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BossingAround

I thought it was accepted now that those were cicadas? [1] [2]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/science/sonic-attack-cuba...

[2] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/76hgkmv/havana-synd...

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Now the "cicadas" and neurological damage are occurring near the White House.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/29/us-investigating-peculiar-at...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/29/politics/us-investigating-mys...

I think it's looking more and more like an actual attack.

The common denominator here seems to be that it happens in secure US Government buildings. I have to wonder whether it’s related to the security technology itself, like some noise cancellation tech incorporated into the standard SCIF security system interferes badly with the ultrasound sensors of the intruder alarms to create these noise artifacts…

From the article:

> We also found electronics stores that carry high- power ultrasonic jammers that cause microphones to malfunction

and:

  If a signal from that caliber jammer were to combine with a second ultrasonic source, audible by-products could result.

Yes, still highly consistent, given [1].

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/05/brood-x-cica...

The alleged whitehouse incident was in november. I don't think it was an attack, but it wasn't cicadas.

... or someone is using correlation to make it look like cicadas.

Just curious, why is this comment being heavily downvoted? edit: why was, since it's now back up

> Just curious, why is this comment being heavily downvoted? edit: why was, since it's now back up

Some people weirdly seem to be really, really invested in "Havana syndrome" being psychosomatic/mass hysteria/US footgun/anything besides a deliberate attack.

like hn poster's bizarre and honestly naive infatuation with the concept of covid-19 being escaped from a lab?

quit, it is embarrassing

Or countermeasure going haywire.

From the article:

"While the equipment we used in our Cuban re-creation is relatively bulky, ultrasonic emitters can be quite tiny, no larger than a piece of Rolo candy. Online, we found a manufacturer in Russia that sells a fashionable leather clutch that conceals an ultrasonic emitter, presumably to jam recording devices at cocktail parties. We also found electronics stores that carry high- power ultrasonic jammers that cause microphones to malfunction. One advertised jammer emits 120-dB ultrasonic interference at a distance of 1 meter. That’s like standing next to a chainsaw. If a signal from that caliber jammer were to combine with a second ultrasonic source, audible by-products could result."

Consider an countermeasure ultrasonic emitter intended to jam microphones in proximity to, say, a spy emitter using ultrasonic sound as a carrier wave for a microphone, as described in the article.

Or someone just had a bad headache. I don't think it's very likely that there's a secret energy weapon hidden in the bushes near the whitehouse.

Or countermeasure going haywire. At any rate, not cicadas.

Yes, that seems like an obvious dead end, if not decoy.

Yes, probably caused by those UFOs that everyone keeps talking about.

Much more plausibly, people in the US military and/or secret services are trying to invent trouble in the wake of recent relative peace.

> the wake of recent relative peace.

Huh? January 6th was only ~6 months ago and the fall out from that continues.

Cyberwarfare continues to ramp up.

It is. The linked article is from 2018, before it was determined the recordings were of crickets.

But that doesn't explain the now hundreds of similar reports of illness and other side effects, usually reported after hearing the sound.

Mass hysteria combined with nocebo effect? Triggered by an encounter with cicada trapped in a hotel room.

Similar example, the Pokemon Panic of 1997: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Radford#Pok%C3%A9mon_...

A few legit cases of seizure triggered thousands of "false" cases.

These attacks are reported to have long-lasting consequences. That would be (I think?) incompatible with mass hysteria or nocebo effects.

Remarkably, after the recordings that preceded the illnesses were found to be crickets, everyone stopped reporting the cricket noise before the illness. Now, the American diplomats in Vienna report a new noise, a ringing in their ears, which apparently is not recorded.

Interesting. When the cicadas get bad I do have a lot of trouble working for long periods in my outdoor shop. My ears ring and I get headaches.

It does seem likely that the sound being recorded was crickets. However, that doesn't really prove that sound of crickets was the thing causing problems if it's being replicated in washington.

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