Creating Weapons Something is happening we didn’t expect and it is the creation of advanced weapons made from cheap everyday civilian electronic parts. There is a history of creating weapons from cheap to free objects. When the first caveman was killed using a rock, that was innovation. I am not saying it was a good thing, just it showed a thought process of taking something we never thought of as a weapon and utilizing it like one. Sometimes even ancient inventions are still deadly today. In the war in Vietnam, the Vietnamese used holes with pointed sticks in them as weapons. They would cover the hole with a weak substance which hid the hole, but would not hold up a person that walked on it. If someone did walk on it, they would fall into the hole and get pierced by the pointed sticks and many would die. These pointed sticks were known as punji sticks. Many of them would be in the hole to make sure they stuck someone all over their body. This was the case of modern people using items from nature for a deadly effect. Today there are many places where IEDs are planted. IED just means Improvised Explosive Device. There were a lot of them used in Afghanistan and Iran seemed to be creating a lot of them. The people who made them usually tried to get a hold of a bomb or shell and attach a detonator to them. It was sometimes one which would blow up the bomb or shell if someone stepped on it, or rode over it. It actually was called an IED if any type of explosive was used. Sometimes people who are attacked by a military force come with different types of improvised weapons which are surprisingly effective against expensive military equipment. One such weapon is the Molotov cocktail. It is said to be a bottle filled with a modified gasoline mixture which was lit and thrown. It could take out a tank. It is said this was modified even more later on by adding a capsule of sulfuric acid which did away with having to ignite the mixture. They are still being used today. One of the first weapons was said to be the mace. A rock would be secured to a stick and this weapon was made to be used against other humans. Some say it was handy in hunting, but that is doubtful. In attacks on settlements, it could be deadly. It was more like carrying a hammer than any other type of weapon. There is no end to the ingenuity of humans when it comes to creating things which can kill other humans. In the very beginning, stones were sharpened and used to skin animals and such. Next were stone knives. I have to wonder how long it was before someone took their stone knife and stabbed someone they had a fight with? I was reading an article today about how very cheap parts are appearing in military drones. No one ever thought of them being used this way before. I am sure the suppliers of military weapons are not happy about this, because it hurts their bottom line. It was said some of the parts were as cheap as fifty cents and they were used in combination to act as jammer preventers in Russian drones. The article went on to say the Russians removed all the labels and took credit for all the parts even though they were made in other countries. One of the things used by the ancients was oil. Someone decided oil could be a deadly weapon and some castles had huge pots of oil they could heat and pour on attacking troops. They wanted to use oil instead of boiling water because besides being burned by the hot oil you could also be set on fire if a lit torch was dropped over the side of the wall. This must have been a fearsome weapon. I talked about killing someone with a rock before, but this practice was still active in the middle ages. Some castles would have a supply of heavy rocks which were still light enough to be lifted by a soldier and thrown over the wall on those who were trying to climb over it. Let’s not forget one of the deadliest weapons possessed by tribal people today which are probably more deadly than a bullet if it hits you and that is the poison dart. In some cases, the poison from three different types of frogs are used to dip the darts in. Some tribes also dip their arrows into poison. An interesting point is Native American tribes didn’t poison their arrows. Some South and Central American tribes use Curare, a poison obtained from some plants. Curare is a powerful muscle relaxant and can kill you quickly by relaxing your diaphragmatic muscles. Many different cultures all over the world have taken to the use of improvised weapons. An improvised weapon is something which was never intended to be used as a weapon but was modified into one. One improvised weapon we have all seen used is a simple one, it is a baseball bat. It seems to turn up in riots and gang warfare. Another is a bottle. How many times have we seen movies where there is a fight in a bar and someone grabs a bottle, breaks it, and tries to use the jagged glass in an attack? One of the biggest improvised weapons ever used were the planes which were used to crash into the World Trade Center buildings. No one ever thought at the time planes could bring down the buildings, but they did. There is some controversy on this subject as to why the buildings actually fell, but that is another story. During World War 2 the Japanese used planes full of explosives as flying bombs called Kamikaze suicide planes. They were extremely effective. That is where the current idea of military drones with explosives flying into targets no doubt comes from. Trucks, cars and people have been used as weapons. Trucks full of explosives have done a lot of damage over the years as have suicide bombers. The Oklahoma City bombing took down the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City. The weapon was a truck full of fertilizer which is a powerful explosive. This was done by Americans to Americans. Almost anything can be turned into a weapon. It could be a tiny object, or a huge one, but unfortunately, we seem to have a mastery at converting everyday objects into weapons.
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