Mysterious 'sound' sickness prompts warning for Americans in C

[Thomas Promise]

The State Department issued a health alert to U.S. citizens in China on Wednesday after an American government worker suffered a mild traumatic brain injury following mysterious “sensations of sound and pressure.”

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-worker-china-sickened-brain-injury-after-mystery-sound-n876686?icid=today_hp_NBCtopheadlines

[Mick]

I read a little about this, but no real details were available. Please post any follow up you can surface on this one Tom. I'll do the same. It could relate to some newly developed side effect of our "electronic age."

[Randy W]

This is the recording of the sounds from the Cuba incident, but at a much lower volume than what they experienced.

 

LISTEN: The recording of the mysterious sounds is here.

 

 

https://www.today.com/video/new-audio-reveals-what-diplomats-allegedly-heard-in-cuba-sonic-attack-1072502339663

 

Somehow, I doubt that's what happened in Guangzhou

 

The alert is worded in such a way as to NOT separate cause and effect

Event: A U.S. government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure. The U.S. government is taking these reports seriously and has informed its official staff in China of this event. We do not currently know what caused the reported symptoms and we are not aware of any similar situations in China, either inside or outside of the diplomatic community.

 

[Randy W]

from Quartz

 

The “sonic attack” in China was probably clumsy ultrasonic eavesdropping

 

[True Blue]

I saw an article about this too. I wonder if it is Beijing Opera mixed with underwater recordings of the Loch Ness monster calling out to Bigfoot mixed with Beatles albums played backwards at half speed in reverse?

 

(Or it could just be a recording of the wife yelling at me to put my beer down and drag the trash cans out to the curb.)

[Randy W]

I saw an article about this too. I wonder if it is Beijing Opera mixed with underwater recordings of the Loch Ness monster calling out to Bigfoot mixed with Beatles albums played backwards at half speed in reverse?

 

(Or it could just be a recording of the wife yelling at me to put my beer down and drag the trash cans out to the curb.)

 

No brain damage needed

 

 

We Made a Tool So You Can Hear Both Yanny and Laurel

[True Blue]

An update - https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/more-americans-screened-over-mystery-health-issues-in-china/ar-AAylfOn?ocid=spartandhp

[Randy W]

More Americans affected - this looks like the same AP article posted by True Blue 1 minute earlier - choose one

 

More Americans flee US consulate in China as mysterious sonic sickness linked to Cuba illness spreads

A US worker and his family were evacuated from the Guangzhou consulate after they had symptoms like those that left 24 people in Cuba with ‘brain injuries’

Edited June 7, 2018 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Health Alert

Location: Countrywide [China]

 

Event: The State Department received medical confirmation that a U.S. government employee in China suffered a medical incident consistent with what other U.S. government personnel experienced in Havana, Cuba. As a result of additional voluntary medical screenings, the Department has sent other individuals to the United States for further evaluation.

If you or members of your family experience any unusual, unexplained physical symptoms or events, auditory or sensory phenomena, or other health concerns, please contact your health care provider to determine whether a medical evaluation and/or treatment is advisable. Symptoms to be attentive for include dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, ear complaints and hearing loss, and difficulty sleeping.

 

Action to Take:

 

* Do not attempt to locate the source of any unidentified auditory sensation. Instead, move to a different location.

 

* If you have concerns about any symptoms or medical problems, consult a medical professional as soon as possible.

[Randy W]

Crickets!

 

. . . and they may even know what species

 

in the NY Times

 

The Sounds That Haunted U.S. Diplomats in Cuba? Lovelorn Crickets, Scientists Say

Diplomatic officials may have been targeted with an unknown weapon in Havana. But a recording of one “sonic attack” actually is the singing of a very loud cricket, a new analysis concludes.

The Indies short-tailed cricket. Credit - Brandon Woo

 

That’s not to say that the diplomats weren’t attacked, the scientists added — only that the recording is not of a sonic weapon, as had been suggested.

Alexander Stubbs of the University of California, Berkeley, and Fernando Montealegre-Z of the University of Lincoln in England studied a recording of the sounds made by diplomats and published by The Associated Press.

“There’s plenty of debate in the medical community over what, if any, physical damage there is to these individuals,” said Mr. Stubbs in a phone interview. “All I can say fairly definitively is that the A.P.-released recording is of a cricket, and we think we know what species it is.”

Mr. Stubbs presented the results of the analysis at the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology. He and Dr. Montealegre-Z also posted an early version of their study online. They plan to submit the paper to a scientific journal in the next few days.

 

. . .

 

Mr. Stubbs suspected that this mismatch might be an artifact of the recording itself. Diplomats made their recordings inside houses, while biologists have recorded the crickets in the wild.

So Mr. Stubbs played the cricket recording in a house. As the calls bounced off the walls, they echoed in a pattern similar to the irregular pulses heard on the Cuban recording.

The song of the Indies short-tailed cricket “matches, in nuanced detail, the A.P. recording in duration, pulse repetition rate, power spectrum, pulse rate stability, and oscillations per pulse,” the scientists wrote in their analysis.

Experts on cricket songs said the analysis was well done. “It all seems to make sense,” said Gerald Pollack of McGill University, who studies acoustic communication among insects. “It's a pretty well supported hypothesis.”

 

 

[amberjack1234]

Sounds kinda like someone was looking for a nice fat gov check for the rest of their lives MAYBE. I don't know but I did sleep in a Holiday Express Inn last night.

[Randy W]

NY Times Oct 19, 2020

U.S. Diplomats and Spies Battle Trump Administration Over Suspected Attacks
American officials in China, Cuba and Russia say U.S. agencies are concealing the true extent of the episodes, leaving colleagues vulnerable to hostile actions abroad.

Quote

 

The State Department soon retreated, labeling what happened in China as “health incidents.” While the officers in Cuba were placed on administrative leave for rehabilitation, those in China initially had to use sick days and unpaid leave, some officers and their lawyers say. And the State Department did not open an investigation into what happened in China.

The administration has said little about the events in China and played down the idea that a hostile power could be responsible. But similar episodes have been reported by senior C.I.A. officers who visited the agency’s stations overseas, according to three current and former officials and others familiar with the events.