China Buying US Directed Sound 'Weapon'

holy_calamity writes "The directed sound weapon made by US company ATC is being exported to the Chinese police, despite the public law banning sales of weapons to China. Turns out that such 'non-lethal' technologies are not covered by this law — an omission that may become more widely known if they are used to quell high-profile protests during the Olympics."

Comments

Uh oh, that means..

[somersault]

the Chinese have stolen Country and Western!

Re:Uh oh, that means..

[Anonymous Coward]

You must be American. If you were Canadian like me, you'd be wondering how they got their hands on Celine Dion.

Re:Uh oh, that means..

[somersault]

I'm actually Scottish, and was having a hard time of thinking of any US bands I know that suck badly enough to be considered weaponisable. If it was a british weapon, I was going to go with the Spice Girls.

Re:Uh oh, that means..

[hcdejong]

I'm actually Scottish You, sir, have a lot to answer for. The Scots invented sonic weaponry, after all.

Re:Uh oh, that means..

[TheRaven64]

The bagpipe is often thought of as a sonic weapon, but was more often employed as a means of avoiding desertions. After all, if there's an English army in front of you, and a piper behind you, which way would you run?

Free Tibet!!

[QuantumG]

While stocks last.

We're exporting

[geekoid]

Rosanne Barr? Cool.

Directed at US

[hansamurai]

Did anyone else read the headline as China is buying Sound Weapons directed at the US? I felt bad for people living in California for a moment.

Re:Directed at US

[redcaboodle]

Even worse: I read China was buying Direct Sound weapons.

I know DirectX is a pita, but to use it as a wepon is probably over the top.

Re:Gotta keep them upiddy Tibetans in line.

[iNaya]

If I were to be oppressed, I would much rather be oppressed by one of these things than a bullet. I don't see the problem. Next up: China buys rubber bullets, news at 9.

Re:Is it really a weapon?

[Bloodoflethe]

Freedom toast, mister!

Re:Mixed feelings on this

[maxume]

So in China, the government extols the virtues of urinating in your soup while they urinate in your soup, but in the US, the government extols the virtues of urine free soup while urinating in your soup?

Been doin' this already

[Ihmhi]

We've been selling them directed sound weapons ever since we've been exporting Britney Spears CDs...

Re:Perspective

[LaskoVortex]

if you don't get that, you're dumb

I get it and I resemble that remark.

Re:Gotta keep them upiddy Tibetans in line.

[PlatyPaul]

Unlike rubber or plastic bullets which cause moderate too [sic] severe damage, can be deadly and are inaccurate.

Actually, since they fall under the heading of incapacitating weapons, we're talking stun damage - guaranteed nonlethal (even if you overflow your remaining blocks).

And yes, if you got that, you're also going to hell, chummer.

Re:Perspective

[The Evil Couch]

What the hell is Slashdot coming to when a post including "jk", ";)", "rofl", and "P.S. ... you're dumb" gets modded up? Grammar Nazis, you guys are slacking off!

Re:Perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

Wooooosh

Re:Gotta keep them upiddy Tibetans in line.

[cjb658]

On the bright side, your family won't have to pay for the bullet that kills you.

Re:Perspective

[the_bard17]

Give them enough time for the apoplectic fit to wear off...

Re:Non-lethal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sound can kill. I see you've been folowing the American Presidential primaries...

Re:Perspective

[ohtani]

He probably didn't hear the woosh cause it was a directed sonund.

Re:Non-lethal?

[Txiasaeia]

Ah, that's because they didn't turn it up to 11.

Re:Perspective

[ceoyoyo]

What's that? He used "you're" instead of "your?" Mod him up!

Re:Non-lethal?

[Fred_A]

Yes, but a lethal weapon that uses sound would have to consume an extremely large amount of power to be lethal, [ ... ] Not necessarily, you could simply drop one of the larger models on your opponent.

Re:Firesale.

[KDR_11k]

I wonder what it'd be like to load Rick Astley on one...

Or what the RIAA will do...

Re:Non-lethal?

[dotancohen]

Do some math, and you'll find out that 194 dB SPL is one atmosphere of pressure. Meaning that 160 dB SPL is about 1/1000th of an atmosphere. You experience more pressure by swimming 0.5 meters under the surface of the water. And if you stay at 0.5 meters under the surface of the water long enough, you die. Point?

Re:Non-lethal?

[Jesus_666]

Unless of course you turn it to the untested highest setting, which releases a bouncing sonic blast that destroys one building and causes another to partially collapse on top of a marine whose legs are smashed, causing her to team up with another marine who likes to wear a goofy selfmade iron suit and wave around a big hammer. The two of them will then operate out of a junkyard to foil your sceme of selling the sonic weapon to some Nazis nd Ché Guevara.

That's really what happens. I recently saw a documentary about this on TV.