Diabolical. You have the gift.

Fortunately, this sounds like something easy to regulate, by specifying that political ads must emit no tones above 20khz. It'd be easy to test the ads, and I don't think the reg would run afoul of even the most generous interpretation of the first amendment. It can't be speech if most people can't her it.

A standard TV speaker won't do 20kHz; they roll off above 10k.

You really need a 1" tweeter to hit 20k.

I guess Hillary wants the youth vote to pay attention to her security mom ads. What a pathetic world we live in where people are so sensitive about political ads.

Inquiring minds want to know: How do Domino + Inkblot react to the Clinton ad?

Now all I can think of is Ginger and Mary Ann screaming.

"The Mosquitoes?! Eeeeeeeeeee!"

Judging how Hillary seems to be limited to older voters, I'd say she's emitting her own high-pitched tone all the time.
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I can't believe nobody's used the phrase "dog whistle appeal" on this thread yet.

Do this often enough and your brain will automatically associate the target of the ad with disruption and clamor. Voters will start to dislike him or her without even knowing why.

It's called Pavlovian conditioning. Advertisers use it all the time. Why do you think it's always a scantily clad, beautiful young woman who's holding that Bud Light in those liquor store cardboard cutouts?

Or what if Hillary's people discreetly put mosquitoes around voting establishments to keep out the youth?

Kevin--

Rove successfully pioneered this technique long ago. My family runs screaming from the room whenever W shows up on the screen. Laura produces mild queasiness, the twins induce stupor.

Isn't this how Bush won Ohio?

Ann Althouse can hear a bottle of $3 white wine being opened at 100 yards.

Karl Rove wannabes

Mr. Drum left out the Democratic group calling itself "Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values," which aired the anti-Dean ad with Osama's image in 2004.

I am praying that the good people of Texas and Ohio put an end to this campaign tomorrow. Mark Penn's unseemly Rovian style campaign is putting a real strain on the Democratic party. Team Clinton is making enemies out of friends. I want an end to the primaries soon so we can really go after McCain.

When ya gonna post about Goolsbe talking to the Canadian Consulate in Chicago Kevin?

I wanna see how the 'bots respond to the meeting notes circulated throughout the Canadian government.

She probably doesn't need the mosquito sounds.

According to an 'Angry White Males' email currently in circulation, Hilary's voice is 'Like a shovel grating on a rock'.

Well, at least to 'angry white males', who (per the newsletter) aren't homosexuals, own guns, fight to defend their nation, etc.

IMHO sidenote: A shovel grating on concrete sounds worse than a shovel grating on rock.

Fuck off, Brojo. We're still working on a buzzing sound that makes cranks like you swell up like a bag of diseased meat and explode.

Nah. Subsonic frequencies can make people nauseous. You could condition people to associate a photo of your opponent with puking.

Well, the TV won't emit sounds above 16 kHz, and that's from the whine that the tube generates -- the speakers are very unlikely to be able to reproduce much sound that humans can't hear. Generally our ears' frequency range is far greater than that of the speakers on a TV. Even a high-end sound system won't be able to reproduce sounds much above 16 kHz.

So if Clinton (or anyone) spent money on an ad that has sounds above the threshold for human hearing, they wasted their money. Heh.

stoneyforest beat me to it, dammit!

Someone explain to my why, exactly, Clinton's people would deliberately make an ad that caused the household pets to make annoying noises during her commercial?

...why, exactly, Clinton's people would deliberately make an ad that caused the household pets to make annoying noises during her commercial?

The ad is set at 3am in the morning. Quite a few folks have dogs around to bark at evil at night to warn the humans. Maybe to make you unconsciously associate the dog's barking with the "WTF is that?" response you might have at night if your dog woke you up with a bark related to an evil intruder?

FWIW, most sublim technology targets 14-15 kHz; remember that the upper limit of the hearing range for most adults has been lowered (headphones, anyone?) to around 14.

If TVs can hit 16kHz, well, that range between 14 and 16 is ripe for targeting.

Even if you affect only a small segment of the watching audience, that still makes for a good... microtrend(tm).

Kevin: "But — wouldn't it be cool if there were?"

The dogs in our neighborhood bark often enough, thank you.

Dean was swiftboated by Democrats before swiftboating was used by Republcan Vietnam War veterans to smear Kerry.

We're still working on a buzzing sound that makes cranks like you swell up like a bag of diseased meat and explode.

I am pretty certain the Israelis are already using American designed, and gifted, weapons like these on Palestinians. These types of weapons delight Americans who support trillion dollar defense budgets and meth addicts.

It sounds ripe for abuse, doesn't it"

Yeah, it might be if it were effective. Subliminal adverts too. Right now I think propaganda and opinion control is effective enough without (seemingly) even going subliminal.

swell up like a bag of diseased meat and explode.

Isn't that from a scene in Planet Terror? The one where Tarrantino is going to rape the one legged woman? Was Tarrantino playing a Haliburton employee?

Hillary! Pick up the phone! Doesn't matter what you say if you never answer.
It's not the tone, or the dogs----it's the ring, ring, ring, ring,. . .

Remember in the first Superman movie when Lex Luthor broadcasts a high frequency message around Metropolis that only Superman and dogs could hear?

The dogs in our neighborhood bark often enough, thank you. Posted by: Donald from Hawaii on March 3, 2008 at 1:36 PM

As my Mom always said, "Dogs bark, it's their job."

Only freepers find meanings in comments that a dog can hear.

A standard TV speaker won't do 20kHz; they roll off above 10k.

You really need a 1" tweeter to hit 20k.
Posted by: eightnine2718281828mu5 on March 3, 2008 at 12:34 PM

Well, isn't it a matter of degree? Some of the higher sounds will make it through standard modern speakers I suppose. And BTW, how do the cell phones etc. emit high frequency rings etc?

I suspect no nefarious activity from Hillary Clinton here.

Tsk tsk tsk. Sadly typical of our ever-more-comfortable blogging elite, who have lost the ability to see the big picture as they cozy up to the Washington elite. Or are you really so blind that you can't see that even domesticated animals have gotten on board with Obama's super-awesome cavalcade of hope?

The Kevin Drum of yesteryear would have torn Clinton a new one in post after blistering post until she resigned from the Senate in shame. But today's Kevin Drum won't even entertain a suspicion about the alleged "candidate" he so brazenly favors in his toothless hagiography!

(I'm kidding, but I'm also practicing. Remember--only Your Democrat is the Right Democrat!)

This is why the mute button is the most important button on my TV remote. And if you have Tivo, so much the better. Although I'd be willing to also have a 30 second blackout timer.

Psychotic weapons designers ought to post their ravings at their own blog.