Thread by @juliaioffe

We are now firmly in the writers-writing-about-what-other-writers-have-written phase of exploring the mystery that is Havana Syndrome. Rather than doing actual reporting to clear up the mystery, commenters are commenting on other commenters' comments.
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/1…

To be clear: we don't yet know what is causing this or how. But if we're going to get meta and have humanities folks talk knowingly about the implausibility of directed energy weapons, how do you square that with, say, radiation cancer therapy, which is energy directed at cells?

Or the fact that the U.S. government already has and has publicized having a directed energy weapon? (Though this one is thermal.) Or the fact that some countries, like the U.S. and Russia, have been researching exactly this for *decades.* popsci.com/story/technolo…

Also, how are you going to say that it is implausible that the Russian security services, which love doing weird shit like killing people with poison-tipped umbrellas and putting military grade nerve agent in a Nina Ricci bottle and putting polonium in tea, wouldn't do this?

Is your argument really that this is just too weird for Russia to do? You know, the country that would fuck with elections in Madagascar just 'cause? Like, what are you going off of there when you say it's "implausible"?

Re: crickets. Diplomats in Havana who heard a crazy sound went outside to try to record what they heard on their phones. But because what they were hearing was not sound, their phones picked up crickets. What the diplomats "heard" was the "Frey effect." journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.115…

As I wrote, there's a lot we still don't know and civilian leaders are being extra careful about getting the attribution right. That said, it would be great if everyone opining on this read something other than other people opining on this. puck.news/havana-syndrom…

Or, you know, talked to someone.

P.S. @dandrezner I love you, but come on.

@dandrezner P.P.S. For people who think these are panic attacks or hangovers (?!), take a look at this paper, which analyzed the pupillary light reflexes of a control group, a group with TBI, and people who have Havana Syndrome.

frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

They found that each group, including the HS group, had a distinct pattern to their reflexes (thus providing a potential diagnostic tool for HS). You can't fake your eye reflexes. Nor is this what happens to your brain/pupils with a panic attack.

Anyway, I love everyone on Twitter who went from being a Russia expert to a plane crash expert to a virology expert to a neurology/directed energy expert. Impressive range, really.