“1945-1998” by Isao Hashimoto: CTBTO Preparatory Commission

Every nuclear explosion from 1945–1998, displayed on a map and sonified. It’s kind of transfixing. The beginning is a little slow (in a formal sense, not a “there should be more explosions” sense), but definitely click ahead to watch the cold war era intensification.

[Just returned from a vacation, blogging density increase imminent, maybe even rebooting my thesis posts.]

(via @protman)

After the sinking of one of their battleships, South Korea is playing loud K-pop across the border to the North:

S.Korea recently put up loudspeakers in 11 locations along the tense border to resume broadcasts that had been suspended in 2004. The installation of the loudspeakers amounted to “a direct declaration of a war” and a “flagrant violation” of the inter-Korean declaration for peace and reconciliation signed in 2000, the North’s statement went on. “Therefore, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will launch an all-out military strike to blow up the group’s means for the psychological warfare,” it said. The North has repeatedly threatened to strike down the loudspeakers if Seoul goes ahead with the broadcasts.

(via Sonicwarfare)

Breaking glass with sound! (A little more scientific than Memorex, courtesy of MIT.)

Rubbing the rim of a wine glass with a wet finger will cause it to resonate at its resonant frequency. The glass is placed in front of a speaker playing a sine wave, created by the function generator, of this same frequency. When the amplitude is turned up, we can see by shining a strobe light at the glass that this resonant frequency causes it to oscillate. When the glass becomes too stressed, it will shatter, which we see very clearly on high speed video. 

(via MIT TechTV)

The Audio Guillotine is a sculpture/installation by Benoit Maubrey, and it basically is just what the name sounds like: a guillotine for speakers. Pretty badass. (Although is that actually what a guillotine looks like? I want a big shiny blade!)

(via Califaudio)

Wouldn’t have thought I’d be posting unboxing videos to the blog, but this one is of one of those mosquito devices. Worth clicking ahead to the end to see what they look like, if you’re not a big fan of cardboard boxes, tapes, and packing peanuts.

And it looks like the wikipedia page on “the mosquito” has a lot more information on it than the last time I looked. (It’s called the “Beethoven” in France, and the “Swiss-Mosquito” in Switzerland? Really??)

(via mediateletipos)

Wow, the actual use of an LRAD system in a riot situation is totally Big Brothery and and terrifying.

(via Boing Boing)

Sound as a weapon.

(via mediateletipos)