Posted on 11/08/2005 6:10:31 PM PST by neverdem
Associated Press
MIAMI – The crew of a luxury cruise ship used a sonic weapon that blasts earsplitting noise in a directed beam while being attacked by a gang of pirates off the eastern coast of Africa, the cruise line says.
The Seabourn Spirit had a Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, installed as a part of its defense systems, said Bruce Good, a spokesman for Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line. The Spirit was about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns as they tried to get onboard.
The subsidiary of Carnival Corp. was investigating whether the weapon was successful in warding off the pirates, he said. The ship's captain also changed its course, shifted into high speed and headed out into the open sea to elude the pirates, who were in two small boats, he said. He had no further details.
Device maker American Technology Corp. said earsplitting "bangs" were directed by trained security personnel toward the pirates. That, combined with ship maneuvers, caused the attackers to leave the area, the company said.
The LRAD is a so-called "non-lethal weapon" developed for the U.S. military after the deadly 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen as a way to keep operators of small boats from approaching U.S. warships.
The military version is a 45-pound, dish-shaped device that can direct a high-pitched, piercing tone with a tight beam. Neither the LRAD's operators or others in the immediate area are affected.
American Technology, based in San Diego, compares its shrill tone to that of smoke detectors, only much louder. It can be as loud as about 150 decibels, while smoke alarms are about 80 to 90 decibels.
The devices have been deployed on commercial and naval vessels worldwide since summer 2003, the company said.
They shoul used low tech guns that fired low tech lead projectiles on the pirates.
Lots of Americans cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean, where the (supposed) quick response from law enforcement that city dwellers think they enjoy does not exist. They are on their own basically, so many choose to be armed, often with assault rifles at least, as protection from hijacking by drug runners or pirates. (.50 cal is not a 'sub'machine gun)
I was always horrified for this reason alone at the attempts by the Left to disallow the possession of AR weapons by Americans. It puts cruisers at even more serious risk than they already are on the high seas.
Recognizing of course that the attempt to ban AR's is just a superficial symptom of the deeper evil of the Leftist desire to neutralize the 2nd, along with the rest of the Constitution.
As politicians at the Republican National Convention use microphones to make themselves heard from the podium, other sounds in and around the event will be emitted in cutting-edge audio technology.
Outside the convention hall, New York City police plan to control protesters using a device that directs sound for up to 1,500 feet in a spotlight-like beam. Meanwhile, a display of former Republican presidents inside the hall will feature campaign speeches that are funneled to listeners through highly focused audio beams.
"These are totally different from the way an ordinary speaker emits sound," said Elwood (Woody) Norris, founder and head of American Technology Corp. of San Diego. "It's like it's inside your head."
Norris, an intrepid entrepreneur who has no college degree but more than 43 patents to his name, invented both the crowd control tool, called the Long Range Acoustical Device (LRAD), and the display audio technology, called HyperSonic Sound (HSS).
Both technologies feature unprecedented manipulation of sound, but for very different purposes. And while both technologies have unique, "gee-whiz" factors, some remain uneasy with the idea of using sound to control crowds.
"It produces sound in a way that for most people will be a novel experience, so I think it has potential to create confusion and panic," said Richard Glen Boire, founder of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in Davis, Calif. "It can't be identified, it's an invisible force." <<
And:
HSS works by mixing regular, audible sound with two beams of super high frequency, inaudible sound waves. "Just the way artists mix their paint," says Norris.
The resulting ultrasonic sound wave can then be directed out in a tightly controlled beam. Wherever the beam makes contact with air, the air molecules interact in a way that isolates the original audible sound. So if you're standing in front of the ultrasonic sound wave, you can hear the sound. If you're a few inches away, you hear nothing.
This cuts down on ambient noise and gives listeners the somewhat eerie effect that the noise is inside their heads.
"We like to say we create silence instead of noise," said Norris. "You don't need to fill the space with a whole cacophony of noise." <<
Doesn't sound like normal noise or normal rules.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/noisegun
DK
I don't think that ear plugs will be of much help with 150 db sound. That is bone rattling intensity and would make Helen Keller back off.
Sort of like going to a WHO concert and sitting by the speakers.
Actually, to hear it yes, but not to curb the effects. That decibel shakes the jaw bone and reverberates through to the middle ear... This will give you a mind splitting headache...
...silent noise.
I think the NRA should sponsor a weapons only cruise. Instead of trap and skeet shooting, make it pirate shooting.
Yes, but that violates the Geneva Convention directive of "causing unecessary damage."
It's listed right by hollow points and serratted knives.
I concur. It would be easy for some tub filled with amonium nitrate to ram a cruise ship.
Plus, all the explosives would never pass through customs --- not yet in port.
Where do I send my resume?
Well I do know one guy who manages a cruise ship, that is everything but the actual running of the boat as a boat. However his boats have all been river cruisers, first on the Mississippi, and now on the Columbia. Don't think his company does ocean going cruises.
Intersting... sound's like your fimiliar with how ships move at sea which I am not.
But it seems odd that SOP would be to call in aircraft, or the navy becuase another ship came to close. After all the USS Cole didnt, and that thing was bristling with guns and crewed with people that new how to use them.
I dont think the Carnival cruise liner is going to be as on-the-ball as the USS Cole was.
Never been on so much as an inflatable, on salt water that is. I've only been in the ocean once in my entire life. Unless you count visiting the Lexington museum ship @ Corpus Christi. That said, I'm a former military officer (Air Force!) and am pretty well read on naval matters, for a landlubber. Navy was actually my first choice, but they weren't taking married NROTC cadets at the time. Not that I'm not also an airplane nut.
But it seems odd that SOP would be to call in aircraft, or the navy becuase another ship came to close. After all the USS Cole didnt, and that thing was bristling with guns and crewed with people that new how to use them.
The Cole had the guns, and the people to use them, but not the will and orders to have them manned and ready.
Calling in the Navy, almost any Navy, is like calling the police. A Good Idea, but don't rely on them getting there in time to actually help you any.
I dont think the Carnival cruise liner is going to be as on-the-ball as the USS Cole was.
Different Rules of Engagement. The Cole was in a foreign port, not on the High Seas as the cruise ship was. The Cole crew was expecting folks to come along side for reprovisioning. They also were under restrictive ROEs. Clinton administration didn't want to upset the natives by allowing the ship to come in Locked and Loaded, with Sailors manning the guns, and standing by with M-14s. They would now though, if they would have gone into that port at all.
Machine guns...thousands of dollars
booze and women...thousands of dollars
modified cruise ship...millions of dollars
The look on the pirates faces when a cruise ship full of drunken Disney characters begin chasing them....priceless
:)
Every dog within 5 miles will be baying. Great.
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