HyperSonic Sound

The American Technology Corporation of San Diego, California has invented HyperSonic Sound (HSS).

Long story short: HSS is sound you can focus like light.

It can broadcast a message that can be aimed at one person up to 500 yards away (that's almost a third of a mile).

If used for security purposes, the beam can send a high–pitched squeal "above the threshold of pain, below the level of hearing loss," according to Ryk Williams, a company spokesman.

Erik Eckholm wrote, in a story that appeared in this past Sunday's New York Times, "Williams suggested that it might be used in a supermarket, for example, sending a 'buy Cheerios' message to a consumer in front of the Cheerios and 'buy corn flakes' to another nearby."

Internet grocery shopping can't come to Charlottesville quickly enough. But I digress.

Life truly does imitate art: in 1929 Robert Graves published a story entitled "The Shout."

Its protagonist was a man who could kill an individual with his voice by directing a shout at them.

[via Eric Eckholm and the New York Times]