Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Silat on November 29, 2005, 04:03:55 PM
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First it was my TEEN SQUELCH HACK for only $.37.
It works on ages 12 to 25.....
A 10% off coupon for a LOVE EWE@ was included with every purchase.
Now we have a new product called THE MOSQUITO.
Hats off to those who fight the good fight against unruly TEENS.....................
November 29, 2005
Barry Journal
What's the Buzz? Rowdy Teenagers Don't Want to Hear It
By SARAH LYALL
BARRY, Wales - Though he did not know it at the time, the idea came to Howard Stapleton when he was 12 and visiting a factory with his father, a manufacturing executive in London. Opening the door to a room where workers were using high-frequency welding equipment, he found he could not bear to go inside.
"The noise!" he complained.
"What noise?" the grownups asked.
Now 39, Mr. Stapleton has taken the lesson he learned that day - that children can hear sounds at higher frequencies than adults can - to fashion a novel device that he hopes will provide a solution to the eternal problem of obstreperous teenagers who hang around outside stores and cause trouble.
The device, called the Mosquito ("It's small and annoying," Mr. Stapleton said), emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that, he says, can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. The sound is designed to so irritate young people that after several minutes, they cannot stand it and go away.
So far, the Mosquito has been road-tested in only one place, at the entrance to the Spar convenience store in this town in South Wales. Like birds perched on telephone wires, surly teenagers used to plant themselves on the railings just outside the door, smoking, drinking, shouting rude words at customers and making regular disruptive forays inside.
"On the low end of the scale, it would be intimidating for customers," said Robert Gough, who, with his parents, owns the store. "On the high end, they'd be in the shop fighting, stealing and assaulting the staff."
Mr. Gough (pronounced GUFF) planned to install a sound system that would blast classical music into the parking lot, another method known to horrify hang-out youths into dispersing, but never got around to it. But last month, Mr. Stapleton gave him a Mosquito for a free trial. The results were almost instantaneous. It was as if someone had used anti-teenager spray around the entrance, the way you might spray your sofas to keep pets off. Where disaffected youths used to congregate, now there is no one.
At first, members of the usual crowd tried to gather as normal, repeatedly going inside the store with their fingers in their ears and "begging me to turn it off," Mr. Gough said. But he held firm and neatly avoided possible aggressive confrontations: "I told them it was to keep birds away because of the bird flu epidemic."
A trip to Spar here in Barry confirmed the strange truth of the phenomenon. The Mosquito is positioned just outside the door. Although this reporter could not hear anything, being too old, several young people attested to the fact that yes, there was a noise, and yes, it was extremely annoying.
"It's loud and squeaky and it just goes through you," said Jodie Evans, 15, who was shopping at the store even though she was supposed to be in school. "It gets inside you."
Miss Evans and a 12-year-old friend who did not want to be interviewed were once part of a regular gang of loiterers, said Mr. Gough's father, Philip. "That little girl used to be a right pain, shouting abuse and bad language," he said of the 12-year-old. "Now she'll just come in, do her shopping and go."
Robert Gough, who said he could hear the noise even though he is 34, described it as "a pulsating chirp," the sort you might hear if you suffered from tinnitus. By way of demonstration, he emitted a batlike squeak that was indeed bothersome.
Mr. Stapleton, a security consultant whose experience in installing store alarms and the like alerted him to the gravity of the loitering problem, studied other teenage-repellents as part of his research. Some shops, for example, use "zit lamps," which drive teenagers away by casting a blue light onto their spotty skin, accentuating any whiteheads and other blemishes.
Using his children as guinea pigs, he tried a number of different noise and frequency levels, testing a single-toned unit before settling on a pulsating tone which, he said, is more unbearable, and which can be broadcast at 75 decibels, within government auditory-safety limits. "I didn't want to make it hurt," Mr. Stapleton said. "It just has to nag at them."
The device has not yet been tested by hearing experts.
Andrew King, a professor of neurophysiology at Oxford University, said in an e-mail interview that while the ability to hear high frequencies deteriorates with age, the change happens so gradually that many non-teenagers might well hear the Mosquito's noise. "Unless the store owners wish to sell their goods only to senior citizens," he wrote, "I doubt that this would work."
Mr. Stapleton argues, though, that it doesn't matter if people in their 20's and 30's can hear the Mosquito, since they are unlikely to be hanging out in front of stores, anyway.
It is too early to predict the device's future. Since an article about it appeared in The Grocer, a British trade magazine, Mr. Stapleton has become modestly famous, answering inquiries from hundreds of people and filling orders for dozens of the devices, not only in stores but also in places like railroad yards. He appeared recently on Richard & Judy, an Oprah-esque afternoon talk show, where the device successfully vexed all but one of the members of a girls' choir.
He is considering introducing a much louder unit that can be switched on in emergencies with a panic button. It would be most useful when youths swarm into stores and begin stealing en masse, a phenomenon known in Britain as steaming. The idea would be to blast them with such an unacceptably loud, high noise - a noise inaudible to older shoppers - that they would immediately leave.
"It's very difficult to shoplift," Mr. Stapleton said, "when you have your fingers in your ears."
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someone will sue him for hearing damage
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LOL... that's awesome.
We need something like that for Aces High. ;)
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No one can sue him for hearing damage.
To be on the receiving side of hearing damage, you need to be above the decibal levels of certain frequencies for prolonged periods of time.
Even really really really high decibal noises do not cause damage unless under prolonged exposure day after day.
And since these people are loitering there, BY CHOICE, they have no grounds to stand of to sue.
I've been looking for the decibal level and frequency of the Mosquito, but I can't find it. If someone can dig it up for me, I can tell you what is and isn't acceptable.
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Originally posted by Mustaine
someone will sue him for hearing damage
Free lesson for you.
http://www.lhh.org/noise/decibel.htm
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Is that from The Onion? lol
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Originally posted by lasersailor184
Even really really really high decibal noises do not cause damage unless under prolonged exposure day after day.
But really really really really high decibel noises can cause immediate hearing loss.
National Institute of Health Impulse sound (such as an explosion) can result in immediate hearing loss that may be permanent.
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Originally posted by RightF00T
Is that from The Onion? lol
If it's a hoax, it's a good one. Plenty of online news sites with the story.
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Turn it up way high and see if the teen leeches there start to go into a seizure all froathing at the mouth
Better yet stick an amp on it and see if their heads explode :rofl
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That's a car alarm system. Decibels are supposed to drive the thief away, think about your ears ringing times 10 I guess.
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Originally posted by Sandman
If it's a hoax, it's a good one. Plenty of online news sites with the story.
No doubt. It's even been slashdotted. I'm following the thread on there to see if anybody is able to debunk it.
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Not to be a bother, but I didn`t reeive the 10% off coupons when I ordered the case of Teen Squelch Hacks. :)
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fubar born 04/01/88 :( no more wuv Silat.
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Originally posted by Sandman
LOL... that's awesome.
We need something like that for Aces High. ;)
We had/have a really annoying high pitched sound in AH. Think his nick was dlamb.
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I use a strobe light to keep the epileptics away.
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When I was a kid I had super sensitive hearing..
Heard lots of things others didn't, a whistle blown isnide a bus as loud as it can be would hurt my ears to the point of crying..
I bet you I couldn't hear it now with how deaf I've gone from having such sensitive hearing.
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Originally posted by Furious
We had/have a really annoying high pitched sound in AH. Think his nick was dlamb.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeew............ ............................. .wet fingernails on a chalkboard.
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Now if they could only make one that only worked on wives lmao
Oh wait we dont need one. Just ask for sex and the wife is sure to go running the other direction;)
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Originally posted by FuBaR
fubar born 04/01/88 :( no more wuv Silat.
lol April "fools" day! hee hee:D
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I had a 22 year old tell me today that the reason why statistics clearly show that men under the age of 26 are responsible for the majority of traffic accidents, is that the police believe the older drivers story more often so the younger drivers are automatically assumed to be at fault.
This guy was serious when he said this. I directly supervise this kid... Should I be worried, ignore it, or attempt to adjust his attitude? The problem is, if I attempt to adjust his attitude, the statement appears to be best responded to by a firm application of fear sarcasm and ridicule :furious or maybe I should let his peers and raw experience provide the necessary feedback instead. It'll amount to the same thing... Someday he'll get smashed into by some kid on the road, the cop will believe him, and maybe he'll realize that he probably really was a bit of a tard just like most young men, back when he was younger.
Or not :)
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Originally posted by Silat
First it was my TEEN SQUELCH HACK for only $.37.
It works on ages 12 to 25.....
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You squelch me????? Im SHOCKED :O :furious
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Originally posted by Schatzi
You squelch me????? Im SHOCKED :O :furious
Its adjustable. There is a toggle that adjusts for good TEENS and bad TEENS:)
It has a special TOGGLE for FUBAR :)