The CIA spent $20 million on a cat equipped to spy on the Soviets, but then it got hit by a taxi!
The acoustic kitty was a project launched by the CIA in the 1960s. They attempted to use a cat in spy missions. Some of their targets were the Kremlin and the Soviet embassies.
A battery and a microphone were implanted in the cat along with an antenna in its tail. It would have allowed the cat to record information and sound from its surroundings inconspicuously. The problem was that the cat would get hungry and get distracted because of it. To fix the issue, they put it through another surgery attempting to correct its behavior.
The Surgical and training expenses were estimated to have been up to $20 million. The first mission for the cat was to eavesdrop on a conversation between two men in a park outside of the Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington D.C.
The cat was released nearby, but hit by a taxi cab and killed almost instantly. All other tests after that failed. Soon after the project was declared a total loss and was completely cancelled by 1966.
In Minnesota, women can face up to 30 days in jail for impersonating Santa Claus!
Every man in Brainerd, Minnesota is required to grow a beard. Its illegal to tease skunks and women can face up to 30 days in jail for impersonating Santa Claus in Minnesota.
A Michigan law says it is illegal to make love in a car unless it is on your own personal property and a womans hair belongs to her husband. In Detroit it is illegal to ogle a woman from a moving car. In Montana it is a felony for a woman to open her husbands mail.
In Las Vegas, Nevada it is illegal to feed the homeless. The city doesnt want tourists to realize how many homeless there really are. They also closed all the parks in Vegas so that the homeless wont congregate. They must continue to move all day or be arrested. To feed the homeless, you have to make two lunches and eat with them so that you are technically eating with a friend.
A man was dismissed from the US Air Force for asking "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?"
His name was Major Harold Hering, and asked the question on the subject of the two man rule. The two man rule is a mechanism for high levels of security where two people are required for a certain function or authorization.
Its used commonly in nuclear launch scenarios to ensure that one persons misbehavior or misconduct cannot cause disastrous results. The two man rule is used in the US Air Force to manage the launch of nuclear weapons and prevent a single individual from launching.
Herings statement that landed him in hot water came from the issue of the credibility of the person giving the order to launch. Harold Hering was posing his question to point out that there are no safeguards to verify the person issuing the order (in that case the president) is actually sane enough to be doing so.
Unfortunately, the military higher ups didnt think very highly of his comment, and dismissed him. Do you think he had a valid claim?