invention

the long-time sib fans in the audience will know why i share this article
with this list - it has nothing at all to do with the subject of the
article...but the amazing appearance of a little town i had only heard of
once before......

Rowdy teens beware: the Mosquito is coming
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Dec 1, 11:11 AM (ET)

LONDON (Reuters) - A Welsh inventor claims to have found the perfect
solution to rowdy youngsters -- noise.

Howard Stapleton says his device, the "Mosquito," emits an uncomfortable
high-pitched ultrasonic sound that can be heard by children and teenagers
but almost no one over 30.

It has successfully driven away noisy teens from a grocery store in the
Welsh town of Barry and a shop in Stapleton's home town Merthyr Tydfil,
making smoking, lounging and foul-mouthed youths a thing of the past.

The ability to hear high frequencies deteriorates with age, but some
adults might still be able to hear the Mosquito. No one except young
troublemakers appears annoyed, however.

"All I'm getting is pats on the back," Stapleton told Reuters. "No bricks
thrown at me yet."

He said teenagers he had talked to welcomed the device too, because they
used to be intimidated by gangs hanging around the shops.

The Mosquito has turned Stapleton into a media star, with appearances on
British TV and radio and interest from as far afield as Australia, the
United States and Canada.

-- 
michael

I want to be a lawyer.
I want to be a scholar.
But I really can't be bothered.
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!

-- kate bush, "Sat in Your Lap", from _The Dreaming_ (released in 1982)