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Pastimes : The Sauna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (34)	7/4/2001 9:53:21 PM
From: Poet	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1857

Wierd news: Stench Warfare And Stink Bombs-U.S. Secret Weapon? Jul 4 2:58pm ET LONDON (Reuters) - The Pentagon is developing a stink bomb to drive away enemy troops or hostile crowds, the magazine New Scientist said on Wednesday. Stench warfare could form a key part of the U.S. non-lethal weapons program and provide police with an extra means of dealing with the kind of rioting that has disrupted recent summits of world leaders. "It would give us an offensive capability against large and unruly groups of people, if they are unwilling to move or are openly hostile," New Scientist quoted a Pentagon spokesman as saying. "And it would minimize the risk to our people and to the antagonists." Researchers said there was a close link between nasty smells and fear, as a bad smell can activate tissue deep within the brain. The "perfect" stink for defense purposes would be one that triggered an emotional response in humans. The problem is that odors can provoke varying reactions in different people because of social and cultural conditioning. Pam Dalton, a cognitive psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia who is leading the search for a better stink bomb, has tested smells on volunteers of different ethnic origins to try to find a universal formula. She has found two odors that appear to transcend culture, and a mixture of the two could form the basis of a weapon.