Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Oops! Sorry about your pacemaker!

This is one of the weirdest, most upside concepts I can imagine. The Air Force Sec says that some of the new "non-lethal" weapons that have not been tested on the battlefield should be used first against American citizens. He thinks it would be good for public relations because that way, if there are some safety concerns in the technology that we are not aware of, the resulting injuries will demonstrate those.

[LINK] Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."


The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.


Here's another link to an NPR story on the use of sound lasers (another high-tech nonlethal weapon), and another story in Wired. In this case they know some of the dangers, and although they are nonlethal, they are not harmless.

Fried guinea pig from the Museum of Awful Food

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3 comments:

Ptelea said...

This story doesn't seem to be getting much press. Yet it is as horrible as your picture which is REALLY gross.

Michael Bains said...

I don't really think it's all that horrible. The NLW thing, I mean. (The pigger is whack! lol!)

I think they could test this stuff on volunteers at Half Time at college Football games and the like. Man! Ya gotta believe there'd be NO SHORTAGE of party animals willing to take a non-lethal dose of something electronically mind & body controlling!

Seriously.

Cool story.

Blueberry said...

MB: I bet you COULD get some volunteers, kind of a Jackass thing. Pay them in beer and they'd sign up to get whacked in the balls. [snort]

Well, that's probably the only way it will be used on Republicans as some of the party pigs are bound to be. (not meaning to insult pigs of any variety here, I like pigs. I like them a lot more than most of these government/military wackos.)