mid whine! Police forces can quickly and efficiently deal with dissenters without sparking media attendtion!
Coupled with new digital censorship, your government will now have the power to make sure the "Right" kind of society exists in your country!
Order today!
May the Maths Be with you!
Of course, you still need to hike around a whopping big capacitor bank to have this work over any reasonable distance, and the repeat rate of fire would probably be lousy since the capacitors would have to be recharged....
... With an effective range of nearly 9 feet from the operator ...
Obviously this is real. If it were a fake story, they wouldn't have included this amazing piece of info. 9 feet? I could probably throw my 70 lb dog that far!
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
First, we have hull plating, then teleportation, and now phasers. Once we get warp drive and replicators, we'll be ready to build starships.
So they just put BDUs on someone and expect people to take them seriously?
Whoever that is in the picture, they have never been a member of any armed service and it shows.
There's a new merc that's a Faraday Cage, see this review from BBC's Top Gear.
On the show one of the presenters had a German powerplant blast him with a few minutes worth of lightning. It was pretty cool, but I can't find the pictures.
Meanwhile, Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), based in
Anderson, Indiana, will be one of the first companies to market
another type of wireless weapon. Instead of using fibres, the $9000
Close Quarters Shock Rifle projects an ionised gas, or plasma,
towards the target, producing a conducting channel. It will also
interfere with electronic ignition systems and stop vehicles.
"We will be able to fire a stream of electricity like water out of
a hose at one or many targets in a single sweep," claims XADS
president Peter Bitar.
Solid-state lasers
The gun has been designed for the US Marine Corps to use for crowd
control and security purposes and is due out in 2005. It is based
on early, unwieldy technology and has a range of only three metres,
but an operator can debilitate multiple targets by sweeping it
across them for "as long as there is an input power source," says
Bitar.
XADS is also planning a more advanced weapon which it hopes will
have a range of 100 metres or more. Instead of firing ionised gas,
it will probably use a powerful laser to ionise the air itself. The
idea has been around for decades, says LaVerne Schlie, a laser
expert at the US Air Force Research Lab in Kirtland, New Mexico.
It has only become practical with advances in high-power solid-state
lasers.
"Before, it took a laser about the size of two trucks," says Schlie.
"Now we can do it with something that fits on a tabletop."
The laser pulse must be very intense, but can be brief. So the
makers of the weapons plan to use a UV laser to fire a 5-joule pulse
lasting just 0.4 picoseconds - equating to a momentary power of
more than 10 million megawatts.
This intense pulse - which is said not to harm the eyes - ionises
the air, producing long, thread-like filaments of glowing plasma
that can be sustained by repeating the pulse every few milliseconds.
This plasma channel is then used to deliver a shock to the victims
similar to a Taser's 50,000-volt, 26-watt shock.
Pete Bitar, Vice President, has owned three companies, which he started, successfully operated, and sold or licensed off two of them for a profit. His education includes a Bachelor of Science in Business through the University Honors Program at Portland State University. Currently, Mr. Bitar is the President of Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems (XADS), a defense contractor, currently doing work with the Marine Corps on two SBIR Phase II research and development projects in the field of electronics and non-lethal weapon systems. Mr. Bitar brings defense contract acquisition and management experience to the team. He has a number of connections in a variety of fields, including aviation, aerospace, publishing, plastics, real estate, economic development, electronics, weapons research, and finance. Mr. Bitar has over 12 years of management experience, and has been successfully self-employed for more than half of his career. He also has over 18 years of pilot experience in a wide variety of aircraft.
Source: http://www.americanaviationcompany.com/staff.htm
Still sounds dubious to me. The picture of the stun gun is hilarious.
1 - get a domain with "ADS" in its name. ..well... *ADS* in you shining new overloaded advertising website.
2 - build some fake news to attract people.
3 - Sell
4 - Profit!
No it's OK, they took the 17-inch portable G4 as a reference.
is haging out the back on that thing. Hope they come with a decently long extension lead.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Yes. But don't worry, I can sell you some pills for the tiny sum of $100, to cure that. 100% natural.
It looks suspiciously like the 'XADS' has a pre-drilled bit of a transformer bushing(the ceramic/conductor you connect a cable to) sticking out to act as the 'nozzle'.
There are things we know we don't know and things we don't know we don't know. - Donald Rumsfeld
how these things are made. Smile!
E.
Never rub another man's rhubarb - The Joker
Is this really all that incredibly different from ACTUALLY spraying say salt water hooked up to a charge?
As the off-shoring of jobs keeps on,
as the poor dwelve day by day in more misery,
as justice remains for the rich only
as the lies of those in power are being exposed by the day,
it comes sadly as no surprise that crowd control devices are getting more and more investments
With that aggravating beauty, Lulu Walls.
I read an article about this in Popular Science. This is not a "pipe dream", but a proven technology that will be ready for delivery to the U.S. military in 2005.
;)
Tin foil hats may actually be a prudent idea now.
Listen to my experimental-industrial-techno!
Don't cross the streams!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
http://www.dodsbir.net/awardlist/abs022/navyabs022 .htm
Search the page for "Bitar"
Here is the next gen of US military Hardware
Get a free ipod.
If you can put electricity into someone from a distance, you can set the current to stop their heart. They drop dead with a heart attack. No evidence that you did anything to them. Nothing for witnesses to see or hear. No marks, no scars. They're dead and you're gone.
While i'm inclined to agree with everyone else that this is a scam, I can't be too sure. So here's my assumptions about why it's fake (in addition to aforementioned free website/e-mail):
1) In the picture, the "soldier" doesn't look older than 14
2) The "soldier"'s shirt is not tucked in, nor are there any insignia on the shirt. A definite no-no.
3) The "soldier" is not wearing combat boots, nor are his pants tucked into the boots. Another no-no for real soldiers.
4) The "weapon" definately looks like a paper tube wrapped in gift wrap. Additionally, whatever that spring thing is at the end of the tube looks rusty. Call me a sticker but methinks that a weapon that shoots electricity would not have a rusty thing at the end.
Now here's why I think this could be real, just incredibly, incredibly stupid looking:
1) WHOIS indicates that the website has been registered since 1997. While not entirely unplausible, it seems unlikely that for just a joke someone would have registered the website that long ago, and would have reregistered it.
2) A Google search show some interesting things. Like the Pete Bitar who is the president/register/etc. is VP of American Aviation where his bio mentions this xtremeads thing. A little bizarre that a professional company would mention a fake project for the bios of their personnel.
3) The google search also found an article from the Inside Indiana Business that mentions the company and the president. Once again, it seems unlikely this guy could fool that many people. Although not entirely unplausible.
Anyways, those are my feelings, what do you all think?
HSVT last posted a news item on their site regarding a "tetanizing beam weapon" in 2000.
It uses two lasers (not one) to create two ionized pathways through air which are then used to conduct tuned AC; ou choose the power level and frequency which can result in anything from 'lock up skeletal muscles' through 'create excruciating pain' to 'instant death'.
Of course, they have yet to shrink it down to a man-portable size, which is why there haven't been any more press releases.
Apparently, they got almost 1 million dollers from the USMC for this. And yet they can't afford a real webpage. Does anyone else smell a scam?
Apple has never claimed not to be evil, they're just very stylish about it.
Two references - one for paraglider canopy artwork, one for stun guns. Same phone number. Hmmmmmm....
0 22 .htm
y ou _should_know_about_custo.htm
http://www.dodsbir.net/awardlist/abs022/navyabs
http://www.ultraflight.com/issues/jan2002/what_
is actually still valid if this is a fake.
The paper version I was reading not two hours ago makes the important observation that these devices that subject the human body to high voltages are known to be safe, right?
Uh, no, actually. There's not much safety data on them. Probably on the lack of willing participents in safty trials. There are, however, 40-odd docummented cases of injuries from tasers, and one induced miscarriage. And that's a single target weapon, used relativly precisly. (For example, what happens when you sweep this laser guided lightening bolt over someone's eyes, something not feasable with a taser?)
The big danger with this style of 'non-lethal' weapon is that the intended use is for riot control - where they'll be sprayed around pretty indiscriminatly. Whether this particular product / company is real or not, that's teribbly relevent - there's a movement towards developing these weapons, and these questions remain.
and since it only has an effective range of 9 feet it might be more effectively employed as an advanced 21st Century Head Bashing implement (more commonly known as a club). The advantage is no wires, batteries and a fairly rapid re - swing rate.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Alright... if you dont know it: the city "Dorf" (as declared location of the company (read the article)) is not a real city ("Dorf" is german and means "village") - Although there is "Dorfen"
Spelling mistakes: My is english spoken not tongue of mother.
The quote from New Scientist is not related to the second site. Pay more attention.
Now we need to scale this up a bit.
/. article and mount a larger, more powerful version of these on the underside. Then, all you have to do is "paint" a target with conventional military laser targeting device, and watch as lightning pours in from the sky to incapacitate your target and anything nearby. The system could also be manually targetted by gunners in on the platform as well, using telemetry from orbiting spy satellites. Thus do we suddenly get the WoG (Wrath of God) system.
Take some of those sub-orbital floating platforms mentioned in a previous
Oh yeah, and think of what the Muslim extremists will think when lightning bolts start falling on their forces from the heavens... Is it just me, or is life starting to imitate Command and Conquer?
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
Well, semantically anyway. :-) I don't think you can have non-lethal execution by definition.
There's no place I can be, since I found Serenity.
I remember back a ways when the Marines where testing sticky guns in Iraq for "non-lethal" crowd control and it had two big issues:
1.) hit them in the face and they suffocate
2.) the dang things gummed up all the time...duh.
The ultra low frequency sound cannon worked very very well, however (makes an entire crowd have to go poo RIGHT NOW...very effective for dispersal) and it is cheap. A tuned tube, some gaseous fuel and a spark plug basically.
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
So it shoots particles that are airborne? And that means they are subject to winds? So what happens if the wind kicks up and shoots this onto the police? What happens if this airborne particle gets in someones eye? Does anyone want to get shot in the eye with electricity? Fried eyeballs anyone? I don't know how I feel about this, especially at a crowd level. Sell to the police/military now, sell to the black market tomorrow, sell to civilians the day after tomorrow (oops, did I do that?)
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
...for plastic garbage bags! shockproof vests!! or those cheap plastic rain coats. Oh yer,this will work.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
the novel way of reloading on page 3 *g*
(for those that didn't notice, scroll to bottom of page)
______________________________________________
sigamajig...
news.com.au?
... somebody answers!
newscientist.com?
Where the hell are they getting their information for these stories?
That is the shittiest looking website I have ever seen.
By the way, call the phone number: 765-641-9865
Just so you know, I like to start signatures with the phrase, "Just so you know."
If you squint real hard, you can just make out the soldier camouflaged against the white stucco wall there. Cunning!
How can you call this a fake? I mean it's obvious by the milspec loafers in the picture that this company means business.
Rather than use this technology to shoot the crap out of people, couldn't it be used for something much more useful, say wireless power? Maybe PPPP point-to-point power.
Just think no more cabling or pylons!
BS
If they fail to make money with this, they should still be able to sell the domain name "xtremeads.com" for a sizeable amount. Xupiter, Gator and so on should love it. ^_~
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
Its bigger than a bazooka and it only has a range of 9 ft? I think it needs minaturizing before anyone will want to use it in the field.
XADS is developing two longer-ranged systems, one of which will have a range of 20 feet and the other 50 feet. The 20-foot range system will be able to be towed by a car and set up for mobile operations.
If you think 20 feet is long range, then the first prototype is likely to be about 10 feet or so, or has extremely limited power/time. It likely doesn't carry its own power supply.
But that doesn't mean the technology isn't viable, it just means that it needs a ton of development work and will probably be very limited in its capabilities.
Rubber bullets, tear gas, fire hoses, etc will probably still have a broader applicability to most situations. Either that or the other alternative weapons such as the sonic or light weapons that cause dizziness and nausea.
Power is always an issue, though. Anything that doesn't focus its power on a spot the size of a dime at 300 feet is, due the the laws of physics, going to require immense amounts of power - not hand carryable. Possibly backpack for short sessions.
-Adam
Seems we will soon be at risk of being stunned by ionised air generated by laptop sized lasers...
I always wanted a laptop gun! Perfect Dark rocks!
didn't the army design one that simply used a water stream to carry the high voltage to the victim errr target?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Actually, making a huge fluffy-cloud shaped dirigible that could dispense lightning would certainly be a FUNNY way to maim/kill your foes... I'd be more impressed if it could also store large amounts of locust, frogs, and hail for droppage as well.
What we really need to build, though, is a giant floating marble thrown with a giant anamatronic Zeus to throw thunderbolts. Much better.
9 feet?!? That's almost the effective range of a point-ted stick!
No patches though. He should have a name tag and a "US ARMY" tag.
Also, his pants are not bloused into his boots.
Are those zippers on the pockets on the front of those pants?
Now, his uniform is nice and new, but the eyelets of his boots are shiney. They eyelets should be black. New uniform & old boots maybe?
And is that a WHITE tee-shirt he's wearing? It should be a BROWN tee-shirt.
And his shirt is buttoned up too high.
"So you would rather a compay take the funds they got from a SBIR Phase I Award and spend it on marketing, web development, and domain managementment? "
He seems to have spent a lot of time painting it in jungle colours. Perhaps he could have saved the paint and paid the $20 to get hosting?
Well, the idea was to have a big copper plate under your shirt connecting to the earthing wire. ;)
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
if dropped from a third floor window...
Earlier, I called the number and when it was picked up, I chickened out and hung up. Well, Pete called back and did a great (hilarious) job of convincing me that this company is indeed real.
Nice talking to you, Pete.
Just so you know, I like to start signatures with the phrase, "Just so you know."
Ion cannons, anyone?
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
I remembered about something like that advertised a few years ago. After a couple Google searchs, I found it again: HSV Technologies Inc. - looks like the site is no longer updated... Just wonder if they are still working at it. They even claimed a US Patent as early as 1997!
In the long run we are all dead. - John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)
Carry a mirror!
Reflect the laser back at the troops!
Bzzzzt...
How much will they cost? How much will the civilian version cost? Or as I've read in many other articles about nifty new next-generation nonlethal gadgets, will it be marketed only to military and official law enforcement folks?
"I'm sorry, our nonlethal line is only available to law enforcement sir. Would you be interested in our line of top quality firearms?" Lethal force is only for civilians... what a time to be alive!
(5 mod points and I had to comment.)
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
I didn't notice anyone else comment on this.
President Peter Bitar (I'm sure pronounced Biter).
If everything else didn't already clue you in.
--------- Steve Martin once said, "Sex is the most natural, most beautiful, most wonderful thing that money can buy."
ooh the wedgie... how I have missed you
This should stop those pesky anti-war protesters and people who don't like Bush (may they burn in hell). Of course it will never be used against people legitimately exercising their right to protest gun-laws etc - the true heros of America!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
... or is that thing plugged into the wall?
Not particularly mobile.
Maybe GI Joe there can carry one of these in his backpack.
www.enterweb.pt
Now that I know the phone number is real:
Geneva Jenratte, (765) 641-9865, 3021 Nichol Ave, Anderson, IN 46011
Random Musings
Years ago I knew a guy who worked for the cops - south australian police force, had a desk job. A part of his job was to assess what should and shouldn't be standard issue equipment - basically, what should hang on the cops belts. He was assessing a new (at the time) device - a single unit which was a torch, a baton/club/whatever you call it (basically a very well built torch), and a stun unit - you would rotate the top of the torch, and two small metal points came out which would shock & stun the victim.
I asked him "how do you test something like that?"
His response was "go out on patrol with some cops one night, find someone off his face on crack and stick it in him". Lovely.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
The vapourware company was presumably able to get its press release through the editorial board at New Scientist because they already knew that such products were out there, and the reporting is of the "look how soon they are getting it to market" variety.
My 2p's worth: Both proposals seem to have one flaw, at least for military application, for the same reason gas-based weapons have not been popular since the First World War: If the wind changes, the gas can blow back into your own trenches. I guess a quick-minded operator will switch off the current, but it seems risky.
cardboard tubes wrapped with green camouflage tape.
That should be all they need to get past the demonstration phase for getting a government contract. When I was a kid, my dad brought home the stinger missile mockup that the Army had been using to show off to the Saudi government. It was made from cardboard and coat-hanger wire with a poster tube where the missile should be.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Demonstrators at a protest in the United Kingdom were seen running around with lengths of copper wire trailing across the ground from their trouser-legs.
Heh! That's pretty funny. But if there were such a simple way of countering 'taser' weapons like this, would it be outlawed? There would likely be some legislation against anything that could specically protect you against crowd control.
"You are hereby charged with conspiracy to resist arrest."
Crowd control weapons seem more sinister than 'regular' weapons to me. Odd, but then what are the legitimage uses of them? Guns, etc, are used against enemy combabants and armed criminals, but who is the intended target of weapons like this? Protestors, passive resistance, people who occupy buildings or access roads?
It just seems to me that creating new technology to control crowds is to miss the real problem; and a little anti-democratic, eh?
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
So big gun and only 9-feet range?
I think that 9-foot pole would be as much non-lethal as this thing, lighter, easer to handle and three orders of magnintude cheaper.
Also with proper handling pole can be used as lethal weapon as need arises.
And no human rights advocate would complain if beaten with 9-feet pole, because use of clubs and poles by police is very old tradition.
OK, I'm actually in the USMC. I'm a DMS administrator working in the local control center at Camp Foster on Okinawa, Japan. I've never heard of this thing. I would have heard of it especially if it's supposed to come out by 2005. Also, that guy in that pic is no Marine. I doubt he's even in the armed forces. He has no name tapes on his cammies, plus the cammies look pretty fake. Another thing to point out is that you can't buy that cammie pattern (analogs) any more and those cammies look brand new; the digital pattern is all you can get. This whole thing is fake. I guarantee it.
LCpl Duncan, Mark W
kinda sounds like a wussy version of tesla's death ray. and he had that close to 100 years ago. (i believe he did it anyway).
|plastic....or gasoline?|
The idea is to use a very short pulse from a UV laser to ionize a path in the air. This ionized path for all intents and purposes can be treated as a wire. You just send the electric shock down the 'wire'
The problem is this UV pulse has to be very very powerful to sufficently ionize the air. If you got hit with it you wouldn't be feeling too well.
XTREME ADS (ALTERNATIVE DEFENSE SYSTEMS)
1508 E. 7th St.
Anderson, IN 46012
Phone: (765) 724-2226
PI: Mr. Pete Bitar
Topic#: NAVY 02-121
Awarded: 25NOV02
Title:Personnel Neuromuscular Disruptor Incapacitation System
Abstract:The STUNBEAM will effectively be proven to be the world's first available "wireless Taser", using electromagnetic energy to create ion "streams" which conduct a static charge which can disrupt neuromuscular control of any human or comparable animal target, at an output of between 25,000 and 100,000 volts with extremely low amperage. The weapon can also be used to disrupt electronic devices. Current technology already has proven results at very short, point-blank ranges of between five and ten feet. This Phase 1 work will deal with the ion streams themselves in the areas of columniation, tracking, limiting scattering effects, and static pulse conductivity in order to increase the range and controllability of a larger-scale device to between 50 and 300 feet. Since work has already been done in this area by Xtreme, one of the final results of the Option portion of this Phase 1 SBIR will be to build and deliver a working proof of concept device with a range of at least 10 feet, which will be useful in close-quarter scenarios as are common with the use of "Tasers". Xtreme has the technical ability, facility, and willingness to forge ahead in taking this technology to the incredible potential it has. The benefits of this system are unlimited. The unit will stun, not kill, its target, allowing for hostages to be rescued easily from almost any hostage situation, and criminals or enemy combatants to be captured, not killed, in a variety of military and law enforcement scenarios. This system will be easy to use and will be portable. Units can be sold commercially to police as well as to homeowners for effective, non-lethal self defense. Other applications of the massive ion generation of related devices can be used, among other things, in air purification and medical sterilization.
Anyone else see what their telephone number reaches on a reverse lookup?
It can be found Here.
70lb dog can be quite lethal if his master is going to be hurt. Or can just show his teeth and growl, if properly trained. Typically it is enough to supress riot. But I'd rather use 140lb dog for this. Dogs are quite capable of throwing themselves.
Uh, doesn't anyone doing any verification before something like this gets posted on slashdot? This is clearly a hoax website--the "army guy" in the picture is wearing deck shoes for Pete's sake!
Slashdot needs an ombudsman...
Ok, someone call the ghostbusters, these guys stole their weapons.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
stunned by ionised air generated by laptop sized lasers...
Time to get a smaller laptop if it's that big!
...am I clicking on a link to "Xtreme ads.com", thank you very much.
do not read this line twice.
Countermeasures: a garden hose.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
... a spelling checker?
Since society depends on electronics so much, I've always wondered if these stun gun makers will get sued for toasting a laptop or frying someone's pacemaker.
I have a hearing aid. What good will soldiers yelling at me do when they have fried my hearing.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
... the "performance art" weapon spoof from two months ago? The long range "implant" gun supposedly shown at the beijing international arms show? It was a hoked up gun that allegedly shot microchip tags at long distance, and the dude actually managed to fake out a buncha military guys and a significant portion of ye old intarweb audience interested in such things.
With that said, they do have a variety of electronic weapons coming down the pike. You can already get sonic nausea weapons from shomer-tech I think it's called, a mercenary supply outlet, and the military has microwave weapons for "crowd control" that only heat up to what an normal household incadescent light bulb reaches, yet apparently they claim it won't hurt your eyes. Of course they are being cute for public consumption, it's only a matter of an amp to make it lethal. And they got frikkin lasers, some mobile, some static. And I KNOW I've seen these latter weapon discussed here on slasherdotts.
My bottom line is, whatever sort of weapons they admit to in public, they already have for deployment the next generation, and they got two more generations under development.
Just like their aircraft....
These guys cant afford a $5.00 a month website?
With the skin effect, a suit of armor (however light) would keep that charge off the body.
As for the wind moving the gas plasma into some sort of blue-on-blue bug zapper nightmare - I think we're talking channels of plasma so thin and tenuous that they don't exist much longer than the charge. Scale your time and you'll see what I mean.
kulakovich
This is Tesla's 70-year old technology. His "death ray"--Tesla didn't fool around--was an intense hard ultraviolet beam to ionize a path through the air, into which was put an electrode from the secondary of a Tesla coil (which is exactly 1/4 wave long, so the grounded end stays constantly at 0 voltage, while the other oscillates.) With this apparatus he could down piston driven planes out to the attenuation range of the beam by water vapor in the atmosphere by shorting out their ignition, which was pre-transistor, sturdy magneto or point and coil. The defense, as with all induced charges, is a Faraday shield.
NOTE: WE SELL ONLY TO U.S. POLICE AND MILITARY CUSTOMERS. Please direct any questions to Pete Bitar at xtreme1@lycos.com
Hmmm, lycos.com... Yeah, I'm sure it's *really* in production now.
I expect the guy in the picture to turn to another soldier and say something like... "There's something very important I forgot to tell you. Don't cross the streams. It would be bad, very bad"
Here's an interesting list of alternate forms of weaponry, some realized and others speculative.
Here
Would ionized gas blow back in your face and electrocute you if you spread it against the wind direction?
Also Tony Hawk, Dave Mirra, Bam Margera, the good people at Right Guard, and that hottie from that show about all the videogames.
"Hey baby, my cannon goes nine feet and can shut off a Volkswagen. Can I see your b00biez!?"
But I shoot bottle rockets out of it instead...
--|gillham|--
Sure, specifying legal limits to its use. Perhaps only by order of a judge.
Any non-lethal means given to the police to subdue a dangerous suspect or suspects should be available.
RIOTs are clearly one area where large scale non-lethal intrevention is warranted. It would not be a violation of Freedom of speech or similar non-sense arguments. If a large group is violently breaking the law then give the police a means to control them.
Whats worse, being stunned or gased? Hell I think stunning may be useful compared to water hoses and rubber bullets.
Its all about context.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
gives us someone on Nichol Ave, Anderson, IN 46011. It looks like your typical small town strip mall street though no business is listed at the specific address. It seems to be residential and the number does not belong to Pete Bitar.
Yet another example of New Scientist's fine journalism. When are we going to learn not to take them seriously?
However the same argument you make should then apply to the existing hand-stun guns - and they seem to work. Maybe the shooter actually conducts electricity, but the flow and voltage is low, while the shot is a compressed burst of high voltage and ampere ?
I also wondered about something similar: Some days ago I watched an electrician draw diagrams of a shortcut and that the current then takes the ground as a route back to the central power generator. I really wonder, doesn't the ground just act more like a giant capacitor that sucks up electrons and disperses them or can you really say there is a closed current with the generator ?
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
Ok got the phaser now how about the "Beam me up Scotty!"
Cannot find REALITY.SYS. Universe halted.
Police forces can quickly and efficiently deal with dissenters without sparking media attendtion!
Ouch. With puns like this, governments don't need stun guns.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
people laughing at cardboard tube stun guns kills people.
At last those tin-foil hat people won't be laughed upon! They will do the laughing while the others are making spastic movements on the ground. (ok, the tin-foil-hat-sweater-and-trousers people at least)..
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
with some additional info...9 93749
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99
You say YES!
(Visions of the 300 ft. Stay-Puft marshmallow man dancing in my head)
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
I swear to god johnny... if you talk back one more time... it's the hose... i bet that's an application they haven't thought of :-D ...completely kidding... but still a funny thought.
Mike Moore ph33nd@gmail.com
SBIR Phase I is for feasiblity study only. If the sponsoring government agency is suitably impressed with Phase I progress, they will receive additional funds in Phase II to actually develop the thing.
Phase I money is tight and specific. It does not cover marketing expenses. Phase III is commercial development.
The whole purpose of SBIR is to grow new companies and create jobs via small businesses that prove worthy via incremental progress - hence Phase I, II and III. SBIR does not exist to feed the Boeings and Martins. It exists to shoulder what would otherwise would be unacceptable levels of research and developmental risk for small business.
Putting aside for the moment that the picture looks ludicrous and I agree this is probably a hoax, the idea in itself doesn't see so far fetched. What happens when someone with a pacemaker gets hit by one of these things? I imagine it wouldn't be pretty...
The website may look booty, but XADS does appear to have a small business contract with the Navy for a "Personnel Neuromuscular Disruptor Incapacitation System" -- awarded November '02.
int main(void) {while(1) fork(); return 0;}
>>Surely it would be possible to deflect the beam by carrying a charged sphere (or similar device) next to you to attract the charged/ionized particles...
This is simple. How about a cardboard "shield" wrapped with aluminum foil? As far as clothing, since the laser is creating an ionized cathode/anode pair, it would seem to me that any sufficiently reflective, nonconductive surface deflecting either beam would prevent the circut from closing. Maybe SciFi writers of the 1950s were all correct -- we WILL be running around in shiny silver spandex in the future looking like Lost In Space or Flash Gordon cast extras!
Or what about this -- would a neoprene wetsuit be sufficient to insulate from the current? I've seen handheld stunguns (50K TO 100K volts) strike through very thick leather jackets, but the handheld models are probably more powerful than this air-conducted model. (For now, anyway.)
One last thought. Does that prototype need a "BFG" sticker, or what?
There is already, a whole family of lower tech, less expensive, non-lethal, proven weapons out there that a squad car could have 5 or 6 different types on the cheap to match the situation. If it is a big crowd, you still have the old reliable water cannon or tear gas to keep down the rabble. Of course this new Buck Rogers toy would be great for questioning or recreational fun for some sicko.
So that's what he used the bed post he got at my garage sale for...
I beleive this is the company that developed the protos used. The do not talk about the infrasound device, however, on their website...curious.
http://www.atcsd.com/tl_hss.html
[RIAA] says its concern is artists. That's true, in just the sense that a cattle rancher is concerned about its cattle.
Methinks someone's been playing too much Unreal Tournament....
Surely if you were to wear some conducting material under your clothes, it would defeat this thing, by shorting out whatever current was directed at you!
Definitely time to start investing in tin foil hat companies.
new crowd control weapons that electrocute/stun the targets.
It's not non-lethal if it electrocutes the target. "electrocute" means to kill by means of electric shock.
Looks like it was just the submitter that used the wrong word, though.
The gadget apparently uses a pulsed solid-state UV laser to ionize a channel in the air between the shooter and the target
And what does a UV laser pulse capable of ionizing AIR do when it hits SKIN? Or an EYE? Just burn it? Or cause it to explode?
UV into the eye will dump most of its energy in the lens and cornea. Cataracts minimum at air-ionization levels (Not that it matters: The lightning bolt lands microseconds later, and the eye's structure pipes it straight into the center of the brain.)
Interestingly, at high enough intensities laser pulses like that can be self-focusing
Self focusing requires an energy level SO high that the tiny fraction of the energy dumped into the air heats it enough to reduce its refractive index (i.e. literally blasts the air molecules out of the beam at extreme velocities). That's definitely in the "skin/cornea/lens explodes violently" range.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Not only can UV be used for new weapons systems.
But new Nanotechnology uses UV. Press articles
http://p2pnet.net/story/842
http://p2pnet.net/story/1211
http://p2pnet.net/story/1385
for that special rioter in your life.
i bet his 2mb lycos inbox is stuffed full of our retoric by now... "did you outsource the verbage on your page to be written by an 8th grader?" "dispite popular opinion, having the 'Buy Domains' banner on your site is actually concidered tasteless" "Hey bud, ever hear of the mailto keyword?" "now, did you actually use a ligitimant copy of frontpage to make your site?" "you have a stupid-head"
I have to say this definitely would cause an increase in bank robberies.. why bother going in and saying this is a stickup if you can "hose down" everyone there before they even realize you're inside... might also serve to destroy cameras... lastly, you could prbably adapt it to a "mine" that nails everything in a certain radius.
meh
I would think this would be relatively easy to defend against, and in fact regular stun guns should also be easy to defend. All one would need is clothing with a fine wire mesh embedded in it. A tinfoil hat would also likely work well to protect the head. Just as long as the mesh runs all the way down to the ground it should protect whoever is inside.
Often the more complex the weapon, the easier it is to defend against. Much of the Star Wars SDI type weapons are also easy to defend against. Just put a bunch of small ball bearings in the tip of a warhead and explode it some distance away. A low tech weapon that will be effective for quite some time in space.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
are batteries included?
a much more humane method of crowd control to be sure....
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Maybe the government should take an idea from Orgazmo (IMDB) and use an orgazmorator to stimulate an orgasm in the victim?
Think about it: Wouln't you rather be taken in by the police in a non-lethal and pleasurable fashion?
Actually, there is a vehicle mounted (or wall mounted) stun gun based off of a super soaker. A group of us got the idea when we were watching a bug zapper, holding a super soaker in one hand and a beer in the other thinking...
Anyway, my dad built the thing. It has been licensed for use in some non-US prisons for riot control.
http://www.jaycor.com/eme/watcan.htm
as far as small stun equipment, check out the same company's sticky shocker:
http://www.jaycor.com/eme/nlp.htm
Network Security: It always comes down to a big guy with a gun.
If I find one on the ground should I drop the BFG 9000 to pick it up?
Insert witty sig here.
Sounds extremley similar to the way the james bond wristwatch stun gun is supposed to work. Yet another piece of science fiction that is turning into real science.
411 Y0UR 8453 4R3 8310NG 70 U5!! -NSA
I worked as a subcontractor to a rather large defense contractor. They had no web site and their employees all had AOL addresses (and NMCI addresses). Oh, and they built web apps for the Navy. Go figure.
Network Security: It always comes down to a big guy with a gun.
I'm glad that those laser pulses aren't going to harm my eyes, but for some reason i feel that walking through plasma isn't a good idea. What exactly are the health consequences of strolling through a "long, thread-like filament of glowing plasma"?
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
UV into the eye will dump most of its energy in the lens and cornea. Cataracts minimum at air-ionization levels (Not that it matters: The lightning bolt lands microseconds later, and the eye's structure pipes it straight into the center of the brain.)
You're right, we should stick with current tasers and shoot darts in peoples eyes, followed by the shock.
+5 Insightful, all the way.
UV into the eye will dump most of its energy in the lens and cornea. Cataracts minimum at air-ionization levels (Not that it matters: The lightning bolt lands microseconds later, and the eye's structure pipes it straight into the center of the brain.)
You're right, we should stick with current tasers and shoot darts in peoples eyes, followed by the shock.
The trouble with trying to invent a "phaser with a stun setting" is that, when you advertise it as such, the wielders believe you. So they use it in situations when they would never CONSIDER using lethal force.
Unfortunately, evolution does NOT favor systems that are easily incapacitated, leaving the body helpless before an attacker. Thus essentially any level of disruption that can quickly incapacitate a human will be only a small percentage below the force necessary to kill him. Given the variations between individuals, and the variations in how the force is applied in the field, SOME of those "stunned" WILL be killed.
One of the contemplated uses of this hypothetical weapon is crowd control. Given its nature, the obvious way to do that is to use it to "mow them down". Such an attack would be likely to kill some of the people in a crowd of any size large enough to provoke the action - either directly or through suffocation in the resulting pile of bodies.
But "spraying" the crowd would almost certainly mean aiming between shoulder and crotch level. This means that if there are children in the crowd, a significant fraction are likely to be hit in the eyes - with a very high risk of death as a result.
So if some authority decides to use it on a crowd they'd BETTER have the whole crowd in a box before they wake up. Otherwise the damage the crowd was causing before they were shot would be NOTHING compared to what they'd do after they come to and discover the dead kids.
Similar concerns exist for other situations. For instance, consider giving them to a pilot for shooting suspected terrorists: Not only is it more likely to be used on drunks, but a shot at someone standing in the asile is at about the right level to hit the seated passengers in the eyes or heads.
Military and civilian planners are now referring to devices like this as "LESS lethal" rather than "NON lethal" weapons. This is to keep the people in the field aware that, though they're "kinder and gentler" deadly force, they're still deadly force. So they must not be used indiscriminately, but only in situations where killing the person on the receiving end is justified.
Meanwhile, they have another downside: They are LESS intimidating to the people at whom they're pointed. Where the threat from a gun is likely to bring a sudden decision to cease attacking (and either surrender or run), the threat from a "stunner" is more likely to just make the attacker(s) mad(der).
Sun Tsu had it right: In crowd control, self defense, and effecting arrests, what you're trying to do is win WITHOUT fighting. What this means in practice is bringing a big enough threat to bear that even the dumbest cop (or mob) realizes you'll win if you use it. Once that occurs you get your way without having to USE it. Thus the threat of a gun that almost NEVER has to be fired is a LOT better than the use of a sometimes-deadly "stunner" that almost ALWAYS has to be fired.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Woohoo! Vindication at last!
I heard about this a couple of years ago and told some friends about it. They thought I was on crack.
Now wait till I zap them from afar with my "laser taser"!
It's like the modern version of "I'm crushing your head!"
In crowd control, self defense, and effecting arrests, what you're trying to do is win ITHOUT fighting. What this means in practice is bringing a big enough threat to bear that even the dumbest cop (or mob) realizes you'll win if you use it.
Oops. Meant "crook", not "cop".
(Must have seen too many episodes of "The Shield" to get THOSE two swtiched. B-) )
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
A strong magnetic field generated by a backpack-sized device may be able to protect against ionized gas.
Also, consider Stanley Milgram's experiments. Technology like this may help further blur the line between what you personally believe is right and what you will accept as right because somebody told you it was right.
Well, I've just been reading an interesting little article on New Scientist's website about new crowd control weapons that electrocute/stun the targets.
If you electrocute them you can't stun them. They would be DEAD! Electrocute means to kill by electric shock. Not just get a little jolt. I see this error everywhere but I am surprised to see it on slashdot.
Has anyone checked the version that archive.org has of this site for jan 21, 2002:
/ /x tremeads.com/
:)
http://web.archive.org/web/20020121041956/http:
heh.
also, xtreme ads seems to be a lame name for an advertising company.
...yes, but this is slashdot and you are michael, so indeed the "news" on this site is getting less and less newsworthy.
You can see my dog HERE. Note that these pictures were taken when she was very young. Now she's big and fierce!
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
You realize that XADS is just 11 miles up the street from the Worlds Largest Ball of Paint?
Coincidence? I think not....
--Joe(PS. In case that Yahoo! Maps link doesn't work after a bit, note that XADS is in Anderson, IN, and WLBP is in Alexandria, IN.)
Program Intellivision!
i've had a quick look down the posts here as well as at the article (yes, some of us do..), and most of it is hilarity. Fair enough, their technology doesn't look like much, but ask yourself who is going to buy this?
This is a WEAPON which has NO purpose other than against civilian crowds. Try to deploy this kind of crap against people with real weapons and you will be killed in short order. It can serve no purpose other than suppressing unarmed civilians.
If you are using this against your citizens, then you might as well be honest and use armed troops, because this cannot be described as policing.
I imagine certain US police forces are positively drooling at the thought of this...
We all know electricity needs to make a ROUND TRIP. You don't spray electricity. It moves through a circuit.
Taser's have TWO wires. Hand-held "stun-guns" have TWO points.
Think about it. You pipe 50,000V with low current into a remote target over a plasma conduit. Now your stupid Buck-Rogers gun now has a 50,000V potential with respect to the ground, so you ALSO get shocked by the current from the ground unless the Buck-Rogers gun is grounded. Notice the photo has NO wire running to ground.
Not to mention the fact that you need a significant peak power laser intensity to ionize air, so you will essentially be using a blinding laser weapon to create the necessary plasma conduit??? Anyone else see the problem with this?
I'm reminded of the new "wireless cable" ads that popped up in the early 1990s. Pure bunk.
"But "spraying" the crowd would almost certainly mean aiming between shoulder and crotch level. This means that if there are children in the crowd, a significant fraction are likely to be hit in the eyes - with a very high risk of death as a result."
A valid concern to be sure.
However, is there some reason they couldn't fire this at foot/knee level and still get effective results? I understand why you aim for center of mass when using bullets (vital organs, and better chance of hitting), but why would you need to do that for a stun-beam weapon that you can sweep across a range of movement?
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
"The laser is said not to harm the eyes"
though we do suspect that due to the laser's purpose, shining it in someone's eyes will lead to permanent eye damage.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
So these guys may develop the latest and greatest, to end all wars weapon - but if they can't keep criminals away from it- then that is bad.
So, they develop a prototype of their stun gun - Like most prototypes, it's 6x larger than the finished product, and looks like the offspring of a punk toaster and a HeathKit. It's powered by a pair of car batteries.
Criminals break into their workshop and steal their three laptops, the laser printer and the Oscilliscope (Criminal B thinks it's a portable TV). Criminal A almost breaks a leg tripping over the batteries on the floor.
even then, the shock that will stun a healthy adult, could still kill a small child or a middle-aged individual that has a pacemaker or hypertention.
Even people stunned by rubber bullets, pepper spray or tazers, still go to the hospital immediately to get checked out. Imagine a large crowd of people "stunned". The police are still liable for every one of their deaths, and such a large number of people will easially overwhelm a hospital.
Is it just me, or does this sound suspiciously like the description of the lightning gun from UT2k3/UT2k4? That was described as painting a proton patch on the target, then firing an arc of electricity that would seek out the charge differential. Or something like that. Or is it just me?
--ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
In crowd control, self defense, and effecting arrests, what you're trying to do is win WITHOUT fighting. What this means in practice is bringing a big enough threat to bear that even the dumbest cop (or mob) realizes you'll win if you use it.
Yes, I knew sooner or later somebody would come up with a way to justify tactical nuclear weapons as a crowd control measures... there's a missing factor here. The crowd has to believe that you're likely to use the weapon.
If I was in a situation where I was in a mob the police were trying to control, and the _only_ weapon they had available was a gun, and I figured the rest of the crowd would follow my lead, I wouldn't be intimidated by it, because I know that they're trained only to use them when they believe there is no other option. Just make sure you're not threatening anybody's life, and you'll be fine.
Of course, in reality, the police also have big sticks.
However, is there some reason they couldn't fire this at foot/knee level and still get effective results?
Yes. In order to be effective, the electrical discharge needs to cross a major nerve centre, e.g. the spine. Typical strategy for using a tazer to disable someone is to try to hit their back with it. Chest will do, but is more dangerous. If you hit somebody in the leg with it, it will make that leg go numb, but they'll be able to limp around on the other one still, I reckon.
If this thing has a 20 foot range, I guess you just throw it at your adversary and run - it looks so damn heavy you better use it quick or someone will take it away from you and beat you to death with it
Ask Me About... The 80's!
i'd thought i'd just tell you that i moderated 5 of your comments overrated. n-joy!
Well if you sweep it, you're going to hit both legs.
;)
Two numb legs is a pretty immobile person.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
My name is Kyle Wade, and I am a student at Anderson University, in Anderson, IN. I am a Computer Science major with an English minor hoping to pursue technical writing. I recently completed an internship with XADS, helping to write an SBIR grant application. I'd like to address a few points here. 1) Yes, the CQ StunStrike shown in that picture is huge. It's also heavy. I've held and fired it. I can't really confirm or disconfirm the military status of the person holding it, as that picture was taken well before I hired on with XADS. 2) The CQ StunStrike shown in that picture is a prototype. Often, especially with new and experimental technology, you don't start off building exactly what you're aiming for; XADS has already found ways to shrink it down to less than half that size, and they are optimistic about getting it even smaller. It is definitely not cardboard tubes wrapped in camoflage tape. Honestly, I think that if they were trying to make a fake StunStrike just to put on a website, they would have made something more convincing. 3) XADS is NOT a wealthy company, and, while the costs of hosting a website aren't significant, they only have about five employees right now, all of whom are working part-time (except for Pete, who puts in about 30 hours a day) and none of whom have the time or ability to create a more polished, professional website. There are guidelines about what you can use SBIR money for and I don't think hiring web designers falls under them--And even if it did, the website is not a priority right now, and probably won't be for another few months at least. 4) Peter Bitar is pronounced "Peter Buh-tar," not "Peter Biter." And he prefers to be called Pete anyway. 5) The company was started several years ago, and I think words like "Xtreme" were more in style then. I think the intent was to emphasize the cutting-edge nature of the technology being developed. We all just say "XADS" anyway. Obviously, I don't really have any way to prove to you that I am who I say I am, that I actually have any real connection with XADS, or that anything I'm saying is true. All I can say is that if any of you could spend five minutes with Pete, you'd be as convinced as I am that XADS is pursuing some very exciting and wonderful technology that has the potential to change the world. The goal is to make warfare less lethal, and while that sounds like a rather lofty and unrealistic goal, if anyone has the vision for it, it's Pete.