XPost: comp.os.linux.advocacy, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
From: hotmail@hotmail.edu
"In 1994, The U.S. Military Actually Considered Building A “Gay Bomb”"
"The idea of a gay bomb came from a desire to debilitate and distract
their opponents but not necessarily kill them."
"The concept of a “gay bomb” sounds like something out of a bad science
fiction movie. A bomb that would drop a mixture of chemicals on the enemy
and literally make them fall in love with one another to distract them
from their wartime duties seems like such an impossible, far-fetched,
ludicrous plan that no one could ever possibly attempt it, right?
Wrong.
In 1994, the US Department of Defense was looking into theoretical
chemical weapons that would disrupt enemy morale, debilitating enemy
soldiers but not going so far as to kill them. So, researchers at the
Wright Laboratory in Ohio, a predecessor to today’s the United States Air
Force Research Laboratory, began exploring some alternative options.
What existed, they asked, that would distract or delude a soldier long
enough to mount an attack, without causing the soldier any bodily harm?
The answer seemed obvious: sex. But how could the airforce make that work
to their advantage? In an act of brilliance (or insanity) they came up
with the perfect secret plan.
They put together a three-page proposal in which they detailed their $7.5
million invention: the gay bomb. The gay bomb would be a cloud of gas
that would be discharged over enemy camps “that contained a chemical that
would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break
down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one
another.”
Basically, the pheromones in the gas would turn the soldiers gay. Which
sounds totally legit, obviously.
Of course, very few studies have actually produced results that back this
proposal up, but that didn’t stop them. The scientists continued to
suggest additions to the gay bomb, including aphrodisiacs, and other
scents.
Swarm Of Wasps
Wikimedia Commons
One theory suggested using a smell that would attract a swarm of angry
bees.
Thankfully, the gay bomb was only ever theoretical and never put into
motion. However, it was proposed to the National Academy of Sciences in
2002 and sparked a series of other, equally unusual chemical warfare
ideas.
In the next few years, scientists theorized a “sting me/attack me” bomb,
which would drop a scent that attracted swarms of enraged wasps, and one
that would make skin suddenly unbelievably sensitive to the sun. They
also proposed one that would cause “severe and lasting halitosis,” though
it’s not entirely clear what they hoped to achieve by just giving their
enemies bad breath.
Among the more comical ideas was a bomb titled “Who? Me?” which simulated
flatulence among the ranks, hopefully distracting the soldiers with
terrible smells long enough for the U.S. to attack. That idea was
scrapped almost immediately, however, after researchers pointed out that
some people throughout the world don’t find the smell of flatulence
particularly offensive.
Like the gay bomb, these creative chemical ideas also never came to
fruition. According to Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal
Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon, the department of defense receives
“hundreds” of projects per year, but none of these particular theories
ever took off.
“None of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been
developed,” he said.
Despite the drawbacks, for their work in such an innovative field, the
researchers who conceptualized the gay bomb were awarded the Ig Nobel
Prize, a parody award which celebrates unusual scientific achievements
that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.”
The gay bomb certainly fits the bill for that one"
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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