Saturday, December 12, 2009
Jesse on HAARP
Jesse Ventura's new show on conspiracies could get interesting. In the first episode he explores the HAARP installation, talking to the son of the original inventor. The son is on the level, describing HAARP's scientific purposes accurately. (Communicate with submarines, influence weather patterns.)
Toward the end, Jesse talks with someone who is not on the level ... a pseudo-scientist who claims to illustrate how radio waves can "get into your head". This phenomenon is true and well-known. Some early broadcast stations (eg WLW in Cincy) had so much power that people were hearing the programs through fillings in their teeth. Gold or mercury, excellent conductors, picked up the radio waves, and the junction between the metal and the organic tooth acted as a diode to rectify the waves, letting the audio frequencies penetrate the acoustic nerve. I doubt that you could accomplish detailed "mind control" this way, but enough RF power could unquestionably confuse and stun people.
Unfortunately Jesse's "scientist" wasn't really illustrating this phenomenon at all. He simply used a bone-conduction transducer to send plain old sound waves into Jesse's jawbone. BC transducers have been used for decades in audiology to check the inner ear when the eardrum is jammed up; were used in WW2 in aircraft; and have come into commercial use for situations where external silence is needed.
In short, Jesse is strong on politics and weak on science. Still, he seems to be digging beyond the usual TV superficiality, so I'll keep watching. (And his assistant named June is worth watching regardless of the plot!) ¶ 5:18 PM
Toward the end, Jesse talks with someone who is not on the level ... a pseudo-scientist who claims to illustrate how radio waves can "get into your head". This phenomenon is true and well-known. Some early broadcast stations (eg WLW in Cincy) had so much power that people were hearing the programs through fillings in their teeth. Gold or mercury, excellent conductors, picked up the radio waves, and the junction between the metal and the organic tooth acted as a diode to rectify the waves, letting the audio frequencies penetrate the acoustic nerve. I doubt that you could accomplish detailed "mind control" this way, but enough RF power could unquestionably confuse and stun people.
Unfortunately Jesse's "scientist" wasn't really illustrating this phenomenon at all. He simply used a bone-conduction transducer to send plain old sound waves into Jesse's jawbone. BC transducers have been used for decades in audiology to check the inner ear when the eardrum is jammed up; were used in WW2 in aircraft; and have come into commercial use for situations where external silence is needed.
In short, Jesse is strong on politics and weak on science. Still, he seems to be digging beyond the usual TV superficiality, so I'll keep watching. (And his assistant named June is worth watching regardless of the plot!) ¶ 5:18 PM
