Exploding Kittens

[Snypiuer]

I got this from Dan Lewis' "Now I Know" newsletter and REALLY found it informative. No need to know WHY I find it informative - by the way, it didn't work (who'd a thunk that cats would pass out when dropped from an airplane!?)

In the book "Nuking the Moon and Other Intelligence Schemes and Military Plots Left on the Drawing Board" by Vince Houghton, the historian and curator of the International Spy Museum explained how cat-guided bomb would work:

The bomb was based on the undisputed premises that (a) cats always land on their feet and (b) hate water. The plan was to hang a poor kitty in a harness, from the bottom of a bomb, with some kind of device that allowed said kitty's movements to guide the bomb as it fell. If you dropped it in the vicinity of a naval target (such as a German battleship), then the cat's natural instinct would be to think, "Holy hell, I'm falling into water. I hate water, so let's try to land somewhere dry. Like that German battleship over yonder." And then BOOM! Suicide kitty is a martyr to the cause.