ID Sniper Rifle

The ID Sniper Rifle is a high-powered rifle, produced by Empire North, that supposedly can implant a GPS-microchip into a person, allowing the military to track them wherever they go in the world. Here's the description from Empire North's website: The microchip will enter the body and stay there, causing no internal damage, and only a very small amount of physical pain to the target. It will feel like a mosquito-bite lasting a fraction of a second. Given the low-tech feel of Empire North's website, I'd have to say this is a hoax. Plus, is it really possible to hit someone from a long-distance with a microchip and a) have the microchip survive the impact, and b) have the person only feel a small prick? Seems unlikely. Also check out the company's other product, Juju, the Citizen Eye, a device that allows you to photograph suspicious-looking people and beam the images directly to the Department of Homeland Security. This seems like obvious satire. The weird thing is that Empire North is listed as one of the international exhibitors at the 2002 China Police Technology Conference. Somehow whoever created this website must have conned their way into getting listed as one of the conference's exhibitors. (Thanks to 'Saints' for the link)

Military Pranks

Posted on Mon Apr 12, 2004


Comments

"Somehow whoever created this website must have conned their way into getting listed as one of the conference's exhibitors."

Either that or there was a bone fide company named Empire North that has gone belly up since 2002.
Posted by Virge  on  Mon Apr 12, 2004  at  08:28 PM
There are quite a few places where words were misspelled or they used an entirely incorrect word. For example, the use of the word "conflicted" instead of the correct word "inflicted" on the Body Damage Control page.
Posted by Ntense  on  Mon Apr 12, 2004  at  09:25 PM
maybe they conned their way into getting listed as an exhibitor, or maybe there IS an Empire North and these people are just pretending to be the real company when they're not
Posted by Alex  on  Mon Apr 12, 2004  at  10:12 PM
This is a hoax. They interviewed the guy who did it, Jakob Boeskov, on "The Next Big Thing", which is a radio show from Public Radio International. It was meant as a conceptual art project/protest. He did actually go to the show in China, and he apparently had serious inquiries from various representatives of several governments.
Posted by Nick  on  Mon Apr 12, 2004  at  11:33 PM
The story of how Jakob Boeskov conned his way into a Chinese technology conference, and the enthusiastic response his his ID rifle received, can be found in the book, Abuse Your Illusions, edited by Russ Kick.
Posted by Jonathan  on  Wed Apr 14, 2004  at  09:37 AM
The story of how Jakob Boeskov conned his way into a Chinese weapons expo can also be found on his web page.
http://www.jakobboeskov.com/
(Click the tab labeled "My Doomsday Weapon".)

The site is in flash, which is annoying. However if you explore this site completely you will also find:

A definition of the newjack style of art/hoax called "fictionism".
(Click the tab labeled "fictionism".)

Info regarding his exhibition at 'The Thing' in New York (opening this Friday, Apr 23, 2004)
(Click tab "exhibitions", then "my doomsday weapon show")
Posted by Hyperion  on  Wed Apr 21, 2004  at  01:15 PM
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