shut up, run away, drop dead

From: Modern Mechanix

"They called him ‘Death Ray Matthews.’ It wasn’t a name he chose for himself, but of all the inventions Harry Grindell Matthews was known for, it was the death ray for which he was both feted and vilified. Was he a charismatic mixture of visionary and charlatan, or an ignored and embittered inventor who could have shortened both World Wars? Whatever the answer, his story is a fascinating one, not least because it brings into sharp focus how the British Government viewed fortean ideas in the early years of the 20th century."
— Dr David Clarke and Andy Roberts, Fortean Times
Read more...

"The Active Denial System (ADS) beams a high-frequency, man-sized electromagnetic wave 1,000 meters.
     A person affected by ADS feels a sudden blast of heat that many compare to opening a very hot oven. The target feels pain and reflexively steps or runs away. During the presentation US servicemen managed to immediately disperse a group of disguised marines who played the role of an aggressive crowd.
     The US military say this weapon’s injury risk is far lower than other weapons like rubber bullets or pepper spray. The ray does not cause cancer or exacerbate existing cancer, nor does it causes fertility problems or birth defects. That is according to Stephanie Miller, with the biological effects branch of the    Air Force Research Laboratory as quoted by Stars and Stripes web edition.
     She also said the weapon has been tested on more than 11,000 people, and in just two of those cases, it caused second-degree burns."
— The European Union Times
Read more...

"It will not cause the person pain, but it will stress them into shutting up - recreating an uncomfortable feeling that most people will have experienced when they hear their own voice echo back to them during a phone call or on Skype.
     'In general, human speech is jammed by giving back to the speakers their own utterances at a delay of a few hundred milliseconds,' the scientists say in a new research paper for the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tskuba and at Ochanomizu University, both in Japan.
     'This effect can disturb people without any physical discomfort, and disappears immediately by stop speaking.'"
— Martin Robinson, The Daily Mail
Read more...