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Category:
Weapons

How to Use Jiu-Jitsu

Or, from the looks of it, how to use the book itself as a weapon. Prices on Amazon for this 1944 publication range from $24 to $80. So it may be useful info, but it ain't cheap.

Posted By: Alex | Date: Thu Mar 28, 2013 | Comments (4)
Category: Books, Weapons

Giant Slingshots

Slingshots taken from young vandals, May 1952. If the police hadn't stopped them, the kids probably would have been building full-sized trebuchets next.

"Salem, Mass., May 8 — Police Lt. Walter Broderick tests one of two huge slingshots confiscated after boys had broken 60 windows in two local factories. Police said the giant weapons could hurl a five-pound rock more than 200 yards."
Posted By: Alex | Date: Wed Mar 27, 2013 | Comments (9)
Category: Violence, 1950's, Weapons

Johnson Smith Catalog Item #28

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Posted By: Paul | Date: Tue Jan 08, 2013 | Comments (6)
Category: Johnson Smith Catalog, 1930's, Weapons

Strange Iconography

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A Scottish child and a Native-American child pour hair tonic on the head of an elderly Anglo man and massage it in, while a child soldier out of some European comic opera stands by with sword upraised in tribute.

The only sensible part of this weird iconography is the Scottish kid. Once upon a time, right up to, oh, the 1960s, "anything Scottish = cheap and economical" was standard advertising shorthand.

Original ad here, with accompanying text.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon May 07, 2012 | Comments (10)
Category: Business, Advertising, Products, Stereotypes and Cliches, Hair Styling, 1900's, Weapons, Hair and Hairstyling

It’s always a good idea to be armed at Christmas


via christmasyuleblog
Posted By: Alex | Date: Sat Apr 28, 2012 | Comments (11)
Category: Holidays, Advertising, Weapons

Stop That Tank!





Disney creates terrorist training films! I'm sure al-Qaeda is watching this to learn how to stymie our forces in Afghanistan.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Apr 16, 2012 | Comments (6)
Category: PSA's, War, Armed Forces, Weapons, Cartoons, 1940's

The Bat Bomb

A few weeks ago, Paul posted about a plan the U.S. military cooked up during WWII to destroy Japan by triggering volcanic explosions. The article below describes a similarly mad plan -- the Bat Bomb. The idea was to strap incendiary devices to bats, and then drop the bats on Japanese cities.

I scanned the article from the Atlantic Monthly, December 1946. I think this was one of the first public descriptions of the bat bomb.

bat bomb
Posted By: Alex | Date: Thu Mar 08, 2012 | Comments (9)
Category: Animals, War, Weapons

Johnson Smith Catalog Item #19

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"Why, could that be Officer Clancy approaching me down this poorly lit sidewalk? Let me just whip out my pistol flashlight and-- Argh, I'm shot!"

From the 1950 catalog.

Posted By: Paul | Date: Mon Feb 27, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: Johnson Smith Catalog, 1950's, Weapons

Flame Glove

Here's a variation on the old buzzer-hidden-in-the-palm-of-your-hand prank. It's a flame thrower in the palm of your hand!

Posted By: Alex | Date: Sat Feb 25, 2012 | Comments (5)
Category: Inventions, Technology, Weapons

Volcano Warfare

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Would unleashing volcanoes on 1944 Japan have been more merciful than using atomic bombs? I guess we'll never know.

And would today's "bunker-buster" bombs be even more capable of this mad scientist mission, in the country of some current enemy?

Original article here.
Posted By: Paul | Date: Sun Feb 05, 2012 | Comments (9)
Category: Mad Scientists, Evil Geniuses, Insane Villains, War, Weapons, 1940's, Asia
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All original content in posts is Copyright © 2008 by the author of the post, either Alex Boese ("Alex"), Paul Di Filippo ("Paul"), or Chuck Shepherd ("Chuck"). All rights reserved. The banner illustration at the top of this page is Copyright © 2008 by Rick Altergott.