A Different Prospective from the "Other Side" --Vietnam.

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/

tschuckman@aol.com


Received this from a friend and wanted to share.

Bob C- "Greyhound Two"

Rather interesting read from the "guy on the other end of the rifle barrel". 

8 Things Vietnam War Movies Leave Out (By an Enemy Soldier)

By Evan V. Symon ,  Nguyen Hoa Giai March 27, 2015

 

Even if your knowledge of the Vietnam War comes exclusively from Hollywood films and Texan textbooks that only refer to it as "that one the good guys lost," you've probably heard about the Viet Cong. They were a bunch of jungle-fighting guerrilla warriors who killed American boys via night-time ambushes and terrifying traps. Well, that's one side of the story. Here's another: They were a bunch of scared (mostly) young kids fighting in a massive conflict for very personal reasons. We sent a writer out to Vietnam to speak with Nguyen Hoa Giai. He fought as a Viet Cong from the late 1950s to the end of the war in the mid-'70s. Here's what he told us.

#8. We Weren't All Communists; We Just Wanted Independence, or Revenge

 

I became a Viet Cong guerrilla in the late 1950s, when I was 15. It wasn't because I was a Communist, or because I ran away to join the circus and just got wildly sidetracked. My uncle actually fought on Ho Chi Minh's side of things during WWII when the resistance against Japanese occupation was actually funded by the Americans and Brits. Here he is palling around with Allied soldiers:

"Everybody stop the colonial exploitation for a minute and scrunch up!"

 

I was just mad at how the South was pushing all of its excess money into the major cities like Saigon. The South Vietnamese government seemed to ignore small towns and villages, like mine. Ngo Dinh Diem (the leader of South Vietnam at the time) even took away our farms and put them under the control of a single rich guy who'd supported the French in World War II. This happened all over South Vietnam and was called "land reform," rather than the far more accurate "serious, deep, and exploratory boning."

The French, who had controlled Vietnam since the 1800s, always saw the locals as "lower," and we never forgave them for refusing to give us independence. Ho Chi Minh was snubbed twice, and after the second time he reacted. My uncle also wanted independence and would do anything, including support Communism, to get it.

Banner politics don't really leave a lot of space for nuance.

 

Once the fighting started, a lot of people died, well over a million on our side alone. For the war to continue, a constant stream of new fighters had to join up, and they didn't have the benefit of such luxuries as "functional equipment" or "the slightest idea what to do." Over 90 percent of these new recruits were teenagers or younger. Many of them weren't even particularly invested in the "cause" itself. Supporting Communism or the dream of a united Vietnam was less a motivator than wanting revenge for the death of a parent, loved one, or child. The Viet Cong (literally: the National Liberation Front or just "the front") were just a means for securing that revenge.

 

Most of them were aware that Stalin and Mao each had movements named after them (Stalinism and Maoism), so they just assumed Socialism was named after a guy named Social and Communism was named after a guy named Commun. A distressing number of my co-soldiers still thought we were fighting France. They knew of Ho Chi Minh, but only in vague propagandistic terms, not the man's actual history. When we told them we wanted a Socialist society, they just said yes because they were mostly poor, grieving peasants living through a shortage of damns, and thus had none to spare for politics.

#7. We Were Just as Scared of the Jungle as the Americans Were

Your movies tend to portray the Viet Cong as deadly jungle warriors, blending into the foliage and melting out of the wild to launch continuous surprise assaults on various Rambos. That's all a big load of crap: Many of us (including me) came from border towns and grew up in the hills or the mountains. We had no more mastery over the jungle than a kid from Oregon has over Death Valley.

Your bamboo-frame bicycles and gluten-free kale fritters won't help you here, fellas.

 

So the jungle was alien to many of us, and unlike most of the American soldiers, we were stuck spending our entire war there. My uncle and I didn't trust the tunnel systems many of the other VC used. They were prone to collapse, and if that happened over a barracks or a mess hall it was likely to kill more people than an air raid. So we did most of our moving around outside, under the questionable cover of grass mats. This meant we were not only completely open to rain storms ... but also to murderous animals. It's easy to forget, amid all the drama of war, that there were tigers in that jungle. Easy to forget until you met a goddamn tiger, that is.

Despite what The Jungle Book may lead you to believe, alpha predators are very rarely interested in singalongs.

Tigers may be shy, but every once in a while one of us would disappear in the middle of the night, and we'd all just sort of understand why. Tigers don't exactly do end-zone dances after every kill, after all.

 

And so many people were killed by snakes. There were also rats as large as cats, mosquitoes, spiders, and centipedes to contend with. While you won't usually die from a centipede bite, one of my co-guerrillas committed suicide after being bitten because the pain was so intense.

Armed adversaries give you comparatively good odds of survival. Mother Nature has things uglier than bullets in her arsenal.

#6. The Fighting Looked Nothing Like the Movies

Movies always make the fighting between Viet Cong and American soldiers look like gruesome, close-up gunfighting. That kind of stuff happened, sure, but only when absolutely everyone fucked up. In reality, even when we were shooting at the enemy, we usually couldn't see them. There'd be muzzle flashes or tracers in the distance, and we'd just fire at those. During more than a decade of fighting, I saw living enemy soldiers up close only three times.

 

The first time was right after a firefight, and we were shocked to see how blackened the bodies were. We thought they must have been charred by an explosion until we realized their skin was naturally black. None of us had seen a black person before. Some people thought they were myths. All of them were either dead or near-death. We shot the wounded survivors with a pistol. We were in no condition to provide them with medical care. It seemed kinder than letting them bleed out. We didn't torture them or take any pleasure in the deaths. The younger guerrillas, who were less attuned to death, even cried.

It's almost enough to make you wonder if the human psyche might not
be built for life in a war zone.

 

Thanks to Hollywood, you probably picture the VC as constantly popping out of holes in the ground like deadly gophers. But like I said before, my group avoided those cramped, rickety tunnels full of death traps like, well ... like cramped, rickety tunnels full of death traps. You don't need an analogy to understand why that sounds like a bad idea. But sometimes we'd have to go really far south, or there'd be exceptionally clear skies and we'd decide that the tunnel sounded like marginally more fun than a bomb. The tunnels were essential for a lot of the VC, though, especially around Saigon.

 

Unlike living under the mats, tunnel living was a whole different world. The big ones had a kitchen area, with a smokestack jutting out sideways so the smoke would billow out far away. There was always rice, usually along with a vegetable or meat (rat or monkey).

You may note that the rumpus room is conspicuously absent.

 

But, as always, the great outdoors was the best bathroom. We generally had to wait for nightfall to relieve ourselves, but if it was an emergency, well ... you just kind of hope the bomb hits you direct, so nobody sees that you died squatting with your pants around your ankles. Once, in a tunnel near the Laotian border, we even made a fun game: The goal was to be the person who could finish their business outside first. We all got pretty good at this, but once a guy panicked when he heard the distant drone of a plane's engine. He leapt back in, spraying piss everywhere.

 

It turned out the plane was North Vietnamese. Everyone laughed, except the guy who'd sprayed us with his pee: He'd been the record-holder prior to that point, and now his record was irrevocably tarnished.

With pee.

#5. We Were the Biggest Threat to Our Own Safety

On a day-to-day basis, enemy soldiers weren't our biggest threat. We saw more American leaflets and trash piles than actual combatants:

"Your mother isn't entrenched here; please clean up after yourselves."

 

My group's job was mainly to observe troops near the Ho Chi Minh trail. Again, we only got into fights when someone screwed up. But we didn't need any help, American or otherwise, to get ourselves killed and mangled: Recruiting undisciplined kids and giving them more responsibility than a Tamagotchi will see to that.

 

Sure, there were VC training centers, but local recruits rarely attended. For every trained person we got through a camp, three more came from the surrounding area with only the vaguest idea of what a gun was. We provided on-the-job training to our guerrillas, and that led to disaster. I remember teaching one recruit, about 17 years old, how to throw a grenade. He pulled the pin then asked us what to do next. We were shouting at him to toss it, but he just waved at us, and watched the fuse burn up to the shell. It exploded. So did he.

 

Another recruit was given a Chinese AK to stand guard with, and then later that day he was asked to cut down a tree branch to give us better visibility for the night. Instead of asking for a saw, he flipped the AK on automatic and proceeded to shoot the branch down. The branch came down, but a bullet ricocheted off and killed him. So we had to bury him, as well as find a new position. His shooting had given us away.

Before you go Ramboing up the yard work, remember there's a reason you don't see these at the hardware store.

 

#4. Our Best Gear Was Old Junk, and It Usually Came From America

Because we were on the front lines of South Vietnam, we were pretty far down the food chain when it came to getting weapons. Some came in through the Ho Chi Minh trail, but most of those went to the VC outside of Saigon. With the NVA above us and more critical Viet Cong below us, the guerrillas in the middle got the "short bus" weapons.

 

It worked like this: The Soviets would make a bunch of AK-47s and send them to China. The Chinese would keep the Russian AKs and replace them with inferior knockoffs that they'd produced. The North Vietnamese Army got the Chinese weapons, along with whatever WWII-era crap they had left over. Since all of the "good" weapons from this already-bad lot went to the NVA and VC near major cities, we mostly wound up with antiques -- and not even the nice, collectible antiques that old ladies build nests out of. Just old junk.

Which may explain why some of the most feared weapons of the war look like they came from a scrapyard.

 

Ironically enough, most of them were originally American made. M1s (I remember the iconic "ping" sound) and Thompsons were the norm in the early years. After fights, there were always enemy M16s scattered about, but we didn't touch those -- they never worked right. In one of the few true close-in fights we had with the Americans, they were actually using AK-47s against us. The American rifles were that bad.

Your tax dollars at work.

Toward the end of American involvement, we were just getting mortars and mortar shells. The North Vietnamese army was stockpiling everything else for an invasion of the South. In the jungle where we were, fired mortar shells could hit a tree branch and go off prematurely, killing us. So we had to find a way to use them, which required a lot of trial and error. I was in my late 20s by this time and by far the oldest living guy in my squad, so everyone else (all but one a teenager or younger) asked me to figure out something that worked.

 

What followed was a disastrous slapstick montage -- people were physically holding the mortar at chest level and firing horizontally (and then flying backwards from the force of the weapon). We eventually got the idea to tie them onto trees, with the backs of the mortars against the trunk. It made one giant 360-degree cannon. As long as it wasn't fired with another tree right in front of it, it seemed to work pretty well.

"Could we just eliminate the tube altogether and launch the shells out of a big slingshot?"

 

And yes, we made traps, including those iconic tiger traps with spikes on the bottom. Those actually were made more with tigers in mind than any hope of spearing American GIs. It's, uh ... it's right there in the name, really. Seriously, tigers are fucking terrifying.

#3. Our Side's War Crimes Were Often Glossed Over

 

Whenever "Vietnam War crimes" are mentioned in the West, people think of My Lai or Agent Orange being dumped over large swaths of forests. Those are both awful things. But, for whatever reason, my own side gets to walk away whistling suspiciously.

 

 

"Hue? Hue who?"

That shouldn't be the case: We committed war crimes on a regular basis. How do I know? I saw them. The North Vietnamese Army would purposely target hospitals and medical areas, because that was where they could do the most damage. I wouldn't have believed it if somebody had just told me back during the war -- but I saw it happen at a base in the Quang Tri area and heard the order given when we briefly came to an NVA area to get new orders. We were also occasionally called away from the trail to watch over a VC or NVA firefight -- having long-range rifles as support was effective. But many of us would stop firing when we saw villages going up in smoke or villagers being shot. The VC and NVA weren't always sure if people near the border were pro- or anti-American, so rather than take chances, they went by the "atrocity them all and let god cry it out" philosophy.

#2. No One Really "Survives" a War Intact

In 1974, with the U.S. out and South Vietnam operations winding down, my VC group was allowed to go home. I took the trails up to my village. As I approached, I started noticing odd things. Signs were gone, no kids came begging, no travelers walked the paths to and from the town. It all seemed too quiet. I remember running up to my village to find nothing. It was literally all gone.

 

I found only traces of burned buildings under the dirt. When I went to the hill outside my village I saw a new indentation in the land. It wasn't a crater from a bomb; it was a mass grave. And despite knowing what I was going to find, I dug it up.

I found the remains of my neighbors and family inside.

 

To this day I have no idea if the North Vietnamese, the Americans, or someone else was responsible. But the way everything was just covered by a bulldozer indicated the North Vietnamese. Everyone but my youngest brother was gone (and he would die during the Chinese War five years later). I'm not special. Ask any older Vietnamese person: They've all lost many, many loved ones. And not always due to America or its allies. I never expected to survive 10 years at the front. And, to be honest, I still don't really feel like I survived.

#1. Only Time and Support Can Heal Wounds

After the war, I moved to Saigon. At that point I'd never lived in a city and had spent half my life utterly detached from society. All I knew was how to hide, kill, and drill. It came out everywhere I went. I fought people because of the way they were carrying a loaf of bread, because it looked like they were smuggling a radio. I had the bathtub taken out of my apartment and built a custom one out of metal, tarps, and dirt -- to simulate bathing in a river. In hip U.S. neighborhoods, they'd call that something like "paleo bathing" and charge you a fortune for it, but I just knew no other way to be. I had to be reminded constantly to pay for things, because I was just so used to taking them. I struggled with PTSD and depression. I thought a lot about suicide.

 

In a weird way, Communism actually helped keep me alive. Workers in unified Vietnam were forced to socialize with each other during breaks and lunch. That's down to the whole "commune" part of "Communism." Lone wolves might have strange ideas; they might not be committed to the party. I started talking with others around me to avoid suspicion and found that, to my surprise, human interaction has some kind of value.

Go figure.

Many of them had similar experiences: They'd lived, but they had lost their family and friends in horrific ways. Over months and years of breaks, lunches, and trade meetings, my group of co-workers turned into a "Depression Anonymous" support group.

 

Life is much better now. By the 1990s, the U.S., Australia, and South Korea all more or less apologized for their role in the war. Today, the U.S. is actually viewed favorably by over three-quarters of the population. The general negative feelings are actually aimed more at France and China than the U.S., since you guys at least apologized. I've personally forgiven the U.S. and everyone else for their involvement in the war. I lost my entire family, but I managed to start a new one with a wife who also lost nearly everyone, including her husband, in the war.

We're all building a whole out of pieces.

 

I went back to the site of my village a few years ago and found it to be a forest. The sunken area with the grave is still there, but there is a small memorial with trees growing over it. It made me feel oddly at peace: Death had been covered by new life.

 

Evan V. Symon is the interview finder at Cracked and was honored to talk with Nguyen.

 

Marital Law... soon.

Tom's Journal. http://tomschuckmanjournal.blogspot.com/

tschuckman@aol.com

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/27747/incredible-drone-footage-shows-saigons-changing-face-40-years-on     


Friends,  Please bare in mind that the author of the following message is  a bold Christian, who prob. knows that he will also someday soon be interned into some remote FEMA camp !     I believe he is also affiliated with the publishers of the fine:  DEFINED KJV Bible, that has helped so many Christians better  understand the Scriptures in their purest form, albeit "Old English" --- at least in Shakespeare's  time....  1610 AD.     The older, 'archaic' terms are in bold print and defined at the bottom of each page... and that is a great help to old farm boys like me in Wisconsin...  lol.   You can read and study the Bible all your life, but if you have NOT the Holy Spirit, and a humble, meek  heart,  you prob. won't get the correct  meaning/ value  of it, IMHO.     That's why so many super, uber, "educated," PRIDEFUL people in the world will NEVER get the true meaning of the Scriptures !!   And heaven will prob. be out of their reach....  sad.   I admit that I have a lot to work on,  but I know that I am Saved.

One Cross + 3 nails= the Gospel, and Salvation, so I've heard.   Those folks who cannot or will not bend knee to Jesus and confess Him, will not inherit the Kingdom.  

Regards,
Tommy Schuckman

Martial Law In The USA  Has Happened Before
                   120,000 Innocent Patriots Imprisoned
                      “In Relocation” Camps For 2 Years
                                        By Bob Parker
                             Received April 28, 2015

I Challenge You To Read Every Word Of This Serious Situation Coming Soon In Our USA! 
(DAW)

Once upon a time...

In one of the greatest countries on Earth...a law was passed which negated the rights of certain citizens.

Overnight, 120,000 innocent patriots were rounded up...stripped of all rights and property...and locked up in "relocation" camps for 2 long years.

Without any warning, they were branded as potential terrorists, and suddenly had everything taken from them...their homes... their freedom...their dignity...and all in the name of "national security."

The scariest part of this story? This didn't take place in Russia or China...or in some Third World country...

It happened right here - in the United States of America.

Hi, my name is Bob Parker, and in this short presentation that could be taken down at any minute I'm going to show you right now how martial law can...and almost certainly will...be implemented again... sooner than you think... and when this happens, you will be robbed of your most basic rights in a blink of an eye.

I will expose the truth about a dark chapter in the history of our nation, that could repeat itself this very year when anarchy comes to the US... virtually guaranteeing a "front-row seat" for preppers, patriots and all the other "enemies" of the liberal socialist agenda.

But more importantly, if you stay with me until the very end of this brief presentation, I will show you one of the most powerful ways to "opt out" of a martial law scenario... stay out of "relocation camps"... and keep your personal freedom intact... even as your neighbours and their children are being held at gunpoint by militarized policemen.

Not because it was cool, not because it made for interesting conversation... but because after decades of studying the violent history of this world, prepping seemed like the only common sense thing to do...

In my research, I grew interested in the concept of martial law, and how likely it was that we will experience such a scenario in the near future.

What I uncovered shocked me to the core...

Because the next few months are likely to mark a crucial turning point in America's history...and the results will almost certainly prove to be devastating for the vast majority of the population.

And you need to know what to expect and how you and your family can avoid being shipped to a FEMA camp...how you can avoid a bloody showdown with the authorities...how you can not only survive...but even thrive...once martial law has been put into place.

Many patriots are asking: "Can martial law really happen in the USA?". But it's a question that shouldn't even be asked. Because martial law happened before... on US soil... and not just once.

Less than ten years ago, Americans were given a glimpse of what it means to live under it.

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the Feds rushed in and confiscated more than 1000 firearms owned by law-abiding citizens - leaving them unprepared to defend themselves against the real criminals who, of course, still had their own illegal weapons at hand.

As curfews were set in place, average citizens like you and I were left defenseless, caught between armed Federal troops on the one hand and gangs of armed looters on the other.

Yet Katrina was far from an isolated incident. Americans got another nasty preview of martial law in the spring of 2013...

The Boston Bombings proved that martial law can be enacted at a moment's notice and that our government will not hesitate to suspend citizen's rights in the name of anti-terrorism.

In this case, an entire major US city was shut down, with tanks rolling through the streets and militarized police breaking down people's doors at random.

No search warrants, no warnings - innocent citizens were held at gunpoint while their homes were searched, and their registered guns confiscated.

But these are just some local events. This could never happen on a national scale...or could it?

As disturbing as they are, the above examples pale in comparison to what happened during WWII...right here in America.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, the US government made a shocking decision that resulted in the unjust imprisonment of over 120,000 law abiding American citizens.

These were regular folks... some of them, genuine patriots who were owning legitimate businesses... were working in factories... or were actively contributing to the war effort.

Their only fault, and the sole reason why their fate was sealed? Their parents and grandparents were Japanese.

These were NOT illegal immigrants, terrorists, criminals or even refugees...they were ordinary American citizens... who were herded into internment camps...losing their homes...losing everything.... just because some bureaucrat labeled them "the enemy of the State"

During the same time, the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team was making history. This was a legendary unit made out of Americans with Japanese heritage who fought the Nazis in Europe... and who by the end of the war became the most decorated infantry regiment in our nation's history.
infantry

"They were superb! They showed rare courage and tremendous fighting spirit."

General George Marshall remarked.

These brave men fought and died for our country while their mothers and fathers...their wives and children...their friends and relatives were being rounded up and treated like cattle.

What's this got to do with you?

Let me put it this way: The next time this happens, it won't be the Americans with Japanese ancestry behind the barbed wire.

And if you're "clinging to your guns and to your religion"... if you believe in one nation under God... if you uphold the 2nd Amendment not to defend yourself... but to defend this great country from a tyrannical government... then you could be labelled a "terrorist", and become the next "enemy of the state."

The government is busy disarming its citizens, while building up a massive domestic military presence designed to exert control over us in the event of a "national emergency."

Some are convinced that their agenda is to gain complete dominance over the population. Once there's no more chance of armed revolt...no chance of the citizenry rising up against them...our corrupted so-called "leaders" can finally implement the plans they've had in store for us all along.

The only obstacles in their way are us patriots who cling to our principles...who aren't afraid to exercise our rights and our freedoms...and who haven't allowed ourselves to become silenced.

It seems that in the new America, if you own guns and are skeptical of the government...you are already a suspected terrorist.

If you support the NRA and believe in stockpiling food, water and ammo...you are on a list somewhere.

If you are a veteran who speaks out for other veterans...you are highly suspect.

And the fact is, the government is preparing for something BIG.

Many Americans aren't aware of the fact that dozens of federal agencies are becoming increasingly militarized. And we're not just talking about the ATF or the Bureau of Land Management.

Did you know that the Department of Agriculture has its own SWAT team?

Or how about the Consumer Product Safety Commission?

In fact, agencies you have probably never even heard of now have their own SWAT teams.

You may also not be aware that "homeland-security grants" have been given to local police forces across the nation, encouraging them to create their own paramilitary SWAT units.

There are now more than 50,000 raids carried out by local police SWAT teams every year.

Compare that figure to the 3000 per year that were conducted in the 1980's and you'll begin to get the picture.

So what reason could they possibly use to instate martial law? One in particular is making patriots uneasy.

For several years now, China, Russia, and the oil-producing Middle Eastern countries have been discussing moving away from the dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Everyone knows this will happen eventually, but it now appears that it may very well happen in the next few months.

Our ever-increasing debt and general downward economic spiral may very well trigger the 5th and final stage of our complete economic collapse.

If Russia drops the dollar, and if other nations follow suit - which at this point, many of them likely will - our teetering economy will not be able to withstand the blow.

When the collapse comes, events will unfold rapidly. Once the American people realize the seriousness of their predicament, we will have mass demonstrations and riots.

In fact, all hell may break loose in various cities across the nation, with police clashing violently with desperate and angry citizens.

And that will only give the government a free pass to do what it's been trying to do for decades: to come after us.

It won't take long before the government begins to act...rounding up those who display any sort of independent spirit...those patriots who are looked to for leadership by their peers...even those who merely own registered firearms.

Preppers, conservatives, Tea Party members, NRA members - we are the ones the government is most afraid of.

And when they come into our homes, no one will be here to help us.

Very few cried for the Japanese-Americans and even fewer will cry for patriots when they begin to round us up.

The manipulated liberal media has painted true patriots as crazed right-wing, tin-foil hat, trigger-happy extremists, and much of mainstream America has taken the bait.

Once martial law is put into effect, there won't be any warnings...no search warrants...no due process...there won't even be a knock at the door.

No, what's much more likely to happen is that one night...while you're peacefully sleeping...you'll be awakened by blinding lights and the sound of screaming as you and your family members are dragged out of bed at gunpoint.

After your guns, your property and all your belongings are confiscated in the name of national security, you and your family are taken away to live in a FEMA camp until the government has decided you're no longer a threat.

I pray that this never happens to you or me, but the reality is that it very well might.

                  [The article goes on, but I’m stopping here.  DAW] 

****************************************************************************
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The Mark: Will You Wear This “Beast Tech” Digital Tattoo That Can Read Your Mind And Operate Your Devices?

Mac Slavo April 27th, 2015 SHTFplan.com Comments (135) Read by 7,499 people

247   17   315

Over the next several years we’ll begin to see advanced bio-technologies hit the retail market. According to Tom Horn, author of On the Path of the Immortals, this Beast Tech could lead to the eventual extinction of the human race as we know it today.
Google engineers, for example, are working on life-extending technologies that will directly modify our DNA to keep us alive longer. Some have suggested that in the near future it will not be out of the question to live for 150 years or more.
The advancements are happening at such an incredible pace that it’s difficult to keep up.
Last month scientists announced that they have successfully brought back the Woolly Mammoth and spliced it with the genes of an Asian elephant. And just a couple of weeks ago Chinese researchers edited the genes of a human embryo, opening the door to the real possibility of not just curing disease before a child is even born, but enhancing them with faster muscles, a more intelligent brain, or better eye sight.
Many of the real-world applications for DNA modification technologies are still some years out but the evolution towards technologies that will change a human to a cyborg are taking place right now.
Take, for example, a new tattoo that is applied behind the ear. Once installed and integrated, the tattoo will not only act like an EEG and be able to identify your moods, but it will also be able to “listen” to your brain to launch applications, control home devices like your coffee machine or TV on demand, and they’ll eventually even eliminate your mobile phone because the speaker and microphone will be built right in.

It promises to let us monitor our brains discreetly 24 hours a day, and can be worn continuously for two weeks, staying put whether you’re swimming, running or sleeping.
John Rogers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led the team that built the device, which is so light that it sticks to the skin through van der Waals force – the same mechanism that lets geckos’ feet stick to surfaces. It only falls off when the build-up of dead skin beneath it makes it lose its grip.
Comprising just a small patch of gold electrodes on and behind the ear, it beats the existing tech, described by Rogers as a “rat’s nest of wires attached to devices that interface to the skin with tape and gels and bulky metallic objects”.
To test it, the team looked at their system’s performance in tasks that clinical EEG devices usually handle. For example, volunteers were able to spell out the word “computer” on a screen in front of them using their brains’ electrical activity.
Their stick-on EEG was wired up to a computer for the tests, but the team is working on wireless transmission of data and power, something they have already achieved in other devices.
…
The focus is on medical applications to begin with – “EEG is important in detecting seizures – particularly in premature babies,” says Rogers. But the fact that it can sit discreetly behind an ear means that all kinds of other applications are feasible. No one wants to wear a headset constantly, but applying a hidden electronic tattoo once every two weeks is more acceptable.
Although Hidden EEG can’t rival the precision of the keyboard and mouse from your desktop computer, it is good for controlling systems in a more passive manner. Instead, it might start a coffee pot brewing in the morning when your brain activity implies you’re waking up. Or, if the device reads that you’re in a highly focused state, it could tell your phone to silence any notifications.

Source: New Scientist via Skywatch TV

The new technology, as noted by the developers, will also hook directly into cell phone and Wifi networks automatically.

While this will give adopters of the technology the ability to instantly access everything from their home air conditioning unit to their daily schedules, the danger, of course, is that the connection to the internet will be two-way. This means that those who wear the technology will also open their brains up to monitoring by research teams and more than likely the government.

Imagine a scenario where law enforcement obtains a warrant to wiretap your brain. Or perhaps worse (but not by much), a situation that allows unscrupulous individuals the capability to brain-hack your emotions and thoughts.

Need to steal someone’s bank account number or password? Brain-hacking will be all the rage and we can most certainly envision a world where this intimate information is eventually sold to the highest bidder on the dark web.

Just as millions of Americans who protest the surveillance state happily put cameras, microphones, and GPS trackers in their pockets on a daily basis,  so too will the next generation of global citizens with the advent of Beast Technologies.

(Hundreds of people line up for a chance to buy the newest iPhone in New York City – September 2014)

While it may be hard to imagine people voluntarily subjecting themselves to something that can read their thoughts or modify their genetic makeup, the fact is that millions will adopt these technologies as a way to enhance their inter-connectivity and physical abilities. If the last ten years are any guide, they’ll be lining up in droves.

And those who don’t want the technology will be forced to have it implanted, according to some researchers:

It’s not possible to interact with society in a meaningful way by not having a mobile phone. I think human implants are likely to go along a very similar route. It would be such a disadvantage to not have the implant that it essentially becomes not optional.

Source: Scientist Claims Human Microchip Implants Will Become “Not Optional”

Just as there is a push to force health care and vaccinations onto people through government mandates, you’ll likely be required to be “chipped” or “tattoo’d” as part of your Patriotic duty. Failure to do so will mean you don’t want to be a participant in a peaceful, law-abiding society.

This next wave of technological advancement, where we begin to directly modify and enhance the genome and the physical human body, is unstoppable. Governments and multi-billion dollar corporations are heavily invested in it. A large portion of the world population will accept it without question.

When they do, will we still be able to call them human?