LRAD

San Jose police have a new crime fighting tool. You might want to hear about it, but you won't want to hear it being used. They'll be using a dish-shaped, sonic weapon called a Long Range Acoustic Device -- or L-RAD.

he Voice of God weapon -- a device that projects voices into your head to make you think God is speaking to you -- is the military's equivalent of an urban myth. Meaning, it's mentioned periodically at defense workshops (ironically, I first heard about it at the same defense conference where I first met Noah), and typically someone whispers about it actually being used. Now Steven Corman, writing at the COMOPS journal, describes his own encounter with this urban myth:

Recent escalations of urban conflict and an increasing need for powerful, yet non-lethal weapons led to development of a sonic weapon that doesn't kill, but can make you pass out and even permanently deaf. Sonic weapons have been made popular by science fiction productions, but they are also used in reality, not to destroy buildings, tanks, but to injure, incapacitate, or kill an opponent. Although many real sonic and ultrasonic weapons are described as "non-lethal", they can still kill under certain conditions.