11 ms·

Here is the mysterious recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A and here is the perfectly matching cric

Here is the mysterious recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANykud9iE1A and here is the perfectly matching cricket sound https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/492a.htm https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/492a.htm This whole story is reminiscent of the n-ray debacle 100 years ago https://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-n-rays/ https://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-n-rays/ Lots of scientists and officials are so sure that "it was something" that they now can't admit that it was "absolutely nothing".

scoot 8y ago
Wow, that second recording (which continued to play in the background after I left the page in the HN reader I’m using) brought on a bout of tinnitus. I only played it on an iPhone at a modest volume (below half), with the phone a comfortable reading distance away.
- graeme 8y ago
  Just tried. Could be power of suggestion but I think it temporarily increased my tinnitus.
  - scoot 8y ago
    Could be, but for me at least, I don't get tinnitus too often (that I'm consciously aware of†), and I didn't know that this was one of the supposed symptoms of the alleged "attack" until after I'd played the sound, noticed tinnitus, and written that comment. I genuinely went from no tinnitus to conscious tinnitus after playing the recording. † I get the sense that the brain masks it to an extent, like other background noises, but it comes to the fore when conscious of it, like now as I write this comment. However in this case, it came to the fore, or was brought on, depending how you think of it, as a result of playing the annoying noise. The tinnitus came before the thought of tinnitus, if that makes sense.
    - spydum 8y ago
      The power of suggestion is amazing. I didn’t notice my tinnitus until reading this comment..
    - graeme 8y ago
      Oh I meant for me, not for you :) You obviously had no suggestion. Where I did, reading your comment. And I always have some tinnitus, so it's a bit subjective to say if it increased it, as paying attention to it also makes it louder.
will_brown 8y ago
>they now can't admit that it was "absolutely nothing". It may or may not have been an attack but what’s the explaination for 24 embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all showing brain abnormalities? I think it’s a lot more likely intelligence agencies know exactly what caused it. Public releases of sound clips of strange sounds claiming to be the cause, later publications proving those sounds to be crickets and nothing Nefarious all reads like something out of an intelligence playbook to misdirect the public and other governments. Unless you are intimately familiar with intelligence operations it sounds like conspiracy theory, until you come full circle to 24 staff members with brain abnormalities. At minimum that doesn’t result from absolutely nothing.
- rdtsc 8y ago
  > It may or may not have been an attack but what’s the explaination for 24 embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all showing brain abnormalities? Were there any physical injuries to the brain found? As in leisures, damaged nerves etc. Or was it all self-rerpoted stuff. "I can't see, can't hear, losing my balance etc." Consider these are CIA employees in an embassy that was going to probably be wound down eventually. Now they have to leave for another post or back to a desk job. So someone came up with an idea that they have been attacked and reported headaches, so maybe they could retire early or get extra compensation based on injuries in the line of duty. They wouldn't even have to conspire with others, as they could have just understood what to do by observing. Remember lying and making up stuff is they day job. Just another thing to consider...
  - will_brown 8y ago
    These are physical changes. Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate.
    - wyldfire 8y ago
      How did we, the public, get the evidence of the medical testing? Do we have the actual imaging or the testimony of the physicians who treated them? Aside: wouldn't they need permission from the patients in order to reveal the diagnosis?
Tsubasachan 8y ago
I don't know if it was deliberate American propaganda campaign. The US is always looking for an enemy even if they have to invent one. Its telling that none of the media even once asked themselves WHY someone would want to attack embassy staff in such a bizarre way. At least the US State Department kept its cool. Saving America from Americans is their mission.
- dang 8y ago
  Please don't post nationalistic flamebait to HN. We're looking for civil, substantive discussions and that leads to just the opposite. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - aylmao 8y ago
    I personally don't think this comment is flamebait or nationalistic, and I think it raises a good question that I think could bring substantive discussion-- why would Cuba want to attack American diplomats? This comment also begins with an opinion by OP, not an unfundamented statement. OP opens with: > I don't know if it was deliberate American propaganda campaign. Which is completely valid-- I don't know either, even though I can choose to believe it was simply a mistake.
    - njharman 8y ago
      It, obviously, would not be Cubans. It would be someone wanting US Cuban tensions to increase. Tons of actors want that.
    - dang 8y ago
      Flamebait in a comment is found in its worst statements, not its best ones.
  - RodericDay 8y ago
ars 8y ago
> Here is the mysterious recording How do we know that's actually the sound, and not a sound? It's some reporter "who got their hands on it", not an official finding of the investigators. It could just be some random sound.

scoot 8y ago

Wow, that second recording (which continued to play in the background after I left the page in the HN reader I’m using) brought on a bout of tinnitus. I only played it on an iPhone at a modest volume (below half), with the phone a comfortable reading distance away.

graeme 8y ago
Just tried. Could be power of suggestion but I think it temporarily increased my tinnitus.
- scoot 8y ago
  Could be, but for me at least, I don't get tinnitus too often (that I'm consciously aware of†), and I didn't know that this was one of the supposed symptoms of the alleged "attack" until after I'd played the sound, noticed tinnitus, and written that comment. I genuinely went from no tinnitus to conscious tinnitus after playing the recording. † I get the sense that the brain masks it to an extent, like other background noises, but it comes to the fore when conscious of it, like now as I write this comment. However in this case, it came to the fore, or was brought on, depending how you think of it, as a result of playing the annoying noise. The tinnitus came before the thought of tinnitus, if that makes sense.
  - spydum 8y ago
    The power of suggestion is amazing. I didn’t notice my tinnitus until reading this comment..
  - graeme 8y ago
    Oh I meant for me, not for you :) You obviously had no suggestion. Where I did, reading your comment. And I always have some tinnitus, so it's a bit subjective to say if it increased it, as paying attention to it also makes it louder.

will_brown 8y ago

>they now can't admit that it was "absolutely nothing". It may or may not have been an attack but what’s the explaination for 24 embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all showing brain abnormalities? I think it’s a lot more likely intelligence agencies know exactly what caused it. Public releases of sound clips of strange sounds claiming to be the cause, later publications proving those sounds to be crickets and nothing Nefarious all reads like something out of an intelligence playbook to misdirect the public and other governments. Unless you are intimately familiar with intelligence operations it sounds like conspiracy theory, until you come full circle to 24 staff members with brain abnormalities. At minimum that doesn’t result from absolutely nothing.

rdtsc 8y ago
> It may or may not have been an attack but what’s the explaination for 24 embassy staff members randomly experiencing the same symptoms and all showing brain abnormalities? Were there any physical injuries to the brain found? As in leisures, damaged nerves etc. Or was it all self-rerpoted stuff. "I can't see, can't hear, losing my balance etc." Consider these are CIA employees in an embassy that was going to probably be wound down eventually. Now they have to leave for another post or back to a desk job. So someone came up with an idea that they have been attacked and reported headaches, so maybe they could retire early or get extra compensation based on injuries in the line of duty. They wouldn't even have to conspire with others, as they could have just understood what to do by observing. Remember lying and making up stuff is they day job. Just another thing to consider...
- will_brown 8y ago
  These are physical changes. Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate.
  - wyldfire 8y ago
    How did we, the public, get the evidence of the medical testing? Do we have the actual imaging or the testimony of the physicians who treated them? Aside: wouldn't they need permission from the patients in order to reveal the diagnosis?

Tsubasachan 8y ago

I don't know if it was deliberate American propaganda campaign. The US is always looking for an enemy even if they have to invent one. Its telling that none of the media even once asked themselves WHY someone would want to attack embassy staff in such a bizarre way. At least the US State Department kept its cool. Saving America from Americans is their mission.

dang 8y ago
Please don't post nationalistic flamebait to HN. We're looking for civil, substantive discussions and that leads to just the opposite. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- aylmao 8y ago
  I personally don't think this comment is flamebait or nationalistic, and I think it raises a good question that I think could bring substantive discussion-- why would Cuba want to attack American diplomats? This comment also begins with an opinion by OP, not an unfundamented statement. OP opens with: > I don't know if it was deliberate American propaganda campaign. Which is completely valid-- I don't know either, even though I can choose to believe it was simply a mistake.
  - njharman 8y ago
    It, obviously, would not be Cubans. It would be someone wanting US Cuban tensions to increase. Tons of actors want that.
  - dang 8y ago
    Flamebait in a comment is found in its worst statements, not its best ones.
- RodericDay 8y ago

ars 8y ago

> Here is the mysterious recording How do we know that's actually the sound, and not a sound? It's some reporter "who got their hands on it", not an official finding of the investigators. It could just be some random sound.