US Military Funds Weapon that Delivers Agonizing Pain

[KingNothing]

"The US military is funding development of a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims unharmed. But pain researchers are furious that work aimed at controlling pain has been used to develop a weapon. And they fear that the technology will be used for torture."

"I am deeply concerned about the ethical aspects of this research," says Andrew Rice, a consultant in pain medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London, UK. "Even if the use of temporary severe pain can be justified as a restraining measure, which I do not believe it can, the long-term physical and psychological effects are unknown."

Here is the link: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7077

Edit: I had to delete the rest of your post as you did not link to it's source and was not in the article you cited. That "quote" wasn't from this article.

 

[franznietzsche]

Ok, that article was just flat out stupid.

The Freedom of Information act could not be repealed for reasons of national security, because it does not apply to classified documents. The writer couldn't get throguh a paragraph with insulting christianity. Whether or not you like the idea of that weapon, that writer was a jackass at best.

 

[Moonbear]

Such a device as described would have no way of targeting just neurons involved in the pain pathway (sounds a bit like science fiction to begin with). If it can disrupt one neuron, it can disrupt them all, which would be lethal. It doesn't sound like they're trying to describe anything much different than a long-distance taser of sorts.

However, KingNothing, you need to separate out your editorializing from the original quoted material. I went to the original article and it doesn't match what you have in quotes here.

Franz, the insults to Christianity and the Bush bashing are not in the original article. Check it out for yourself. They seem to be KingNothing's editorial comments improperly attributed to the original article.

 

[hypatia]

Ok I was taken aback, only because I thought the title was PEZ weapons...And I thought My God..there must be millions of PEZ containers world wide.

 

[Moonbear]

Ok I was taken aback, only because I thought the title was PEZ weapons...And I thought My God..there must be millions of PEZ containers world wide.

Yes, those little rectangular candies can be fired with deadly force!

I love PEZ! I got a Miss Piggy PEZ dispenser as a stocking stuffer for Christmas. Except it came with lemon candy. I never knew lemon was a PEZ flavor, and it sort of tasted the way lemon cleansers smell. I want strawberry or orange or grape!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

a weapon that delivers a bout of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away

Boom boxes playing rap music are also pretty effective.

 

[KingNothing]

Sorry, yes, I got it from another news board and I wrongly thought that it was a direct quote from the article.

 

[Bladibla]

'pain researchers'?

That made me laugh!

 

[Moonbear]

'pain researchers'?

That made me laugh!

Unfortunately, it's the most credible thing in the story. Pain researchers mean people who study causes and mechanisms of pain perception (not causing pain, but understanding why and how we feel pain, such as to identify ways to alleviate chronic pain).

 

[russ_watters]

Sorry, yes, I got it from another news board and I wrongly thought that it was a direct quote from the article.

Could you edit the opening post, please - it is very misleading to have a link to an article with the quote below not really being a quote.

 

[Zantra]

Ya. Using pain as a deterrent is inhumane. We should just keep shooting them in the head.

While I don't agree with the way the technology was appropriated, I think that any weapon that uses less than lethal force is a good one.