Non Conforming Letter: Fill & Download for Free

Years ago , the next door neighbor, would ride around and make notes then anonymously mail letters to people telling them what was wrong. Like your grass is mowed too short. Or too long. Or your porch needs paint. And all sorts of silly things. Then he'd write that he wanted these things taken care of in a second letter.He had a thing about lights . He wanted lights that were for security and safety to be shut off because they kept him awake. He didn't believe in window curtains. So, city came and put shades on lights that were in the city poles. I put a cone shade on my front porch light. He came onto my back porch which had a non cone shade. He took a two by four and snapped off the light fixture. Several times , once I actually saw him do it.he had an odd hobby. He would sneak around with a red flash light after dark. I mean that the light that came out of the front was red tint. Looking into houses . I saw him and recognized his face. His face was smooshed against the glass on one side with his hands cupped around his eyes. My face and hands was on the other side of the glass the same way.After that he wore a face mask. He wanted to know what we were doing and how our houses looked inside. I'd see a red light come thru the window. I'd see his face and when in face mask later still knew it was him. Could tell by his shape. Also , the dog hated him so barked his stranger bark .So, some of us wives met his wife on his front porch when we knew he wasn't home. We discussed how hard it was for us to feel safe with this happening and hoped she was feeling safe. Because our husbands had started calling the police who had increased patrols trying to catch the sneak. Oh she was worried too. As if she didn't know. He would do this after she was asleep. But , it stopped.I know because my dog quit telling me of his stranger bark at night. And I stopped seeing him sneaking and peeking with his red flashlite. Later they were divorced house was sold. To ordinary people.

Because even really cool things come with major strategical weaknesses. Namely, that the other guy is still using a gun.That isn't to say we haven't already invested billions in non-lethal tech.This is the LRAD or Long Range Acoustic Device. This is a device that can "fire" ultrasonic waves of acoustic energy at a person or group. It can also be used as a communication tool to a very large area in either a cone or beam in front of the device. It is able to upload any soundbite or recording to be played. We had one on our ECP location in Iraq in 2008. While it would have been nice to use in a real situation, mostly we just used to play crystal clear Shoppe Boys "Party Like a Rock Star" for the better part of a quarter mile. We also got bored and asked ourselves the question... "I wonder what it feels like." From personal experience I can tell you, when it is turned on high and you are in front of from within 50 yards, it really sucks to stand still. This absolutely can't kill you though.Another cool toy in non-lethal weapons tech is this. On this Humvee is something really cool. It fires a beam of straight heat. I have never experienced them in person, but demonstrations I have seen on volunteers show them to be absolutely unbearable to stand in front of. That isn't to say that the US Military devised a death ray, in case you're the idiot that thought that. It fires a directed energy beam that is capable of causing a sudden burning sensation on those in front it which initiates the flight reflex. It is made to make people run away. This is used for breaking up riots and the worst that it could possibly do to is give someone a second degree burn.These are some of the military's coolest non-lethal weapons. So what is the problem and why don't we make more?Well for starters we do. A lot of those "weapons" you see used by police were actually invented for the military before being adopted by civilian forces. It seems they also have a need to apprehend bad guys without killing them. Just wanted to make sure people knew that.The big problem, though, is that if you look at devices like Tasers, the LRAD, water cannons, rubber bullets and almost all other non-lethal weapons systems, you have to basically be face-to-face with the target to deliver it. Remember that the enemy in these cases isn't a unbathed rioter high on mushrooms and idealism in the streets of Manhattan armed with sticks and bricks. This is most likely a trained insurgent armed with a 7.62 caliber automatic rifle who wants very dearly to be able to kill you. For all these non-lethal measures to work you are asking a person to knowingly get deep within his target's weapons range (which far outstretches yours) and hope that your pea shooter weapons are able to somehow incapacitate him before he kills you. Most of these weapons can at best stun, which means the enemy can recover and try to kill you. If they have a real range, their effectiveness greatly diminishes with distance, such as rubber bullets and flash grenades. Most of the riot control weapons are immobile devices and require massive power to work. Also, they aren't really made to disable anyone. They are meant to move them. They are supposed to be used break up crowds of violent civilians. At best you might be able to herd insurgents where you want them to be for capture I suppose, but right now they are still to weak to not be taken out by a single well aimed shot. This would also leave the vehicle deep in the kill zone of enemy weapons without its primary defense. To many in the military, they might as well be asked to walk up to the enemy and hand them a letter saying, "Please come along quietly." or perhaps deliver a cake.Conventional weapons, however, take a lot of the risk out of the confrontation. Most kills in modern warfare don't happen because someone kicks in a door and stabs a dude in the throat, shoots someone in the face or throws a grenade. They happen because someone called in an artillery or air strike. From there precision guided munitions or well trained pilots deliver military ordnance (stuff that blows up other stuff) on the target from as safe a distance as possible. There is a reason that the American military boasts such a staggeringly low casualty rate from combat action. We would much rather just kill the bad guy then put our own people at risk. Few bad guys have ever been so valuable alive to be worth putting an American in their sights. And to do that just because it feels like the nice thing to do would probably get your face kicked in by the military bullet sponge you're asking to do it. That's really the crux of why non-lethal doesn't work for the military. You shouldn't risk your own troops lives to protect the lives of your enemy.If you want to create a non-lethal war you would have to invest, not billions, but trillions to completely redesign how warfare is carried out. You would also have to hope that the other guys also stop trying to come up with lethal measures to what you are doing now. Throwing a few billion at it also won't solve the problem. It gets exponentially more expensive not to kill someone than it does to kill them. Perhaps many billions would, but only "a few" billion would probably only just create another new niche toy only good for a few times that don't really happen that often.We now have the ultimate weapon. And now we wait for an opportunity to use it.Thanks for reading!For more answers like this check out Jus in Bello - Ethics in War by Jon Davis and follow my blog War Elephant for more new content. Everything I write is completely independent research and is supported by fan and follower pledges. Please consider showing your support directly by visiting my Patreon support page here: Jon Davis on Patreon: Help support in writing Military Novels, Articles, and Essays.

Superpower: Extraordinary Vision!Many people on the autism spectrum report heightened sensory perceptions, and research confirms this![1]For example being able to read tiny text like the small print on the back of products from across a room.Below is the world’s smallest book (Teeny Ted from Turnip Town), next to a minute scratch…you need an electron microscope to read it…Or maybe just an autistic with Extraordinary Vision ;)Our brains have allocated more brain resources in the areas associated with visual detection resulting in visual hypersensitivity.Image attribution: VisionSpecifically autistics have more brain resources associated with visual detection and identification (but less activity in the areas used to plan and control thoughts and actions).[2]This results in outstanding capacities in visual tasks.Instead of playing Where’s Waldo?, we play Here’s Waldo!Image attribution: Where’s Waldo? That’s EasyWe can see changes in the gap size on a screen filled with the letter C, much better than neurotypicals.[3]We grow up not knowing that others do not see the world the same as us…they don’t see air particulates, some of us do:My bed was surrounded and totally encased by tiny spots which I called stars, like some kind of mystical glass coffin. I have since learned that they are actually airborne particulates yet my vision was so hypersensitive that they often became a hypnotic foreground with the rest of ‘the world’ fading away .[4]Image credit: Martin SilvertantAnd if that does not convince you of our Super Powers, we have the visual acuity of birds of prey. What a neurotypical can see at 7 feet, we can see at 20 feet on average![5]Image attribution: RaptorWe have increased pattern recognition.Autistics exhibit more activity in the temporal and occipital regions and less activity in frontal cortex than non-autistics. The identified temporal and occipital regions are typically involved in perceiving and recognizing patterns and objects.[6]It is all in the detail!We see more details than a neurotypical, because we process a greater amount of sensory information. While neurotypicals focus on faces, we look around and see the details.Image attribution: Can’t See the Forest for the TreesWhen you show a neurotypical and an autistic a forest, they do see the trees…But we (people with ASD) also see the insects, flowers, moss etc.In addition, people with ASD are less susceptible to visual illusions…Image attribution: Optical IllusionsThis is because we tend to focus on the details as opposed to the gestalt.And finally we have an increased ability to identify colours!Our rods and cones are different. 85% of us see colours with greater intensity than neurotypicals, with red appearing nearly fluorescent; 10% saw red as neurotypical children do; and 5% saw muted colours.Image credit: Martin SilvertantFor more information on autism, visit EmbraceASD.comJoin our community on Facebook here: Embrace ASD GroupFootnotes[1] Visual Acuity in Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome: No Evidence for “Eagle-Eyed” Vision[2] New research explains autistic's exceptional visual abilities[3] Brief report: the relationship between visual acuity, the embedded figures test and systemizing in autism spectrum disorders.[4] Autism and Asperger Syndrome[5] Talent in autism: hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity[6] New research explains autistic's exceptional visual abilities