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Weapons of Mass Embarrassment: A few years ago, the US Army obtained a patent for a "rifle-launched non-lethal cargo dispenser". Go to the US Patent Office and search for patent #6523478. Pay particular attention to the parts where it suggests, several times, that the 'dispenser' could be used to carry and dispense "biological/chemical agents". Oops.
The US Army is currently seeking to have the USPTO delete the embarrassing er, applicable references
.
.What is claimed is:
[...]
5. The projectile of claim 4, wherein the aerosol composition is further selected from the group consisting of smoke, crowd control agents, biological agents, chemical agents, obscurants, marking agents, dyes and inks, chaffs and flakes.
[...]
In the same manner, there is also a need for delivering non-aerosol payloads or articles, including, but not limited to, flash grenades, concussion grenades, nets, noise generators, stun balls, tire puncturing elements, electromagnetic pulse generators, mines or bomblets, listening devices, signal emitting objects, unmanned aerial vehicles, biological/chemical agents, and the like for efficient, rapid dispersal and delivery.
[...]
The term "payload" means herein to include any substance, material or device which is desired to be expeditiously delivered to a target area using the projectile of the present invention as the carrying and dispersing device. The payload may include, but is not limited to, a substance capable of being dispersed in the form of an aerosol, electronic devices, unmanned aerial vehicles, flash-bang munitions, sting balls, ground sensors, mines, bomblets, concussion grenades, tire puncturing elements, signal emitting devices, and the like. The aerosol substance is preferably selected from the group consisting of smoke, crowd control agents, biological/chemical agents, obscurant, target marking compounds, dyes and inks, chaffs and the like
Red rain coming down: A paper by Godfrey Louis, a physicist conducting studies in India's Kerala state, asserts a possible extraterrestrial origin for the particles responsible for the coloration of "red rain" that fell over Kerala between 25 July and 23 September 2001.
The cup-shaped particles are walled, cell-like structures looking much like mammalian blood cells. Blood cells in rainwater would long since have ruptured due to osmosis, though. The particles contain no DNA, but at time of writing have not yet been tested for haemoglobin; they are thick-walled and composed of around 50% carbon and 45% oxygen by weight, plus traces of sodium, iron and other elements consistent with and characteristic of biological molecules. According to the paper, the particles have been observed to replicate, even with no visible genetic material, at temperatures as high as 300°C and in environments including cedarwood oil. Louis speculates that a large meteorite entered the atmosphere over Kerala early in the morning of July 25 and seeded the upper atmosphere with alien biological matter before exploding at high altitude. His paper estimates that fifty tons of the red particles fell in raindrops over Kerala.
In the slim chance that he turns out to be right, this could be the first documented evidence of panspermia as proposed by Sir Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe.
Squeal like a pig, boy! This just in from the "No shit, Sherlock?" department:: Having your testicles chopped off hurts, even if you're a pig (Applied Animal Behavioral Science, vol 95, p 67). Yes, the authors studied the squeals of pigs being castrated and concluded that the squeals are probably "vocal indicators for experienced pain and suffering."
Gee, ya think?