The First Download Is Always Free
Tech radio host Kim Komando sows panic about . . . digital drugs?
But websites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.
All your child needs is a music player and headphones.
Digital drugs supposedly synchronize your brain waves with the sound. Hence, they allegedly alter your mental state.
Binaural beats create a beating sound. Other noises may be included with binaural beats. This is intended to mask their unpleasant sound.
Just like mixers do with alcohol!
Some sites provide binaural beats that have innocuous effects. For example, some claim to help you develop extrasensory powers like telepathy and psychokinesis.
Other sites offer therapeutic binaural beats. They help you relax or meditate. Some allegedly help you overcome addiction or anxiety. Others purport to help you lose weight or eliminate gray hair.
However, most sites are more sinister. They sell audio files ("doses") that supposedly mimic the effects of alcohol and marijuana.
But it doesn't end there. You'll find doses that purportedly mimic the effects of LSD, crack, heroin and other hard drugs. There are also doses of a sexual nature. I even found ones that supposedly simulate heaven and hell.
[…]
Companies that sell digital drugs claim they're safe. Supposedly, they won't affect your physical health.
Let's think about this for a moment. The sites claim binaural beats cause the same effects as illegal drugs. These drugs impair coordination and can cause hallucinations. They've caused countless fatal accidents, like traffic collisions.
If binaural beats work as promised, they are not safe. They could also create a placebo effect. The expectation elicits the response. Again, this is unsafe.
At the very least, digital drugs promote drug use. Some sites say binaural beats can be used with illegal drugs.
The sites also look favorably on the effects of illegal drugs. So, talk to your children. Make sure they understand the dangers of this culture. It could be a small jump from digital drugs to the real thing.
The Internet sure is a scary place. Probing journalist that I am, I downloaded the "marijuana, cocaine, peyote, and opium" pack from the website I-Doser. The tracks are ambient and soothing, but that's about all they did for me.
Cue legislation from outraged elected officials in 5 . . 4 . . 3 . . .
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Oh my god...stuff like this just stokes my misanthropy.
God I love the media. For someone old and unhip like me, it is very hard to know the new ways to get high. Thanks the media scare stories, even the tragically unhip and out of date like me can be on the cutting edge of mind altering experiences.
I am going to go home tonight and try this.
Bahahahaha. These are aimed at 13-year-old kids who have had a few sips of beer once, at a party. It should make them happy, because these kids will be like "Man, I tried weed on I-doser once and it sucked".
Some sites provide binaural beats that have innocuous effects. For example, some claim to help you develop extrasensory powers like telepathy and psychokinesis.
Telepathy and psychokinesis are innocuous? Hasn't she seen "X-men"? There's nothing innocuous about muties.
I am having a hard time comprehending the stupidity of this. Can someone please hit me in the head with a 9-iron, or email me some digital Quaaludes, so that I can become idiotic enough to fully get it?
Oh, for fuck's sake.
If this stuff actually could induce psychokinesis, I would dose up and make that guy's head explode.
This is the stupidest fucking thing I've read all month.
Kim Kommando should be embarrassed for having written something so insipidly retarded.
However, with a name like "Kim Kommando" I'm going to guess that she's inured to embarrassment of any sort.
Wow. Just wow. The stupidity is appalling.
I especially like how, if they work at all, she ranks telekinesis as less important than pot like effects.
If this stuff actually could induce psychokinesis, I would dose up and make that guy's head explode.
It's going to be just like Scanners! Cronenberg was right--just like always.
Did they test these virtual drugs on pet rocks to make sure they are safe?
What a coincidence! I was just listening to Portishead the other day.
Oh god, I need a drink.
Is it noon yet? Screw it, I'm starting early.
These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.
I can believe this. Natalie Merchant has the same effect on me as a rectal suppository does.
Nice, Rimfax!
Episiarch | August 12, 2008, 10:09am | #
I am having a hard time comprehending the stupidity of this. Can someone please hit me in the head with a 9-iron, or email me some digital Quaaludes, so that I can become idiotic enough to fully get it?
Hm, mabye there's a "9-iron to the head" beat...
Hm, mabye there's a "9-iron to the head" beat...
That would be any Queen song.
(flips middle finger to Queen lovers)
This is just stupid.
The only harm I can think of is that theoretically, possibly, this could induce a seizure in someone with some forms of epilepsy.
This also appeared in USA Today, Mind Hacks has a nice writeup about this absurdity as well.
http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/08/digital_drugs_emerge.html
sigh...
btw, off-topic but, anyone hear of this?
Is it noon yet? Screw it, I'm starting early.
A T-shirt I saw a few weeks ago has become my new motto:
Why wait until 5? It's 4 o'clock somewhere.
Off topic...
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/S-P-cheech-chong-spx-500/index/a/18460/from/yahoo
I vaguely remember that name. What other examples of blithering idiocy is that woman known for?
-jcr
I'm getting too old for this stuff. I remember when you could push a vinyl rock-n-roll record backwards on a turntable and hear THE VOICE OF SATAN!
skepticism about whether these drugs do what they say they do in no way exempts the government from responsibility to protect our children. Also, remember that these drugs could become a tool used by cyber predators!!!
[/typicalperson]
Everything old is new again. This is even lamer than [dayglo paint posters and black lights please]
? Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze.
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase.
They call it Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me Mellow Yellow.?
This nonsense should last just as long. Some easily deluded teens will swear it works, the ones who have sampled actual drugs will try it and call bullshit.
I heard her one minute station break clip on the radio the other day. In addition to all the stupidity that's been mentioned, what really is striking is that according to her, these clips will sell for about 5 bucks for a 30 second audio-only mp3 file.
If you want endorphins, there's a lot cheaper ways to get them on the internet.
You'll find doses that purportedly mimic the effects of LSD, crack, heroin and other hard drugs. There are also doses of a sexual nature. I even found ones that supposedly simulate heaven and hell.
Wouldn't one need to know what Heaven and Hell were like in order to simulate them?
Someone needs to direct Ms. Komando to the site where you can download files that make you less of an idiot.
Seriously, her shitty show comes on sometime during the weekend on most conservative talk-radio stations. She plays a "tech guru," but anyone here has more technology knowledge in their fingernail clippings that she.
Her listenership likely consists of five old ladies in West Palm Beach, sitting around and trying to figure out how to program their coffee makers...
This will be something good to laugh at in a decade. The hysteria!
Somehow, they're less worried about real drugs than easily accessible fake drugs. Interesting.
Kim Komando is just jealous because her voice is a digital jackhammer. Seriously, her voice is so radio-unfriendly she could be a conservative radio host.
This is news? I've owned a copy of Metal Machine Music forever!
It could be a small jump from digital drugs to the real thing.
Enya's a gateway drug now? Kudos to Kommando for not blaming Rap and Metal.
"Seriously, her shitty show comes on sometime during the weekend on most conservative talk-radio stations. She plays a "tech guru," but anyone here has more technology knowledge in their fingernail clippings that she."
Agreed, but it's not a political show per se, it's just an AM show. I know of no intelligent person who takes this person's "computer advice". It's like a talk show for the "Video Professor" crowd, much like the WestStar network's other garbage. Not a political show among them, as far as I can tell.
IDose sounds like a web-based version of this:
http://www.toolsforwellness.com/light-sound-machines.html
Agreed, but it's not a political show per se, it's just an AM show. I know of no intelligent person who takes this person's "computer advice".
I agree that she's not really political, but the only people that listen to AM radio are the drooling nutjobs looking to Savage and Hannity for talking points. So she should know her audience by now...
(My previous posts assume all NPR stations are FM by now, as I've never heard one that isn't. Not that NPR's any better, but there likely more people to be offended by that)
How cool! I'm reading Snowcrash right now.
Enya is the new crack.
Madonna is the old one.
ed,
ROTGDFLMBHMFAO!
Want to try some snow crash?
"I even found ones that supposedly simulate heaven and hell."
Simulate? Shit, just try being married to my wife...
OMG! Some evil band will probably put that marijuana dose in their music and play it on the radio! Then anyone listening to that station will get high without their consent! Even the children! There will be traffic accidents from all the drivers who are high and then some children will be killed!!! OH NOES!!! Someone should do something!
Hey, don't forget the drooling nutjobs that listen to sportstalk!
We started selling this stuff almost a decade ago.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/pen2
http://cdbaby.com/cd/pen
And we sell the good shit, none of that kid stuff...
User warning...
It is dangerous to drive while listening to our music.
These things have been around for at least as long as I've been online (I started on with an acoustic coupling modem, so that should give you some idea). There's a visual equivalent, too, that flashes your screen at certain frequencies, like the goggles.
I actually put one of these hums in the background of one of my old band's CDs.
Oh, and there's another Tym here?
They're often called "idozers" or "idosers."
The kids call it "cheesing" because it's Fon to due.
"I even found [sound files] that supposedly simulate heaven and hell."
They are known, respectively, as "Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix and "Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus.
Considering the way the WoD is going, it would appear this justifies 3am no-knock raids on any building in the country with a computer or MP3 player(along with standard dog-shooting, naturally).
Brian Eno is the new Albert Hofmann!
I first heard of i-Dozer when I was using binaural beats earlier for focus/studying and relaxation.
I predicted that these digital drugs will be deemed a threat, backed up by bunk science, and the government in coordination with media companies will use it to force DRM on all devices. Non-DRM files and devices capable of playing non-DRM audio/media will be considered contraband. For the children.
Oh come ON!
So many headlines lately. I've read them and thought, "Oh gee, someone took the Onion seriously again.." and then, it turns out no, really, this is REAL NEWS.
I think I'm going to go get high on Radiohead and go slit my wrists now.