Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday September 02 2018, @04:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the prepares-the-popcorn dept.

Spooky Theory on Ills of U.S. Diplomats in Cuba (archive)

During the Cold War, Washington feared that Moscow was seeking to turn microwave radiation into covert weapons of mind control. More recently, the American military itself sought to develop microwave arms that could invisibly beam painfully loud booms and even spoken words into people's heads. The aims were to disable attackers and wage psychological warfare.

Now, doctors and scientists say such unconventional weapons may have caused the baffling symptoms and ailments that, starting in late 2016, hit more than three dozen American diplomats and family members in Cuba and China. The Cuban incidents resulted in a diplomatic rupture between Havana and Washington.

The medical team that examined 21 affected diplomats from Cuba made no mention of microwaves in its detailed report [open, DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.1742] [DX] published in JAMA in March. But Douglas H. Smith, the study's lead author and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview that microwaves were now considered a main suspect and that the team was increasingly sure the diplomats had suffered brain injury. "Everybody was relatively skeptical at first," he said, "and everyone now agrees there's something there." Dr. Smith remarked that the diplomats and doctors jokingly refer to the trauma as the immaculate concussion.

Strikes with microwaves, some experts now argue, more plausibly explain reports of painful sounds, ills and traumas than do other possible culprits — sonic attacks, viral infections and contagious anxiety. In particular, a growing number of analysts cite an eerie phenomenon known as the Frey effect, named after Allan H. Frey, an American scientist. Long ago, he found that microwaves can trick the brain into perceiving what seem to be ordinary sounds.

Mentioned in the article: JASON, which is also investigating the attacks and considering the possibility of microwaves causing the symptoms.

Previously: US Embassy Employees in Cuba Possibly Subjected to 'Acoustic Attack'
U.S. State Department Pulls Employees From Cuba, Issues Travel Warning Due to "Sonic Attacks"
A 'Sonic Attack' on Diplomats in Cuba? These Scientists Doubt It
Cuban Embassy Victims Experiencing Neurological Symptoms
Computer Scientists May Have Solved the Mystery Behind the 'Sonic Attacks' in Cuban Embassy


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:50PM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday September 02 2018, @06:50PM (#729607)

    Among the various theories put forth by "vaccines can cause injury" camp in the early 2000s: thimerosal (mercury) in multi-dose vials can settle so that, in a 10 dose vial, one recipient might get 90% of the thimerosal while the other 9 doses contain very little. It was about this time that Jenny McCarthy was put forward as an anti-vaccine advocate by the pro-vaccination political camp.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:38PM (3 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Sunday September 02 2018, @11:38PM (#729693)

    It was about this time that Jenny McCarthy was put forward as an anti-vaccine advocate by the pro-vaccination political camp.

    ? I don't think that's what happened.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 03 2018, @01:45AM (2 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday September 03 2018, @01:45AM (#729720)

      I'm sure I don't know what really happened, can't know what really happened, but to have somebody of that "caliber" show up just around the time that they're all grasping at straws in an attempt to burn Wakefield at the stake (and some of the "science" put forth to counter Wakefield around the time McCarthy was rising to prominence was extremely weak, rushed, and otherwise had desperate clearly printed in the abstract)... would have been a master stroke of long-game strategy.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday September 03 2018, @03:30AM (1 child)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday September 03 2018, @03:30AM (#729738)

        I don't think you can seriously link a porn star and a discredited former Doctor.

        Unless you're arguing that Wakefield was not a lying scam artist. In which case I think you're wrong.

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 03 2018, @01:39PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday September 03 2018, @01:39PM (#729843)

          The joke is: McCarthy was thrust into prominence by the anti-Wakefield camp, to help make the whole thing reek of non-credibility.

          Take a random sampling of 100 practicing research M.D.s and dig on them for dirt, at least 50 can be smeared as badly as they did Wakefield - if there is a motive to do so.

          Were Wakefield's findings flawed? Probably, but you have to ask: if you did a study and reproduced his findings, would you want to put yourself out there as the next target?

          The media is the biggest flaw in the system of scientific investigation today. They take preliminary studies done on less than a dozen non-randomly selected individuals and promote the findings to billions as if they are somehow applicable to everyone, and the media's selection criteria is, as it always has been: sensationalism, whatever gets people interested / excited.

          If you think back to the time when Wakefield was first published, my kids were still getting vaccines with thimerosal in them and there were no alternatives. Oh, it's long been proven harmless, was the story from M.D.s at the time - just like lead in gasoline, asbestos in insulation, arsenic in playground wood, all was "proven harmless" for decades before it was banned.

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]