The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
The Pentagon's shiny new ray gun
Picardathon
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/29/60minutes/main3891865.shtml
Yes, its official, all that money that the Pentagon has spent on ridiculous pipe dreams has finally paid off!
(Well, except for the fact that the Pentagon has spend an absurdly small percentage of its budget on non lethal weaponry (http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/031211-nonlethal-weaponry.htm)).
Apparently this ray gun is supposed to fire highly concentrated radio waves that penetrate just below the first layer of skin, to the nerve endings. The amount of pain caused is so severe that it is essentially impossible to stand in the way for five seconds.
My thoughts about it:
This seems like the most effective thing we could be using for crowd dispersal in Iraq right now. The battle against the insurgency is essentially based on the opinions of the Iraqi people. If they reject the insurgents, like Anbar province did to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the US has its job done for it. It seems clear that it would be much better if the US could accomplish basic crowd control without killing anyone. Of course, I do have qualms over the fact that it is extremely clumsy to use in the cramped urban areas where it would be most desired, particularly when a well placed grenade or any form of IED take out the Humvee. Having this thing in a smaller form would lead to natural abuse, as nobody could prove that a US soldier used the weapon on them. I also fear the day that this technology is somehow used by civilians?
What do you guys think? And how many of you first thought about what would happen if that sucker was used on an icecube?
Yes, its official, all that money that the Pentagon has spent on ridiculous pipe dreams has finally paid off!
(Well, except for the fact that the Pentagon has spend an absurdly small percentage of its budget on non lethal weaponry (http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2003/031211-nonlethal-weaponry.htm)).
Apparently this ray gun is supposed to fire highly concentrated radio waves that penetrate just below the first layer of skin, to the nerve endings. The amount of pain caused is so severe that it is essentially impossible to stand in the way for five seconds.
My thoughts about it:
This seems like the most effective thing we could be using for crowd dispersal in Iraq right now. The battle against the insurgency is essentially based on the opinions of the Iraqi people. If they reject the insurgents, like Anbar province did to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the US has its job done for it. It seems clear that it would be much better if the US could accomplish basic crowd control without killing anyone. Of course, I do have qualms over the fact that it is extremely clumsy to use in the cramped urban areas where it would be most desired, particularly when a well placed grenade or any form of IED take out the Humvee. Having this thing in a smaller form would lead to natural abuse, as nobody could prove that a US soldier used the weapon on them. I also fear the day that this technology is somehow used by civilians?
What do you guys think? And how many of you first thought about what would happen if that sucker was used on an icecube?
Picardathon on
0
Posts
It seems interesting and could be very effective for the asymmetrical warfare that seems to be the future of conflicts, but I'm sure that thing would abused so often it wouldn't be funny as well.
You have given a great example of why this shouldn't be in civilian hands.
I'm just really scared that the US is going to flood the world with these like the Russians flooded the world with Kalashnakov's [/shiver]
"Is it torture?"
"No."
"If it was fired at you, would you consider it torture?"
<silence>
"If it was fired at me I would probably say so yes."
I hope that's not really stupid question.
I mean hopefully you are only subjected to limited exposure.
No long term studies have been done on the effects that this has on targets.
In theory its harmless, because it just goes in far enough to fuck with your nerve endings. Of course, having your nerve endings subjected to an extremely high amount of stimulation multiple times might not be good.
As a guess, I say no unless you're a masochist who jerks off to shooting yourself with this thing and cause yourself chronic nerve damage.
Yeah, this is definitely a great torture tool, small room with a raygun and you only are free if you tell, you have to say something after ten seconds that could very well be the truth (could just be a lie but that is the problem with all torture).
Of course, the sheer size of device means that it could probably only be used in CIA secret prisons, but that hasn't stopped anyone so far.
Now for an SE++ level question: What if they point it at your balls though? Will you go sterile?
There is a buzz and Homer is suddenly shocked. He screams.
BART: Just testing.
HOMER: Why, you---
MONROE: No, Homer, not yet.
HOMER: Awww.
MONROE: You see, this is what is known as aversion therapy. When someone hurts you emotionally, you will hurt them physically. And gradually you will learn not to hurt each other at all. And won't that be wonderful, Homer?
HOMER: Oh, yes, Doctor.
He presses a button. Bart is zapped.
BART: Whooa!
Bart presses the button. Lisa is zapped.
LISA: Ahhh!
MARGE: Bart, how could you shock your little sister?
BART: My finger slipped.
Bart is suddenly zapped.
LISA: So did mine.
Lisa zapped.
LISA: Ahhh!
Bart zapped.
MARGE: Bart, Lisa, stop that.
She presses two buttons simultaneously and both are zapped. The entire family continues zapping each other.
MONROE: No, no. Now, wait a minute. Wait! Wait! Folks, folks, if I could --- This is not the way to get healthy! No! You don't understand, Simpsons!
They show no sign of stopping.
CUT TO:
Outside the office, the lights begin to dim and the music from the radio stops. The receptionist stares up.
MONROE (O.S.): People, please!
CUT TO:
Outside the therapy center, where the bright banner turns off. Then, in a wide shot, Springfield follows.
CUT TO:
In Burn's office. Mr. Burns stares out upon Springfield.
SMITHERS: Boy, someone's really gobbling up the juice, sir.
BURNS: Excellent. Excellent. Perhaps this energy conservation fad is as dead as the dodo.
CUT TO:
Back in the chamber, where the Simpsons continue shocking each other and screeam in pain.
MONROE: No! No! Simpsons!
HOMER: Son of a ---!
The receptionist runs back in.
RECEPTIONIST: Dr. Monroe, your other patients have fled the building.
MONROE: Stop! Stop! You're damaging the equipment!
Monroe finally runs and pulls the plug. Everybody has smoke coming from their hair.
BART: Hey, nice hair, Mom. MARGE: Gee, I thought we were making real progress.
They've actually demoed a desktop version.
No, I'm not kidding.
With that said, I don't really have any qualms about this as long as it remains prohibitively difficult to make one in your basement. You thought ninja remotes were annoying?
And just a thought, shouldn't it be possible to just wear things or build shields that reflect the radio waves?
Damn, you beat me to it.
Tinfoil hats effective against the CIA? Who'd a thunk it.
They'd rather buy more and better missiles.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Second, the kind of panic it would induce isn't exactly lovable. Using it against crowds seems fucking retarded.
Also isn't this ancient news? i heard of this almost a year ago.
- "Proving once again the deadliest animal of all ... is the Zoo Keeper" - Philip J Fry
Well, I'd rather have none of that happen to me, and I've arranged my life so that it's highly unlikely that I'd ever be on the recieving end of such treatment, but the point remains that, if this weapon does what they say it does, the benefits of having a crowd-dispersal device of this sort outweigh the cultural risk of having a weapon that causes pain but doesn't leave any marks. Surely training and oversight would go along with the use of the weapon; surely we'd trust it more in the hands of a military run by, say, a constitutional law scholar... but that's a different thread.
New technology demands further study and responsible governance; we can't just drop it because of potential abuses. Otherwise we wouldn't have nuclear reactors or stem cell advancements.
Both of which, ironically enough, we've essentially dropped because of potential abuses.
Or Terminators and Judgment Day. Well I guess Judgment Day is kinda old tech. But Terminators for sure.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Wha? No.
There are tons of nuclear plants in play, and just because the U.S. government has an idiotic stance on this doesn't mean that private research and foreign firms have abandoned it.
In short, I'd need to see some serious citations for your assessments.
Luckily John Connor will lead humanity to victory.
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
I was being more sarcastic than serious, but I wouldn't say we have "tons" of nuclear reactors...We have only 104 nuclear reactors in the states, which account for roughly 16-17% of our power needs, and we haven't built a new one since Three Mile Isle. Compare this to say, France, which gets 79% of it's power from nuclear reactors, and has been steadily investing in and building new plants over the last 30 years.
But ya, I know that in the general sense, the world hasn't given up on nuclear. Hell, we're in the process of building experimental fusion reactors in europe!
I think it'd be more appropriate to say that the American people have given up on nuclear.
More plants than Engineers? Wouldn't that be several thousand plants?
That seems like overkill...
What happens when you add in nukeular engineers?
― Marcus Aurelius
Path of Exile: themightypuck
Well, each plant needs more than 1 engineer, but maybe it was technicians then. Regardless we're slated to put up a dozen plants over the next decade. I know Texas is going to be one of the first with NRG and I'm pretty sure Com-Ed/Exelon are planning on replacing and adding at least one in Illinois. Which is great, because we only get 50% of our power from nukes at the moment.
I feel the same way actually, but I'm kind of retarded.
I think it's a pretty good thing, because it's better to abuse intense pain than anything else. We're already killing a bunch of innocent civilians in Iraq, so it's at least a step up to briefly torture them with supposedly no long-term effects instead.
Oooh, you're European, that explains the soccer pic.