Even if all ISPs are completely patriotic, it's hard to distinguish foreign interference from grassroots movement. You only need to look at a few recent examples, e.g. Heart of Texas. Before ISPs and Facebook realize that they have been foreign sponsored, it would have been too late after the damage is done.

And seeing how the ISPs are able to lobby the government to abolish net neutrality, they now have enough monopoly and power so that they don't have to pretend to be patriotic anymore. In many municipalities, the telecom companies have exclusive access to the utility poles so even Google Fiber can't build new Internet access. Let alone common folks like you and me. And Municipal Internet is just not happening. Here is the list of states with conditional or total ban, or minefield in their laws.

I still want to know how you got your Internet. You seem ingenuously optimistic.

That only works if all the towns only have municipal broadband that is entirely autonomous and locally administered. But the reality is that most people's Internet access are controlled by national networks. Paid prioritization just makes it easier for foreign powers to target the national network and spread fake news to the entire country of people.

How do you suppose you got your Internet access?

The US is both the most generous country in the world in terms of official foreign aid giving, and it also has the most generous private NGO givings. What Russia does with all that money behind closed curtain is to breed tonnes and tonnes of Anthrax so that even they have trouble handling the Anthrax properly.

It helps to have the correct perspective so we don't ask stupid questions.

They wanted to see which wonder material could evade radar detection among having some other useful electromagnetic properties for military applications. As part of the payload, they sent deformed humans coming from failed drug or radioactive experiments. These deformed humans were so shocking that it makes it easy to see if the aircraft was detected simply by monitoring the news media. Together with the fake news suggesting that these are extraterrestrials (tabloids were the Facebook of the yore), they have managed to deflect any suspicion of their materials and drugs research for the last 50 years or so.

I am often awe-struck by the Russian's cleverness. They are ridiculously dedicated to be excellent at strategy and intellectual prowess, if only they could direct that creative energy into making the world a better place. Unfortunately, their myopic pursuit of world power makes them do things that are morally reproachable and only causes the world to fear them. America might not have many allies today thanks to Trump who is Putin's puppet, but our allies loved us.

The charge won't build up more than electrostatic does and tends to dissipate quickly in a humid climate like Havana, so sure it's uncomfortable but it sure gets your attention that you may be under attack.

I think the more scary thought is that the weapon is low-tech enough that any random hobo could make one by tearing apart an off-the-shelf microwave oven. It doesn't take state sponsorship to do that.

There is a plausible explanation for this mysterious attack. Currently, Microwave guns that are being used for riot-control have their frequencies tuned to be absorbed by the skin, but you can lower the frequency (longer wavelength) to make the microwave penetrate deeper, literally frying the victim's brain. When the microwave cooks the auditory region, the victim hears a phantom sound.

There is no actual recording of the sound. What the AP released is just a synthesized simulation of what it might sound like to a victim under attack.