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Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head
Sportsqs writes "The Sierra Nevada Corporation claimed this week that it is ready to begin production on the MEDUSA, a damned scary ray gun that uses the 'microwave audio effect' to implant sounds and perhaps even specific messages inside people's heads."
There you guys sit, all laughing at me at pointing and jeering at my Tinfoil Hat 3000(tm), but look who's sitting pretty now! Ha! Fsckers!
My blog
...I've had the voice of Reagan inside my head.
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
I wonder how many Pale Ales you have to drink to get the same effect.
that they should name it Medusa, a villain who was defeated by reflecting it's magic back at it...
.. the fact it wouldn't affect people who already hear voices.
The disappearing pencil trick. Let me show you it.
There you guys sit, all laughing at me at pointing and jeering at my Tinfoil Hat 3000(tm), but look who's sitting pretty now! Ha! Fsckers!
You won't be sitting pretty when you shiny new hat starts to spark and arc like a fork in the microwave!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
technology as the /. article a few months ago? I seem to remember a govt prototype or some such device that was trying to do the same thing. In any case, I hope this spurs the development of professionally made tin foil hats. The crude home-made variety aren't going to cut it anymore.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
It's like curing Schizophrenia the backwards way!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Are they working out of Black Mesa?
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
I was going to make fun of you, but then my new friend Roger told me not to.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Pfft. Call me when they implement a 'microwave digital surround effect' on this thing. Then I'll be impressed.
In my day they only had ads on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and ball games and on buses and milk cartons and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no-siree!
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
Conclusion
The helmets amplify frequency bands that coincide with those allocated to the US government between 1.2 Ghz and 1.4 Ghz. According to the FCC, These bands are supposedly reserved for ''radio location'' (ie, GPS), and other communications with satellites (see, for example, [3]). The 2.6 Ghz band coincides with mobile phone technology. Though not affiliated by government, these bands are at the hands of multinational corporations.
It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.
Ha Ha!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Is this one of DARPA's toys?
Microwave audio effect? That explains why I keep hearing "90% power... white rice... sensor cook" over and over again.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Toot with this i can now insert the message "Sleep with me" in the heads of attractive women everywhere!!!
Denise Richards & the olsen twins here I come..
remote torture anybody?
imagine playing Cliff Richard to you victim incessantly. unable to sleep. unable to get away from it. all you need is somebody to point this thing at his head.
imagine doing it at just enough of a low level so he is not aware of it.
imagine jururs being threatened at long range. imagine blackmail from a distance.
what if an unverifiable, untraceable voice announces in your ear "rob the bank or I shoot your wife", what would you do?
this is damn scary, where is my magneto helmet?
Of course, that's the REAL purpose of this weapon - something to use against all the tinfoil hats out there!
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
Somethings telling me to "Move along, there's nothing to see here".
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"all standard forms of defence against auditory input" probably means anything in or covering your ears. The tinfoil hat only blocks electromagnetic waves, which is what they are supposedly using.
The tinfoil hat might actually be one of the few ways you can block this without any special materials or equipment.
If they see someone with a tinfoil hat, they'll probably just yell at him.
It's more scary than cool.
The article at NewScientist says:
MEDUSA involves a microwave auditory effect "loud" enough to cause discomfort or even incapacitation. Sadovnik says that normal audio safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the eardrums.
Also from NewScientist, a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois in Chicago who has also worked on the technique has commented that while feasible, attaining the necessary volume might involve power levels that could cause neural damage.
Fry: So you're telling me they broadcast commercials into people's dreams?
Leela: Of course.
Fry: But how is that possible?
Professor Farnsworth: It's very simple. The ad gets into your brain just like this liquid gets into this egg. [Holds up an egg and injects it with liquid from a syringe until the egg explodes.]
Although, in reality, it's not liquid, but gamma radiation.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data,,,
That's right! It's nothing but a load of rich creamery butter!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Paranoia is serious. I lost a best friend of many years to paranoia when he became so convinced that the government was out to get him that he hung himself. This very week my brother in law attempted suicide due to his hallucinations that involve his believing that the FBI is invading his mind. He is now being held under the Baker Act for 72 hours. Just maybe a different prescription might quiet his hallucinations. Paranoia can and does frequently cause murders where the sufferer becomes so convinced that someone is out to do him harm that he strikes first as a desperate act of supposed self defense.
Believe it or not mental illness means nothing in Florida. If you are so crazy that you think Santa Clause is an FBI agent out to kill you and you strike out that does not meet the standard for legal insanity here. The idea that you feel it is right to preserve your own life will be taken as proof that you have a knowledge of right and wrong, Society is sick.
Heck, combine it with some prerecorded messages and parents will snap these up "for the children".
Top sellers could be:
All with constant repetition which only ends when the desired action is performed.
A Human Right
TFA doesn't give much in technical details, but as I understand it, they are using the human skull as a heterodyne circuit. Basically mixing two microwave signals inside the skull to create audio.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
Another way for marketing wankstains to pollute our heads with their psychologically manipulate garbage. Hopefully the powers that be will see the strong public interest argument in not using this to beam 'important messages' into peoples heads.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data that scared the crap out of politicians so that a law was implemented quickly and people fear it to this day (though I still do fear spammers using this, as they have no morals).
So... Why exactly do you fear it if it doesn't work?
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
OK, I can deal with the fact that the Tinfoil Hat people have been right all along. Fine. I apologize for some of the unkind things I've said about them.
But dammit, I'm NOT going to start being nice to all the Moonbats, People Who Live In Their Parents' Basements, Loons, Head Cases, Half-wits, Technophobes, Technophiles, UFO Abductees, Conspiracy Nuts, Jerks, Berks and Wanna-be Captain Kirks just because, like a broken clock, they might manage to be right twice a day.
I mean it!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I saw this last week in New Scientist. You're jumping to some very flase conclusions. It has nothing to do with subliminal messages. From the linked article:
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
These sound like HSS speakers, which use ultrasonic carrier waves to demodulate sound when the frequencies come into contact with flesh and bone.
http://www.atcsd.com/site/
And friend of mine has a couple of these speakers. We recently used them at an art opening to beam the music of the primes into people's heads (playing the digital root of each prime number through a hexatonic scale, rests in the music were created by the occurrence of the primes in the digital-roots matrix we used to develop our own unique prime number sieve).
-=/\- Jizzbug -/\=-
I give you... TinFoil Hat V.2!
This + this = WIN!
N.B. Links are JPEGs.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14250-microwave-ray-gun-controls-crowds-with-noise.html
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data that scared the crap out of politicians so that a law was implemented quickly and people fear it to this day (though I still do fear spammers using this, as they have no morals).
So... Why exactly do you fear it if it doesn't work?
Because audible spam in my head would be even worse than the e-mailed spam in my in-box or the visible spam on billboards (and bus stops, sides of buildings/cars, etc.)
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
People should be able to believe whatever the hell they want to believe as long as they don't try to force it on others. If they don't believe in evolution, fine, it's their right -- but they shouldn't be allowed to practice biological science.
I see enormous benefits in this technology.
1. Listening to music as loud as you want while not forcing it on others
2. Rocking out to the loudest concert in history without anyone outside the venue hearing a whisper of it (on second thought, the RIAA might require this, so maybe it's not so good)
3. Throwing a gigantic party with great tunes while letting the geezer next door -- who never listens to anything harder than Captain and Tennille -- get his beauty sleep
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
attaining the necessary volume might involve power levels that could cause neural damage.
Yeah, that'll stop this from widespread use.
Like how they banned Tasers, because attaining the necessary pain might involve power levels that could cause cardiac arrhythmia.
Oh, wait, no they don't... All those people died of "excited delerium", not Taser-induced arrhythmia. Slip o' the tongue there, don't sue me bro...
Something tells me these are not the droids I'm looking for...
hello
Ken! This is Jesus. Stop touching yourself!
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Because audible spam in my head would be even worse than the e-mailed spam in my in-box or the visible spam on billboards (and bus stops, sides of buildings/cars, etc.)
Nah -- the voices already in my head will be able to shout it down...
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
80,000 ACDC fans screaming "....TNT, I'm Dynamite...." out of tune ..... nothing peaceful about that....
The tinfoil hat might actually be one of the few ways you can block this without any special materials or equipment.
Half a Faraday cage is as good as none.
http://www.mhall119.com
i agree and the wonderful folks at sierra nevada deserve more grant money
i agree and the wonderful folks at sierra nevada deserve more grant money
i agree and the wonderful folks at sierra nevada deserve more grant money
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
As a deaf guy it saddens me when tech like this is used for military purposes and it's consumer uses are not considered.
Remember the thing where you put the transmitter on your tongue and you can hear bypassing the ears? I'd like to try one of those. But rather than look like a drooling idiot I'd love to get my hands on one of these babies. Just strap it on a hearing aid and skip the ears entirely. Way better than a cochlear implant, non-invasive and perfect sound. Nice.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
Tasers are a great example of why you can't trust your end user.
A Taser was designed to replace a gun. "Instead of shooting someone, you can INSTEAD tase them to incapacitate them."
Once they got into the hands of the end users, the got into usage creep. "Fighting is hard work. I'll use the taser." "Arguing takes effort. Taser." "Talking meh taser."
Now they're used for when you owe the bus driver a dollar.
(Despite what the article states, they have said in radio interviews that they use the tasers for non-compliance, including non-payment of fares.)
They're being overused as a compliance tool instead of their intended purpose, which was to prevent acute lead poisoning.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Yeah, that sure worked for Stalin and Mao Tse Tung. They never committed any atrocities at all.
The reality is that there are a few nutballs out there in every religion, including atheism.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Hmm...
Now avoiding TFA like the plague, it occurs to me that "shockwaves" within the skull able to cause hydrostatic pressure loads comparable to 120+ decibels (is that loud enough for ya?) hitting your eardrums might just damage something other than eardrums.
But lets not even think about the fine possibilities such as massive damage on the cellular level - just consider the overpressures that could be set up within blood vessels. It will be interesting to see if there is any increase in "massive cerebral hemorrage" as a cause of death going forward.
Or an increase in the wearing of hats by the political class anytinme they give a speech :)
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
There are all kinds of quips about tinfoil hats and paranoia to be made on this one. Trouble is, think about what that means. We are living a tinfoil hatter's paranoid fantasy, it just happens to all be true.
Massive wiretapping? Check.
Ubiquitous surveillance? Check.
Substantial expansion of state power? Check.
Secret prisons and disappearances? Check.
Directed energy weapons (both pain and sound)? Check.
Classified laws? Check.
Mercenaries who answer to no law?? Check.
Seriously. They still have some really wacky ones about reptoids and masons and things; but much of conspiracy lore is so common that it doesn't even make the front pages anymore. The joke is on us.
1) Subliminal messages don't work. It's a sham that a psychologist made with fake data that scared the crap out of politicians so that a law was implemented quickly and people fear it to this day (though I still do fear spammers using this, as they have no morals).
Yeah, I can account to this. Back in when I was in a course in psychology we did a blind study and on sublidrinkminal messduffages to influbeerence a taste test. One side we would set it up with out a subliminals being piped in in the music and one with. The resdrinkults were wimorethin 2% of eaduffch other. We beerconcluded that subliminal messages where bullshit.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
Everything in your post is informative, up to the statement that "paranoia can and does *frequenttly* cause murders..." I work in mental health, and have had experience with the circumstances you describe. However, there are 1000's of more paranoid folks who don't go on to commit homicide/suicide than those who do. Just a quick google turned up this:
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/318/7193/1225
which estimates roughly 8% of homicide perpetrators having contact with the mental health profession, but that certainly doesn't equate to them all being paranoid, or even having a true psychiatric diagnosis.
http://www.psychlaws.org/BriefingPapers/BP11.htm
puts the a conservative estimate around 9%-15%, but again this is all mental illness, not just mental illnesses that involve paranoid ideation which is certainly less,And finally here:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/20/2064
cites a study showing an approximately 5% prevalence rate of schizophrenia amongst persons convicted of homicide. Now I understand this is orders of magnitude higher than the general population, and there is certainly an increased risk of self-inflected injury or homicide as compared to folks who don't have a history of schizophrenia. But the fact still remains that the overwhelming majority of folks with a psychiatric illness, including paranoid schizophrenia are not at risk for perpetrating violence against themselves or others.
Not necessarily disagreeing with your post, per se. Just pointing out the other side of the equation as there is a common misconception that those with mental illness are a risk to themselves and others.
thx,
jeff
A strainer and a 404 Not Found? I guess the gun can't put voices in your head if it can't find your head, but I'm wondering how this could be practically implemented.
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century? Fry: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games and on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and written in the sky. But not in dreams. No, sir-ee!
But you see, we actually use the TinFoil as a receptor, antenna, and resonator. Your head and brain are just the storage medium.
We can target people without the metal hat's just fine, but we can target people with them faster and at greater distances.
In fact, we have had between an 84.6% and 97.5325333333% success rate with people wearing foil helmets. The success rate depends on the type of metal used in the foil and the weave designs.
In people without metal hats, we found that we get about an 89% success rate on average.
So yes, the metal hat's do prevent us some, but the problem is, with the unsuccessful it is not that the message does not get through, it is that death is a side effect and thus is defined as a failure during our tests.
We tested over 10 million diverse humans, and found that the only people to survive with 100% success rate were those that were born with both sets of sexual organs. But we consider them useless statistics anyway since they are unable to reproduce.
Another interesting side effect is we have the ability to also define genetic memories of the voices. That way every spawn from the target is also a victim.
We thank you for reading the FAQ of BrainTrain International Corp.
If you are so crazy that you think Santa Clause is an FBI agent out to kill you and you strike out that does not meet the standard for legal insanity here.
That's OK with me. Sorry if it seems callous, but a mentally ill murderer is still a murderer. Criminal law serves to protect the public. It sucks to have mental illness and to be locked up, but it sucks more to get stabbed to death on a subway train.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
...up until recently, generations of police officers learned how to use physical force to gain compliance. And generally speaking they knew how to do it with minimal force and maximal compliance -- a friend who is a 2nd generation police officer had his father demonstrate some of the techniques, and it was fairly amazing how well he could hurt me without actually "hurting" me (ie, leaving lasting marks, breaking bones, bruising, etc.)
The gripe my friend the cop has is that with all the touchy-feely policing (and the expensive court payouts) they have, you really can't gain compliance through physical force the way you used to be able to, so they are largely left with their guns and their tasers. And since the tasers aren't lethal, they're somehow considered "OK" to use for any problem solving short of killing someone.
I think they should start allowing the police to carry saps and clubs again as well as teach them physical force and stop letting them use a taser as a universal problem solver.
A Taser was designed to replace a gun.
Although I agree with your overall point that Tasers are seriously overused, your initial premise is incorrect.
Tasers were never intended to be used as a replacement for a gun. They are an additional non-lethal weapon to use alongside the baton and pepper spray.
Unfortunately, politicians and even the police themselves use the "Tasers replace guns" myth to win people over to the idea. After all, who wouldn't prefer to see a Taser used instead of a gun?
But that's not what happens. When the situation calls for a gun to be used, then the officer will use their gun. Period. They will never consider using the Taser instead, and they were never expected to. This is why the number of incidents involving police using their guns has not decreased since Tasers were introduced. Nor was it expected to.
The problem is that Tasers seem really harmless. You press a button, and the guy falls to the floor. Shortly thereafter, he gets up and he's apparently fine. So, hey, why not use it even in cases where the use of a baton or pepper spray would cause mass outrage?
And that's exactly what's happening now.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
Sadovnik says that normal audio safety limits do not apply since the sound does not enter through the eardrums.
Such bullshit!
(Directed at Sadovnik, not you, Digital).
Hearing loss usually has nothing to do with mechanical damage to the eardrum or ear; rather, it's almost always due to the fact that loud noises cause the cilia in your cochlea to get ripped out (and they do not grow back). This microwave thing is still exciting your cochlea, so it's doing the same damn thing. The only difference is that the vibrations originate within your head, whose tissue is rapidly being heated and cooled by the microwaves. But your cilia don't give a damn about where the vibrations come from.
Ugh.
Also, there is a *big* difference between seeing someone simply going limp after being tazed, and seeing someone getting beaten down with a billy-club. These situations play out very differently when broadcast on the 6:00 news.
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno