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The World's Spookiest Weapons

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the criminally-insane-working-for-the-government dept.

DesScorp writes "Popular Science has a piece on some outrageous ideas for weapons; some came to fruition, and others didn't. And while some of the weapons (atom bombs, chemical weapons, bats with bombs strapped to them that seek out homes and buildings at night) are truly frightening, some of them are also kind of silly, such as the Gay Bomb, and the Frisbee bomb that was labeled the 'Modular Disc-Wing Urban Cruise Munition.'"

5 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. Not very complete by paganizer · · Score: 4, Informative

    They missed a few. Nazi sound and compressed air weapons, the first "shoot around a corner" gun. The "Amerika Bomber" concept that Heinlein liked so much that he based a lot of his future history series around the concept.
    The american Gyrojet rocket pistol.

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    Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  2. Re:The truth is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The truth is there is no such thing as a spooky or scary weapon. A non-naive look at the world shows that human beings really don't care about what happens to the rest of the world, as long as the effects aren't felt at home.

    We could annihilate 5 billion people on the planet, but the average person (at least in North America) would little more than flinch, so long as their own city or state is not affected.

    Well said. India has been target of trrist assaults for more than 25 years, including latest Jaypur blasts. And we have done very little to help them in past. We need to take our neck out of sand and start understanding problem they are facing. We need start paying attention to this global threat before it is too late.

  3. Re:Pigeon Guided Bombs in World War II by RDW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mentioned here, along with the cat bomb, anti-tank dog and exploding rat (no, really):

    http://www.oddee.com/item_91684.aspx

  4. Re:The truth is... by maxume · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fourth paragraph from the bottom, $18 billion annually (for everyone on the planet) on cosmetics:

    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0111_040112_consumerism_2.html

    Iraq, $12 billion a month:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23551693/

    Hopefully you are just misinformed.

    --
    Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  5. Re:Sick by somersault · · Score: 2, Informative

    Whenever I used a frisby I tend to think how it would be cool to put knives around the edge and let them flick out from the centrifugal force. I am not an especially violent person (though I do enjoy martial arts movies and occasionally martial arts as well), I just think it would be an interesting weapon :p Frisbees are great fun on their own, and very intuitive to curve and direct once you have your throwing techniques down properly, so they'd probably make pretty good delivery systems for explosive and such in certain situations. You want to be careful about the wind if you're going to launch at a steep angle though, otherwise you may find that your frisbee is acting more like a boomerang :)

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    which is totally what she said