Huh? Finger-length Ratios & Military Branches & Celebrity Worship

Which person goes into which branch of the military? The answer is related to the relative lengths of each person’s fingers, suggests this study by a researcher named Huh: “Born to be a Marine: Digit ratios and military service,” HaengRyang Huh, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 53, Issue 3, August 2012, Pages 166–168. The author, […]

Slimeball: A sticky weapon to immobilize large ships

Slime would become the US military’s prime weapon to immobilise large ships under a scheme outlined for the US Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College. Lieutenant Commander Daniel Whitehurst, a student at the college, figured out how to combine a raft of existing technologies to produce the officially “non-lethal” armament he calls The Slimeball. He prepared a report in […]

Military Experiments on Fruitcake (Part 2: 1982-4)

This is part 2 of our look at the US military’s tests, conducted at their laboratories in Natick, Massachusetts, during the 1970s and 1980s, on fruitcake, the time-honored holiday comestible. They issued at least two reports. Here’s a look at their second report: “Effects of Storage Time and Temperature on Nutritional Content of Fortified Fruitcake” [Final […]

Military Experiments on Fruitcake (Part 1: 1981)

During the 1970s and 1980s the US military conducted a series of tests on fruitcake, the long-lasting holiday comestible. They issued at least two reports. Here’s a look at the first report: “Nutritionally Fortified Fruitcake (Thermoprocessed, Flexibly Packaged) Developed for Shuttle Flight Use,” T. Branagan, NATICK/TR-82/004, June 1981. (AD A129 878). The report features these […]

Improbable Research