3 ms·

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is,

by pj_mukh 6mo ago

Could be nothing, or could be a new Havana Syndrome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome What's sad is, 5-10 years ago, no adversary would think simply off-ing American scientists was effective strategy, America was a new scientist generation machine. Now thanks to Research funding falling off a cliff and massive immigration restrictions, this is no longer true.

arisAlexis 6mo ago
they probably torture them for secrets and kill them
King-Aaron 6mo ago
Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide" reported to her friends that she received burns to her arms and hands through her window in an attack that sounded similar to this microwave/havana syndrome stuff. She was very vocal about the fact that she was being harassed over her work before she died.
- redsocksfan45 6mo ago
  [dead]
- PoignardAzur 6mo ago
  > Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide" I really hate the discourse around this stuff. Like, yes, disguising murder as suicide is a thing and obviously three-letters agencies do it. But someone saying publicly they're not suicidal gives you close to zero information. People with suicidal ideation almost never advertise it publicly because, one, there is a heavy amount of social stigma attached to it, and two, publicly declaring you're suicidal is a good way to get involuntarily committed to a mental health institution. I see a ton of jokes on social media that go "remember, X is not suicidal". How the fuck would you know? This discourse is so disrespectful to people struggling with suicidal thoughts.
  - tasuki 6mo ago
    It's respectful to trust someone who says they're not suicidal. Saying "they could've been suicidal anyway" is disrespectful to people who aren't suicidal and are telling the truth. If someone is struggling with suicidal thoughts and is publicly lying about it, they shall not have my respect anyway: I'm ok with being disrespectful to them.
  - pwdisswordfishs 6mo ago
    Subjectively, it seems like it's even prudent to consider that someone who is involved in a discussion about whether or not they're suicidal is probably likelier than average to commit suicide. Fair chance that "I'm not suicidal" should really even be understood to mean, "I'm not suicidal right now".
    - ineedasername 6mo ago
      It's a little different when the person is saying "I've received threats, so if you hear something happens to me, I did NOT kill myself!" Then, you know, bringing up suicide and it being a warning sign they're about to? The odds have shifted a bit.
  - ineedasername 6mo ago
    They publicly said they were receiving threats. And that if something happened to them, don't believe it's suicide. That's a bit different than just, you know, saying it at random, or because someone asked you how you're doing.
- blks 6mo ago
  She is also not a scientists, but some weird grifter with her “Institute of Exotic Science” and “antigravity” paper.
  - thatguy0900 6mo ago
    Sounds like the exact person we should be concerned about getting hit with scifi weapons to be honest
    - ineedasername 6mo ago
      I mean, sort of? Let's put aside whatever she claims to have been working on. Then, consider, if there is a group of people more likely to be attacked by odd advanced weapons? Probably people whose work puts them into contact with with or near research into odd and exotic things. If someone was murdered in their NYC apartment and a schizophrenic neighbor claimed it was a wild tiger then sure, you'd take that with some salt. If you then found out the deceased worked at the zoo? Well...
- poulpy123 6mo ago
  She was also very visibly delusional for years
  - b9apratus 6mo ago
    Or troubled by her thought controls and no one can do anything to help her.
trhway 6mo ago
Lets say an American scientist in a strategic area was offered a boatload of money (or some other piece of mice) from China or similar. Legally probably he can move, though export control probably applies to the brain content too. How sure the said scientist would be that he isn't going to have a car accident? Gerald Bull would have a word on it. So, "disappear" may start to look like an attractive alternative. A related example - Russia has put a bunch of top hypersonic missile related scientists into prison for supposedly working with China (and may be they worked, though official charges have so far been obviously fabricated - like for publishing in a journal of an research article on a non-secret project with that article making all the typical rounds for months through peer-review, etc) as well as making a law giving FSB full control over any scientific interaction between domestic and foreign scientists and institutions. I suppose the top AI talent may become subjects of a similar game.
- b112 6mo ago
  It doesn't have to be China or Russia. As others have mentioned, the current political climate in the US is... "weird". At least, as an outsider, I just don't know how else to describe it. It's like watching/listening to gibberish. So I can imagine American allies recruiting scientists en-mass, to protect themselves from America. The US has currently demonstrated a desire to take over allies completely (Canada, Greenland), and I'm sure few know who may be next. Some scientists may have simply wished to move abroad, and also, have quite valuable skills which are restricted in some way, hence them "disappearing".
  - trhway 6mo ago
    >to protect themselves from America. not necessarily from America. The goal #1 of the US dominated NATO for example was to prevent Germany from getting nuclear weapons in exchange for protection by US. Now with US de-facto withdrawing, Germany would have to quickly get nukes (as well as missiles to carry them) - i don't see other option for Germany here giving the environment in Europe and MidEast. So they would also need such scientists. South Korea, Japan, Australia seem to be in the similar situation too. (and everybody understands that a nuclear weapons program can't be a long multi-year endeavor - somebody will try to stop you - and so it must be very fast once started, and thus you have to have ready-to-use skills and knowledge)
bko 6mo ago
[flagged]
- rho138 6mo ago
  Awww your data drops off at 2023. You’re so smart.
  - poulpy123 6mo ago
    What could have happened after 2023 ? It's a real mystery!
  - bko 6mo ago
    > CRS calculated that President Trump's budget proposal for FY2026 included approximately $181.4 billion for R&D, $10.7 billion (-6%) below the FY2025 estimated level of $192.2 billion. The requested $181.4 billion, which included advance and supplemental appropriations, was to support federal investments in the conduct of R&D as well as R&D-related physical assets (such as the construction of R&D facilities or equipment). 181 billion! How will we prosper as a nation if we go back to 2021 spending levels??
willis936 6mo ago
Havana Syndrome seems to be a CIA psyop to soften the US public to warhawk policy. The proposed mechanism is... magic. Incredible stuff.
- harddrivereque 6mo ago
  Speaking in layman's terms, it's fancy remote microwaving.
  - willis936 6mo ago
    No, it's not. There was one hasty study that claimed that early on, riddled with issues, and unable to be replicated. The symptoms are not RF burns.
    - CGMthrowaway 6mo ago
      Source? It is known (and studied) that even at low power levels that do not significantly raise body temperature, short RF pulses can cause rapid, microscopic thermal expansion in the brain. This creates mechanical stress waves that can lead to TBIs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect
      - quietsegfault 6mo ago
        That's the cool thing! No one really knows, so any remotely scientific theory is indistinguishable from truth. Maybe even the more outlandish the better, so as to scare people more effectively.
        CGMthrowaway 6mo ago
        Did you mean to reply to a different comment? Struggling to connect this reply with what was said before it
    - anxman 6mo ago
Cytobit 6mo ago
So it could be nothing or it could be nothing?
- Bombthecat 6mo ago
  Or it could be something X-Files music plays
yencabulator 6mo ago
> simply off-ing What if they're interrogated in an attempt to extract something very specific? The deaths could be kidnappings gone wrong.

by pj_mukh 6mo ago

arisAlexis 6mo ago

they probably torture them for secrets and kill them

King-Aaron 6mo ago

Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide" reported to her friends that she received burns to her arms and hands through her window in an attack that sounded similar to this microwave/havana syndrome stuff. She was very vocal about the fact that she was being harassed over her work before she died.

redsocksfan45 6mo ago
[dead]
PoignardAzur 6mo ago
> Amy Eskridge - who publicly stated she was not suicidal before "committing suicide" I really hate the discourse around this stuff. Like, yes, disguising murder as suicide is a thing and obviously three-letters agencies do it. But someone saying publicly they're not suicidal gives you close to zero information. People with suicidal ideation almost never advertise it publicly because, one, there is a heavy amount of social stigma attached to it, and two, publicly declaring you're suicidal is a good way to get involuntarily committed to a mental health institution. I see a ton of jokes on social media that go "remember, X is not suicidal". How the fuck would you know? This discourse is so disrespectful to people struggling with suicidal thoughts.
- tasuki 6mo ago
  It's respectful to trust someone who says they're not suicidal. Saying "they could've been suicidal anyway" is disrespectful to people who aren't suicidal and are telling the truth. If someone is struggling with suicidal thoughts and is publicly lying about it, they shall not have my respect anyway: I'm ok with being disrespectful to them.
- pwdisswordfishs 6mo ago
  Subjectively, it seems like it's even prudent to consider that someone who is involved in a discussion about whether or not they're suicidal is probably likelier than average to commit suicide. Fair chance that "I'm not suicidal" should really even be understood to mean, "I'm not suicidal right now".
  - ineedasername 6mo ago
    It's a little different when the person is saying "I've received threats, so if you hear something happens to me, I did NOT kill myself!" Then, you know, bringing up suicide and it being a warning sign they're about to? The odds have shifted a bit.
- ineedasername 6mo ago
  They publicly said they were receiving threats. And that if something happened to them, don't believe it's suicide. That's a bit different than just, you know, saying it at random, or because someone asked you how you're doing.
blks 6mo ago
She is also not a scientists, but some weird grifter with her “Institute of Exotic Science” and “antigravity” paper.
- thatguy0900 6mo ago
  Sounds like the exact person we should be concerned about getting hit with scifi weapons to be honest
  - ineedasername 6mo ago
    I mean, sort of? Let's put aside whatever she claims to have been working on. Then, consider, if there is a group of people more likely to be attacked by odd advanced weapons? Probably people whose work puts them into contact with with or near research into odd and exotic things. If someone was murdered in their NYC apartment and a schizophrenic neighbor claimed it was a wild tiger then sure, you'd take that with some salt. If you then found out the deceased worked at the zoo? Well...
poulpy123 6mo ago
She was also very visibly delusional for years
- b9apratus 6mo ago
  Or troubled by her thought controls and no one can do anything to help her.

trhway 6mo ago

Lets say an American scientist in a strategic area was offered a boatload of money (or some other piece of mice) from China or similar. Legally probably he can move, though export control probably applies to the brain content too. How sure the said scientist would be that he isn't going to have a car accident? Gerald Bull would have a word on it. So, "disappear" may start to look like an attractive alternative. A related example - Russia has put a bunch of top hypersonic missile related scientists into prison for supposedly working with China (and may be they worked, though official charges have so far been obviously fabricated - like for publishing in a journal of an research article on a non-secret project with that article making all the typical rounds for months through peer-review, etc) as well as making a law giving FSB full control over any scientific interaction between domestic and foreign scientists and institutions. I suppose the top AI talent may become subjects of a similar game.

b112 6mo ago
It doesn't have to be China or Russia. As others have mentioned, the current political climate in the US is... "weird". At least, as an outsider, I just don't know how else to describe it. It's like watching/listening to gibberish. So I can imagine American allies recruiting scientists en-mass, to protect themselves from America. The US has currently demonstrated a desire to take over allies completely (Canada, Greenland), and I'm sure few know who may be next. Some scientists may have simply wished to move abroad, and also, have quite valuable skills which are restricted in some way, hence them "disappearing".
- trhway 6mo ago
  >to protect themselves from America. not necessarily from America. The goal #1 of the US dominated NATO for example was to prevent Germany from getting nuclear weapons in exchange for protection by US. Now with US de-facto withdrawing, Germany would have to quickly get nukes (as well as missiles to carry them) - i don't see other option for Germany here giving the environment in Europe and MidEast. So they would also need such scientists. South Korea, Japan, Australia seem to be in the similar situation too. (and everybody understands that a nuclear weapons program can't be a long multi-year endeavor - somebody will try to stop you - and so it must be very fast once started, and thus you have to have ready-to-use skills and knowledge)

bko 6mo ago

[flagged]

rho138 6mo ago
Awww your data drops off at 2023. You’re so smart.
- poulpy123 6mo ago
  What could have happened after 2023 ? It's a real mystery!
- bko 6mo ago
  > CRS calculated that President Trump's budget proposal for FY2026 included approximately $181.4 billion for R&D, $10.7 billion (-6%) below the FY2025 estimated level of $192.2 billion. The requested $181.4 billion, which included advance and supplemental appropriations, was to support federal investments in the conduct of R&D as well as R&D-related physical assets (such as the construction of R&D facilities or equipment). 181 billion! How will we prosper as a nation if we go back to 2021 spending levels??

willis936 6mo ago

Havana Syndrome seems to be a CIA psyop to soften the US public to warhawk policy. The proposed mechanism is... magic. Incredible stuff.

harddrivereque 6mo ago
Speaking in layman's terms, it's fancy remote microwaving.
- willis936 6mo ago
  No, it's not. There was one hasty study that claimed that early on, riddled with issues, and unable to be replicated. The symptoms are not RF burns.
  - CGMthrowaway 6mo ago
    Source? It is known (and studied) that even at low power levels that do not significantly raise body temperature, short RF pulses can cause rapid, microscopic thermal expansion in the brain. This creates mechanical stress waves that can lead to TBIs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect
    - quietsegfault 6mo ago
      That's the cool thing! No one really knows, so any remotely scientific theory is indistinguishable from truth. Maybe even the more outlandish the better, so as to scare people more effectively.
      - CGMthrowaway 6mo ago
        Did you mean to reply to a different comment? Struggling to connect this reply with what was said before it
  - anxman 6mo ago

Cytobit 6mo ago

So it could be nothing or it could be nothing?

Bombthecat 6mo ago
Or it could be something X-Files music plays

yencabulator 6mo ago

> simply off-ing What if they're interrogated in an attempt to extract something very specific? The deaths could be kidnappings gone wrong.