Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Clearly this is a metaphor for something.

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Maizechinegun

Smith & Wesson Oil...
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He got out of the car and walked across the street to the officer who responded to the call. He didn't bother to step around the fluffy kernels littering the street. Breezes and the crows had already disturbed the crime scene beyond any hope of figuring out who fired at who first.

"Sarge, I hate these things."

"I know, son, but at least it's biodegradeable. Even if the noise does frighten the neighbors".

"But gang fights used to be so predictable. A bunch of brass here, a handful over there, and you had a chance of identifying the gun".

"I know. This whole popcorn-code-of-honor thing screwed up everything. Both sides agree on a meeting place, and then the popping starts. The gun captures the pressure, and when it builds up high enough the cube of butter launches, the corn gets vented through the muzzle brake, and it starts over again."

He looked over to the gutter, the shape unmoving beneath the butter-stained blanket. "Finish your report".

A large van came down the road, preceded by a loud whirring sound. "Great. It's the Halfbakery Crime Lab. It's going to get worse."

A man and a woman, dressed in disposeable white suits, climbed out of the van and immediately began spraying some kind of preservative over the scene. The corn ceased drifting in the breeze, and the crows fled, complaining loudly.

The woman picked her way carefully through the corn, avoiding stepping on any. She stopped by the corpse and sniffed the air.

"Two-stroke biodiesel. Probably corn oil."

The man finished his spraying and joined her, holding one fluffy kernel in each hand. Looking from one to the other, he said "This one pops at about 437 degrees F, the usual stuff. "

"But take a look at this one. Looks as if it could be genmod, probably for higher pressures and temperatures. You could run this in a turbo two-stroke diesel." (to be continued)

normzone, Dec 31 2012

Puffed Rice http://www.mrbreakf...l_detail.asp?id=290
"The grain which is shot from guns." [csea, Sep 16 2016]

[link]






       These are the original annos before I pulled the idea. If you wish to contribute to the idea in annos feel free.   

       Trying to calculate the speed of a frozen stick of butter propelled by the pressures created by popcorn, I ran into some problems. I have edited the reference to the speed of the projectile pending further research of the weapon capability.   

       normzone, Sep 05 2006   

       OK - it looks like popcorn bursts at approximately 135 PSI, which puts it in the paintball range of pressures. And if you want to use off-the-shelf ammo, I'm going to need a square barrel.   

       This is what happens when you publish the concept before doing the engineering. Now I have to come up with some way of making this thing lethal, or delete the idea. OK, back to google.   

       normzone, Sep 05 2006   

       shoot the unpopped kernals & use the butter as tracers?   

       Zimmy, Sep 06 2006   

       At paintball pressures the butter could still be lethal if frozen into conical shaped projectiles; the gun itself could contain a small liquid nitrogen container to keep the "bullets" at sub-zero temperatures. If enough salt was dissolved in the liquid butter prior to freezing, even a flesh wound would sting enough to make you wish you were dead.   

       2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 06 2006
normzone, Dec 31 2012
  

       They're not. They're the chalk outlines of the original annotations.
pertinax, Jan 02 2013
  

       " Come in, it's not locked " I said.   

       She pushed the door open and looked around the room. She counted the cobwebs on the ceiling ...seven... and eyed the bottle on my desk ... empty.   

       The toe of her high heel moved some of the popcorn on the floor aside, and she stepped into the room, carefully avoiding the large kernels.   

       " Did the maid take the day off ? "   

       " I don't have one - an experiment got a little out of hand ".
normzone, Dec 09 2015
  

       I was hoping it would stop ringing, but after a while I gave in and answered it.   

       " Normzone Investigations " I said, hoping for a wrong number.   

       An unfamiliar voice said " I hear you investigate cases nobody else wants to take ".   

       I knew I shouldn't have answered it. " We do the weird stuff, but it costs extra ". If I was lucky he'd hang up.   

       " Money won't be a problem ". Maybe for you, I thought.
normzone, Sep 16 2016
  

       So this morning I heard about a report on NPR about people going blind being shot with little metal pellets in Kashmir as crowd control. Maybe popcorn would be a better option?
RayfordSteele, Sep 16 2016
  

       There's prior art from the Quaker Company back in the 1950's [link]. Rice was even advertised as being "shot from guns."   

       Rice might make for a better projectile due to its more uniform acicular shape.
csea, Sep 16 2016
  
      
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