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Pirates Thwarted by Sonic Weapon
Kristian Hermansen was one of dozens to submit a story about would be pirates attempting to take control of a cruise ship of the coast of Africa, only to be twarted by some sort of
sonic weapon known as an LRAD, or Long Range Acoustic Device.
heh heh
OW! My freaking ears....
You can only be young once, but you can be immature forever.
And if it wasn't for you pesky kids and your LRAD, I would have gotten away with it too!
Wikipedia reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_acoustic_d evice
How many times are we going to have to read stories about music labels putting up false album tracks containing dreck such as Ashlee Simpson in place of Metallica? We get it, the labels don't like pirates....
I think it would be more effective than just giving them a headache.
Pirate:Argggg we've popped our pants. Run.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Damn those dolphins! These things get out of hand!
I imagine that the RIAA is calling the Navy about how it can get some sonic anti-piracy weapons of its own.
I find that most of the music put out by major labels these days is a painful enough torture, but hey, that's just me.
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_acoustic_d evice
This is kind of like death metal to hippies!
...only to be twarted by some sort of sonic weapon
Did you mean thwarted?
Haydn.
Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. - Douglas Adams
Or may be Neil Diamond..
And they wail so hard on their guitars it makes the pirates peepee hurt.
Now that is Real Ultimate Power!!!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
its called a wife. worse than any military weapon. Tis no woman, tis a remorseless shrieking machine.
... Pirates thwart you!
Global Warming is having a direct and measurable impact on the endangered pirate population according to The Flying Spaghetti Monster theory,s ter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_spaghetti_mon
"Global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct consequence of the decline in numbers of pirates since the 1800s. A graph showing the inverse correlation between the pirates and global temperatures was also provided. This component of the theory highlights the logical fallacy of correlation implying causation. "
I sure hope the pirates didn't record the noise made by the LRAD for sale as bootleg CDs on the asian market...
Didn't know Doctor Who was battling pirates now.
..I was not aware that pirates like that even existed. Anyone know anything on the subject? You don't hear much about them here in St. Louis, MO....
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
Aarrgh! Pass me the Excedrin for me Migraine! Arrrgh!
-- NeonRonin
Oddly enough, my wife has one of those built in.
A man without a God is like a fish without a bicycle.
That doesn't make sense! The AP article claims the pirates were 100 miles away from the cruise ship when they fired rockets. Yet the Wikipedia article claims LRAD is effective from about 300 to 500 meters well under a mile, much less 100 miles. Heck at 100 miles, the Cruise ship has at least 5 HOURS before the pirates can catch it. Seems like a no news story to me...
I cant hear you !
*** ZAP!!!! ***
(i hate the lameness filter)
-- Bryan
Sounds like an ad placement by the company making/selling them. No quotes, nobody identifiable. Same as that lady who microwaved her cat, or the kids who found razor blades in the halloween goodies, or that toilets flush the other way below the equator.
And even if true, next time, won't the pirates just wear earplugs?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
I wonder if rioters will be next for this type of weapon?
On a related note, could these sonic weapons cause any other damage besides hearing? Could it affect things like the heart or other organs?
You're just contributing to global warming! :-(
Now, I have a mental picture of that skinny banshee screaming off the front of a cruise ship, again.
Only to be thwarted by? From TFA, "The subsidiary of Carnival Corp. was investigating whether the weapon was successful in warding off the pirates, he said. The ship's captain also changed its course, shifted into high speed and headed out into the open sea to elude the pirates, who were in two small boats, he said. He had no further details."
I'm sure it certainly contributed, but they're not even sure it actually was the reason why the pirates weren't able to catch them.
We simply cannot afford to kill any pirates, since the worldwide decline in the number of pirates is clearly responsible for global warming.
All movements for social change begin as missions, evolve into businesses, and end up as rackets.
Does anyone know if any of these cruise ships carry lethal weapons? Automatic rifles and such?
Freeking Pirates.
I personally had thought that cruise ships in contested areas would want to carry a very small contingent of military personell that would take the fight to pirates. I would think that a few stories about high-seas pirate ships being sunk by an RPG or two would probably help deter further incidents.
We call her Celine Dion here in Canada ehhh!
Pirates, man! I mean, a real actual honest-to-$deity story. On Slashdot. About pirates! I mean, PIRATES. The ones with hats. And parrots. I never thought I'd see the day.
High-speed Road Trip (18.000KPH)
...but if someone fires at you with an RPG, I think it's time to break out the torpedoes and snipers and not bother with the non-lethal crap.
Pirates use sonic weapons to take over cruise ship.
Seriously, technology can be used for good and ill, and when it comes to military and paramilitary technology, the arms race never ends.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I really was hoping that a LRAD was going to be a giant Airzooka.
I guess that the *AA propaganda really works, in that the common usage of the word pirate is what they want it to be, rather than what it actually is.
I seem to remember a similar storyline in an episode of Captain Pugwash.
Master Bates (he he).
All joking aside, that's kind of cool. I know I run from any irritating noise. I wonder if the same weapon could be used to stop rioters, or other civic disturbances. It could, in theory, prove cheaper and cleaner than tear-gas, tazers, or foam.
We are the Borg...
Instead of the siren from a smoke detector, use a tape loop of my 20 month old crying becase we won't let her continue to throw things down our stair case. Or maybe some britanny spears really loud, or any boy band music at all (NYKOB for teh win).
This article has recently been linked from Slashdot. Please keep an eye on the page history for errors or vandalism.
You mis-parsed the article. It was 100 miles off the coast. It doesn't really say how far apart the ships were.
Looking at news.google.com one can find a bit more detail from more familiar sources:
a .pirates.sonic.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/11/07/somali
The 100 mile figure is that that's how far off the coast the cruise ship was --- the weapons used don't have near that sort of range.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Some suggest arming cruise ships. But being armed on the high seas itself, sadly, can be considered an act of hostility. For example, would we want armed boats anywhere in our vicinity .. even if they technically were in international waters? Only lightly armed? .. but they have to be long range enough to deter or eliminate threats.. correct? The problem is, which boats can be armed and not considered threats? And no you can't just go by flag or registration (which can be stolen/faked). Also you can't tell what people look like from a distance cause they can put makeup/disguise.
So a pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel and an active LRAD device on his crotch. The bartender says: "There's a steering wheel and an LRAD device on your crotch!" The pirate says: "Yar, I know! They're both driving me nuts!"
in research and devlopment for the LRAD, Biff countered the LRAD with two cigarettes stuffed neatly in his ear.
Oh yes. Pirates are as active as ever. Only nowadays they have machine guns and RPGs instead of blunderbusses and cannons...
Just read IMB's Weekly Piracy Report for an idea of how active and how dangerous modern pirates are.
The Spirit was about 100 miles off Somalia when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns as they tried to get onboard.
The ship was 100 miles off the coast. Nowhere does it say how far away the pirates were from the cruise ship. I would assume that they were about a few hundred yards away from the ship if they were close enough to use rpgs or machine guns, and also about 100 miles from the shore. Learn how to read...
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
"And now...we shall defeat you with the awesome power of SOUND."
...this didn't result in anyone getting an Angry Pirate :D
Game dev and music blog
The friendly article says the ship and the pirates were 100 miles off the coast of Somalia. NOT that they were 100 miles apart
Timbers Shivered by Shivering Timbres
zork% mv *.asp
283 files eaten by a grue
It's application by the military and police is controversial because of ethical questions, but this seems an ideal use of this technology in private sector. Commercial ships at sea cannot use heavy weapons by international treaty. The Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed after the 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships. The 45-pound, dish-shaped device belongs to a developing arsenal of technologies intended not to kill but to deter. The sonic weapon, which measures 33 inches in diameter, can direct a high-pitched, piercing tone with a tight beam. Neither the LRAD's operators or others in the immediate area are affected. The LRAD's shrill tone can be as loud as about 150 decibels well beyond the threshold of pain. Inside 100 yards, you definitely don't want to be there. The device is currently being tested in regions of Baghdad, Fallujah, and other regions of Iraq as well as by police in New York City during protests of the 2004 Republican National Convention. It is based on "Hypersonic Sound" - a process called acoustic heterodyning. What makes acoustic heterodyning possible is that air molecules behave nonlinearly. Ultrasonic speakers create sound at more than 20,000 cycles per second, a rate high enough to keep in a focused beam and beyond the range of human hearing. Step into the beam and you hear the sound as if it were being generated inside your head. Reflect it off a surface and it sounds like it originated there. At 30,000 cycles, the sound can travel 150 yards without any distortion or loss of volume.
This is not only good for pirates, it also should be helpful against Utsusu Mojoro. /first thing I thought off.
"a cruise ship of the coast of Africa"
Apparently they were'nt abba fans.
These chumps are nothing more than terrorists on a ship.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to play!
:)
Imagine the hoops to jump through.
"Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely."
Wish I had mod points...
I didn't know Kate Bush was ding cruises now. Thought she was busy on her new album.
Philip
Signatures are broken
Has anyone had a chance to play with one of these? (Or been played with by someone with one of these like at the 2004 republican convention in NYC? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LRAD)
Since it is just sound, and apparently high-frequency sound (thus relatively low-energy vs low-frequency sound) I wonder if something as simple as noise-cancellation headphones would provide significant protection against LRAD usage.
Will we see pirates wearing Bose noise-cancellation headphones and listening to pirated music while they pirate real ships now?
...how this new technology will impact Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Treasure Island's nightly pirate battle.
My neighbors are trying to form a rock alternative punk band and feel they have the right to practice at all hours of the night. I retaliated with Die Fünfte at 200 watts per channel at full volume. A dose of Ol'Ludwig did the trick. Now that's a sonic weapon.
"It can be as loud as about 150 decibels..."
According to this decibal chart, that's somewhere between "jet at 100 feet" and "death of hearing tissue." I used to go to a summer camp near an air force base, and A-10 warthogs would frequently fly overhead. I doubt they were any closer than a few hundred feet, but they were still incredibly loud. It was near impossible to hear anyone speak/yell until the aircraft had passed. As for this weapon, my guess is that the pain of the sound it produces (while the most noticeable of the effects) is probably no more important than the fear and confusion it imbues.
The boats weren't 100 miles apart?
Aquaman?
What does this button do...
So instead of the water survival class they make you take you have to have an hour of Shipboard defense now? I can see it now... "pull on the lever to chamber the shell, slid the bolt forward ... billy? are you paying attention?.... aim and slowly squeeze the shot off and don't forget to brace for recoil." ;-)
I couldn't fail to disagree with you any less.
Is there DRM on this Acustic Noise?
Didnt Aquaman destroy this on Smallville?
Does this mean there is a rootkit on the cruise ship, obviously these were the wrong kind of pirates.
Sorry Had to do it.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Didn't expect a cruise ship to be armed, even with non-lethal weaponry. Of course, I wouldn't expect to be attacked by pirates these days either. Can't RTFA, it's FUBAR.
They could have played John Tesh music.
No text.
Mooniacs for iOS and Android
We now have proof the Flying Spaghetti Monster is assisting terrorists. I want to see supporters of this un-American religion to be exiled from America!
Every post I make begins with the assumption P=~P.
A bit OT but fun to know...
Pirates do exist, and account for nearly $16b in losses annually. If you're interested in a career like Han Solo, piracy is an option.
Most pirates today work between Eritria and Mumbai. Seychelles is very casual about accepting boats without valid port histories. The pirate ships are often large yachts with fast ciggy boats for docking. Glocks and Kalishies are the norm. The dress is much like the old pirate look -- bandanas, beards, loose shirts, etc.
Pirate robbers make the news often, yet most pirates are smugglers (food, drugs, medicine and health equipment). Countries with US/UN embargoes pay well -- 400% over the white market rate.
Cuba was easy money until 9/11, now we have our Coast Guard pretending to fight terrorism but actually destroying the free market in smuggling.
Malaysia has a growing piracy need as the government gets more religious. Somalia and Sri Lanka both ignore the pirates like Seychelles.
Take a trip to Dubai or Seychelles. Hook up with the right crowd and you can make 6 figures easily.
Arrrrr!
The annual N*sync vacation was strongly resisted by locals.
Oh man! I was so hoping that the Flying Spaghetti Monster would be the new science of choice, yet the number of pirates appears to be increasing dramatically, which means that global warming should be reversing, but it can't be because of CO2 emissions. AAAAUGH! My theology is in shambles!
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Well, it seemed to work in 'Dune'.
Is it really all that surprising that there are pirates off the coast of Somalia. As a US General said on NPR yesterday, "That place is basically just Madmax and Thunderdome". Two men enter, one man leaves. So the Somali warlords got some speed boats, I don't think that makes them pirates. A few quick bouts of scurvy, an influx of bad eye patches, a wooden leg or two and a parrot would go a long way for these guys. Until then, its a bunch of crazy dudes with Russian AK-47's made in the 70's shooting in the air and firing incredibly inacurate grenades. They wouldn't even know what a mizzen-mast was, let alone the ever-important jigger-mast. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(sailing)
I am and always will be a stereotype, because who in their right mind prefers mono?
so basically I can thwart this "weapon" w/ some heavy duty ear plugs?
Let the Flying Spaghetti Monster jokes begin!
-- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
Am I the only one who read Sony instead of Sonic, making a direct relation to music pirates?
THought this was some new kind of DRM news.
To be on the lookout for anyone with a wooden leg, and a large parrot trying to buy ear plugs or ear muffs.
http://davesboat.blogspot.com/
FTFA "The device's makers compares its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder. It can be as loud as about 150 decibels, while smoke alarms are about 80 to 90 decibels."
Isn't that loud enough to burst an eardrum? That is pretty painful.
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
This is what the US has been testing in hopes of stopping rioters...
Active Denial System
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
the firepower of this fully armed and operational cruise ship!
wah, the guys from al-qaida are diversifying. well, they did that rubber raft thing a while back...
...including the L.A. Sheriff's Department's ultra-powerful sonic blaster, is here. nms
"Yaarrr. What's that ye say? I can't be hearin' ya. Yarrrr".
I believe the correct term you're looking for is "Terraform-challenged terroristically-adept".
-V.P. Cheney
That's a fully operational battle station!
In any event, we're told to just do whatever the pirates say, and don't try to act like a hero.
Yea but can I get this with one of the BOSE Lifestyle systems?
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Your tin foil hats can't protect you from LRAD!
Only if you're a computer nerd. The majority of the rest of the world only recognizes one kind of pirate, and that sort generally includes bloomers, parrots, ships, cutlasses, cannons, and/or Johny Depp.
Ha ha! The ping of death appears in two consecutive stories!
Pirate unions will be requiring the wearing of ear plugs due to on-the-job safety hazards from LRAD devices.
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
From TFA:
The device's makers compares its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder. It can be as loud as about 150 decibels, while smoke alarms are about 80 to 90 decibels.
So even if you were prepared with a pair of regular 30dB ear plugs, you're still getting hit with 120dB. Sure, some people may be able to stand that level of noise if it was music of their choice (like a concert). Just imagine, though, having to listen to an annoying sound like your smoke detector at that level... And for a prolonged period? Guess it's better than getting killed.
RIAA + MPAA == U171M473 P1R473 W34P0N!!!!1111111ELEVEN
.. to combat pirates is more global warming! http://www.venganza.org/
They look pretty friendly, except for the RPG of course.
But what if the pirates have these: Bose QuietComfort 2 Headphones ??
You can't THWART A PIRATE'S PLANS.
What in the DOUBLE-YOU-TEE-EFF...
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
...to stop using their terminology. It's not *piracy*, it's infring... hold on, wait a sec... this is about real pirates, you say?!? Can't ... I don't... how to proceed...
---
...hmm, so why can't you just stuff your ear holes with the same earplugs used for band practice and going to Metallica concerts?
Crunch!
If they were Software Pirates I'm sure they could've hacked into the navigational system and taken over easily!
did you know that they have these ready to use in new york on you during every protest you might make there.
I Predict A Riot
Something you left out from the wiki content:
"At maximum volume, it can emit a warning tone that is 151 decibels (1000 W/m) at 1 metre, a level that is very capable of permanently damaging hearing."
I'm not sure I'd call that "an ideal use of this technology in private sector" as you put it... ethical concerns don't just go away if you're "private sector".
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
I recall a few years ago reading about some engineers at MIT that had developed a sonic projection system that worked in a novel way. They exploited nonlinearities in the way that ultrasonic waves propogated through the air, so that by putting out just the right pattern of ultrasonic pulses the system would generate extremely colliminated audio-range frequencies at some distance from the "speaker", as in this system.
The advantage of this is that you can get very directed sound from a small speaker. Usually to get narrow beamspread waves you need a source that is at least many times the wavelength. Middle A has a wavelength of about two feet, requiring a unweildy (to say the least) speaker to get aimable sound.
Anyway, it appears from the limited information that I've seen that LRAD is the same system, weaponized. Does anybody know if this is in fact the case?
Thad Beier
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
Shuffleboard? Out. Pirates? In!
Arrr! Avast, me hearties!
What did you say? I didn't quite hear you? Oh, a Chinese company is selling these cheap to pirates and protestors. The pirates will use them as a non-lethal means of taking over vessels. Protestors will use them to easily move through police barricades.
What prevents the pirates from using noise-cancelling headphones to mimimize the sound? They have all kinds of super-duper headsets for pilots that might work. I have a low-tech (passive) headset for aviation, which cuts the sound 23db. Some of the ANR headsets go well beyond that.
I can see it now - I want to burn a DVD a couple of HBO's Rome episodes and a high-pitch scream comes blaring out of my speakers to thwart myself, a pirate, from burning the disk.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
Why bother with a non-lethal weapon? These folks doing the pirate stuff are not nice people. Why not mount a couple of .50 caliber machine guns on the cruise ship fore and aft and let the cruise ship crew have some target practice on the guys in the pirate zodiacs so that they will be less of a threat to the next boat or ship that comes by?
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The USS Cole was bombed by suicide bombers who piloted a boat straight at the ship and then blew themselves up.
A 150 decibel noise seems like a pretty minor convenience compared to blowing yourself up.
Furthermore- let's say the powerboat Good Times is headed towards the USS Paranoid is just a bunch of folks havin' a good time and not noticing the fact that they're bearing down on a warship (sounds strange given how dumb you'd have to be to do it, but people do leave the 'bridge' or controls of their boat quite often. They also tend to get drunk on their boats quite often too.)
With everyone on board unable to move or think because they're incapacitated with pain (and I presume inability to stand because of the inner ear getting wacked out)...don't you think it would be a tad bit difficult for anyone to get up to the controls and stop the boat or change course before it enters some abritrary "safety zone" and get blown into little fiberglass splinters by one of the Paranoid's deck guns?
God, the whole thing sounds like something crafted on HalfBakery.com. Nevermind that far as anyone can tell, the pirates were outrun, not knocked out by some sci-fi weapon...
Please help metamoderate.
Anyone who uses Mythbusters as a real source of proof of something working versus not working either don't watch the show, or don't understand the things they're testing.
Its entertainment, not science. The fact that it could be used as a source to declare something an urban legend is a sign of the risk using Wikipedia as an authoritative source.
Does it work on deaf people?
Pirates thwart you!
Hard to believe right? I am from the coastal city of Bosaso on the horn of Africa, and some of my relatives took pride in their high-seas piracy. I have always heard of illegal Japanese and Norwegian ships illegaly fishing in our shores, while Somalis, with not central government and coast guard, sat around in anger and frustration.
9 733&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
This piracy started as a way to defend our coast-lines from illegal international fishing. Somalia hasn't had a government since 1990, and our fish resources became the loot of international fishing conglomerates. Others have used our coast to dump their waste, even nuclear waste.
After the fall of the Somali government, our coast guard's ships and vessels were looted by tribes. Some of our ships and boats were sold to illegal fishing companies, which didn't go far but stayed to fish in our waters! While other boats stayed in the hands of tribal leaders and warlords who used them for piracy and people smuggling to the middle east, although more often as a vehicle for products and trade with Yemen, our neighbor to the North.
It's funny how companies registered in Democratic developed nations, and pay their taxes there, are the ones looting our natural resources and using our sea and land to dump their waste.
http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/somalia.htm
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=24
http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/1063
I wish the international community would deploy high-tech sonic weapons to defend us against real theives, not just pirates, blinded and deafended by greed.
- Mahammad Darwish
Listen, deaf pirates, this is your chance.
I think they used $sys$LRAD
I think Castro and his good freind from Venuzuella need to get themselves some Pirates. That way they can Raid the Evil Empires cruel repressive corporate shipping.
It'd give dubbuh a good reason to kick thier *(^.
--"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
A couple of 5" guns should make short work of any but the most determined pirates.
"This article has recently been linked from Slashdot (backlink).
Please keep an eye on the page history for errors or vandalism."
The fact that pirates are in the news should please His Noodly Appendage. That means the number of pirates is going up. And if the numbers of pirates are going up that means the Earth will start cooling again. Check out this graph er I mean this graph which shows the current trend. Expect it to trend downwards. Ramen.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Because of the Coast Guard. US waters are essentially free of pirates. Now I suppose that could depend on your definition, some peopel considder smugglers that use ships to be pirates and we do have drug smugglers that come in by sea, but in terms of pirates attacking ships it's essentially zero. The Coast Guard has a very active presence and there's little that can be done about them. An attack on a Coast Guard ship is an act of war and they then can (and will) scream to any navy ships in the area for support, and they navy will come and sink your ass (also some CG ships have reasonably large deck guns).
However in many areas of the world, particularly Africa but also South America and Asia to an extent, where there's not sucha powerful sea patrol, it's more common than you'd think.
The ones with hats. And parrots.
Actually, this is the kind with AK-47s and ski masks.
(Wikipedia notes that "Sound levels of around 200 dB can cause death to humans").
Advice: on VPS providers
If they aren't careful with that Weapon,
we may be in further danger of global warming...
www.venganza.org/
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
The press should describe them for what they really are - terrorists.
Haven't these people seen Batman Begins? That microwave dealie would have been way better.
I'd like to test the effects of this when it's used to play Wayne Newton instead of the high piched sonic squeal. Although, there may not be much difference...
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
I can't wait for the inevitable Slashdot article on how to make your own LRAD from a Pringles can.
The weapon was a Celine Dion Record played at volume 11. It nearly killed every living thing with taste within a 3km radius.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Some links from my research: Hypersonic Sound: Popular Science http://www.prisonplanet.com/audios_the_next_big_th ing.html
Popular Mechanics
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/audio/1 279591.html (explains acoustic heterodyning)
Sorry - I've lost the link that said commercial ships at sea are not allowed to use heavy weapons by international treaty. It was in a story published on Sunday, March 6, 2004 by the Los Angeles Times but that factual tidbit was not from an authority anyway, and no source was provided for it.
Weapon of Mass Distortion?
The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.
...they didn't just use a few rifles. Probably would have solved the problem a lot quicker, and not left the bad guys alive to continue their attacks on shipping.
The device's makers compares its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder. It can be as loud as about 150 decibels, while smoke alarms are about 80 to 90 decibels.
Should be effective then. The first time I experienced a "modern" smoke alarm system, I stayed in my room for 30 seconds trying to figure out how to avoid going through a hallway containing one of the alarms.
Damn, where are the mods when you need them...
The primary complaint is that due to the nature of their format, they are forced to reduce the myth until it is no longer meaningful. Just because they 'did' a myth doesn't mean they satisfied all possibilities. They have more than once 'disproved' myths that are known true, by rephrasing the myth until they were testing something with no meaning at all.
An example of this is the episode on the five second rule. They tested whether bacteria transfers in five seconds. What they should have tested, is whether there was harmful bacteria present. Yes, it transfers. Yes, the food is still most likely safe to eat, due to the lack of harmful bacteria.
Never confuse volume with power.
So here's my question, since the device is a big dish that looks to be external, how difficult is it just to shoot the damn thing?
Cuba was easy money until 9/11, now we have our Coast Guard pretending to fight terrorism but actually destroying the free market in smuggling.
That's like those darn cops ruining the "free market" in theft? What fascists!
-Styopa
Turns out this is just some guy on a mega-phone yelling:
"Move along, nothing to see here!"
test
I'm sorry, but I didn't see any mention of the parrots.
If you RTFA you'll find that they are investigating whether the sonic weapon was effective at all. The ship headed out to sea at full speed while the pirates in small boats were left behind.
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
adventure cruising! Your ship carries defensive weaponry to repel pirate attacks! Little more interesting than the usual mostly-over-60 social club cruise!
How long it will take for the pirates to buy and use this kind of nonlethal weapon? It is much better blasting the cruise ship with piercing sound rather than with grenades if crating panic and confusion is the goal.
Stun gun works not only for defense against muggers - it is a good mugging weapon.
There are "non-lethal" laser weapons that cause permanent eye scarrig/blindness unless the victim gets emergency eye surgery. These weapons are pretty impressive on mid mid-range distances(hundreds meters) and can reportedly produce a cone of blinding flashes that can be about 1 meter wide. Reportedly, US military was in talk with Russians on this and they agreed that they would not field such weapons.
I doubt that we will ever figure out - and I suspect that even if we did figure out we couldn't do much about it
Haaaaaadoooken!
...taking some "R&R" from a nearby warzone might be a more effective defence.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Ahh, the usual shlashbot rush to be the first to say some obscure slashdot-only tech story is BS from some crank. But if you want to win at that game, you need to make sure it acrtually is an obscure slashdot-only tech story. As opposed to something that Google finds from a couple thousand different news sources.
"And even if true, next time, won't the pirates just wear earplugs?"
You do not remotely comprehend the volume level we are talking about.
Oh, it's about physical pirates, and sonic rather than sony. Nevermind.
Mod this post -1 not funny!
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
I've actually seen one of these on a US navy aircraft carrier. I was on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson when we were going through the Suez Canal, and one of the officers was showing off this device towards the forward end of the flight deck which looked like a speaker on a stand. It had a panel with a bunch of standard phrases and warnings and different languages to broadcast voice messages. It also had settings for unpleasant noises to ward the target off. He only demonstrated it with the volume turned down very low, but he basically said that with the volume turned up it's pretty painful.
"Note to self: remove that Clapper from boat's ignition."
I do think they should use lethal weapons. Which thought is more likely to dissuade an attacker wielding RPGs and small arms?
A: If I attack this cruise ship, I may or may not be repelled by an uncomfortably loud sound.
B: If I attack this cruise ship, I may or may not be repelled by 2,000 rounds per minute of hot lead.
I'm going to have to go with B.
two strikes in one:
- get rid of the pirates
- collect the fish that float around after the attack - free dinner!
a very smart concept, indeed
In any event, we're told to just do whatever the pirates say, and don't try to act like a hero.
Screw that. That just encourages them to continue attacking. If people would fight back, maybe this would end.
I mean, look: These are the pirates - and their pirate "ship" - that attacked the cruise ship. The news is calling this a "speedboat". It looks like the ratty, $500 fishing boat the poor people down the street from me own.
Don't tell me you couldn't fend off these rascals with the appropriate weapons. I know I could. Sure, they've got machine guns and rocket fired grenandes. Big whoop. The ships they're attacking are huge. I mean, I'd sit on top of the ship and pick these twerps off with a high powered rifle before they even got close enough to launch their attacks. Or toss a few grenandes back at them. Get one in that boat and - poof - no more pirates.
Do this a few times and watch how fast the pirate problem disappears.
The gun is good. The penis is evil.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
...that's an RPG 7. National Talk Like A Pirate Day has never been more relevant. Arrrh me hearties! Anything to foster communications with the poor, misunderstand corsairs. Seriously, this is the first such incident I can recall hearing of in this region; usually it's the Phillipines and Indonesia.
I can understand that they are trying to play the deterrent game by trying to set up a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) scenario, but there are three problems there. First, it is difficult to set up if your opponent can build the weapons more quickly, in larger numbers, or with significant performance advantages. Secondly, it is immensely expensive. Many billions of dollars need to be spent over many years, and only a trickle of weapons, if any, will come out in the medium term. If you come up against significant international resistance, the costs can become impossible to pay. Thirdly, and here's the clincher, it is not clear that MAD will deter nuclear war among today's nuclear opponents. Would India, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Israel, and the dozen or two other nuclear powers or soon to be powers shoot first? How quickly would they resort to them if they were on the losing side of a serious conventional conflict?
It would seem that MAD isn't what it used to be, and most or all of the smaller nations that are investing enormous amounts of money on the marriage of missiles and nuclear weapons would be better off leaving such 20th century technologies behind and investing heavily on the newer generations of high tech weaponry. More bang for the buck, and probably more practical boots-on-the-ground security for their countries.
I think it'd be hella fun to go on a luxury cruise near Somalia, with an all-you-can-fire bullet deal, and the automatic weapon of your choice.
I'd take a turrent-mounted M60!
> Sorry, but what are the ethical concerns of using a weapon in self defense?
They are certainly not MY personal ethical concerns. In my research, I came across some discussion on the issue of using LRAD for crowd control. The concern of some of the posters was that innocent bystanders - women and children in the crowd - could get hit by the beam. Also saw issues about police using this weapon to "control" demonstrators (equated with supression of free speech). Personally, I thinks LRAD is better than rubber bullets - those actually kill people, innocent bystanders included. However, there are people out there that would take issue with any weapon.
Brings new meaning to "All your base are belong to us", now don't it?
Don't sign up for cruises on the 'Grand Line'.
[Insert pithy quote here]
"Alright you primitive screw-heads, listen up. See this? This is my boomstick! It's a 150 decibel double-barreled LRAD. American Technology's top of the line. You can find this in the sonic goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in San Diego, CA; retails for about one hundred nine, ninety-five thousand. It's got a metal stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right, shop smart, shop American Technology!"
I read another article, several actually, about another pirate attack on a cruise ship this weekend, also near Somalia, except in that attack, the cruise ship simply gunned the engines and outran the pirates.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Everyone assumes the ships were full of Pirates out to rob the passengers of the cruise line. How can we be sure that they weren't really just wanting to come on board to ask for donations to the FARM-Africa http://www.farmafrica.org.uk/ charity? Ignore the rocket launchers and automatic rifles just for a second to think about those poor, starving Africans!
LeoPolus Web Design: http://www.leopolus.com
We were discussing this on The highroad and the general consensus that these pirates could have been dealt with, permanently, with things varying from various sizes of machine gun(.30-.50+ calibers), to airgun launched grenades/dynamite, over/under shotguns.
Scruitinizing the incident, the articles never seemed to deny the cruise line having firearms, merely that firearms weren't used.
I don't read AC A human right
explanation, if needed
With old pensioners and the like.
No wonder you USians screw everything you touch. You are fucking barbarians when it comes down to deal adequately with violence, you just name the dead people collateral damage and wait to be hailed as heroes.
Pathetic.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Please, let's notmade the same mistake as the rest of the media. These were not pirates. They were not going to take over the ship, or rob the thousands of passengers of their valuables after overtaking the crew, and climbing on-board (dozens of feet from the surface of the water) from their small speedboats.... No.
These were plain and simple terrorists. Yes, the "t" word. They just wanted to kill, damage and take hostages. That's why the RPG and the automatic weapons. Do you remember the USS Cole? Was it attacked by pirates?
Actually, this is the kind with AK-47s and ski masks.
Don't worry, give it a hundred years and I'm sure we'll romanticize these pirates too. Kids will be wearing jaunty ski masks and waving around plastic RPGs, while the real pirates are attacking cruise ships with therm-optic camoflauge and lasers.
Actually, can we skip right to romanticizing the camoflauge and laser pirates?
The enemies of Democracy are
I expect the recording industry will waste no time in going after these pirates with lawsuits.
That's pretty smart using sonar to cause a mass whale beaching on the pirates vessel...
My only question is, how many downloaded songs did they find on the pirate ship?
Arggg
The crew of a luxury cruise ship used a sonic weapon that blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam while being attacked by a gang of pirates off Africa this weekend
...
Doesn't sound like a very useful weapon to me if it only works against pirate attacks on the weekend off the coast of Africa
Yea. As soon as I saw that picture, I thought - hell, even with a bowling ball, you could probably sink that "ship". Just toss it at them as they wave at you. "CATCH!" *splinter* glub glub.
Then, their RPG wouldn't be so easy to hold on to. heh.
Karnal
Then give the pensioners guns and let them go at it. ;)
You are fucking barbarians when it comes down to deal adequately with violence
I beg to differ. Sure, our view is different, but I don't really want to try using the French model, seeing as how they seem to like letting riots go on for weeks. I mean, we talk about riots lasting more than a couple hours as a long one.
I wonder, what's your suggestion for permanently reducing the pirate problem of the area, and how much governmental cost would it incur?
you just name the dead people collateral damage and wait to be hailed as heroes
I challange you to find an army, in active operations, with less 'collateral damage' than the US Military. Besides, here we're simply talking about taking the pirates out before they can board so the only casualties, unless the pirates get lucky or are carrying hostages, will be pirates. These pirates are not like the 'noble' ones in so many movies. They are criminals, taking advantage of operating in a location without much active law enforcement.
To figure out conservative american thinking in these matters, assign each human life a value of 100. Dogs and other animals are maybe in the single digits. For each crime, deduct a value from the 100. The sooner it's happened/happening, the greater the deduction. The exact value depends on the conservative and the crime. Attempting to commit murder is generally a deduction of around 100-200. Thus actually making the value of that person's life, at that moment negative. Thus, making it a contribution to humanity to waste the 'goblin*'. We're still going to try to avoid collateral damage, of course.
*Technical term for humans who, through their acts, have shown themselves to be a negative value for the good of humanity.
I don't read AC A human right
Just because you don't see the causal connection does not mean it is random. Your claiming so is probably just as big a problem as the "random association so prevalent nowadays".
damaged by dogma
and I'm sure that's all that's smuggled. No weapons or slaves...
Music and movie downloaders tried to attack a ship? Was it an RIAA cruise ship?
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
I challange you to find an army, in active operations, with less 'collateral damage' than the US Military.
Easy: the British Army. Fighting beside you in Iraq, except they've killed fewer civilians, even relative to the size of their force. Oh, and your great American pilots have killed quite a few British soldiers, too. I challenge you to find an army in active operations with more "friendly fire" kills than the US military...
Is that the high pitched tone just stuns them. It's the following 30 minutes of Leonard Cohen sings the Smiths greatest hits that has them hurling themselves into the sea.
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
Sir Peter Blakes problem was that he was on a yacht and he fought back at the wrong time. He had already lost before he began fighting. Being on a cruise ship with the pirates at a safe distance...totally different tactical situation.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
No, no, playing Country music beamed at pirates, is torture. That is not allowed under the Geneva convention.
BTW, the Nairobi hospital in Kenia reported a large increase in Somalis with banana leaves stuck in their ears...
Oh well, what the hell...
Load that sucker up with "Indian Love Call". It's already been proven effective in battle:
[RAYGUNS FIRING]
"ACK ACK ACK ACK".
"Grandma!"
"ACK."
Oh, my God.
[SLIM WHITMAN YODELING FROM STEREO]"When I'm callin' You-oo"
"Richie, I think these guys are very sick."
"What's happening to them? What's killing them?"
"I think it must be my music."
To be honest, everyone I know with a yacht in deep waters already carries decent guns for protection. It is pretty easy to dump them if you're boarded by a coast guard or naval vessel.
I guess that you've never been boarded. I have. After that experience, I wouldn't take the chance of getting caught with an illegal gun. You're under constant surveillance from the momement they decide that your boat looks interesting. You might not have any idea that a cutter is approaching until it's right in front of you. They can come up real fast on a yacht puttering along at five knots.
You *might* have the opportunity to go below and dig out your illegal gun. You *might* have the opportunity to toss it out a port hole on the lee side of the boarding party. But don't count in it.
On the other hand, I've had friends who were attacked by pirates off the coast of Venezuela. It was a close call for them.
I suggest keeping plenty of flares stocked for a flaregun and travel in groups when possible...
And my ethical concerns go right out the window. Make them all deaf fuckers. Too bad they didnt use laser beams to melt their eyeballs as well.
The Company that makes LRAD technology is called American Technology Corporation.
Looks like they are losing money but small enough that something like this might cause the stock to jump!
Full disclosure: I'm in.
Watch and learn, kids. Next, the SPAM will start going out, touting the stock (not from me!). In a couple months, the bottom will drop out. But between now and then, there's money to be made.
there was a much more in depth story on aljazeera.com. The captain of the cruise ship moved all the passengers to the interior, the rpg hit an empty cabin and exploded. No body died, but some were injured. The captain tried to ram the boats before making a break for it. No mention on aljazeera about a sonic weapon though. Honestly the ship would have been better of returning machine gun fire. A Ship with 2 .50 cal cannons could have taken out the pirate boats and done the world a favor.
They say that pirate attackes are happening much more frequently now. The official warning was to stay more than 50 miles from teh coast of Somalia, but this ship was 100 miles offshore. The warning is now raised to 150 miles, since this should put ships out of the range of the small inflatable runners.
The site also mentioned attacks on oil tankers, where the arabs demanded to be taught how to pilot the supertankers. I'm glad I live in Iowa. When one of these tankers detonates it will be a damn mess.
Before the pirates attacked
Dinner:
Beans on toast
Bean stew
Bean souffle
Bean crumble
Bean cookies
Bean soup..............
A man chooses, a slave obeys - Andrew Ryan.
Right. He engaged in hand to hand combat. Good way to get killed unless you're well trained.
When you're perched on a large ship, watching this dinky little "pirate ship" approach - for crying out loud, it was barely big enough to hold the four pirates - you totally have the tactical advantage. Unless you're not paying attention to your radar, you should see these fools coming a good long time before they're close enough to launch their attack, let alone board your ship.
If they've boarded your ship, everything changes, of course.
You fight like a dairy farmer.
...and the pirates are defeated. No need for a stupid noise maker.
How appropriate. You fight like a cow.
You make me want to puke.
You make me think somebody already did.
I'm not going to take your insolence sitting down!
Your hemorrhoids are flaring up again, eh?
I got this scar on my face during a mighty struggle!
I hope now you've learned to stop picking your nose.
TFA quotes 150 decibels. Anyone know at what ranges it can emit noises at the volume level. I'd guess that the volume drops off pretty quickly over distances.
--Robert Davie
Rankmaniac 2010
By your definition therefore the Iraqi population has the right to carpet bomb all of your country, we've all seen footage of (a minority of) US troops behaving badly and posting the images online. By your definition *you* are not a civilised people either.
Grow up.
For transient phenomena, you don't need an average pressure of 1 atmosphere. Vacuum is the lower limit, yes. But the upper limit is a lot higher that 2 atm, for example in the vicinity of an explosive event.
Another, more correct, way would be to say that African Islamic Terrorists were twarted...
You say tomato, I say it right.
They weren't trying to steal the boat, hence, not pirates.
-JNY
You must be from Pakistan
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
HA! Thwarted.
Avast ye scallywags, man that aft LRAD and point her athwartships! There be pirates on the star'brd gunn'l!
Look behind you, a three-headed Somalian monkey!
Now I can test my theory that Caribbean pirates actually had Caribbean accents.
YA MAAAN! ARRR...
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
They play Country Music outside the McDonalds to keep the kids from loitering. But it keeps everyone away. People cross the street to avoid it to keep their ears from bleeding.
Yaar, me liver! Me ears bleed from tha din!
Truth lads, ye ne'er try aplunderin' those with energy weapons.
would they be able to disable the cruise ship's crew and board?
Cartman: All right, everyone listen up! The hippie jam band festival is now fourteen miles in diameter and five hundred thousand hippies thick.
Randy: [closes his eyes] My God...
Cartman: In less than three days, all of South Park will be completely consumed. My only hope is to fight our way to the center of the crowd, and reach the heart, here. [points to the stage] If we can reach the stage, we can upload this Slayer CD into their music system. [shows off a CD-R of Slayer music] Hippies can't stand death metal. If everything works, they should disperse just before they consume us all.
"(I) have this unfortunate condition that causes me not to believe a single thing any politician says when a mic's on.
Does this remind anyone of the Atredies Sonic Tank from Dune II? Well, except for the part where the target explodes, I suppose.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Very, very bright lasers.
Try steering something when your eyeballs are on fire.
In any event, we're told to just do whatever the pirates say, and don't try to act like a hero.
Just like airline hijackers... Don't mess with them and you won't get hurt...
"Hey isn't that the World Trade Building?"
I remember reading an account of sailing around the world solo from a guy who had made a lot of money in the early 80s as an Apple II programmer. He ran into pirates around Indonesia, and he waved a shotgun at them as they tried to board, and they ran away. He said he was sure they would have killed him had he not scared them off.
:). The other thing is that they're unlikely to sink your ship, because the whole point of piracy is to steal the stuff on it.
Yeah, you should stop pirates before they board, because they have the advantage once they're on board - they're likely a lot tougher than your average Apple programmer, at least
IIRC, the big shipping companies who had problems with piracy around Indonesia recommended their crews use the fire hoses to keep the pirates from being able to climb onboard, but do everything as the pirates say if they got inside.
Good idea. When a pirate shows up, they should have compartments open up loaded with 9mm handguns. Everyone grabs one and starts shooting at the boat.
Even a
*sigh* if only...
"That's so plausible, I can't believe it!" - Leela
Why don't you just keep a bunch of batteries to give them?
link
Requires flash
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
Found the guy's webpage, he is Paul Lutus, who wrote the Apple Writer for the Apple II, and now has a HTML editor called Arachnophillia. His homepage is here, and here is his sailing story.
Truly an interesting guy.
Here comes the Threat-down! Number 5 on the list! Pirates!
As it turns out, small boats, especially those the size of a rowboat, do not have a significant radar reflection, and certainly no greater reflection than even extremely small waves. Aside from the fact that a cruise ship is not likely to be equipped with a tactical radar, radar operators have to squelch a minimum return in order to get a clear picture of their surroundings. The minimum is subject to wave height, atmospheric conditions, and to some extent the range setting. If the returns weren't squelched, the display would appear as either thousands of points or sheer "whiteout." It's not like radar/sonar in the movies where you see a picture of a plane or boat moving continuously in some direction. There's a blip on your screen which may or may not be noise or interference, which does not move, and is only repainted once per revolution of the sweep. By turning the decay rate down it's possible to see rows of successive dots, but there's a fine line between confirming a trail of dots attributable to a small craft and seeing elephants in the clouds.
A port is a completely different story. While almost all ports have entry and exit lanes, and navigational laws, these may not be clearly defined or enforced in third world countries. It's likely you're going to have fishing boats everywhere, along with ferries, pleasure craft, shuttles taking crew back and forth from large ships, etc. The biggest concern is risk of a collision, so large vessels usually post watches to maintain visual confirmation of every target (other boat) within sight, to monitor their speed and heading, updated at regular intervals, and report any possibility of collision. In spite of the risks, small craft will often pass directly in front of large ships, just like cars that dart across the railroad tracks. (And much like a train, there's basically nothing the ship can do to prevent a collision in those circumstances.)
So in the first case, on open ocean, you're unlikely to see a small boat on radar, or even visually until it's rather close. In the second case you have a plethera of small craft all around you. If you were driving around in traffic and I told you were was a car full of men with guns who were going to open fire on you when they got close enough, you could be as paranoid and suspicious as you wanted, but there'd be no way to pick them out until they reveal themselves by opening fire.
Now in THIS case, the craft was identified as a threat as it was approaching; probably because one of the watches saw a guy with an RPG perched on his shoulder. Likely the "pirates" were relying on the display of force to gain compliance. If the pirates had employed even the slightest amount of subtrifuge and gotten close enough, the cruise ship may not have had the opportunity to test their new defense. Although given the fact that they were waving and smiling at the photographer, it doesn't seem likely that they were actually prepared to use violence.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I posted to slash last year that at the RNC (Repbulican National Convention) this was ready to go. Yet, no one cared. Now it's blast some pirates and it's big news. Figure that one out!
Doh! No wonder my Kazaa downloads usually end up being bogus files with high pitched sounds these days.
If it's the same cruise ship attacked by pirates in 2 small boats armed with rocket launchers and machine guns that has been in the news here then the story is a little wrong.
....it's hard to beleive that somethign on the internet could be wrong?
The pirates fired 1 grenade which failed to explode (but lodged in the side of the ship). They got on board, shot one crew member (he survived) and made off with some money, cameras etc.
The ship sailed to the nearest safe port and was evacualted and bomb disposal guys removed the grenade head.
Clever signature text goes here.
There's actually an electric fence you can put on your ship: http://www.secure-marine.com/ship/ship1.htm
Your typical commercial vessel isn't going to be easily effected by small arms fire, so as long as you can keep people off the deck you just have to worry about boarding. How do you prevent the pirates from boarding? Just set up a 9000V electric fence around your deck!
dom
Well let me just say, I have at least one activity that takes ten minutes or less that I frequently ask my wife to do, and you wouldn't believe the stink she puts up about it.
My penis weeps at the death of your RPG character. Final Fantasy is a very tragic game like that.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
yeah but anybody who's smuggling is probably involved in other nasty business... I mean if somebody doesn't give the smugglers the promised cash for their smuggled load, or turn up with goods after said smugglers have handed over a sports bag of dollars, well they probably don't call the local police to sort it out. Probably don't mind carry high value drugs alongside your cheap cigarettes and that kind of cargo usually comes with lots of nasty karma attached as well...