Bark Beetles Hate Rush Limbaugh and Heavy Metal 220
Aryabhata writes "According to scientists, climate change and human activity have allowed bark beetle populations to soar. They decided to fight the beetles by using the 'nastiest, most offensive sounds' that they could think of. These sounds included recordings of Guns & Roses, Queen, Rush Limbaugh and manipulated versions of the insects' own sounds. The research project titled 'Beetle Mania' has concluded that acoustic stress can disrupt their feeding and even cause the beetles to kill each other."
So, any loud noise will work? (Score:4, Interesting)
Limbaugh may be obnoxious and rude, but I can't think of anything particularly offensive about his voice that I don't hear pretty much every day walking down the street.
Likewise, Guns & Roses and Queen aren't especially anything other than loud - nothing especially offensive about the sounds of either.
Did they consider trying a really offensive noise? Like a jet engine spinning up? Or a Shuttle taking off? Or a machinegun firing?
Or even Ozzy doing whatever he was doing when he thought he was singing?
Re:So, any loud noise will work? (Score:4, Interesting)
Dude, his voice is so annoying his own ears couldn't take it anymore and shut down.
I'm kidding, of course. His hearing loss was actually the result of him being an unapologetic oxycontin addict.
What a tragic story (Score:4, Interesting)
Too bad. They all worked really hard in a meat packing plant, but got infections under their fingernails from the poor working conditions. After they couldn't continue working, they were fired and thrown off of the company PPO on a technicality. They went to a hospital for treatment, and walked out a month later with $250,000 in medical bills. This destroyed their credit, so they were unable to get a decent apartment in a safe neighborhood. After struggling for years to get ahead, the beetles wondered... could they have stayed on and helped to try and advance the cause of science?
Or was it better to follow the advice of a narrow-minded, bigoted, meritless, and anti-human demagogue simply because he had a microphone. They realized that he was right all along. Societal progress can only be accomplished by performing some menial task for someone else. Everything else is just a waste of time.
Re:And they didn't try other politicians? (Score:3, Interesting)
best part is i read about this two days ago, and the ACTUAL truth is that neither rush limbaugh or heavy metal were very effective; it was only when the researchers started using sounds that, you know, MADE SENSE, that it became effective. They blasted the sounds the beetles themselves make when they are agitated and aggressive.
Yeah, the researchers are the assholes here, because when they wanted to blast loud and offensive sounds the first things they thought of were heavy metal and rush limbaugh. what a bunch of assholes, more concerned about denigrating things they don't like and scoring snark points than doing actual thinking about what might be most offensive to beetles.