OneWingedBird
Beloved of Ra
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- Aug 3, 2003
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There do appear to be sites offering the Mosquito Buzz ringtone for download, but as i don't have a mobile, someone else will have to take the investigation further...
Mr Saravinovski said it should not annoy residents, but would will be loud enough for the youths to hear it.
"Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area, because they can't stand the music," he told Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Forget Asbos. Australia uses Barry Manilow
Jacqueline Maley
Tuesday June 6, 2006
The Guardian
In Britain, the Asbo is wielded to curtail the antics of hooligans. In Australia they have a different, though not necessarily more humane, means of control: the music of Barry Manilow.
For the next six months the ears of the youth of Rockdale, a suburb south of Sydney, will be subjected to the sounds of the singer's back catalogue after the local council resolved to get tough on antisocial behaviour. Councillors hope piping Manilow hits such as Mandy and Copacabana through a loudspeaker into a car park troublespot will kill the atmosphere and force the youths to move on.
In keeping with a great Australian suburban tradition, every Saturday night up to 100 car-fancying youths, or "hoons", take their souped-up vehicles to the parking lot at Cook Park Reserve at Brighton-le-Sands. There, they rev their engines, compare fittings, and play their own "doof doof" music, very loudly. According to Bill Saravinovski, a councillor, their behaviour is antisocial and disturbs the peace.
"There are restaurants nearby and people can't park in the car park because they're intimidated by these hoons," he told Australia's Daily Telegraph. "So we're giving the music a go to see if it has any success."
The idea has been tested elsewhere in Australia. Bing Crosby was used to drive teenage loiterers out of an Australian shopping centre several years ago.
"Based on reports ... daggy [uncool] music is one way to make the hoons leave an area because they can't stand the music," Mr Saravinovski said. "We're hoping it works. These people don't show any respect for the law.
June 12, 2006
Inventor hopes to hit big time with silent ringtone
By Philippe Naughton
An inventor from Merthyr Tydfil hopes to make his fortune by selling a mobile phone ringtone that he has never heard and never will.
Howard Stapleton made headlines last November with the launch of the Mosquito, a device that emits an annoying ultrasonic hum designed to deter teenage yobs from hanging around outside shops and public buildings. The vast majority of adults over 20 cannot hear the sound emitted.
Mr Stapleton has since sold more than 1,000 of the £500 devices through his company, Compound Security Systems, but now hopes that a spin-off product - the Mosquitotone - could be even more lucrative.
The ringtone was initially the work of an unidentified group of Welsh teenagers who decided that a high-frequency ringtone would be the ultimate in teacher-proof technology. Their product, dubbed Teen Buzz, spread like wildfire through classrooms in the UK and abroad, allowing pupils to receive surreptitious text messages without their teachers noticing.
But when Mr Stapleton's 16-year-old daughter, Isabel, came home with one of the ringtones on her phone three months ago, the inventor decided that he was missing out on an opportunity to make money out of his own invention and quickly devised the "official" Mosquito ringtone, now available via text message for £3, which he says is better.
He told Times Online: "It makes me smile. Some kid has applied science and taken my product - which is designed to keep them away from shops, and turned it into a ringtone.
"I had considered making a ringtone in January, but decided that possible misuse could cause problems in the classroom... Then I decided that if someone was going to make money out of it, I may as well."
Mr Stapleton first realised that people gradually lose the ability to hear high-frequency sound when he was just 12 and visited a factory in the Midlands with his father, Colin, then chairman of the British arm of Ever Ready batteries. The factory used ultrasonic welding techniques, using high-frequency sound to melt and fuse plastics, but the young boy had to walk straight out because of the excruciating noise - which none of the adults was even aware of.
At 39, Mr Stapleton is now too old to hear either the Mosquito deterrent system or its ringtone spin-off, but he still works with his father, now 70.
"My father is a director of Compound Security Systems and when I joked that the ringtone might be the icing on the cake, his comment was that this might actually turn out to be the cake," he said. "When I explained the revenues generated by ringtones he was quite amazed. Having four children, I'm well aware of the money they make."
Mr Stapleton is lining up the Mosquitotone for international distribution and is also working at making the tone less annoying, perhaps adding a simple melody. The 'unofficial' version of the tone reaches a frequency of 15 kilohertz while the official one reaches 17 kilohertz, making it less audible to adult ears.
An unscientifc test at Times Online suggests that it definitely works - only the callowest reporters noticed the noise.
But if Mr Stapleton has misjudged his market, he still has the original teenage deterrent device, the Mosquito, to fall back on.
That gadget has been licensed to Cooper Menvier, a leading security products manufacturer, and the Mark II version is due out soon, with added safeguards including automatic cut-off to prevent abuse and head off accusations that it infringes the human rights of teenagers.
The inventor says that the Mosquito is bound to be more efficient than a rival anti-yob sonic device being trialled in the Sydney suburb of Rockdale - loudspeakers playing Barry Manilow tunes or other "daggy" music.
"The obvious benefit of the Mosquito is that it doesn't cause noise pollution," he said. "Besides, the kids might actually get a taste for Barry Manilow or Cliff Richard. I'm yet to find a kid who likes the Mosquito."
Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.
Yes, fine.Edit edit: my connection's up the spout again now.. can anyone tell me if the links work?
Am I therefore Mosquito-proof?
Secret alarm becomes dance track
A high-pitched alarm designed to repel youngsters from shops is being used for the melody of a dance track after the success of a mobile phone ringtone.
Merthyr Tydfil-based Compound Security released the "Mosquito" ringtone as a way of letting teenagers hear their phones ringing without adults knowing.
It was developed because adults lose the ability to hear high-pitched sound.
But now the sound is being used in a dance track, Buzzin', with secret melodies only young ears can hear.
The tune was developed after the success of the company's ringtone which was released in June.
Simon Morris from Compound Security said: "Following the success of the ringtone, a lot of people were asking us to do a bit more, so we got together with the producers Melodi and they came up with a full-length track.
"It has two harmonies - one that everyone can hear and one that only young people can hear.
"But it works well together or separate," he added.
Mr Morris is the commercial director of the firm which developed the Mosquito box. It emits a high-pitched noise that can only be heard by young people and is claimed to drive gangs away from troublespots.
The alarms were originally designed by the business to repel gangs of young people loitering around shopping centres without upsetting adult customers.
The firm claims international success, with the product selling in 18 countries, including America.
"Although it (the dance track) isn't our main business, the demand for it is definitely there," said Mr Morris.
"It is a bit cheesy: it's got a great beat and rhythm. I'm 41 and I like it," he confessed.
Iain Kerr, who is a director for UK-based production company Melodi said: "We quickly realised the potential of releasing a song using the ultra-sonic sound."
Opera Telecom who will sell the track as PC and mobile downloads said it was expecting big sales.
Gary Corbett who runs the company said: "After the launch of the 'Mozzy Tone' ringtone many adults were surprised that they actually couldn't hear it.
"The secret sections within this new song will work in the same way and we're sure kids will love it just as much."
OldTimeRadio said:I was thinking (vaguely) along the lines that maybe there was some sort of a prehistoric, poisonous animal which was much more dangerous to children than to adults, and which had a high-pitched whine.
Reports from Russia’s Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics located in Irkutsk are reporting today that their Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) detected a ‘massive’ ultra low frequency (ULF) ‘blast’ emanating from Latitude: 45° 00' North Longitude: 93° 15' West at the ‘exact’ moment, and location, of a catastrophic collapse of a nearly 2,000 foot long bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
To the horrific destruction of the Interstate 35W Bridge which spanned the Mississippi River we can read as reported by the Star Tribune News Service:
"The 1,907-foot bridge fell into the Mississippi River and onto roadways below. The span was packed with rush hour traffic, and dozens of vehicles fell with the bridge leaving scores of dazed commuters scrambling for their lives.
Nine people were confirmed dead as of 4 a.m. today. Sixty were taken to hospitals and 20 people were still missing this morning. Authorities said they expected the death toll to rise."
Russian Military reports state that the total collapse of such a massive bridge, and in the absence of evidence linking its destruction to terrorist activity, could only have been accomplished by an acoustic weapon, of which the United States Military is known to possess.
These reports further state that one of the United States primary research organizations into acoustic weapons research is Augsburg College, and which is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and most importantly less than 1 mile from the Interstate 35W Bridge collapse.
To the exact reason of why, and what exactly happened in this catastrophe we can only speculate, but, with what is known about the United States past history of using sophisticated weapons on their own citizens for ‘research’ purposes it certainly lies in the realm of possibility that this horrific tragedy is rooted in the use of ULF weapons.