WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Arms Itself with Non-lethal Weapons 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.880 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.200 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.840 How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I love 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:24.200 all things tech. It's time for another qualifier on that. 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:29.560 This is a classic episode that originally aired on July nine, 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:33.680 two twelve, and it is titled tex Stuff Arms Itself 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.159 with non Lethal Weapons. Chris and I sit down to 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.880 talk about the whole idea behind non lethal weapons, including 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:47.080 the somewhat flexible definition of what non lethal is. I 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.720 hope you guys enjoy and so we wanted to talk 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:54.560 today about weapons that are designed to stop a target 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.840 without killing that target, or at least that that's supposed 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.400 to be what they do. Well, yeah, some some of 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.280 the research I did also turned up other versions of 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:13.200 the uh phrase non lethal weapons, including less than lethal weapons, 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:16.480 which sounds to me like it is a a verbal 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:22.400 uh disclaimer, he's only mostly dead. Well, it's not supposed 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:24.720 to kill you. We actually had somebody, uh we've had 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:27.360 some people right in to ask us about a particular 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.280 one of the ones we're gonna talk about today, But um, 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.720 really there there's a whole series of different kinds of 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.360 things that the military and police departments around the world 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:46.160 are investigating to basically stop people without hurting them completely. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:48.400 so and this is this is tough. I mean, how 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.000 do you how do you convince someone to stop acting 0:01:52.040 --> 0:01:57.680 irrationally or dangerously without really hurting that person in turn? 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.000 And it's tricky, but there are a lot of different 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.280 approaches that we've tried to take. Yeah, and I was 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.800 I'm sorry. I was about to say though that there 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:06.200 are a lot of reasons why you would want to 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.920 do this other than you know, simply not wanting to 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.040 to kill someone. Um, you know, for for strategic reasons. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.760 If you have, say, uh um and this scenario I've 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.680 seen written about a lot, uh, say an uprising where 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.239 you have say, hundreds of people uh protesting and maybe 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.440 the protest is getting out of hand. Well, the the 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.560 authorities who come to subdue the protesters or dispersed the protesters, Uh, 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.120 if they kill people, they are likely to escalate uh 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:39.519 these kinds of of riots or or disquiet. And uh, 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.200 you know it's uh, it's happened, you know, we can 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.920 I can remember stories going back centuries of something like 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.120 this happening. So if there's a way to to uh 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.359 get people to leave without really hurting anybody, that that's 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:54.840 an advantage for for everyone. Really. I mean, the protesters 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.400 don't get hurt as badly or or you know, even 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.440 if it just makes them feel uncomfortable and they leave 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:03.280 as a result of that, I mean, it seems like 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.519 it's a positive for everyone. Yeah. And and we've tried 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:09.640 a lot of different approaches with a lot of different 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.680 methodologies and a lot of different results, right, not all 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.240 of them have been successful. Here's one of the ones 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:18.200 I wanted to talk about first. That's just kind of 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.760 interesting to me. This is using sound as a weapon 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.280 due to now there are two different ways that sound 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.240 tends to be used as a weapon. One of them 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:31.640 is in something called a long range acoustic device or 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:38.080 l l r a D. These are focused beams of sound. 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.920 You just you crank up the decibel level to like 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:43.760 a hundred fifty deciples, which is about fifty deciples over 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.200 the pain threshold, and you direct it at the target. 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.680 And that means the target suddenly has this incredibly loud noise, 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:55.440 uh directed at them, and it's a painful experience to 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.119 hear it. In fact, you can suffer hearing loss if 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.880 you are subjected to that for two long uh. Some 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.440 of these devices have actually been used for communication purposes. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.160 I read one report that said that there were navy 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.400 ships that used a form of l R A D 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:16.160 to send out signals to um two boats as they 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:19.640 pulled into a harbor. So let's say that a giant 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:24.000 navy vessel is sailing into a harbor that's got a 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:30.440 busy fishing uh industry, and not all the fishermen are 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:33.440 necessarily paying attention to the fact that there's an enormous 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:35.440 ship coming in and they need to get out of 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.200 the way. I read a report that said that there 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:39.640 was a way where you could use this as a 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.800 communications tool where you're not trying to overpower someone, You're 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.080 not trying to cripple them. You're just trying to get 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:48.400 their attention and say, hey, buddy, we're coming through. You 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.960 might want to move, and except you're saying it in 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.799 whatever the local languages, and that it totally freaks people 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.880 out because suddenly they can hear this voice coming from 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.120 really far away, as if it's on a radio or something. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.120 But there's no radio. I mean, it's just using a 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.400 focused beam of sound to direct that sound at the 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.680 individual and then that gets a little you know, it's 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:16.560 a little unreal surreal, if you will. I would love 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:19.839 to have one of these just to mess with people like, hey, 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.360 hey you, I can see you, you know that kind 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:25.760 of stuff. But but but the the other use of 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:27.640 this is, like I said, crank it up and you 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.119 cripple someone because it's just so loud that it it's 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:37.480 the pain is um uh difficult to bear on the 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.599 on the Department of Defense non Lethal Weapons program pages 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.640 and they have I use these for for my research. 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:50.159 They have a set of current and uh proposed um 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.200 different kinds of non lethal weapons, and they use what 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:56.599 they call acoustic healing devices, which I think are probably 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.760 related to these uh and they have a picture of 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.320 one of those. But they say that they use them 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:05.440 to to uh give intelligible voice commands over very very 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.640 long distances. So I think they you know, from ship 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.400 to ship, UM, you know, where they're not actually trying 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.640 to cause pain, but they're using that level of U 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.520 extra heavy amplification to get a message across and they 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.039 consider it a weapon. But they're not talking about using 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:24.760 it in the exact same way. It's like a really 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:30.080 focused bullhorn. Yeah. Yeah. Another UM non lethal weapon that 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.800 I saw that uses sound as the impulse stunnerd gun. UM. 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.200 I don't know about this one. No, it's uh, it's 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.200 it's pretty neat. UM. Some of these, some of these 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:43.040 weapon quote unquote weapons, I guess they're technically weapons, UM, 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:47.680 have very interesting names. Uh. This one is would have 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.440 been used if you've ever watched the movie Thunderball UM, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:57.800 the documentary documentary Thunderball UM, which has a very scintillating 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.279 underwater battle scene. UM. But if someone had had the 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:03.400 impulse stunder gun, that might have gone a different way 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.000 because basically this is uh used to stop people who 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:12.200 are diving or swimming um underwater. It uses a sound 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:17.560 wave that travels underwater that affects the way a person 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:23.680 here's and will induce nausea. Oh so it's something you 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.080 want to feel when you're underwater. No. No, And I 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.480 mean if you had, you know, divers who are attempting 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:34.120 some kind of underwater subterfuge, I wanted to say subterfuge 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.840 partially underwater. UM, you know it would it would you 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:41.920 think about that, if you were feeling suddenly like you 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:46.640 were about to be ill, very violently ill underwater, I 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:49.640 imagine it would be very hard to continue on with 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:52.360 your actions. You would have to break it off and 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.560 and for the surface, you know, dive for the surface, 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.720 what swim to the surface. There we go. Um, but yeah, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.640 that's a pretty neat application of sound too well. And 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.080 and another one I saw, which did not have a name, 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:07.440 or at least not a name that I could find, 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:13.320 is a product that was developed by some Japanese engineers. Uh. 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:17.720 It was a gun that has a microphone, a directional microphone, 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.400 and directional speakers. And the what the gun does is 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.880 you pointed at someone who's being loud and obnoxious, their 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.320 voice goes into the microphone. It gets projected back from 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.120 by the speakers at about a point to second delay, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.120 So the person talking starts to hear themselves speaking but 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.920 point two seconds behind what they're currently saying, which is 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.160 incredibly distracting. It's very difficult to continue a train of 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.280 thought when you're hearing yourself at a slight delay. If 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.280 you've ever talked on the phone or on any sort 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.040 of radio device where you got that little bit of 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:55.120 an echo or on on Skype, for example, anything like 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.680 that where you start talking and you start hearing yourself 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.880 just an instant after you're talking. It can be very disorienting. 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.440 It can be very disorienting. Yeah, you start talking, then 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:07.600 you're thinking, wait, I just said that. No no, I 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.240 just said that. No no, no, I just said that, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.720 And then you can't make sense of anything anymore. So 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.880 this particular quote unquote weapon was a sort of a 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.640 I was designed to try and take care of people 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.680 who are rude. Yeah, it's not meant to be like 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.200 something to disperse a crowd or whatever. But there were 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:32.240 a lot of of notes I saw on the article. Yeah, 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:34.080 that was popular a few a few months ago. I 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:36.559 remember seeing seeing that a lot. So it's not it's 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.880 not something that the police are using necessarily. It's more 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.320 like a I'm trying to eat my dinner in a 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.760 restaurant and you're having a cell phone conversation at the 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:46.880 table next to me and you're really annoying. Or I'm 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:48.559 at the movie theater and I just want to watch 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.960 this documentary darnett Um. Yeah, the notes I saw said, 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.240 what if you use this for someone who's doing some 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:00.640 public speaking. But I would imagine that even with directional speakers, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.160 it's not so focused that only the person who is 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.640 speaking can hear it. You know, it's not like you're 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:11.040 beaming the words directly back into the person's ears. Everyone 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.240 can hear it. So it's not like you could get 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.760 away with doing something like that. Everyone would know who 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.800 had done that, and you would, uh, you would very 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.480 quickly get your come up. And I would imagine depending 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:26.720 upon the circumstances of where you used it. Why, um, 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.800 like I just want to aim at that valedictorian, think 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:35.600 she's so big? Um. Yeah. I was also thinking that 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.560 that's interesting that we bring that up in an election 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.640 year here in the United States where people are giving 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:42.280 a lot of speeches. We'll see. That was the thing 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.040 that was That was what a lot of the notes, uh, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.160 we're you know, That's what they pertained to, was the 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.319 idea of some sort of person who's running for an 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.360 elected office and then disrupting their speech so that they 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:58.400 seem like they're an idiot and then gives their opponent 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.280 an advantage. But the truth is is that particular weapon 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:03.959 or that particular product, whatever you want to call it, 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.880 would not be so subtle as to allow someone to 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.200 get away with that. I have another This is not 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:17.920 another D O D product. UM actually looks sort of 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:20.520 like a series of of flat disks that are a 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.880 quartered together. Doesn't look very offensive if you will weapon. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.040 But it's called the Enhanced Underwater Loudhailer. I told you 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:33.000 they had some strange names. Basically, this is another underwater 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:38.360 device that can be used up to uh forty deep 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.880 in water. UM, and it can it can transmit sound 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.800 up to four sevens away. Basically they can give It's 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:48.800 sort of like the one that they use above the 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.400 surface of the water. But um, it allows you to 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:54.440 uh send on you know. I actually the one I 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:56.959 was just talking about a few moments ago, where the 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.160 the device that you could use to send signals for 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.800 a very long time, uh, make your commands heard for 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.520 a very long distance. They show a picture of a 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:05.840 Navy ship. I think you could probably use that in 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.840 other applications. UM, but yeah, they can also they can 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.480 also issue commands with this underwater allowed haailer or impair 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:18.920 uh um people's hearing underwater for up to two hours. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.760 It will operate so uh pretty neat. It's sort of 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:24.719 it's sort of like the In some of the other 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.680 research I did, I was looking at things like culture 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.840 ups and devices that you would use to stop vehicles, 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:32.400 and I wasn't really going to focus on that, but 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.000 it sort of seems like that, Like you could drop 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.680 this underwater. It's battery operated and they can use it 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:41.360 to give commands and and affect divers hearing underwater. So 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.560 pretty neat. Yeah, I'm ready to move on to a 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.880 new category unless you have another sound. One no other 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.200 sound on this is this is moving to the category 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:53.200 of air. Okay, using air as a weapon, Oh, sort 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.520 of like the air Zuka. Yeah, exactly, that's exactly what 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.720 it is. So air Zuka. So you're talking about a 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.640 device toy. Yeah, it's a toy. It's a device that 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.520 creates a vortex ring. Now vortex ring is kind of 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:07.760 imagined sort of like a tornado, except it's in a 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.480 donut shape and it will it's air that will rotate 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:13.880 in this donut shape and it actually will maintain that 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.720 integrity for a pretty good distance. And the air Zuoka 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:19.520 is just a it's a toy that does this. You 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.959 pull back a uh a sort of a well, it's 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.160 a diaphragm really and you let go and it pushes 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.440 air out through a nozzle and that creates the spinning 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.000 vortex of air that then can go across the room 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:33.960 and hit someone in the face and they feel like 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.079 someone just you know, blew a huge breath of air 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:40.960 right in their face for for no apparent reason. So, yeah, 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.680 you walk in the door of a room, someone across 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.160 the room has gone whoop, and then you go, hey, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.200 what was that? Well, and there's and I mean it 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.680 doesn't move that fast either, So it's kind of funny 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.880 because you actually can see, you know, there's there are 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.480 a few seconds between when someone might fire one and 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.800 someone else might feel it, and so you're just waiting 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:02.079 in waitings that didn't work. Oh yeah, there's the guy. 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.640 They're flinching. Now, yep, it worked. Well, you can actually 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:10.840 kick that up a notch and weaponize it. And if 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.959 you use pressurized gas and you accelerate the gas to 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:20.080 supersonic velocity as it exits the nozzle. Once it comes 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.440 out of that nozzle, it becomes a high spin vortex 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.960 ring that can travel a good long distance and be 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.880 strong enough to knock over someone. Oh around a hundred 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:33.280 eighty pounds, so they it's like getting shoved in the 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:37.280 chest by a really strong person. It's just it's just 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:40.840 that it's air. Now, you could also, if you were 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:47.440 so inclined, add in um malodorance. I you know, there 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.240 were so many jokes that I was thinking about making, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.040 and I'm you're just not helping you. Well, the malodorance 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.320 would be designed the maloderant, of course, of something that 0:14:55.320 --> 0:15:01.240 smells bad. But a malodorant could be designed to induce nausea, uh, 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:04.440 or for to make your eyes water. So then you're 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:08.240 getting shoved by a very stinky person essentially. But when 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.920 I say stinky person, I'm talking about smells. They're so 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:15.280 bad that you might feel like wretching. It's it's not 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.320 like it's not just you know, oh that's like rotten eggs. No, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:22.640 it's way way worse. And uh you could even put 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:24.720 in other stuff too, if you really wanted to, like 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:30.120 some something that would affect you even more um acutely 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.320 than a malodorant. But anyway, that's the general idea is 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:37.800 just using air to knock back a person. Now, in 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.320 this case, you're talking about a weapon designed to really 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.440 knocked back individuals, right, you're not talking about like if 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.400 there's a group of people, uh, walking up, shooting each 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.840 one with a vortex of air is gonna take a 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:54.200 while because you have to let that pressure build back 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.360 up again and you have to then release the gas 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.160 so that it goes out. And of course, again that's 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:01.640 a projectile that does and move as fast as say 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.960 a bullet or even sound or anything like that. So 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:08.680 it starts to slow down almost immediately as it moves out, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.680 well really immediately as soon as it objects from the nozzle. 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.000 So even though it's moving at supersonic speeds within the nozzle, 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.880 once it gets out, it starts to slow down. Um. 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.240 So it's not it's not something that you could use 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:24.240 on a mass of people. But if you're talking about 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.600 aiming at a specific person to knock them down, perhaps 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:32.440 it's a individual who has shown himself to be a 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:36.080 danger or herself to be a danger to others, than 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.360 it would be a useful tool without actually causing that 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.720 person direct harm. Now, granted, if the person falls down, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:47.600 there's always the chance that person could suffer serious injury 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.880 in that fall, but the the impact of the air 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:56.720 itself should not necessarily cause injury. Um. Yeah, I don't 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.880 really have a lot of air based I can move 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.600 onto electricity. Well you know it. I do have one 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.200 that's uh that sort of reminds me of that sort 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.159 of out of that um that field. And there was 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:15.080 one that that I saw as a UM it would 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:20.240 be very effective against vehicles, but it also would make you, um, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.920 well slip called polymer ice. Did you run across this 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:26.719 one at all? Oh, this is not now, this is 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.399 this is a this is a spray. But apparently what 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.040 it is is essentially uh, you know, a polymer is 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:35.800 as a chemical, and they would use it in places 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.520 where the military is looking into this as a possibility 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.880 apparently for especially for places that are particularly warm, like 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.159 the Middle East or um, you know, places closer to 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.080 the equator than say, I don't know, Greenland, um or 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.600 maybe Atlanta, Georgia on a summer's day exactly. But if 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.760 effectively creates sort of you would spray it on the 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:02.480 ground and it would effectively create a icy situation. So 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:06.000 this this plastic would make people slip and fall as 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:10.520 though they were on ice. Um. Now, if you're if 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.120 you're thinking Keystone Cops sort of thing. So you're chasing 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.200 somebody and they've set up a trap ahead of them 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:19.639 so that the polymer is on the ground now, so 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:22.080 they're starting to fall, and then of course the people 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.560 who are chasing them also begin to slip and fall, 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:27.760 so everybody is writhing around in the ground because they 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.919 can't get up. It's like a bunch of turtles on 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.520 their backs. Yeah. Um, they have been working on a 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.800 counter agent for this that they could use the shoes. 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.040 They could use it on the shoes and tires of 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:46.080 vehicle vehicles that are, you know, running after them. It's 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.600 still a really advanced version of my automatic banana peel tosser. 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.400 But yeah, the whole you know, making people fall down 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:56.560 thing where you were just talking about that a moment 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.240 ago with using the high powered air, I thought, oh, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.960 slipping in falling down, that sounds like the if you 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.199 could use the two together, so you could really have 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:06.440 people on their backs. So this is the reason why 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.280 I really wanted to do this, uh, this topic, because 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:11.679 the more we talk about the more it sounds like 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.560 we're entering a world where Acme products from Warner Brothers 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:20.480 cartoons are a reality. Well, people still like talking about 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.399 that that effort that the US military made to weaponize bats. 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.640 Well there's also the whole weaponized dolphins thing. Yes, yes, 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.280 and then those those things are actually well we're actually real. 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.840 So hey, yeah, there's some some of these are really 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:38.159 cool and some of them are sillier than not. You 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.359 take advantages anyway you can get them, and not everything 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.719 pans out, all right, So let's move on to electricity. 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:45.840 So there's plenty of that. Yeah, you know, you have 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:50.800 your typical stun guns, which a basic stun gun is 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.280 a device that has a couple of electrode prongs that 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:58.439 when you when you activate it, electricity passes between the 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.199 two prongs. So if you were to put that in 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.360 contact with a human you could shock them and generally 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.440 it's a strong enough electric shock to make their muscles 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:13.119 seize up. It causes pain, and it also makes people 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.040 fall over if the if the shocks enough for their 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.119 muscles to seize up like that, they lose control of 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.280 their muscle um, their muscle movements and they fall over. 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:29.000 Um yeah, it's you can't you can't stop that, you know, 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:34.000 because our muscles do work on electrochemical signals. So if 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.239 you use electricity to override those signals, then suddenly they 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:41.359 just start contracting like crazy and you can't really do anything. Um. 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:45.600 As someone who has actually felt the sting of an 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.840 underpowered stunt gun, I can tell you it is not 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:52.560 a pleasant experience. It felt like it felt like a 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:56.560 really intense beasting because the one that was I was 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.760 gonna say, used on me, but really I used it 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.720 on myself. Uh, I was an idiot kid. I don't 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:05.399 want to know. It was not the first one to 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.160 do it either. I watched until several other people went 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.120 owl that that hurts. The next one's like, hey give 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.920 me that owl, Well, that does hurt, and next person, hey, 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:15.320 give me that al and then came round to me. 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:19.400 I'm like, all right, give me that. But the battery 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:21.680 had really run down, so it wasn't a very powerful 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.959 stun gun. And really the reaction we all had was 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.200 if you hit an attacker with that particular stun gun 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.640 because the battery been worn down so much, you really 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.600 would have just irritated them, because again, it wasn't enough 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:36.080 to make all your muscles contract. It made you made 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.320 made whatever muscle it was in contact with twitch like crazy, 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:42.720 and it stung, but it wasn't enough to really be 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.160 a deterrent well, a real stun gun with a fully 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:49.520 charged batteries serious business that can make you fall over 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:51.880 and it can be a while before you can get 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.119 back up again. And perhaps the most I would argue, 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:58.920 the most famous name in this sort of technology, although 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:04.400 it's not just stunt gun, is taser, and a typical 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.480 taser is a device that ejects a pair of electrodes, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.239 fires them at a target. UH. The electrodes trail a 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:17.320 wire that connects back to the handheld device, and then 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.280 once it comes into contact with the target, electricity flows 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:25.240 through the wires into those electrodes and shocks the target 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.200 and again creates a shock strong enough to make all 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:35.080 those muscles contract and the person generally winces, says something 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:39.960 along the lines of al and falls over UM. And 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:43.280 the intention is to do this in a non lethal way. Now, 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:47.159 there have been deaths associated with the use of tasers. 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:50.800 In some cases it was because of the way the 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:54.239 target or the person will say person target is just 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:58.399 the generic term, but the person fell, and then the 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:02.119 fall was partially what killed the person. In some cases, 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:04.359 it might be that the person had a pacemaker or 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:08.480 some other medical device that got UH that malfunction due 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.160 to the electric shock. Sometimes it has to do with 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.200 drugs that are in the persons system. Anyway, even though 0:23:17.240 --> 0:23:20.720 it's meant to be non lethal, not every single instance 0:23:21.040 --> 0:23:23.639 is non lethal. So these are and that's pretty much 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.679 true of all those things we're talking about that have 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:30.040 these really serious consequences, is that they could potentially kill somebody. 0:23:30.560 --> 0:23:35.040 Well that that basic taser you can fire that at 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:41.000 someone who's maybe twenty ft away. But Taser came up 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.960 with something pretty interesting that I saw, I think back 0:23:44.000 --> 0:23:46.560 in two thousand nine at c S. Right, I believe 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:49.160 you're talking about an article you wrote on how Stuff 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.400 Works dot com. Yeah, the Taser shotgun. Yes, yeah, well 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.040 actually isn't the shotgun itself just the shotgun show. But 0:23:56.119 --> 0:23:59.520 you do you do get you can't have a specific 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:05.200 shotgun that is designed to only fire these Taser shotgun shells, 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:09.120 so they won't fire a round of shot. But these 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:15.359 Taser shotgun shells, inside the the shell is a Taser device. 0:24:15.440 --> 0:24:19.120 There are the little electronic probes that will stick into 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:22.600 whatever the target is. The back half of the shell 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:25.080 detaches and there are a bunch of there are a 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.680 couple of wires where it will attach to the probes. 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:30.800 The back half dangles down from the target and then 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:36.240 shoots electricity through those prongs. So that gives military or 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:40.400 police the ability of firing a taser at a much 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:42.960 greater range than they could if they were just using 0:24:42.960 --> 0:24:47.280 a handheld device. Also, the shotgun shell has little fins 0:24:47.320 --> 0:24:51.000 on it that stabilize its flight. So yeah, I've seen 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.560 my regular shotgun that has shot that dispersed, disperses as 0:24:54.600 --> 0:24:56.320 soon as you fire. Yeah, this this is so that 0:24:56.320 --> 0:24:58.040 it will give it a stable flight paths, so that 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:02.160 it'll it'll fly in the the straight direction of where 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:04.919 you're aiming the shotgun. Right, And if I remember the 0:25:05.000 --> 0:25:09.080 article correctly, you wrote that there if if they try 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:12.680 to remove it, then they get shocked. Yeah, the the 0:25:13.320 --> 0:25:16.960 wires that have the electricity running through them are not shielded, 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:22.560 so I need to remove this. Yeah, then you grab 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:24.640 it and then you get shocked again, and it does 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:26.800 send pulses of electricity through and I think it's like 0:25:26.840 --> 0:25:31.439 twenty seconds of a pretty serious shock so that it'll 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:37.200 immobilize the person. Um. Yeah, And they were showing every 0:25:37.240 --> 0:25:39.920 time I see taser at c s, they are they 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:44.200 tend to be showing off their technology by bringing in volunteers, 0:25:44.280 --> 0:25:46.760 and I cannot imagine ever being a volunteer for that. 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.800 I took a pepper spray certification course. Did you actually 0:25:51.800 --> 0:25:53.960 have to get hit by the pepper spray to be 0:25:54.160 --> 0:25:58.800 actually certified? Yes? And everyone I elected not to. I 0:25:58.840 --> 0:26:01.000 watched everyone else do it, and I was very glad 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:03.320 that I had not elected not to. Yeah, everyone I've seen, 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:04.879 I mean, I've known a lot of people who have 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:09.720 gone into the military, into or into the police force, 0:26:09.800 --> 0:26:14.040 or even into uh to firefighter courses where part of 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:16.159 it is that they have to be exposed to this 0:26:16.280 --> 0:26:20.000 stuff so that they understand what the consequences are and 0:26:20.040 --> 0:26:23.520 they know what the effect is. Well, in every case 0:26:23.640 --> 0:26:28.960 it has been a horror story to hear about their experiences. Well, yeah, 0:26:29.040 --> 0:26:31.480 that's the uh, that's the thing. One of the reasons 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:33.720 that pepper spray is more effective than a lot of 0:26:33.760 --> 0:26:37.560 chemical weapons, from what I understand, is that, um uh, 0:26:37.680 --> 0:26:41.760 no matter what you might be uh taking, if you're 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:46.520 on some kind of drug that might otherwise, um, you know, 0:26:47.119 --> 0:26:51.120 make you feel less pain. Uh, the pepper spray will 0:26:51.119 --> 0:26:56.160 still make everything swell up involuntarily. UM, So you might 0:26:56.280 --> 0:26:58.720 you might not notice the pain, but the swelling will 0:26:58.720 --> 0:27:00.760 still impede you. Yeah, and that was one of the 0:27:00.840 --> 0:27:03.280 reasons that that they have to do that. It was 0:27:03.320 --> 0:27:08.000 because actually goes back to your shocking yourself story, is 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:11.080 to keep people from going, hey, Bill, look at that. 0:27:11.680 --> 0:27:14.920 You know, uh, you don't want to do that on 0:27:14.920 --> 0:27:17.960 on just just for kicks. It's not something that that's 0:27:18.040 --> 0:27:23.320 serious business. But well, yeah, I have one other electricity one. Okay, cool, 0:27:23.359 --> 0:27:25.120 and then I can actually add a couple of things 0:27:25.119 --> 0:27:27.920 that are similar. Groovy. Chris and I will be back 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:30.919 to talk more about non lethal weapons in just a moment, 0:27:31.000 --> 0:27:41.399 but first let's take a quick break. The last one 0:27:41.440 --> 0:27:43.400 I wanted to talk about is still a taser one 0:27:43.840 --> 0:27:47.560 is the Taser shock Wave. I don't know much about 0:27:47.560 --> 0:27:49.679 this one. This was another one that I saw on 0:27:49.720 --> 0:27:52.520 display the same time as a shotgun. Now. Shock Wave 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:58.360 is essentially it's a bank of tasers. Take six regular 0:27:58.440 --> 0:28:02.160 taser guns to get they're in a twenty degree arc, 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:07.000 uh and put them on a tripod and then you 0:28:07.080 --> 0:28:09.080 set it out in front of you and that way, 0:28:09.119 --> 0:28:12.359 when the rampaging horde of zombies comes at you, you 0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:14.640 can fire off if you wanted to. You can fire 0:28:14.680 --> 0:28:17.479 off all six at the same time, hitting those those 0:28:18.040 --> 0:28:21.360 people as they come at you. You can also stack them. 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:24.960 Are zombies affected by electricity? Well they there muscles would 0:28:25.000 --> 0:28:27.200 have to be right. You would think there would be 0:28:27.240 --> 0:28:31.000 a galvanic response. Yeah, clearly there's a galvanic response. I mean, 0:28:31.000 --> 0:28:33.280 come on, Frankenstein alone, all right. Anyway, we'll have this 0:28:33.320 --> 0:28:36.800 discussion offline. But you can stack these taser shock waves, 0:28:36.800 --> 0:28:39.240 so you can have three or four of them stacked 0:28:39.280 --> 0:28:41.080 on top of each other, which means now you've got 0:28:41.080 --> 0:28:43.440 four or three or four times that, and so eighteen 0:28:43.520 --> 0:28:47.600 or twenty four stun guns at your taser stun guns 0:28:47.640 --> 0:28:52.160 at your disposal. This is terrifying to look at in person. 0:28:52.240 --> 0:28:53.440 I mean, you look at this thing and you just 0:28:53.520 --> 0:28:56.200 think of the You realize that this is for very 0:28:56.280 --> 0:29:01.760 serious problems like an uprising or a riot or something 0:29:01.840 --> 0:29:07.680 where there are there's a demonstrable danger to people in property, 0:29:08.320 --> 0:29:10.680 Like I think about the riots that happened in London 0:29:11.240 --> 0:29:16.280 and in the summer of Uh. This is the sort 0:29:16.320 --> 0:29:20.360 of thing where you could imagine UH, something like this 0:29:20.520 --> 0:29:24.120 deployed where it's you know, you wouldn't think of this 0:29:24.240 --> 0:29:28.520 as a uh. The first option, But it's definitely one 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:30.320 of those things that you know, could be in an 0:29:30.440 --> 0:29:36.680 arsenal for trying to do crowd control or prevent a 0:29:36.720 --> 0:29:41.360 mob or a riot from attacking a particular target. Anyway, 0:29:42.320 --> 0:29:46.040 it basically functions the same way as a taser stun gun. 0:29:46.280 --> 0:29:50.360 It's just that you have, uh, put a whole bunch 0:29:50.400 --> 0:29:53.560 of them together in series and uh actually I guess 0:29:53.560 --> 0:29:56.360 technically they're all in parallel and you can stack them 0:29:56.400 --> 0:29:58.640 and and so it's like instead of having to have 0:29:58.680 --> 0:30:00.600 a whole bunch on hand where as soon as you 0:30:00.680 --> 0:30:03.600 because as soon as you fire a taser, you can't 0:30:03.720 --> 0:30:06.720 just immediately redeploy it. You know, First of all, you 0:30:06.720 --> 0:30:09.320 have you would have to reel in the electrodes again, 0:30:09.400 --> 0:30:14.680 You'd have to have a new uh cartridge of propellant 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:18.240 in order to shoot those electrodes out again. You would 0:30:18.240 --> 0:30:20.640 also have to have a charged up battery to to 0:30:21.560 --> 0:30:25.400 deliver the shock. So this is what gives you that 0:30:25.960 --> 0:30:29.280 capacity without having to have a whole bunch in a 0:30:29.360 --> 0:30:31.800 box behind you. Yeah, that would that would be another 0:30:31.840 --> 0:30:34.960 advantage of having the taser shotgun shell, Yeah, because you 0:30:34.960 --> 0:30:38.800 can reload very quickly and and yeah, that's absolutely terrifying. 0:30:38.840 --> 0:30:42.760 Really anyway, what was your next category? Let me see 0:30:42.840 --> 0:30:45.360 before I I was going to go onto one of 0:30:45.360 --> 0:30:50.120 my favorite types of technology of all time, lasers. Okay, 0:30:50.240 --> 0:30:52.040 well before before we do that, since we were talking 0:30:52.040 --> 0:30:56.280 about the taser shotgun shell a moment ago um. The 0:30:56.320 --> 0:31:01.800 Department of Defense also has weapons that it uses in shotguns, UM, 0:31:01.800 --> 0:31:07.640 such as stingball shells. Um. Wow. Sting sting balls are 0:31:07.720 --> 0:31:12.280 essentially I mean, they're shot, but they're rubber, so it's 0:31:12.280 --> 0:31:16.080 almost like the bean bag guns too. Um. This is 0:31:16.080 --> 0:31:18.000 why I think that some people use less than lethal 0:31:18.040 --> 0:31:22.360 because I imagine that a rubber pellet, well judging by 0:31:22.400 --> 0:31:25.840 the effects of hockey pucks on unprotected hockey players when 0:31:25.880 --> 0:31:28.880 they get hit with them or even protected ones, you know, 0:31:28.960 --> 0:31:31.560 and that's a frozen piece of rubber. So you know, 0:31:31.600 --> 0:31:33.880 I'm thinking that if it were coming at you fast enough, 0:31:33.920 --> 0:31:36.520 it could do significant damage. But they used they use 0:31:36.520 --> 0:31:40.720 sting balls in another and several other types of weapons 0:31:40.760 --> 0:31:44.960 like the there's a stingball grenade that launches the little 0:31:45.040 --> 0:31:50.400 rubber pellets and a modular crowd control munition which is 0:31:50.400 --> 0:31:53.360 about the size of a Claymore mine and send six 0:31:53.440 --> 0:31:57.240 hundred six hundred rubber balls out at high speed quote 0:31:57.320 --> 0:32:00.280 unquote to suppress targets. And I'm pretty sure if an 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:03.560 explosion of six hundred little rubber balls we're happening right 0:32:03.560 --> 0:32:07.760 next to me, then I would probably be suppressed. Yeah. Yeah, Well, 0:32:07.960 --> 0:32:09.840 here's the thing is that when we talk about things 0:32:09.920 --> 0:32:15.719 like these, these devices that shoot out uh projectiles at 0:32:15.760 --> 0:32:19.680 high speeds, clearly there's already an added danger there because 0:32:19.680 --> 0:32:22.800 you've got something that's causing the stuff to fly out 0:32:22.840 --> 0:32:25.800 at those those velocities right right, So you have some 0:32:25.880 --> 0:32:29.720 sort of propellant or explosive that is giving these things 0:32:29.720 --> 0:32:34.040 the kinetic energy they need to suppress crowds. Clearly, I 0:32:34.040 --> 0:32:36.920 would imagine if you are right there next to whatever 0:32:36.960 --> 0:32:39.640 it is when it goes off, you could suffer a 0:32:39.760 --> 0:32:43.880 really severe injury, if not, if not death. Well, you 0:32:43.920 --> 0:32:47.000 know they used the flash band grenades. Uh, they use, 0:32:47.480 --> 0:32:50.480 you know, these explosive devices to propel these out, and 0:32:50.520 --> 0:32:52.440 if you're standing right next to it, if the uh 0:32:52.920 --> 0:32:55.160 the charge is loud enough, I'm sure it could damage 0:32:55.160 --> 0:32:58.600 you're hearing. I mean thinking back to uh Keith Moon's 0:32:59.440 --> 0:33:04.840 famous appearance with the who um on the Smothers Brothers show. 0:33:04.880 --> 0:33:08.360 Where he put a uh, basically just an off the 0:33:08.440 --> 0:33:14.280 shelf UM explosive inside his bass drum. And yeah, and 0:33:14.280 --> 0:33:17.480 and Pete Townsend's hearing is was damaged permanently by that. Yeah. 0:33:17.520 --> 0:33:21.760 Townsend had some some some interesting things to say about that, 0:33:21.840 --> 0:33:27.040 although not immediately after the explosion because he couldn't hear anything. Yeah. Um, 0:33:27.080 --> 0:33:29.880 so so that's certainly an issue. I've played paintball too, 0:33:29.880 --> 0:33:34.200 Have you ever played? Um? One of the first things 0:33:34.200 --> 0:33:36.640 that I know, and those use the paintball guns use 0:33:36.880 --> 0:33:42.080 compressed carbon dioxide capsules UM to fire the paintballs out. Now, 0:33:42.320 --> 0:33:46.560 actually they use UM similar things in law enforcement. In 0:33:46.560 --> 0:33:51.000 the military, they have capstas and capsules basically pepper spray 0:33:51.280 --> 0:33:54.040 in paintball form if you will, UM, and they have 0:33:54.120 --> 0:33:56.880 guns that that fire those. But UM, you know, I 0:33:56.960 --> 0:33:59.120 was the first, very first game I played. I'd never 0:33:59.120 --> 0:34:02.360 played before. If you're wearing goggles, okay, so if you 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:04.800 have a stingball grenade and you are in a crowd 0:34:05.320 --> 0:34:08.000 and you don't have goggles on, then your eyes are 0:34:08.040 --> 0:34:10.799 obviously in danger. But this is one of those things 0:34:10.840 --> 0:34:13.040 where you you put the goggles on and you you're 0:34:13.040 --> 0:34:15.520 ready to go and everybody's set up on your teams, 0:34:15.520 --> 0:34:17.359 and they blow the whistle to start the paintball game, 0:34:17.760 --> 0:34:20.279 and the paintball you start to hear the sounds of 0:34:20.320 --> 0:34:24.799 the paintballs behind you and your several hundred feet away 0:34:24.800 --> 0:34:26.720 from the people who are firing them, and you're starting 0:34:26.760 --> 0:34:28.920 to go, you know what, this is gonna hurt when 0:34:28.960 --> 0:34:30.839 I get shot, And as it turns out, it does. 0:34:31.800 --> 0:34:34.120 So I mean these these weapons, I mean talking about 0:34:34.200 --> 0:34:37.680 rubber balls and some of these other things that these projectiles, 0:34:37.960 --> 0:34:40.120 even though they are designed to be non lethal, can 0:34:40.760 --> 0:34:43.600 cause damage. Uh, you know if you if you get 0:34:43.640 --> 0:34:45.960 hit with them in the right spot, I mean, you know, 0:34:46.000 --> 0:34:47.719 it might be you might get one in the arm 0:34:48.080 --> 0:34:52.120 from a thousand feet away. Go ow, Okay, so you 0:34:52.200 --> 0:34:54.279 went out, But if you were standing right next to it, 0:34:54.280 --> 0:34:56.319 it could cause a lot more damage. If you're near 0:34:56.360 --> 0:34:57.680 it and you got it in the rib, you can 0:34:57.719 --> 0:35:00.719 have a broken rib or at least a bruised rib. Well, 0:35:00.880 --> 0:35:04.960 they cause wealth, those paintballs, I would imagine. So moving 0:35:04.960 --> 0:35:10.319 on to lasers, one of the most basic forms of 0:35:10.520 --> 0:35:13.160 using a laser as a non lethal weapon is you 0:35:13.200 --> 0:35:15.920 don't you don't have a high powered laser use a 0:35:15.960 --> 0:35:20.080 low powered laser to direct light at optics or sensors 0:35:20.200 --> 0:35:23.439 or people's vision and you're just trying to blind them. Now, 0:35:23.560 --> 0:35:31.320 these are called dazzlers or personal halting and stimulation response weapons. 0:35:31.880 --> 0:35:37.240 Acronym is phaser. I know it's not mine. I didn't 0:35:37.239 --> 0:35:40.719 make it up. Yeah. The Department of Defense has what 0:35:40.800 --> 0:35:44.960 it calls the Green Laser Interdiction System. Yeah, that's exactly. Yeah, 0:35:45.000 --> 0:35:47.680 that's another way of putting it. Yeah, and they mount 0:35:47.719 --> 0:35:52.560 those on rifles to h to dazzle their opponents. Well, 0:35:52.600 --> 0:35:54.440 I mean, you think about it. There have been stories 0:35:54.440 --> 0:35:56.880 in the media about people who are using off the 0:35:56.880 --> 0:35:59.880 shelf laser pointers and pointing them at aircraft to be 0:36:00.040 --> 0:36:03.799 funny to blind the pilots. Yeah. The in this case, 0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:08.320 which these these lasers are are, they're low powered in 0:36:08.360 --> 0:36:11.000 the sense that they're not they're not powered high enough 0:36:11.040 --> 0:36:13.960 to do physical damage against something. They're not going to 0:36:14.040 --> 0:36:16.799 do any sort of vaporization or ablation or anything like that. 0:36:17.520 --> 0:36:20.680 But they will they will cut straight through things like 0:36:20.760 --> 0:36:24.120 fog and um and they are very very bright, and 0:36:24.120 --> 0:36:28.480 they're bright enough to actually blind you temporarily if you 0:36:28.520 --> 0:36:31.239 were to look into it. And it also again is 0:36:31.360 --> 0:36:36.960 used to to confuse sensors and optics, so that let's 0:36:37.000 --> 0:36:39.400 say that you've got a coordinated attack on a target. 0:36:39.520 --> 0:36:43.360 This way you can, um, you can minimize their defenses 0:36:43.400 --> 0:36:48.760 as much as you can when you're attack is approaching. Um. Actually, 0:36:48.800 --> 0:36:51.520 if you think about it, you um, well, they also 0:36:51.600 --> 0:36:54.799 have a device called ocular interruption, which is sort of 0:36:54.840 --> 0:36:58.239 a broader effect. Um. You know, they could use it 0:36:58.280 --> 0:37:03.120 to uh to worn and suppress uh people who are 0:37:03.760 --> 0:37:07.160 you know, the enemy or the the opponents of the military, 0:37:07.280 --> 0:37:10.480 law enforcement trying to stop people. But it uh, it's 0:37:10.520 --> 0:37:14.640 a it's rather than shining a pinpoint type laser directly 0:37:14.680 --> 0:37:17.399 at somebody, it's more of a very very bright light 0:37:17.560 --> 0:37:21.319 distributed um. And you think about you get some smoke 0:37:21.400 --> 0:37:25.840 grenades and uh some some lasers and very bright lights, 0:37:25.840 --> 0:37:29.759 and you either have a very effective way to confuse 0:37:30.040 --> 0:37:34.359 people or a rock concert, a Pink Floyd concert. Well, 0:37:34.400 --> 0:37:38.440 and looking at pictures of this, it's very it's very 0:37:38.440 --> 0:37:40.440 reminiscent of the kinds of effects that you would see 0:37:40.480 --> 0:37:42.600 at a at a rock concert. All in all, there's 0:37:42.600 --> 0:37:45.480 just another brick in the wall. Okay, So moving on 0:37:45.560 --> 0:37:48.320 with more laser stuff. How have you heard about laser 0:37:48.400 --> 0:37:52.120 induced plasma channels. No, I haven't l i PC. All right, 0:37:52.160 --> 0:37:55.160 so this is kind of an interesting idea. So you 0:37:55.239 --> 0:38:00.000 know what a plasma is. It's an ionized gas. Plasm, 0:38:00.080 --> 0:38:04.160 no plasma, all right, let's just come on really in, 0:38:04.280 --> 0:38:07.439 big guy. So plasma is an ionized gas, which means 0:38:07.480 --> 0:38:10.279 that it has free electrons flowing through this gas. It 0:38:10.320 --> 0:38:14.520 means that the gas itself can conduct electricity. So imagine 0:38:14.560 --> 0:38:18.400 that you use a laser to create a channel of plasma. So, 0:38:18.440 --> 0:38:22.359 in other words, you've got this area of of atmosphere 0:38:22.800 --> 0:38:24.960 and then you create a channel of plasma within a 0:38:24.960 --> 0:38:28.800 pretty narrow channel, and then you fire electricity down that channel. 0:38:28.800 --> 0:38:32.840 It'll go across that channel as if it were a wire, 0:38:34.120 --> 0:38:38.919 so you could beam electricity in a way. Now, these 0:38:38.960 --> 0:38:41.040 things require a lot of power and they don't have 0:38:41.120 --> 0:38:43.759 a lot of distance to them. So instead of being 0:38:43.840 --> 0:38:45.839 used as a weapon where you would direct it at 0:38:46.040 --> 0:38:50.840 an approaching enemy, you use it as a way of 0:38:51.000 --> 0:38:55.160 barricading a hallway or a corridor. So you create these 0:38:55.239 --> 0:38:57.920 lasers that go up and down, say a wall, so 0:38:58.040 --> 0:39:01.440 they're they're aligned horizontally like you could do them vertically too, 0:39:01.480 --> 0:39:05.840 if you wanted to but horizontally across um a hallway. 0:39:07.080 --> 0:39:10.359 You shoot this laser across the hallway, which creates this 0:39:10.440 --> 0:39:14.080 thin channel of plasma that spans the hallway. Then you 0:39:14.120 --> 0:39:16.879 shoot electricity along that channel, and now you've got these 0:39:16.960 --> 0:39:21.640 zapping beams of electricity spanning the hallway, which act as 0:39:21.680 --> 0:39:24.840 a pretty strong deterrent against anyone who has trying to 0:39:24.880 --> 0:39:28.640 make unauthorized access to that corridor. I don't know, I've 0:39:28.640 --> 0:39:30.560 seen all those spy movies. All you have to do is, 0:39:30.600 --> 0:39:34.120 you know, do cartwheels and stuff over the lasers. Electricity 0:39:34.120 --> 0:39:36.880 works a little differently than lasers do. But yeah, go 0:39:36.920 --> 0:39:40.960 ahead and give that a shot. Um. Yeah, Actually that's reminiscent, 0:39:41.400 --> 0:39:44.360 you know, jokes aside, that's reminiscent of the Plasma Cutter 0:39:44.719 --> 0:39:47.200 podcast that we did sometime ago. Yeah, it's not not 0:39:47.360 --> 0:39:51.480 entirely different. Now most of the effects and this is 0:39:51.680 --> 0:39:55.560 intended again to be a non lethal a way of 0:39:55.560 --> 0:40:01.040 of stopping people from accessing uh hallways and court ours. Uh, 0:40:01.200 --> 0:40:05.400 it's it's not you know, it's not the most efficient 0:40:05.640 --> 0:40:08.759 means of trying to keep people out because it does 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:11.920 require quite a bit of power to operate. Um. And 0:40:11.960 --> 0:40:15.960 then I have the pulsed energy projectile or p e P. 0:40:17.880 --> 0:40:21.000 Now this is one of the versions of the pain ray, 0:40:21.600 --> 0:40:24.759 and in fact, we were specifically asked about the pain 0:40:24.840 --> 0:40:28.600 right now, it's a shame about ray. This reminds me 0:40:28.600 --> 0:40:30.160 of that time you tried to draw a hole in 0:40:30.200 --> 0:40:34.520 your head. Uh. The actually was egne the But this, 0:40:34.520 --> 0:40:38.440 this particular weapon is different from the other one we'll 0:40:38.480 --> 0:40:41.120 talk about, which uses microwaves. We move onto that in 0:40:41.160 --> 0:40:43.800 a little bit. This one uses a laser and again 0:40:43.880 --> 0:40:47.400 creates plasma. We have a bit more to say about 0:40:47.480 --> 0:40:50.640 non lethal weapons, but Chris and I will have to 0:40:50.680 --> 0:41:02.680 do that after we take this quick break. So the 0:41:03.200 --> 0:41:07.160 pulsed energy projectile what it does. It uses a deuterium 0:41:07.200 --> 0:41:11.840 fluoride laser that emits a very high powered invisible laser. 0:41:11.880 --> 0:41:15.600 It's in the infrared spectrum that when it hits something, 0:41:16.239 --> 0:41:20.880 it essentially starts to vaporize what it hits, just on 0:41:20.920 --> 0:41:23.840 the very surface level. So if it hit you, it 0:41:23.880 --> 0:41:29.000 would start to vaporize you, but not like disintegrating. It 0:41:29.040 --> 0:41:30.920 would just be on the very surface, so like the 0:41:30.960 --> 0:41:33.560 top level of skin or whatever. But then it creates 0:41:33.600 --> 0:41:39.080 an exploding plasma. The electrons that the gas will give 0:41:39.120 --> 0:41:43.560 off start to get even more energized as this laser pulses, 0:41:43.960 --> 0:41:48.160 and that energy creates this exploding plasma and that in 0:41:48.200 --> 0:41:51.080 turn will stun a target and it gives off this 0:41:51.160 --> 0:41:55.279 electromagnetic radiation that activates your nerve cells, which can give 0:41:55.360 --> 0:41:58.160 you the sense of pain. And that pain could be 0:41:58.960 --> 0:42:02.160 in many different forms. It could be depending upon the 0:42:02.160 --> 0:42:04.680 the pulse. It could be a stabbing pain, it could 0:42:04.920 --> 0:42:08.839 feel like burning, it could feel like ice um. And 0:42:08.880 --> 0:42:14.439 then there's also a lethal version of this technology called 0:42:14.480 --> 0:42:20.240 the pulse impulsive kill laser, which has the best acronym 0:42:20.280 --> 0:42:25.080 of all time pickle m p I k L so 0:42:25.320 --> 0:42:28.760 deadly pickle. So when you fire, fire that you oppressed 0:42:28.760 --> 0:42:31.960 the pickle switch. That's right, Yes, give him the pickle. 0:42:32.680 --> 0:42:36.920 So this was developed by a company called Mission Research Corporation, 0:42:36.960 --> 0:42:40.560 which is now part of Alliance Tech Systems. And there's 0:42:40.600 --> 0:42:43.960 some downsides to this weapon. Uh. One of the biggest 0:42:44.080 --> 0:42:47.560 is that it's huge. This is an enormous weapon that 0:42:47.640 --> 0:42:51.600 requires essentially a vehicle to move it around, so it's 0:42:51.680 --> 0:42:54.120 a mounted weapon at the time and right now, and 0:42:54.280 --> 0:42:57.640 weighs around like five pounds, So it's not something that 0:42:57.719 --> 0:43:02.480 could be deployed in a uh like for your average 0:43:03.040 --> 0:43:06.640 infantry soldier. You know that there's just there's no way 0:43:06.680 --> 0:43:13.759 of of miniaturizing it down at the moment, so it's effective. Uh, 0:43:13.800 --> 0:43:17.320 and it is supposed to again supposed to be non lethal. 0:43:17.400 --> 0:43:21.640 It essentially stuns the target and makes them hurt, but 0:43:21.760 --> 0:43:25.640 it doesn't kill them or or specifically actually injure them. 0:43:25.640 --> 0:43:28.759 It's just again activating their their nerve endings, so there's 0:43:28.760 --> 0:43:31.640 no physical damage going on. It's just stimulating those nerve 0:43:31.719 --> 0:43:35.920 endings to create pain, which in a way is like 0:43:36.040 --> 0:43:40.560 absolutely terrifying, right, you know, it's there's no physical damage 0:43:40.600 --> 0:43:46.080 being done, but still really scary. Uh. But not widely deployed, 0:43:46.600 --> 0:43:50.600 right right. Yeah, the the they've been talking about these 0:43:50.600 --> 0:43:54.000 weapons for quite some time, years and years at this point, 0:43:54.320 --> 0:43:57.960 and uh, the the one that we really should talk 0:43:58.000 --> 0:44:01.560 about has uh well its own set of drawbacks, but 0:44:01.600 --> 0:44:08.200 it does use microwaves. Um and uh let's see where 0:44:08.200 --> 0:44:10.759 where to begin. Well, I guess we can call it 0:44:11.200 --> 0:44:13.400 the the There are two different versions of it that 0:44:13.440 --> 0:44:16.239 I read about, the active denial system. Yeah, that's the 0:44:16.239 --> 0:44:18.959 one I've read about MEDS. Well, there's also one called 0:44:19.000 --> 0:44:22.240 the silent Guardian, which is kind of a little brother 0:44:22.560 --> 0:44:25.000 to a d S. So a d S has a 0:44:25.120 --> 0:44:28.319 range of around five and silent Guardian has a range 0:44:28.320 --> 0:44:32.279 of around two. So, but they both work on the 0:44:32.320 --> 0:44:37.479 same principle. They both use microwaves to create a pain 0:44:37.640 --> 0:44:43.120 ray and it gives you the sensation of burning when 0:44:43.120 --> 0:44:46.840 you're hit by it. You feel like you are are 0:44:46.880 --> 0:44:50.799 like your skin is being subjected to incredibly high temperatures. 0:44:51.280 --> 0:44:54.760 I watched a CBS report on this, and the reporter 0:44:55.719 --> 0:45:00.279 actually withstood several blasts of this and explain what it like. 0:45:00.280 --> 0:45:02.239 He said that it felt like scalding water was being 0:45:02.239 --> 0:45:05.200 poured over his entire body, and he was wearing you know, 0:45:05.600 --> 0:45:07.600 it was actually a cool day. He was wearing a 0:45:07.640 --> 0:45:10.360 pretty heavy jacket. And he says that the microwaves just 0:45:10.400 --> 0:45:13.480 penetrate straight through the clothing, so the clothing offered no 0:45:13.560 --> 0:45:16.520 protection whatsoever. It didn't matter if his skin where was 0:45:16.600 --> 0:45:20.560 exposed or not. Uh. He then held up a piece 0:45:20.560 --> 0:45:22.560 of plywood to use as a shield, and he said 0:45:22.600 --> 0:45:25.359 the problem was that using that still kept a lot 0:45:25.360 --> 0:45:29.040 of his body unprotected, and um, just hitting his feet 0:45:29.080 --> 0:45:33.400 and his hands was enough to make him dodge all 0:45:33.440 --> 0:45:37.080 the way of the the the pain ray. Now he 0:45:37.160 --> 0:45:39.600 used a mattress which helped a little bit. Beca said, 0:45:39.600 --> 0:45:41.440 even then he could only get so far before it 0:45:41.480 --> 0:45:45.640 got so painful that he couldn't stand it anymore. And uh, 0:45:45.719 --> 0:45:50.080 and this is, you know, again, a pretty scary technology. 0:45:50.080 --> 0:45:54.160 It uses a microwave around ninety giga hurts of frequency 0:45:54.360 --> 0:45:58.600 and at that frequency. Uh, the the penetration of the 0:45:58.640 --> 0:46:02.200 microwave is only about one sixty four of an inch, 0:46:02.440 --> 0:46:05.919 so it's designed so it will not cook you from 0:46:05.960 --> 0:46:08.880 the inside out. Yeah, microwave oven goes much deeper than that. 0:46:08.920 --> 0:46:12.759 It can go several centimeters into whatever it is that 0:46:12.880 --> 0:46:17.680 it is being exposed to it. Um and this, uh, 0:46:17.760 --> 0:46:22.280 this device is is really um. I read that. Um. 0:46:22.960 --> 0:46:26.080 They had the military had invited several people to uh, 0:46:26.320 --> 0:46:31.400 the Marine Corps Basic Quantico, Virginia to experience this because 0:46:31.440 --> 0:46:33.359 basically they've been trying to drum up support for this. 0:46:33.360 --> 0:46:36.640 This device has been around for literally like fifteen twenty 0:46:36.719 --> 0:46:39.759 years now. Um. And then again, this is one of 0:46:39.800 --> 0:46:43.080 the devices that has been pursued very actively by the 0:46:43.080 --> 0:46:45.600 military and an attempt to come up with something that 0:46:45.719 --> 0:46:47.600 is less than lethal in a way to discourage people 0:46:47.600 --> 0:46:50.200 and yes it does work. UM. The reason they're having 0:46:50.200 --> 0:46:53.960 to drum up support for it UH is, for one thing, 0:46:54.000 --> 0:46:58.239 it's known that it uses microwaves. UM. They deployed the 0:46:58.280 --> 0:47:03.120 military deployed several of these UH pain raise to UM 0:47:03.239 --> 0:47:05.920 the Middle East to use in theaters over there in 0:47:05.960 --> 0:47:08.919 the last few years, and they never really used them 0:47:09.880 --> 0:47:13.120 because they were afraid that people would start talking about 0:47:13.120 --> 0:47:17.160 how the military we're using microwaves UH, and they you know, oh, 0:47:17.200 --> 0:47:19.160 well you're going to cook us or you're going to 0:47:19.200 --> 0:47:25.400 make a sterile. Yeah, you're going to irradiate us. You're publicity, 0:47:25.560 --> 0:47:27.960 which is if you're trying to say, look, you know, 0:47:28.320 --> 0:47:31.839 we don't want UH fighting to escalate. We just want 0:47:31.880 --> 0:47:36.800 to break this argument up and stop this particular incident 0:47:36.920 --> 0:47:39.319 right here. It's it's funny because a lot of this 0:47:39.440 --> 0:47:43.920 is based on ignorance of how microwaves work, because microwaves 0:47:43.960 --> 0:47:47.799 are a form of non ionizing radiation, right, But a 0:47:47.800 --> 0:47:50.320 lot of people don't they understand that. They think of 0:47:50.360 --> 0:47:52.560 it in terms of the microwave oven. We know that 0:47:52.560 --> 0:47:56.640 that can be used to irradiate and cook. And people 0:47:56.680 --> 0:48:00.759 think this this pain ray if it were left on 0:48:00.840 --> 0:48:03.360 someone and they were unable to move. It would cause burns. 0:48:04.400 --> 0:48:07.080 You know, people have been put in the hospital. Yeah, 0:48:07.120 --> 0:48:09.560 you would, You could, you could suffer actual burns to 0:48:09.600 --> 0:48:12.960 your skin. Now you're not going to have the if 0:48:13.000 --> 0:48:15.080 you were sitting there long enough, those burns would start 0:48:15.120 --> 0:48:19.440 to burn through you. But the you wouldn't immediately suffer 0:48:19.760 --> 0:48:23.160 like deep burns. You would have skin burns, which aren't 0:48:23.239 --> 0:48:27.080 that's no joy either. But it heats your skin up 0:48:27.120 --> 0:48:30.640 to about degrees fahrenheit, which is about fifty four degrees celsius. 0:48:31.640 --> 0:48:36.120 And uh, at that temperature, you're not it's it's it's 0:48:36.200 --> 0:48:37.680 enough for it to be painful, so you want to 0:48:37.680 --> 0:48:39.960 get out of the way. It's not supposed to be 0:48:40.040 --> 0:48:43.160 so hot that it's going to immediately cause blisters to 0:48:43.200 --> 0:48:46.840 form and that kind of thing. Um, but you know 0:48:47.040 --> 0:48:50.200 that's it. Definitely, there are there's a perception that since 0:48:50.200 --> 0:48:54.719 it uses microwaves, it is more even I want to 0:48:54.719 --> 0:48:57.840 say more sinister, but really, when you're talking about inflicting pain, 0:48:58.040 --> 0:49:01.520 that's pretty sinister already, or at least it can be. 0:49:01.760 --> 0:49:04.440 Can that's what it can be perceived as. But it's 0:49:04.480 --> 0:49:08.600 not as as it doesn't cause injury the way you 0:49:08.600 --> 0:49:12.280 would immediately assume once you hear a microwave, right right, Um, 0:49:12.320 --> 0:49:15.919 there's another problem with it too, what's up. It takes 0:49:15.960 --> 0:49:18.640 a lot of energy and it takes a long time 0:49:18.840 --> 0:49:22.640 to turn on, So you can't say there's a demon 0:49:22.880 --> 0:49:25.520 demonstration that has gone out of hand. There are people 0:49:25.520 --> 0:49:27.759 throwing stuff, there are people looting, and you want to 0:49:27.800 --> 0:49:29.800 stop them. You don't drive up in the truck with 0:49:29.840 --> 0:49:31.799 the pain rain mounted on it. Um the ones that 0:49:31.880 --> 0:49:34.840 the pictures I've seen show a humvy well, a giant 0:49:34.840 --> 0:49:38.239 it looks like a giant satellite dish sort of thing 0:49:38.280 --> 0:49:40.440 on the top of the big antenna. The P E 0:49:40.600 --> 0:49:44.440 P is essentially a very similar form factor. Yeah, and 0:49:44.760 --> 0:49:47.240 you don't you don't, you know, drive up in the 0:49:47.239 --> 0:49:50.759 pain rainmobile and flip the switch and cause everybody to 0:49:50.800 --> 0:49:54.239 stop burning and looting. It takes a long time to 0:49:54.280 --> 0:49:57.480 power up. I've seen hours listed as the time it 0:49:57.480 --> 0:49:59.880 takes to power First, you have to have a comedian come, 0:50:00.000 --> 0:50:03.600 I'll warm up the crowd. Hey, so that wants things 0:50:03.600 --> 0:50:05.600 really get cooking. That's when you turn on the microwave. 0:50:07.400 --> 0:50:10.880 I see you're all looting. Hey, I like to say 0:50:11.840 --> 0:50:15.799 some shoes, you know. Whenever you're looting and there's just 0:50:16.000 --> 0:50:18.440 nothing to pick up and throw through the window of 0:50:18.440 --> 0:50:22.719 that department store. Doesn't that just make you crazy? Say 0:50:22.880 --> 0:50:25.359 you got a size ten can key Stonora over there, 0:50:26.080 --> 0:50:30.680 run they run tight? So so um, yeah, this is 0:50:30.719 --> 0:50:32.680 that that's also a problem with it. It's not something 0:50:32.719 --> 0:50:35.880 that it has to be in place and on um 0:50:36.040 --> 0:50:38.520 and in the case of having it vehicle mounted, that 0:50:38.560 --> 0:50:40.879 means you have to be running the engine to keep 0:50:40.920 --> 0:50:43.920 the power on or you know, a lot of battery usage, 0:50:43.920 --> 0:50:47.040 and that's uh in an arrow when fuel is a 0:50:47.040 --> 0:50:50.920 lot more dear and cost um. That is a downside 0:50:50.960 --> 0:50:54.919 that that's hard to ignore. So um, this very sophisticated 0:50:55.520 --> 0:51:01.320 non lethal weapon may just end up shelved because it uh, 0:51:01.360 --> 0:51:04.439 you know, it's just yeah, Now, did you have any 0:51:04.480 --> 0:51:06.520 others you wanted to talk about, because I'm done, But 0:51:06.600 --> 0:51:08.839 you said you had a few futuristic ones that you want. 0:51:09.520 --> 0:51:11.120 There was one. I know, we're running a little along, 0:51:11.239 --> 0:51:13.800 so I just wanted to mention the one. I actually 0:51:13.800 --> 0:51:15.799 saw a thing and wired about this and in the 0:51:15.840 --> 0:51:18.279 magazine a few years ago, which is when when you 0:51:18.280 --> 0:51:19.960 mentioned this, I thought, oh, that would be fun. I 0:51:20.000 --> 0:51:23.040 still can't find where I put that, But there was 0:51:23.080 --> 0:51:24.800 one that I read about then that I just I 0:51:24.840 --> 0:51:27.400 found a little bit on and they've still they've pursued it, 0:51:27.440 --> 0:51:29.359 but it seems like it's still sort of fallen by 0:51:29.360 --> 0:51:33.080 the wayside. And that would be the goog gun um 0:51:33.160 --> 0:51:36.120 and uh. It's been called different things, but what it's 0:51:36.120 --> 0:51:39.959 designed to do, it's sort of like the the polymer ice, 0:51:40.400 --> 0:51:45.720 except it's designed to immobilize a target by shooting gooey 0:51:45.840 --> 0:51:49.480 silly string like stuff at them, uh and wired. And 0:51:49.480 --> 0:51:52.360 I remember it saying that it used some kind of 0:51:53.239 --> 0:51:56.520 bone derivative to to use this, and it's supposed to 0:51:56.719 --> 0:51:59.239 harden up when you get sprayed with it. I see, 0:51:59.280 --> 0:52:02.040 So it's a foam that that then solidifies. Yeah, and 0:52:02.360 --> 0:52:04.640 I think, um, I think now what they've been using 0:52:04.719 --> 0:52:09.160 is more of a synthetic polymer type uh material. I've 0:52:09.200 --> 0:52:12.560 I've seen pictures of it. Um. It looks almost like 0:52:12.640 --> 0:52:16.080 the pink slime that people have been talking about about 0:52:16.719 --> 0:52:20.280 meat processing lately. It's a sort of a gooey pink 0:52:20.760 --> 0:52:24.640 uh tube like stuff. The problem is it doesn't harden 0:52:24.880 --> 0:52:29.839 quickly enough to stop someone who's running, so you end 0:52:29.880 --> 0:52:33.000 up gooey, but you don't end up hardening up like 0:52:33.040 --> 0:52:36.279 a cartoon character after they've been coated in cement, which 0:52:36.280 --> 0:52:38.440 is to say, you know, within about half of a second. 0:52:39.080 --> 0:52:41.840 You know, every time somebody gets poured on concrete on 0:52:41.880 --> 0:52:44.840 him in the cartoons, you know, and instantly hard you know, 0:52:45.120 --> 0:52:48.880 it doesn't do that. Um, So that's kind of disappeared 0:52:49.880 --> 0:52:54.160 from that um, from that usage. But I have seen 0:52:54.160 --> 0:52:57.400 that people are using net guns, and they've been using 0:52:57.480 --> 0:52:59.799 some kind of sticky material on the net so that 0:52:59.800 --> 0:53:02.400 the net sticks to you. And that seems like it 0:53:02.480 --> 0:53:05.799 might be promising, because if you shoot somebody with the net, 0:53:06.719 --> 0:53:10.360 um then uh, you know, and it has that sticky 0:53:10.360 --> 0:53:12.520 stuff and you can't think of it as like fly paper. 0:53:12.960 --> 0:53:14.680 All of a sudden you're tangled up in this net. 0:53:14.719 --> 0:53:17.799 You can't run anymore. Um. It seems like that would 0:53:17.800 --> 0:53:19.640 be hard to load. You know, it would be more 0:53:19.680 --> 0:53:22.680 effective against a very small number of people. If you're 0:53:22.800 --> 0:53:24.640 dealing with a horde of zombies. I don't think you're 0:53:25.000 --> 0:53:27.640 If you're by yourself, you're pretty much stuck. Yeah. Well, 0:53:27.680 --> 0:53:29.759 I got five of them, but three hundred more are 0:53:29.840 --> 0:53:32.000 coming at me. I think I'm in trouble close up 0:53:32.000 --> 0:53:34.320 them all. Well, I found the I found the article 0:53:34.360 --> 0:53:36.040 I think that you were talking about on Wired. It's 0:53:36.120 --> 0:53:39.640 called Army reloads on Sticky Foam Weaponry. Yeah, that that 0:53:39.719 --> 0:53:42.160 is one of the newer articles they This was one 0:53:42.160 --> 0:53:43.920 of those. It was a feature on a series of 0:53:43.960 --> 0:53:45.719 things and it had the pain ray. It was it 0:53:45.840 --> 0:53:49.040 was literally like a series of a couple of paragraphs 0:53:49.040 --> 0:53:52.520 each um in the print magazine. Yes, that is. That 0:53:52.600 --> 0:53:55.239 is when I consulted now, and it's the picture of 0:53:55.280 --> 0:53:57.880 the guy covered in foam. It looks like he's been 0:53:57.920 --> 0:54:03.480 attacked by a bunch of octope. Yes string, it's probably 0:54:03.480 --> 0:54:07.799 a few centimeters in diameter to spray. It's it's not 0:54:07.840 --> 0:54:13.480 an attractive look. And that wraps up another classic episode 0:54:13.520 --> 0:54:15.880 of tech stuff. I hope you guys enjoyed it and 0:54:15.960 --> 0:54:19.200 learned something. We have more non lethal weapons that have 0:54:19.239 --> 0:54:22.799 been introduced since this podcast was recorded. But I am 0:54:22.960 --> 0:54:26.200 never ever going to forget the first time I ever 0:54:26.239 --> 0:54:29.640 saw a taser shotgun. That was a heck of a 0:54:29.719 --> 0:54:33.680 thing to see in person. Not I don't ever, ever 0:54:33.760 --> 0:54:36.000 ever want to have the experience of being hit by one, 0:54:36.560 --> 0:54:40.200 not at all. So let's just skip that part. But 0:54:40.239 --> 0:54:43.000 if you guys have any suggestions for future episodes of 0:54:43.000 --> 0:54:45.560 tech Stuff. You can write to me and let me know. 0:54:45.840 --> 0:54:49.920 The email address is text stuff at how stuff works 0:54:50.080 --> 0:54:52.279 dot com, or you can pop on over to our 0:54:52.320 --> 0:54:55.960 website that's tech stuff podcast dot com. There you're gonna 0:54:56.000 --> 0:54:58.799 find links to our presence on social media. You also 0:54:58.880 --> 0:55:02.680 find archives of all the episodes we've ever recorded, including 0:55:02.719 --> 0:55:05.640 these classics. And you'll find a link to our online store. 0:55:06.080 --> 0:55:13.520 And I'll talk to you again really soon. Hext Stuff 0:55:13.560 --> 0:55:15.880 is a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 0:55:16.040 --> 0:55:18.880 For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i 0:55:19.000 --> 0:55:22.200 heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:23.200 your favorite shows.