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Ray Gun Puts Voices Inside Your Head

Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon Jul 07, 2008 11:30 AM
from the i-told-you-the-voices-were-real dept.
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."
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  • 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!

    • by ArcherB (796902) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:35AM (#24084369) Journal

      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!

    • Equality (Score:5, Funny)

      by Joe the Lesser (533425) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:37AM (#24084389) Homepage Journal

      It's like curing Schizophrenia the backwards way!

    • by MightyYar (622222) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:37AM (#24084403)

      I was going to make fun of you, but then my new friend Roger told me not to.

    • by GameboyRMH (1153867) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:40AM (#24084435)

      http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/ [mit.edu]

      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!

      /Nelson

      • by JustKidding (591117) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:46AM (#24084531)
        "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.
      • by DigitAl56K (805623) * on Monday July 07 2008, @11:49AM (#24084593)

        It's more scary than cool.

        The article at NewScientist [newscientist.com] 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.

  • by Illbay (700081) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:33AM (#24084321) Journal
    ...I've had the voice of Reagan inside my head.
    • by sm62704 (957197) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:45AM (#24084507) Journal

      Reagan? Wasn't that the name of the possessed girl in The Exorcist?

      Thanks to these microwave guns, you no longer need to be schitzophrenic to hear voices. There have been a lot of tinfoil hat jokes (of course) in the comments, but it appears that if you're going to be part of a political demonstration from now on, a tinfoil hat may be necessary to keep the Secret Police out of your head.

  • by gabeman-o (325552) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:35AM (#24084345) Homepage

    I wonder how many Pale Ales you have to drink to get the same effect.

  • That's Ironic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ComputerGeek01 (1182793) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:35AM (#24084349)
    that they should name it Medusa, a villain who was defeated by reflecting it's magic back at it...
  • by AlterRNow (1215236) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:35AM (#24084359)
    .. the fact it wouldn't affect people who already hear voices.
  • by oodaloop (1229816) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:36AM (#24084373) Homepage
    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.
  • by rpillala (583965) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:37AM (#24084393)

    Are they working out of Black Mesa?

  • 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!

  • Is this one of DARPA's toys?
  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna (970587) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:42AM (#24084459) Journal
    Microwave audio effect? That explains why I keep hearing "90% power... white rice... sensor cook" over and over again.
  • scary. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by apodyopsis (1048476) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:42AM (#24084467)
    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?
    • Re:scary. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Eudial (590661) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:48AM (#24084567)

      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 the rick rolling possibilities. We're in for a world of pain if these things become available on the internet.

      On a more serious note, engineering and scientific work ethics? Does that at all exist anymore? I can't imagine anyone willingly developing a technology with so many malevolent uses. Didn't we learn anything from the Manhattan project?

  • by smooth wombat (796938) on Monday July 07 2008, @11:54AM (#24084667) Homepage Journal

    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.