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Sonic 'Lasers' to be Deployed in Hurricane Region
MacDork writes "Wired News is running an article about high powered acoustic technology to be deployed in the hurricane Katrina disaster recovery. Apparently, the technology will allow authorities to communicate with others up to a mile away along with providing a non-lethal means of crowd control. No word on additional busses and shelters..."
Warning: dopey science rant follows!
Man, I wish people would get this right. Sonic laser doesn't make any sense. Can you really call longitudinal waves coherent? There's more to a laser than just high fluence and the ability to be focused. Sonic waves don't even have a particle nature, really, unless you wanted to count the vibrating atoms. Since you can't amplify atoms, you really can't get a sonic laser. Here, let's look at this:
"... like the sonic equivalent of a laser, or spotlight."
That's from the article. A spotlight and a laser really don't have much in common besides producing lots of light. A spotlight isn't coherent, or even monochromatic. It's just really, really "bright." Photons of laser light all have a fixed phase relationship--coherency, basically. This leads to lots of interesting properties like, oh, the entire science of interferometry. More importantly for the purposes of this discussion, lasers are _really really really_ "bright." I'm using "brightness" as a misnomer for fluence, or power through an area: you can get a much higher fluence from a decent laser by reducing area than from a spotlight by increasing power. I wish people wouldn't abuse the term laser so very much.
At the _very_ least, don't say "laser," because the "L" means light, and we're not talking about light here. Say "saser" or something, even though that's meaningless--stimulated emission of sound waves makes no sense under the traditional definition of stimulated emission, which really only applies to photons.
I realize that perhaps the functionality of the equipment makes the "beam" have laser-like properties, but I'm just irritated that "laser" is one of those fancy new buzzwords that the military and businesses like to toss around so much. They seriously degrade the good name of the device and, by doing so, cheapen science and help contribute to the scientific ignorance of the American population.
"Officials said a 3-foot (0.9-metre) shark had been spotted cruising the flooded streets"
Are you serious? Most of my (large) family live in New Orleans and the surrounding parishes, and I speak with them as often as possible (sometimes the phone lines are too jammed to get through). You should get some real information.
The police and authorities are not treating people all the same. There is no firing into crowds, and that sort of thing. No doubt the authorities are overwhelmed and need all the outside help they can get, but they are coping as best they can. If people are shooting, looting (not food - TV's, etc), causing violence and intimidation, they are being treated like the common criminals they are. If they are people in distress who need help, everyone is trying to get help to them.
As an aside, anyone trying to score poliltical points in either direction on the back of this disaster should be taken out back for summary execution. Sorry, I'm pretty close to this, and politics has no place until after this is sorted.
A question though: I am living outside the US, so I don't know if any offers of foreign aid have come in. Not just money, but doctors, freshwater, etc. With the level of support sent by the US to disasters around the world (like the Boxing Day Tsunami), I wonder if the rest of the world is trying to help the US now?
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
Well I have heard reports of aid being offered by many countries from sri lanka to israel, the uk and others.. some of that will no doubt be largely symbolic but still they were made..
What I haven't heard is if the US has accepted any of those offers or if any of it arrived in the area yet.
"Germany, France, Russia, Japan, Honduras and Sri Lanka are among countries that said they would send aid. A special United Nations task force is ready to help also, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a target of criticism by the U.S., offered $1 million to the Red Cross through Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of the country's national oil company. Cuba's President Fidel Castro offered to send 1,100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine to the U.S. Gulf Coast areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, CNN reported last night."i d=a3BvGso1ZFb4&refer=us
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&s
Sorry, IMHO, any blame here goes from the bottom up.
Over 40 countries so far. Canada is sending its top notch DART team (experts in urban rescue, the team also comes with a portable water purification plant). Canadian Navy is sending ships with supplies, choppers and what not to assist. There have been massive fund raising operations here, the Governments both Federal and Provincial are chipping in, Air Canada is shuttling people between cities in the South using largest planes in its fleet, etc etc.
You're kidding, right? Have you ever tried to move 100,000 people from a disaster area? These are the sick, the old, the very young, injured and, unfortunately, some are the criminal. It is not easy to move them, especially when large parts of the transportation infrastructure has been destroyed. Flat bottom boats are not going to do the job well.
We don't (or didn't) need high-tech toys to control the crowds. Simple, common-sense, things like on-going airdrops of food and water, combined with convoys of buses, and temporary shelters at schools, etc, would have prevented major losses of life in this fiasco.
They did try airdrops and were shot at. The Mayor of New Orleans had over 400 buses at his disposal after he was urged by President Bush to evacuate New Orleans ~48 hours before Katrina hit. He chose to leave those city and school buses in the motor pool. The buses that are in New Orleans had to come from outside the city. The buses that were used delivered the victims to locations without adequate resourses such as the Superdome and Convention Center. It is unfortunate that Nagin ignored his own disaster plan.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
CNN carried a press conference with Condoleeza Rice, the US Secretary of State, who commented that there had been many offers of financial aid from foreign nations and that none had been refused.
That was all fine and good, but the next question was from another reporter who asked, "but isn't it true that none of these donations have actually been accepted yet?" Yup, you guessed it, that was correct - the offers are being recorded but not being accepted by the US. Don't ask me why (although seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if that is a process that might take some time).
Another question followed up on a comment from Rice that Sri Lanka, which is poor and still rebuilding from the tsunami, had made a pledge of an undislosed amount. The reporter asked whether this made any sense since this was basically giving back US foreign aid to Sri Lanka.
It's sort of interesting to watch these press conferences as you see they pretty much alternate puffball questions from shills with (often ridiculously accusatory) questions from the other side. Just another sign of the stupidly polarized political environment around here these days. Imagine trying to drive down the street if your only steering mechanism was full-lock left and full-lock right. Grrr...
The Governor flatout stated ...I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilties of the State and the affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance will be necessary."
The assistance was dismal.
The citizens of the USA have just witnessed the complete failure of government on all levels, from local to federal. At every stage of this disaster there has not been a single competent person orchestrating the rescue efforts.
As a result of years of cronyism, privatization, classism, and racism, this has become an unmitigated disaster that one would expect to encounter only in the impoverished third world.
And here is the kicker: it will happen again and again if the public does not rise up and demand a clean sweep.
The entire system needs to be overhauled, from the very foundation of democracy -- secure, honest voting -- to the very notion of government's role in ensuring its citizens have access to shelter, food, and safety at all times and in all situations.
The time to act is now. You should be very angry and you should be demanding accountability and change. Do something before it happens again.
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
With the level of support sent by the US to disasters around the world (like the Boxing Day Tsunami), I wonder if the rest of the world is trying to help the US now?
A quick Google News reveals this article: "By Friday, offers had been received from Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Georgia, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates."
Some of the more interesting offers include:
Venezuela - "apart from the million dollars in monetary assistance, Venezuela is offering two mobile hospital units, each capable of assisting 150 people, 120 specialists in rescue operations, 10 water purifying plants, 18 electricity generators of 850 KW each, 20 tons of bottled water, and 50 tons of canned food."
Cuba - "1,100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine and equipment."
France - "a range of aircraft and two ships, with helicopters and planes capable of airlifting tons of supplies, a disaster unit with 20 soldiers, a civil defense detachment of 35 people and an airborne emergency unit"
Germany - "medical evacuation planes and airlift field hospitals, water purification systems and portable shelters"
Of course, one could criticise these offers as oppertunistic publicity-seeking, but then the same could be said of political photo-ops like Bush 'comforting survivors'.
Oddly enough, I found this quote in the washington post:
Bush told ABC-TV: "I'm not expecting much from foreign nations because we hadn't asked for it. I do expect a lot of sympathy and perhaps some will send cash dollars. But this country's going to rise up and take care of it."
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
"The first forecast that put the likelihood of the eye of the hurricane passing within 65 nautical miles of New Orleans above 50% was issued by NOAA at10 PM CDT Sunday."
And well before that time, President Bush had signed disaster declarations for the area. FEMA stated it was ready to go. So what's your point again?
Anyone who was reasonably prudent expected the Hurricane to hit N.O. well before Sunday and cause significant damage. Probably not the current level with certainty but that is never going to happen with significant advanced warning. There was ample warning and expectation that something bad was going to happen.
Leadership failed at ALL levels. Mobilization of significant resources is not quick or easy. But if you are signing disaster declarations for the area before the storm hits, you had better be mobilizing resources. You can always tell people to go home.
The people responsible for making these hard decisions failed. At some point they should be fired. Some will have to be voted out. Because I have no confidence that these people are qualified to rebuild the region. And I don't want these people in charge of billions of dollars funds and levels of responsibility that they can't handle.