Spice: the New Instrument of War

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Bring it on! (Do they give you free beer if you make it past the first assault?)

India weaponising world's hottest chili

Posted: March 23, 2010, 11:30 AM by Ron Nurwisah

World

India is developing a weapon using the ghost chili (bhut jolokia), regarded by record books as the hottest chili in the world.

Researchers are developing a grenade with the chili that can be used to immobilize threats.

From the Associated Press:

"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press.

"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said.

The ghost chili can have some 1,000,000 Scovilles, the unit of measurement for measuring spiciness, the average jalapeno pepper has some 2,500 to 8,000 Scovilles.

[SaggyBalls]

I recently started reading Dune and thought you might be getting at something else.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

)

(Awfully prescient novel, though.)

[SaggyBalls]

that's becoming increasingly apparent...whether it's near or distant future remains to be seen.

Anyway,

I wonder what can work to fight the ghost pepper?

Yogurt goggles?

[Thorgnor]

You're gonna have some awesome ah-hahs during that set of books... I've loved them always. I consider Herbert one of the most important influences on modern anthropological methods (genealogies of power a la Foucault, etc.) and a far better writer than almost any ethnographer can hope to be. word.

[nibbler]

Herbert's distorted phonetics are awesome... free men of the desert, the planet IRAQ-US... etc...

If you like your sci-fi with a healthy dose of geopolitics, weaponized chili peppers, and you rank Dune as a favorite book, I recommend reading Chung Kuo by David Wingrove . Highly underrated!

[SaggyBalls]

Though Messopotamia is really the birthplace of civilization this time around (if you take the bible into account and notice that it says that God REPLENISHED the earth (something came before...so you creationists that think the world is 12 thousand years old haven't read properly)) I wonder how much of the bloodline has survived and where it is now.

Babylon must fall.

I wonder how much of that's touched upon in the rest of the series.

[Thorgnor]

I thought it was only 6000 years old?

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Civilisation, you mean (ca. 6000), or the creationists' thing (some with 12,000, or Ussher with the 4004 BC)?

I'm not sure what you mean, YT, about the bloodline - explain? (Are you still talking about Dune?)

[SaggyBalls]

T - most creationists seem to look at accepted ice age history as an acceptable timeline, as anthropology/archaeology is tangible enough to them to believe. Some supreme literalists look at it as less...which to me is less rational than continuing to stop taking heroin after it stops working but before you're addicted.

Dr. Mouse: I mean the mesopotamian bloodline...if lineage is even half as important to our experience as reincarnated consciousness (and the lack thereof) that is.

[Thorgnor]

if lineage is even half as important to our experience as reincarnated consciousness (and the lack thereof) that is.

speaking of tangibility...

[SaggyBalls]

if lineage is even half as important to our experience as reincarnated consciousness (and the lack thereof) that is.

speaking of tangibility...

Tangible things aren't what people truly value.

Even looking at things like oil, gold, and other commodities...what we call their value is usually their price or worth but the real value is generally a byproduct of their use.

...Of course, you already probably understand that reality but you might only recognize it as a concept.