There's apparently a military application for what I thought was an advertising technology:

It appears that some of the troops in Iraq are using "spoken" (as opposed to "screeching") LRAD to mess with enemy fighters. Islamic terrorists tend to be superstitious and, of course, very religious. LRAD can put the "word of God" into their heads. If God, in the form of a voice that only you can hear, tells you to surrender, or run away, what are you gonna do?

What's cool about this weapon is that it's one that will be particularly effective with this enemy. If it happened to me, the voice of God isn't the first theory that I would come up with, since I'm an unbeliever, but with these guys, it probably would be.

Or Satan.

I hope that's true, because it sounds like it'd be effective.

However, the Strategypage article is unsourced and even un-bylined, and I've found that I shouldn't trust Strategypage for anything but reference - their analysis has been dubious for ages.

Perhaps Terrance Stamp could submit some approprate dialogue vis-a-vi a movie he starred in 27 or so years ago.

Sounds great! Pun intended.

A mixture of spooks and voodoo! This could also be used on recalcitrant terrorist prisoners during their interrogations or maybe the ex-wife and her lawyer!

The potential of this tool is indeed great.

It seems to be basically a directional loudspeaker right? And unless the phased array is huge I don't see how you could focus it on just one person. Wouldn't the person only hear the voice if they were stationary? I can't imagine the array can change it's parameters in real time. Unless you had a bunch of mobile units working in synchronism. Interesting.

Also, once the knowledge of the existence of such a device is out there, no one is going to be fooled about voices in their head. They'll know to get out of the way of the American Allah.

Unless it's being used on a completely stationary human who has been tied up. Sounds like a modern form of torture. Someone send one to Cheney for X'Mas ;-).

I can see how the terrorists could use it though. That would be very, very, nasty.

Try googling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_range_acoustic_device

It's also been featured on a few Discovery/Military shows.

"I can see how the terrorists could use it though. That would be very, very, nasty."

I think the terrorists prefer lethal atavistic brutality, not things designed to disperse crowds with ringing in their ears. Nails, rat poison and C4 in glass bottles is much more their style.

I prefer the idea of sending terrorists to talk with God directly. It's cheaper, too.

How long before somebody claims this is used to counter protests at the next Republican National Convention?

Please oh please don't let Ron Paul get hold of this technology and install it in his blimp! Oh the humanity!

I'd love to install this on my car and shout at the idiots changing lanes without using turn signals, the one who see me using my turn signals and take that as the signal to speed up and "close up the gap". Tailgaters are another special target! "This is God! Back the hell off the green Sable's bumper or ELSE!!!"

Great, except that no one would believe God was driving a green Sable. ;^)

Imagine what Howard Dean could do with the Amplificatron. Or Roger Daltry. Or Nigel Tufnel.