torture

We try to avoid politics at Synthtopia, because we’d rather be thinking about patching a synthesizer than thinking about patching up the country. 

We know you don’t come to Synthtopia to read about politics – you may even come to the site to escape it for a while. 

But – can George W. Bush be gone soon enough?

Bush’s legacy to his country will be 8 years of incompetent administration, the worst deficits in history and laying waste to traditional Republican values.

You might think that music and musicians could escape George W. Bush, but no. 

Massive Attack has publicly condemned the use of their music by the Bush administration as a tool for interrogation and torture.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor has just made this statement, Regarding NIN music used at Guantanamo Bay for torture:

It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more profoundly insulting, demeaning and enraging than discovering music you’ve put your heart and soul into creating has been used for purposes of torture.

If there are any legal options that can be realistically taken they will be aggressively pursued, with any potential monetary gains donated to human rights charities.

Thank GOD this country has appeared to side with reason and we can put the Bush administration’s reign of power, greed, lawlessness and madness behind us.

When news like this comes out, you realize that you can’t ignore it, compartmentalize it or think that this stuff won’t affect what you do. 

George W. Bush has bought the domain name for his Presidential library back from cybersquatters – so lets hope that he gets to work on patching up his legacy, so we can think about patching up ours.

Controversy is brewing over a wall-mounted gadget that tortures teens and young adults with sound.

The Mosquito, which is designed to target loiterers, projects a shrill noise reported to be only audible to teens and young adults. Nearly 1,000 units of the device have been sold in the United States and Canada, sold under the company name Kids Be Gone.

“It’s horrible, loud and irritating,” said Eddie Holder, 15. The device was installed outside his building to drive away loiterers. “I have to hurry out of the building because it’s so annoying. It’s this screeching sound that you have to get away from or it will drive you crazy.”

According to the manufacturer, the noise can be heard by animals and babies, but is bothersome only to children older than 12 and becomes unbearable after several minutes, making it a perfect teen-repellent.

For the record, I think torturing kids with sound is sick and wrong. Kids are supposed to be torturing adults with sound!

Get this shit wrong, and they’ll all turn out to be Michael Bolton fans, and then where the @#$# will we be?

Get these kids some music that really annoys adults and you know that they’ll turn out a lot better than if you try to chase them off with noisemakers.

If you could hack this thing to trigger it via MIDI, though, you might have something.

Image: you-did