Official News - page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: CONTROL CROWDS WITH A STROBE

by Hazed

The US military, in its ongoing search for a way of controlling unruly crowds without actually killing them, has come up with a method that takes its cue from the disco: strobe lights.

They plan to deploy a powerful stroboscopic searchlight mounted in a pilotless drone aircraft. The strobe is intended to cause "immobilization to all those within the beam". This kind of "photic stimulation" can cause epileptic fits in some people, and maybe that's just the effect the US Army wants to have.

Sounds scary, but pretty easy to overcome with a bit of forethought. Anyone planning to riot against American forces who suspects this flashing weapon may be deployed against them should be able to avoid some or all of the effects by donning some kind of reflective eyewear - a tin foil helmet that covers the eyes, for example!

The contract to develop this technology has been awarded to a company called Peak Systems, and the program includes medical research as required into how to achieve the required effects. So at this stage it's all still very "blue sky".

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