I came across this article about a company using a microwave ray gun to beam noises directly into peoples’ heads and it stopped me cold. I mean after reading these paragraphs tell me you can’t think of some amazing applications for this technology:
A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people’s heads.
The
device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) –
exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses
rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be
detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce
recognisable sounds.
The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have other uses.
Lev
Sadovnik of the Sierra Nevada Corporation in the US is working on the
system, having started work on a US navy research contract. The navy’s report states that the effect was shown to be effective…Sadovnik says the technology could have non-military applications.
Birds seem to be highly sensitive to microwave audio, he says, so it
might be used to scare away unwanted flocks.
Sadovnik
has also experimented with transmitting microwave audio to people with
outer ear problems that impair their normal hearing.
I’m sure that many people would instantly think of noble uses for this technology, for instance helping the hearing impaired. Me? The first thought I had was how much fun it would be to mess with people with this thing. Have a boss you can’t stand? Think of the turmoil you could cause him by beaming things like, "This is God. I am preparing to smote thee for being such a jerk to fill in your name and anyone else you like at work. Your only chance at redemption is giving them annual 20% raises. Oh, and I’m thinking of another flood so I need you to head to Home Depot to start your ark preparations." If you do this a couple of times a day for a week you’ll either be rid of the jerk after he checks himself into the hospital or you’ll have a much fatter pay check.
Lest you think I’m truly disturbed I won’t tell you the things I thought of that I could beam to my kids.
I’ve been watching one incredible tennis match for the last few hours. The Wimbledon final features Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, and it’s shaping into an epic. Nadal one the first two sets after Federer uncharacteristically allowed his serve to be broken twice consecutively in the second set, but he rebounded to win the third and fourth sets in tiebreakers, and he faced match point in the fourth set tiebreaker only to hit an unbelievable backhand passing shot (maybe his first of the match) to save it and then hit a string of winners to win the set.
Best of all for any tennis fan is that seemingly every game and point of every set has been high quality and hotly contested. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a match like this in my life. Incredible.
Unfortunately they just called the second rain delay of the match (the first was in the third set) with the score 2-2 and Federer serving at deuce in the fifth. With only an hour of daylight left in London I suspect they’ll be playing the end of the match tomorrow. Next year Wimbledon will have a high-tech, retractable roof they can close over Center Court, so they won’t have this problem again. Too bad we don’t have it this year.
Update: They’re back on the court and Federer just held serve for 7-6. No tiebreaker in the fifth set so they might still run out of light.
Update 2: Nadal finally broke Federer and held serve despite Federer hitting one more incredible backhand to save one championship point and push it back to deuce. Longest Wimbledon championship match in history and definitely the greatest I’ve ever seen, even better than Borg’s last championship.
If you didn’t already know that the current economy is blech, you could probably gather as much from the following two headlines that appeared yesterday:
It’s amazing what that $4.00, lo-fat, no-whip, peppermint mocha will get you at a dollar store. Of course that peppermint mocha could also get the latte set about 12 miles down the road in their not-quite-as-cool-as-they-once-were Lexus LX. Choices, choices: premium coffee, a gallon of gas or a pack of clothes hangers + a jar of generic peanut butter + a can of Comet + a bag of six water pistols?
Rumor I heard at the kids’ swim meet on Tuesday: South by Southwest, a great little restaurant on S. Marshall Street in Winston-Salem, is closing its doors. Not sure if it’s true, and if it is I’m not sure what the reason is, but I will say that if it’s true I’m really bummed. I loved their fish tacos.
If you have any info on this please feel free to leave it in the comments of this post or email it to me at jon.lowder AT gmail.com.
First a warning: the video below is NOT family friendly (bad language and a disturbing array of desktop icons). It is, however, hysterical to anyone who’s worked in a company with a tech support dude who deals with technophobic sales people. Enjoy.
Smitty’s posted his 2008 "Best of Winston-Salem" list and you can find it here. Congrats to Esbee for once again winning Best blog. SarahSouth got an honorable mention which is well deserved. I regularly check in with her blog to see what the young ‘uns (anyone under 40) in this city are up to. I also love her wine cellar posts.
I generally find myself in agreement with most of the winners, runners up and honorable mentions in the various categories, but I do take exception to the runner up for Mexican restaurant. As far as I’m concerned Mi Pueblo offers extremely average Mexican food and La Botana by Hanes Mall is much better, but hey this is a subjective list and we’re all entitled to our opinions.
BTW, the owner of Mi Pueblo is building a ginormous house down the street from me. I need to post a picture so you can see for yourselves, but I think the house stands as testament to how many people disagree with me about his restaurant’s food. Lots of people must love the place because their bucks are bankrolling a palace.
I was sitting on the deck reading the morning paper while slurping my cuppajoe when I stumbled upon an article in the Local section titled Salem Promo Attracts Notice with an accompanying picture of Oprah Winfrey in standard graduation ceremony dress. It sounded hauntingly familiar and I knew why when I read this:
What kind of women go to Salem College?
Let’s hear it from someone who experienced it firsthand …
Oprah Winfrey?
The indomitable talk-show host attended Tennessee State University,
but the above lines from a promotional video for Salem College are
generating a lot of buzz online.The video aired last fall as part of a showcase of Piedmont colleges done by WFMY-TV.
Lucy Cash recently posted it on her blog, "Life in Forsyth," spurring a wave of reaction.
"Everyone seems to be reading that blog," said Jacqueline McBride, the director of communications at Salem College.
I knew it! Esbee, aka Lucy Cash, wrote a post about the rather misleading Salem College promotional video featuring Ms. Winfrey. It’s misleading in the sense that it makes the average person think that Ms. Winfrey has a deeper relationship with Salem College than her appearance as a commencement speaker in 2000. Esbee really is a muckraker isn’t she?
But let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture and see the news cycle for this particular story. First there’s the fact that this video was produced by a local television station, WFMY, for a feature on local colleges. So a local station, with its own news operation, didn’t see anything untoward about the school’s allusions to Winfrey’s ties to the college. Next, the school so likes the video that they buy it and post it on their website and their own YouTube channel. So far, so good. Over six months later Esbee finds the video and posts about it. **Correction received via email from Esbee: "Small correction: Salem didn’t put the video up until last week. It aired six months ago, but i
didn’t see it until they posted it on YouTube." ** Then, almost two weeks after that the Winston-Salem Journal picks up the story and runs with it.
This leads me to ask the same question I’ve been asking for at least two years: why in the world doesn’t someone at the Journal figure out a way to get Esbee under their umbrella? I suspect they get plenty of story leads from her that she never gets cited on, which I understand is the way the game is played since her blog is a public domain and Journal staffers have as much right to read it as we do, but they don’t get any of her traffic. Instead they’ve floundered about with their own blog efforts, trying to get their already stretched staff to blog in addition to their reporting, but not realizing that just because you can write a news piece doesn’t mean you can be a good blogger.
Folks like Esbee, entrenched in their community, gifted with a "voice" that attracts local readers like honey to pollen, are gold. You can’t fake what she does and you can’t snap your fingers and say to your metro reporter, "Hey, I want you to invent something as creative as ‘And I mean exact’." I’m not even saying they should have tried to hire her. They could have simply approached her with some sort of offer that would have allowed her to retain her independence and yet benefit them with traffic and ad revenue.
But who knows. I’m sure there’s some perfectly logical reason, and who’s to say Esbee would have gone for it. Maybe they did try to woo her, but somehow I doubt it. This is the same organization that is trying to survive by making the tactical decision to cut head count, which in my humble view is a strategic error that could sink the business. I’ve written many times that the one advantage that newspapers have always had is their "feet on the street" and depth of coverage of local events. Sadly, that ’tis no more.
Oh, BTW, Esbee’s next "And I Mean Exact" is being posted at 1 p.m. today. Be there or be square.
Befuddled 