{"id":11205,"date":"2007-06-21T16:40:57","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T20:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/11205.html"},"modified":"2007-06-21T16:40:57","modified_gmt":"2007-06-21T20:40:57","slug":"sharks-with-frickin-laser-beams-attached-to-their-heads-almost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/sharks-with-frickin-laser-beams-attached-to-their-heads-almost\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads? Almost"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all got a good laugh recently when a CBS affiliate in California discovered that the Pentagon considered building a “gay bomb<\/a>,” which could purportedly turn enemy soldiers gay. (The Defense Department weighed just such a plan in the 1990s, but subsequently rejected it.)<\/p>\n

Apparently, however, that’s not the only wacky idea<\/a> on which Pentagon officials have been willing to spend money.<\/p>\n

Creating armor that renders a soldier invisible. Stimulating the brain to suppress sleep for days. Arming sharks with chemical implants and cameras to work as spies.<\/p>\n

This year the Pentagon will spend $78 billion — about half of all government research and development dollars — on a variety of projects, according to the American Association for the Advancement for Science (AAAS).<\/p>\n

The vast majority – about $68 billion – goes to traditional spending, like weapons development and space systems. But some fringe research mimics the best of science fiction.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or perhaps the worst. The ABC News report included quite a few gems, including the “gay bomb,” a lengthy study into “psychic teleportation,” and research into brain implants that intended to “steer sharklike dog fish with a phantom odor.”<\/p>\n

First, when the Pentagon has enough money to invest in some of these painfully silly ideas, the Pentagon must have too much money.<\/p>\n

Second, when Austin Powers jokes<\/a> start to resemble actual research, it’s not a good sign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all got a good laugh recently when a CBS affiliate in California discovered that the Pentagon considered building a “gay bomb,” which could purportedly turn enemy soldiers gay. (The Defense Department weighed just such a plan in the 1990s, but subsequently rejected it.) Apparently, however, that’s not the only wacky idea on which Pentagon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}