Military Technology: Chili Grenade

Here is a new one. A scientist named R.B. Srivastava developed a new less lethal grenade for the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization. It gets its power from the amazingly hot bhut jolokia chili pepper. This pepper, grown in the northern Indian state of Assam, is like the vegetable world's little chemical weapon. To give you an idea of its power, we can use the Scoville scale, usually used to judge the heat of hot sauces and the like. An average jalapeno pepper measures about 10,000 Scoville units. Previously, the scale topped out at 577,000 with the Mexican red savina pepper. The bhut jolokia pepper is rated at 1,001,304 Scoville units. That makes me want to throw up.

The red death of the vegetable world

The seeds are ground into a fine pepper and would be dispersed over an area about 5 meters square. Mr. Srivastava states:

"The chili grenade is a non-toxic weapon and when used would force a terrorist to come out of his hideout. "The effect is so pungent that it would literally choke them."

Personally, I hope this does not make it to our shores so that the police could use it on college students who are acting stupid. Because, in my mind, this thing certainly constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. They are also thinking of using the bhut jolokia for some other uses like a personal defense spray for women. I've always thought that they should make a spray based on wasabi. But it is my idea, and if you make one, I will sue the shit out of you.

"The chili paste could also act as a major repellent against wild elephants."

OK, folks. That makes it official. Anything that hurts an elephant, you want no part of.