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Call for Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie References 185

Posted by Hemos from the blast-from-the-past dept.
lma writes "Lyle Zapato, best-selling author (well, maybe just author) of Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie: Practical Mind Control Protection for Paranoids , and developer of MindGuard, personal anti-psychotronic software for Amiga and Linux, is trying to find as many references to AFDBs or similar devices prior to 1991 as possible. Please help this important part of our cultural heritage from being lost, and email him with any references you can find." Well, there was my Uncle Milt..I mean...well, nevermind.
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Call for Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie References More

Call for Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie References

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  • ACK! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:17AM (#5024932)
    They're watching me through satelites to make sure I don't make any first posts.

  • fantasy (Score:4, Funny)

    by ch-chuck ( 9622 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:18AM (#5024941) Homepage
    I like to image this comic strip: Two agents are hunched over a console at NSA HQ, one says to the other, "Dammit, I had a positive lock on his brainwave sync'd with the thought projector, but then he put that darn foil hat on again!"

    • Re:fantasy (Score:3, Insightful)

      by windex ( 92715 )
      I always like to note to people who throw out the tin foil hat theory that if they really did have mind control satelites they would have forced people to forget about them.

      This then causes them to go into "religion" mode, which should be self explanitory.
  • The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

    Apache/1.3.26 Server at www.zapatopi.net Port 80


    now I dont get to read some article about someone else's interest in tinfoil hats. Drat.
    I think they need another symbol for 'slow news day articles'...

  • MLB (Score:3, Funny)

    by Cire ( 96846 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:20AM (#5024960)
    It's Major League baseball! They're watching from the skies!

    You guys want to see what's in here or want to see me hit some dingers? DINGERS! DINGERS!

    Simpsons reference. :)
    • McGwire stuffs data sheets from satelite under his cap and runs away.

      • The best part was that kinda glass eyeball look he got after he did it.

        And, sadly, he did not even run away, he just stood there with the paper falling down from under his cap. Doh!
    • Hey! My last name is Dinger! I take offense to that... ok maybe not really. You would be suprised about how many things rhymme with "dinger" =(.

      Guess I need to go get a damm tinfoil hat if all you people are going to be spying on us peace-loving, harmless Dingers of the world.

  • Also available for servers ? (Score:4, Funny)

    by calm_a_whore ( 635342 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:20AM (#5024961)
    I think he needs anti slashdot aluminium foil protection for his server, its all gone a bit 503.

  • Or he could be... (Score:5, Funny)

    by MojoRilla ( 591502 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:21AM (#5024964)
    Trying to use slashdot as a cheap way to do a patent search.

    At least that is what the aliens told me.

  • The Straight Dope (Score:5, Informative)

    by Angry White Guy ( 521337 ) <CaptainBurly[AT]goodbadmovies.com> on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:21AM (#5024969)
    Ran this article recently [straightdope.com] which says tinfoil just isn't enough, and to construct a faraday cage to be impervious to alien influence.

    Personally I think that they really need professional help if they believe in aliens, but if it keeps the government from reading my mind I'm all for it!
    • Ran this article recently [straightdope.com] which says tinfoil just isn't enough, and to construct a faraday cage to be impervious to alien influence.

      Recently?

      >Do tinfoil helmets provide adequate protection against mind control rays? > >09-Jun-2000

      Well, recent in a geologic sense....

    • What's the tinfoil for,
      Shiny side in, keeping the thought police out
      Shiny side out, for keeping the mind control out.

    • Re:The Straight Dope (Score:5, Informative)

      by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:14AM (#5025288)
      This page [stopabductions.com] explains it all. It's got tinfoil hats for sale. And the model on the front page. Try not to have any liquids in mouth loading page. It'll end up on the monitor!

      Oh and these guys appear to be for real.
      • Velostat! Damn, and here I was using tinfoil and looking like a tool!

        Do the Greys know about 3M? I thought that 3M was using alien technology to make their products and therefore aliens themselves. Maybe they've given us too much. We now have the tools to destroy the Greys. Well, um, we need phasers too.
      • Try not to have any liquids in mouth loading page.

        rofl... I was drinking coffee, about to click the link, and then read the rest of your comment JUST IN TIME. I swallowed my coffee, put my mug down, and then proceeded, and the reason I'm typing this instead of mopping coffee up off my monitor and keyboard was your timely warning.

        Thank you sir =)

        He's not joking, kids! PUT YOUR COFFEE DOWN OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!

        Results of the thought screen helmet exceeded expectations. Since January 2000 aliens have not taken any abductees while they were wearing thought screen helmets using Velostat shielding
        ...
        "Thank you Michael for the work you are doing to save all humanity."

        =p
      • Sometime in the mid-90s I saw a catalog advertising electrically conductive hats - really nice professional quality stuff, not just rattly tinfoil. It was one of those NewAgey things advertising some local big Wellness fair, and full ads for vitamins and healing magnets and Tachyon bracelets (I forget it they were tachyon-generating bracelets or tachyon-absorbing bracelets, but it was aimed at the kind of people for whom simple magnets just weren't high-tech-sounding enough.) The hats looked really good, sort of basic hunting cap made of aluminized cloth (unless it was really just spraypainted :-)

        Why was I reading this tripe? Well, it was on the bench at the train station while I was waiting for the train, and the newspaper headlines had looked boring...

  • Don't be fooled!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by 0x12d3 ( 623370 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:23AM (#5024976)
    He's looking for these devices for"reference" yeah sure. He's obviously trying to take over the world.

  • From their website (Score:4, Funny)

    by nizo ( 81281 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:23AM (#5024977) Homepage Journal
    MindGuard is a program for Amiga and Linux that protects your mind by jamming and/or scrambling psychotronic mind-control signals and removing harmful engrammic pollutants from your brain. It also has the ability to scan for and decipher into English specific signals so you can see exactly Who wants to control you and what They are trying to make you think.
    With MindGuard, you can rest assured that your most valuable possession -- your mind-- is safe from the nefarious tinkering of evil-doers.


    I am so glad this software is available, now we can get even more of the right kinds of folks advocating the use of Linux. Is there a large untapped market for Linux use in mental hospitals?

  • Were are we going to watch you go today? Score : -1, Unfunny.

  • They work.... (Score:2, Funny)

    by tcdk ( 173945 )
    ... or he would be able to tell us about them!
    • ...or I would have been able to see that there should be a negation somewhere in the last part of that sentence. My bad.

      Arg! It's an evil plot to make me look silly. Hand me that roll of tinfoil please....

  • The real deal (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Duchamp ( 8770 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:39AM (#5025053) Homepage Journal
    I had a few calls from this one [raven1.net] when I worked as a sysadmin at her ISP.

    You can also see her with a sign standing outside the mall in downtown Hamilton, or at the side of the road by the highway.

    • Re:The real deal (Score:5, Funny)

      by new death barbie ( 240326 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:59AM (#5025190)
      You can also see her with a sign standing outside the mall in downtown Hamilton, or at the side of the road by the highway.


      Yeah, we make her do that every now and then. When she's really bad, we let the monkey play with the joystick.

    • so much stuff that's, like, super top secret - if you know this we'll have to kill you, you'ld think she would have come across the concept of *page two.*

      But Noooooooooooooooooooo!

      KFG
    • I had a few calls from this one [raven1.net]

      Why is it crackpot sites always look really shabby. I think it's a government plot to disuade us from looking at them, so we don't see the REAL ones THAT are OUT THERE. RIGHT NOW!

      (sorry, had to emulate the style so everyone knew what I was refering to!)

  • Tinfoil Hat Linux ...for the Paranoid (Score:5, Funny)

    by nucleon ( 243583 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:44AM (#5025090)
    This article reminded me of a fun little Linux distro [shmoo.com] on floppy from the nice folks at the Schmoo Group. "You may want to use Tinfoil Hat Linux if...
    • You're using a computer that could have a keystroke logger installed. http://www.keyghost.com [keyghost.com] is an example of a tiny & cheap hardware logger.
    • You need to use your personal GPG keys at work, school or a web hosting facility where you don't trust or own the equipment.
    • If you maintain a PGP Certificate Authority or signing key and have to have a safe place to use the CA key.
    • If you simply don't want to risk putting a PGP key on a hard drive where someone else might have access to it.
    • The Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key."

  • No shortage of whackos. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Raymond Luxury Yacht ( 112037 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:52AM (#5025145) Homepage
    Ah yes... Mind control devices through radio and micro waves [freedomdomain.com], CIA [ultimateconspiracy.com] conspiracies, drugs [room23.de] slipped into the water and food supplies, and of course contrails [tripod.com]. It warms my heart to see that there are people [accessnewage.com] more insane than I am...

    • Mind control at Menards (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Our regional home products store had this sale where you could buy a plastic tub for 3 bucks and then get 20 percent off on any product you could put in the tub (like paint, batteries, light bulbs).


      My wife and I went there to look at floor tile and the whole store was full of customers pushing around shopping carts with a tub in it and filling it with stuff, like mindless drones.


      I really badly wanted to buy stuff on the sale, but I did not want to be manipulated like this. My wife pointed out that every form of sales promotion could be taken to be manipulation, including shopping carts, which encourage customers to fill it full of stuff to buy. But my wife thinks I buy too much stuff at Menards anyway, and I felt like I had to pass on the tub like an alcoholic needs to stay away from drinks.

  • Twins and Card Games (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dareth ( 47614 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @09:58AM (#5025180)
    I have two sisters who are identical twins. It was always required for them to wear aluminium foil hats if they wanted to be partners in our family games of spades. Otherwise, we would all end up beaten by them two terrible cheaters!!!

  • Movie tin foil (Score:4, Informative)

    by shawkin ( 165588 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:06AM (#5025232)
    Annie Hall 1977
    Woody Allen

    ALVY:
    (Looking at Rob who is wearing a foil covered suit and hood)
    Why are you wearing that? Worried about thought control from space aliens?
    ROB:
    (Pulling the hood over his head)
    Gamma rays, Alvy. Gamma rays. Wear this and you'll live forever.

  • Dude! (Score:5, Funny)

    by turg ( 19864 ) <turg.winston@org> on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:15AM (#5025297) Journal

    You got an affiliate commission link into a front-page Slashdot story! You rock!

  • See a wide variety of them in use in this image [montacute.net] of the 1314 battle of Bannockburn. The alleged "speaker stand" in this image is, of course, a pyschotronic warfare device. Stalkers and Three Letter Agencies take note: I am in this picture, wearing my own AFDB (well, steel, which is heavier but provides excellent shielding).

    Kudos to Lyle for bringing the protection of AFDB's to the attention of the common man. While nothing beats a well made AFDB, I also recommend running Mindguard (link unavailable due to zapatopi.net being taken down by Miniature Black Helicopters and/or Slashdotting) 24/7, for those head scratching moments.

  • My Dad remembers the original case (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Degrees ( 220395 ) <`em.hcsireg' `ta' `seerged'> on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:20AM (#5025335) Homepage Journal
    My dad was a Sheriff's officer before I was born, and the original story made the rounds. One of his friends was a detective in the San Francisco Police Department, was called upon to visit a citizen there (must have been in the early 1960's, I think). Anyway, the person had lined every wall of the apartment with aluminum foil, 'to keep them from reading her brainwaves with the radio'. Obviously, the person was mentally ill. When the person expressed distress at not being able to leave the apartment, the tin foil hat was proposed. (The detective figured that the person was harlmess enough, so why not 'help'?)

    So that is the story as I heard it. My dad knows the name of the detective in S.F.

    • All the hallmarks of a urban myth to me. Sounds like all your dad was telling you were bedtime stories!

      How to spot an Urban Legend [about.com]

      • Re:My Dad remembers the original case (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Schnapple ( 262314 ) <tomkidd&gmail,com> on Monday January 06, 2003 @11:25AM (#5025801) Homepage
        Yeah but his point was that this was a mention of a tin foil hat in this very reasoning (to protect your brain from influences) way prior to 1991. Urban legend or no, if it was told in the 1960's then this was quite a while back and therefore qualifies.
        • That is a very good point. I hadn't thought about that, but you are right, it probably should be listed in the Urban Legends FAQ. Certainly the members of the San Francisco police department have this story circulating amongst themselves. Probably some old-timer knows the street address of the original site....

          It would be nice to know how much fact, and how much fiction this story contains. I don't have any reason to think my dad made it up; but someone else might have, and he was just relaying it. I do know that the first time I heard it, I was little (under 10 years old); so it would have had to have been prior to 1971.

      • Well... your point is not beyond the realm of possibility....

        Although I don't see the point. It is one of those funny stories he tells to point out how goofy people can be; what kinds of things police officers run into. His personal favorite was an 80 lbs drunk guy that just sat in park in Modesto and kept stating "Grrr, grrr, I'm a Texas Tiger!" Kept repeating it over and over.

        People can just be goofy.

  • Whats worse (Score:3, Funny)

    by boogy nightmare ( 207669 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:20AM (#5025340) Homepage
    That Fact that this book is sold by amazon (funny although it is) or the fact that the biggest (or first listed) search by customers there after was for clean undearwear :)

    I've heard of pissing yourself with laughter but that takes teh cake
    • first listed) search by customers there after was for clean undearwear

      Since they added clothing I've notice that Clean Underwear from Amazon's Target Store [amazon.com] is always listed first in the "Customers who wear clothes also shop for:" section. Unfortunately, what I want to know is the most shopped for items of customers who don't wear clothes - especially attactive female college students who don't wear clothes. In fact if they could break down that information by zip code, then I think Amazon would find themselves generating a lot more traffic.

      • Unfortunately, what I want to know is the most shopped for items of customers who don't wear clothes - especially attactive female college students who don't wear clothes.

        Dildos, of course!

        Which you would already know if you actually read your spam like a good consumer.

      • I'm in college, and I can tell you for a fact that all the attractive college students, male or female, wear clothes. The naked people are kinda funny looking - they got all these floppy bits on 'em.
  • C'mon, he's just looking for prior art before he patents his device!
  • You finally have a chance to use the Beanie icon and blow it! http://slashdot.org/search.pl?topic=157
  • Strangely enough, this almost gains legitimacy when you look into RF protective clothing. (a google search will do)

    For more info than you could ever want on this, some of which is interesting, and some of which is questionable, check out this page of related links [clarityconnect.com]

    be sure, for a good laugh, to check out
    http://www.lessemf.com/personal.html [lessemf.com]

    which has the more exotic forms of RF protective clothing, including hats, vests, dress shirts, etc. Pricey, too!

  • Occasion: Birthday

    Time: Middle of a party at fraternity

    Event: "10 Men in Tinfoil"

    Desctription: Wrap head and groinal area in tinfoil (extra wide food services stuff preferred). Run through party yelling. Endure dumb looks from patrons. Cognoscenti attempt to snatch foil from nether regions.

    Effectiveness against mind control: N/A - no one was doing much thinking at the time, or we wouldn't have been running around in aluminum foil.

  • how's this for a conspiracy theory? (Score:3, Funny)

    by murdocj ( 543661 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:50AM (#5025555)
    In order to mind control you, "they" need you to wear an aluminum foil hat, so they start these stories...

  • Don't forget earplugs! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mantrid ( 250133 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @10:55AM (#5025590) Journal
    Don't forget to buy your earplugs, in addition to your foil hats! I mean, how else are you going to protect yourself from *superluminal* attempts at mind control?

    And remember.... Yvan eht nioj!
  • ... is trying to find as many references to AFDBs or similar devices prior to 1991 as possible.

    Why, is Amazon going on a patent-spree again?

  • Crest of the Stars (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hackwrench ( 573697 ) <hackwrench@hotmail.com> on Monday January 06, 2003 @11:09AM (#5025675) Homepage Journal
    They don't need mind control devices. Anybody watch "Crest of the Stars" and see how well the Baron controlled the minds of his vassals. (They should be showing that episode sometime this week again and again one last time on Friday on TechTV). That's how it's done, not with devices, but with social engineering. (Is that the right category- not absolutely sure.) Promoting those lower than you in the social structure into menial jobs.
    • Mind control through social engineering? You mean, like scaring people so they agree to do what and watch you want? Sounds familiar...like every news show on television.

      Make sure you stay tuned after the commercials, there'll be some real genuine news after that, honest! We promise there will be blood and everything! And then more commercials.

  • The old Dragnet series in the 1960's had a beanie reference when Friday was working the probation desk one night....
  • Reynolds Wrap commercial. 1000 and 1 uses.

  • To bypass the resonant properties of aluminum.
    Get a different beanie, one made with
    a blend of rare earth elements and a
    thin Uranium coating.
  • Am I the first to read the submission as a request for a new Beanie Baby?

    I should go buy a Beanie and make a tin hat for it, just for fun...
  • The anti-radar coatings used by many US military vessels consists of essentially a piece of foil sandwiched between two thin pieces of foam. When I first saw it, I thought that somebody at Reynolds was making a killing on a government contract, but then I saw that it actually works - not to the point of making a vessel radar-invisible, but it significantly reduces the footprint (surfaces that are not perpendicular to the ground/sea/horizon greatly aid in this, as well, which is why newer ships look like the Cadillac CTS).

  • Rediculous! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wireless Joe ( 604314 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @12:12PM (#5026113) Homepage
    Everyone knows that aluminum did not exist before 1992. It was at that time that the Reynolds corporation made a bid to take over the US Government. Reynolds, an alliance between the city of Marina Del Rey and Tom Arnold (look it up, I don't use Google because they track my searches) began producing "anti Illuminati medium" or a-lumin-um by extracting the "conductivity" from steel, a naturally occuring mineral.

    Reynolds knew that the CIA and FBI were using mind control through the "cable networks" to persuade the population to upgrade to HBO, the mouthpiece for the Masonic Order of the Illuminati.

    You all just think you remember aluminum existing before 1992 because you do not wear your beanies, and have been influenced by HBO. Still need proof? Consider these facts:

    1. If you travel outside the US, you will find that no other countries use or have heard of aluminum. (England has something similar called aluminium, which was developed in tandem by Margaret Thatcher's shadow government.)

    2. If you travel to another country and they say that they have aluminum, you have not actually travelled to another country, but are on a HBO-enduced mind control trip.

    3. Aluminum does not get hot in the oven. I've made thousands of fish sticks in the years after 1992, and no matter how badly I burn them, I can always lift them by the corners of the aluminum foil I placed them on.
    • Wow, it was prescient for the late-1950s cartoon series Ruff and Ready to have robots from Munimula, [yesterdayland.com] which was aluminum spelled backwards. Now you've got me wondering why people call Reynolds Wrap tinfoil when it's really made out of aluminum. Was there an earlier product actually made out of tin?
      • Yes. Tinfoil is made out of tin not aluminum. I guess you are hearing people call it that as a holdover from the old days.

        But since aluminum can't be picked up by a magnet it can't be used to shield electomagnetic radiation. So tinfoil is the best, easily obtainable material that can be shaped into a mind control ray deflector hat. ;^)

        P.S. I seem to remember a tinfoil hat being used for this by some loon on an episode of Dragnet from the late 60's. Can anyone verify this?
    • Can you elaborate on why you don't use Google?
  • There is a song called "Helmet" [bobs.com] that I first heard by an acapella group called "The Bobs" [bobs.com] that mentions the use of similar devices.

    "I've got my helmet on, nothing can do me wrong..."

    "My mother feared I was abnormal
    I'd take out the colander and put it on my head
    People are happy when they know that they're protected
    Just let me tell you why I'm smiling"

    So you can see this culture is pervasive!

    TTFN

  • The oldest microwave-mind-control-ish item I recall is an original series twilight-zone episode.

    Young lady (heiress?) living in a penthouse appartment is hearing voices. About to be dumped into the loony-bin - involuntarily. Turns out her penthouse apt is on the path of a new phone-company or something microwave link and she's picking up the traffic. A little shielding saves the day.

    Interestingly, this sort of thing would be entirely plausible with a non-multiplexed AM link. Something similar once happened quite a lot (and may still happen): A bit of corrosion on defective metal dental work will sometimes demodulate broadcast AM signals and pass enough of the current through the auditory nerve to stimulate it (or otherwise couple it to the hearing system somehow). Result: an untuned crystal set. In an area with a single strong AM station - hearing the program material (or at least the lower-frequency portions of it, which is good enough to recognize voices). In an area with multiple strong AM stations, a cacophony - like being in a crowd with everybody talking (or playing a transistor radio tuned to a different station) at once.

    And, yes, sometimes people with such a problem end up under medical supervision for paranoia, rather than (or until) having their dental work fixed.

    While there may have been a few one-channel AM microwave links in the early days, things quickly evolved. Phone company links were digital and multiplexed by the '60s (and I'm not sure they were EVER unmultiplexed AM), and studio-to-transmitter links were FM ditto.

    I have often wondered how much of the tinfoil-hat mind-control mythos got started by the broadcast of that Twilight Zone episode. (See! The media ARE controlling people's minds with hidden broadcast signals...)
  • OK, OK, due to psychotic amount of demand, we are now offering aluminum foil covered propeller beanies. [geekculture.com]

    Just let us know when you order, (there's a comment field, and no, we will not forward your comments to the CIA) and we will wrap your precious beanie in gorgeous aluminum foil, exceeding both the USA and Canadian Paranoid Association Standards.

    Note: Gold foil will be a special order.

    8(|:-)

  • Signs (Score:1)

    by laard ( 35526 )
    There's a slight reference in "Signs" which happens to be released on video tomorrow... not prior to 1991 but it's a cool movie so I thought I'd mention it

  • Be wary of links online... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MarvinMouse ( 323641 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @12:59PM (#5026427) Homepage Journal
    Some of the psycho links aren't actually as insane as you may think...

    I used to play the game Majestic online [ea.com], and I know for a fact they set up a lot of "pseudo-pages" of companies, home pages, etc. to go along with the storyline, and some of these links that have been given are directly from that game, and a few may be from further down the road (then I was in the game), because they seem to read almost exactly the pages I saw when I was playing.

    Sure there are psychos online, but there's also a lot of pages set up for other less insiduous or insane reasons.

    Just something to think about.

  • How I discovered Tinfoil Hats. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mbstone ( 457308 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @01:18PM (#5026519)
    When I first opened my law practice, I shared a legal secretary with another lawyer.

    Part of my real-world education in solo practice was that, from time to time, I would get calls from prospective clients who were aggrieved by (alleged) mind-control rays and who wanted me to represent them against the U.S. Government or whomever. I would patiently listen to their stories, and offer to take their cases for $10,000 up front. (Mercifully, no one bit, or the state bar would have had my ass.)

    I had fun, but I got tired of being so patient a listener as I had other (billable) demands on my time. I mentioned my surprise (at the number of such calls) to my secretary, who said, "Oh. You just have to tell them to make a tinfoil hat and they'll go away. Works every time." And it did!

    100% of prospective mind-ray clients who were instructed to make tinfoil hats went away, presumably satisfied. I even got one or two nice notes in the mail, and a couple of referrals.

    Moral: There's no substitute for an experienced legal secretary.
  • What I find most interesting is what Amazon recommends others as having shopped for... "Customers who wear clothes also shop for:" is humorous in and of itself, but that they're also buying "clean underwear" [amazon.com], "Ladybug Rain Boots" [amazon.com], "Pet Socks" [amazon.com], and "Puppy Footed One-Pieces for Newborns" [amazon.com] is unsettling to say the least.

  • Former AZ Governor (Score:4, Funny)

    by carlos_benj ( 140796 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @02:21PM (#5027019) Journal
    I wonder if former AZ Governor Evan Meacham is aware of this. He used to tune multiple radios to different stations and point them at the window to foil (no pun intended - well, maybe a little) eavesdroppers. I think I saw a picture of him somewhere with an aluminum contraption on his head that was supposed to prevent his brain from being accessed (which seems to have worked pretty good since he often didn't seem to have access to it).

  • TFB - RFC 90999 (Score:3, Informative)

    by Punk Walrus ( 582794 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @02:23PM (#5027040) Journal
    Okay, if I do this search, I want to see a RFC document come out of this.

    My story stems from a congressional intern (don't laugh) under Frank Wolfe in 1986. She was a friend of mine, and told us one day that part of her job was to answer the mail that the congressman got. Everything had to be logged, filed, and in most cases, given a standard form answer. One day, she got one that went something along the lines of:

    Dear Congressman Wolfe,

    Twice I have sent letters regarding the CIA trying to beam mind-controlling microwaves into my brain, and I have gotten form responses each time. I am serious. If you don't tell me how to prevent the CIA from beaming these thoughts into my head, I will have to take action.

    Loyal Voter,
    Sylvester P. Smythe

    Or something along those lines. My friend was not exposed to much weirdness in her upscale little life, so she got very scared, and showed the congressman. He simply said (deadpan), "Type up a response telling him to wear tinfoil on his head, take his personal medications, eat more natural vegetables and thank him for being a loyal citizen." She thought he was kidding, he winked at her, and assured her that it would be okay to type that letter. "I don't want him to 'take action' or do whatever he feels necessary if we don't respond. Type it up, and I'll sign it." She did, he did, and they never heard from him again.

    We may hate politicians, but they have to put up with this kind of stuff a lot.

  • EM radiation and your brain. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chris Canfield ( 548473 ) <slashdot@@@chriscanfield...net> on Monday January 06, 2003 @04:36PM (#5028185) Homepage
    If you visit this old wired story [wired.com], there is a bit of evidence that the increasingly pervasive and increasingly intricate electrical fields we are exposed to every day may not be having a neutral effect on our mental states. The author wonders, not without reason, whether the hallucinatory effect he experienced might be related to the surprising, so far unexplained explosion of mental illness in developed nations. I remember an abnormal developmental psychologist professor from the University who said that many of the hallucinatory schizophrenics in her care had objectively fewer episodes while wearing some form of EM radiation shielding around their brains, and a good friend working in a home for mentally troubled youths seconded the assertion.

    In other words, there may be a very good health reason for the ubiquity of self-medicinal aluminium headware. Perhaps we should be attempting to investigate the link between tin hats and improvement in certain forms of mental illness, rather than simply mocking the subject (and QED anyone attempting to study it)?

  • "These customers also bought..." (Score:4, Funny)

    by tgeller ( 10260 ) on Monday January 06, 2003 @05:00PM (#5028369) Homepage
    I had to laugh when I saw that the Amazon link had the following text: Customers who wear clothes also shop for:
    • Clean Underwear from Amazon's Target Store
    • Ladybug Rain Boots from Amazon's Nordstrom Store
    • Pet Socks from Amazon's Urban Outfitters Store
    • Puppy Footed One-Pieces for Newborns from Amazon's Old Navy Store
    I think that's one hell of an ensemble, there.
  • Your mind guard link is a german metal band.

    The wonderful "MindGuard Psychotronic Mind Control Protection" software is at
    http://zapatopi.net/mindguard.html [zapatopi.net]

    Damn! You have to see the add for the Linux version!

    Rocky J. Squirrel
  • The first reference I saw to aluminum-foil hats as protective gear was in a book by Arthur Janov's books about his primal therapy. It may have been "The Primal Scream" [amazon.com]. Some patient of his was trying to avoid being beamed up to a flying saucer every night and had to wear this hat to stop it, but it didn't help much.

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