The New York Times has an article about a crazy inventor who has come up with an amplifier that "directs sound much as a laser beam directs light." The device can target amplified sound directly at a single individual. "instead of sending out a column of sound, they can now project a single sphere of it, self-contained, like a bubble." His buyers include Coke and Pepsi, Walmart, and other companies that want to beam hideous, personalized advertisements directly into peoples' brains. The Navy has also showed a lot of interest in the device, which they can use to incapacitate intruders with the sound of a baby crying played backwards at 120 dB, right in the guy's ear. Apparently the sound is so shrill that it creates a splitting migraine. Even a deaf man would be brought to his knees. [link] I found myself wondering whether this device could be used for underwater communication. Ordinary electromagnetic communication doesn't work underwater. Submarines have to use the Extremely Low Frequency band to send and receive messages, such as "don't launch the nuclear missiles." The inventor, Elwood G. Norris, was raised Mormon and was married in the Temple. He's 64, and he parted ways with the LDS Church at about age 50.

After serving in the Air Force, he spent 16 years living in Salt Lake City and achieved the level of high priest. He wore the ''sacred undergarments,'' married his first wife in the Temple, the works. But by the early 90's, having previously written a book on Mormonism, he had lost his faith and now has a 1,000-page manuscript stashed away that, he says, takes strong issue with the Book of Mormon.