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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..."
how about some frickin sharks ?
My name is coaxeus, and I approve this message. In fact, I think it is awesome.
Damn, why didn't I think of that?
Shoot lasers at the hurricane and we can SCARE IT AWAY.. either that or there will be a fierce battle of lasers vs. wind, and we all know lasers are the strongest thing ever.
Fuck. The answer has been here the whole time and we just didn't see it.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
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.
But in all seriousness, take a look at what's going on down there. There is an insane amount of looting and anarchy, stores are being looted, people are hoarding anything they can find. Hell, even reports of horrible crimes such as rape have been going around, because there is no way to control a mob the size of a city...
The government *is* doing what it can, which isn't much really, the city is flooded, and we're trying to fly as many people out as we can, but in the meantime, we need some order, and a nonlethal method of maintaining order seems very appropriate.
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
br I'm quite content actually.
That is because you are not really American. Yes, you maybe do live in the US of A and have a house and a car or two and speak English and even have an American passport. Still, if your blood is not boiling at this you are not American. As in: you do not subscribe to the American values. That old, "quaint", Constitution of yours goes:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America".
But don't listen to me, a foreigner that I am, Ben Franklin said it better: "We must all hang together, or, assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
And if what is going on in the South is to your "content", separately you will hang, indeed.
And I'm sure the pictures of police and soldiers dragging poor people from their homes and throwing them on buses in the forced evacuation would have gone over so well, especially if the hurricane had missed.
Yeah, the people who didn't want to leave for any reason would have made great photo-ops displaying the cruelty and racism of the Bush Administration, for displacing poor blacks from their homes.
The point is, the current administration can do nothing right, and will always be painted with evil motives, no matter what. Most Americans are sick of hearing it, but until the ClintonII administration takes office, that's all we will hear. That's why I've turned the news off.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
What gets me is, why weren't the buses rolling in to pick up people and give them rides away from these areas before the hurricane hit. As soon as it was obvious that Katrina was aiming for these areas, why couldn't they have used all these buses to to start moving people out.
And why not move in the food and water before the storm hit, and have it already there for those who will need it. I guess foresight and planning ahead no longer applies, even with all the models and predictions concerning hurricane disasters in that area.
Then, too, there will always be some people who will say, "I'm not leaving. I'll just take my chances." Then these same people yell the loudest about not being helped out of the situation they got themselves into. (Note: I am not referring to those too ill or feeble to move, or who just can't for some reason, nor to those who may be too poor to be able to find the means to leave.)
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
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...
You're right -- helicopters are 100 times more expensive, which is why the feds are not usually in charge of disaster recovery. The country is too damn big to have disaster plans for every region, which is why it's the responsibility of local and state governments to have plans. Why the hell didn't the mayor of New Orleans have a plan to get HIS OWN CITIZENS out?? The guy is being a total a-hole blaiming the feds for his own failure, as well as the failure of the governor of Louisiana.
Did you know that it was BUSH who personally called the mayor to order a mandatory evacuation? From this...
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding."
In other words, Bush saved thousand, if not tens of thousands of lives. The deaths can be put squarely on the government of Louisiana and New Orleans.
Not that things couldn't have been done faster -- they could have. But Bush is getting way too much of the blame here. The feds are not designed to move fast, combined with the fact that it was an incredible mess, and it doesn't help when people are shooting at the rescuers.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Mod parent down as "clueless."
n s.schools.ap/
Here's why the mayor of New Orleans didn't use the buses: He doesn't run the school district, which has been a complete organizational disaster for some time. Cities and school districts are not the same thing.
For a taste of just how bad the school district has become:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/08/18/new.orlea
The person you label as an "idiot democrat mayor" didn't make the mess. He is a relative political outsider, a former Cox cable executive, who was a Republican until he decided to run for mayor of a traditionally Democrat city.
He has been on a campaign to clean up the extremely corrupt New Orleans government, working actively with the FBI.
Maybe you should read something other than right-wing hate blogs.
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
Theft is one of the simplest crimes, satisfying a need without physical harm to someone else. The reason that looting is being suppressed is that as the social order degrades, instances where violations of societal norms are seen to occur without punishment become more acceptable. This furthers the breakdown of order, and the level of the crimes will increase as time goes by and nothing is done. Desperation and fear feed the chaos, and eventually it becomes impossible to control without drastic measures.
Enforcing order in a situation such as this is critical in saving lives, because it provides a sense of returning structure to the lives of the affected people. Without that, further restoration efforts, including returning electricity to the area, become impossible, and more people suffer because food and water remain unavailable and hospitals cannot function.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
... a desperate president thoughtfully strums a guitar while the deep south burns (because movie presidents are either heroes or bill clinton and the deep south is evil); a valient mayor battles the dodgy paper-shuffling governor (because politics stinks, apart from mayors who always clean up towns - kinda like sheriffs) ... and bruce willis as the heroic maveric loner ex-cop who accidently shot his partner/ex-SEAL who accidently led his men to certain death/ex-navy cook who accidently poisoned his captain/ex-JAG officer with a fighter pilot past who accidently shot-down a Serbian general's evil-eyed son. Can bruce save his cute daughter/sexy but unloving wife/cute but dangerously curious son from the floods, terribly black & poor rioters, rape gangs and insane local army unit commander; lead a rag-tag gang of possibly feckless neighbours to safety AND discover the truth behind the hurricaine (a military experiment gone wrong), the sharks (a military experiment gone wrong) and the burst levys (a corporate / military engineers experiment gone wrong)?
Or maybe this was just a huge disaster affecting an area the size of the UK, in a country without a welfare state, where the inequalities in society are trumpeted in the media, and commercial interests (i.e. a waterway near New Orleans that should have been filled in years ago) are always put above the common good (DCMA, Patent Law, etc.)
WAKE UP AMERICA AND SAVE YOUR COUNTRY; MAKE TONY BLAIR YOUR NEXT PRESIDENT
"...people are shooting, looting (not food - TV's, etc), causing violence and intimidation"
What kind of a F!-ed up society do you guys live in, anyway? In most places around the world (not all, admittedly), when a natural disaster hits, or even a power failure, people's natural instincts are to help one another, not steal things from stores, or beat and rape each other.
Is the USA really in such a state that law and order are maintained only by the presence of police? And if something happens to disrupt the power of the police, that the first things that come to people's minds is to break into the neighborhood shops and take the TV's? Is your country filled with people who are so ready to backstab their neighbors?
If this is true, it seems like a really, really sick (and scary!) society. You've got far bigger problems than worrying about the DMCA or the Patriot Act. Yes, those things are a danger to any society, but it sure sounds like you are way past the point where changing the laws or changing the administration will help very much. Wow!
Hardly unique to the US. I'm an American, but living in London. People are mugged and stabbed right in front of others in the UK... no one does anything.
I know a lady who was with her two small children and was shoved down in a fast food resturant full of customers and employees so some guy could steal her purse. No one lifted a finger.
Don't think indifference to the pain of others is unique to the US.
In fact (and this is far off topic), I've been to a couple dozen countries and most US states, and the only place in the world I've seen people defend each other, including strangers, is the central part of the US. Try to push over a lady and mug her in a McD's in Iowa... you'll find, at best, your ass kicked, and, at worst, some customer shooting you. You may think it's harsh, but at least people are looking out for each other.
Sarcasm and hyperbole are the final refuges for weak minds
Honestly, it disgusts me how much finger pointing has been going on while there are still people stranded in that hell hole. ALL of these politicians need to get their priorities in order. FIRST, make sure the people stuck there have some food and water to survive on and finish picking up the ones who are stranded (maybe some of those helicopters dropping sandbags on the friggin' levees could be rescuing people still stuck on their rooftops). SECOND, get everybody out of the city. THIRD, plug the levees and start figuring out what to do with this mess. THEN they can all start bickering about who didn't respond quickly enough and who didn't prepare well enough and who should've done something first and should we even bother rebuilding the place. Somebody needs to step up and show some leadership here. It looks like Gen. Honore is the only one who has so far.
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
Where in New Orleans are you going to land a C-17? Oh yeah, nowhere.
How many sorties does it take to evacuate 100,000 people with Chinooks? Let's see, if I remember correctly, they'll carry 50 troops with gear. So call that 70 people, assuming some are on stretchers. 70 into 100,000, that's...1400 sorties.
Where are you going to take them? Houston? Dallas? Birmingham? Each of those cities would be about five hours away by helicopter, give or take.
How do you handle the air traffic around the Superdome? That's not trivial.
We've got some transport helicopters, yes...but not nearly enough to solve this problem. And then, can you imagine the flak that would happen when one crashes?
Suffice it to say, the problem is a little bit more complex than "Well, just get some helicopters!"
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!