DHS' Puke Gun

This is what's known in the news business as "burying the lead:" USA Today starts off a story today with the following:

The Homeland Security Department is aiming to arm federal agents with a light-saber-type weapon that emits a dazzling strobe capable of subduing criminals, terrorists and even unruly airline passengers.

It's not until seven paragraphs later that the story quotes Bob Lieberman, president of the company that's developing the device under a $1 million contract from the Homeland Security Department, as saying, "It's like someone shooting off a flashbulb in your face every few seconds. Because of the wavelengths and frequencies we use, there are psychophysical effects -- a real disorientation. The reaction can range through vertigo to nausea."

Danger Room, on the other hand, gets right to the point in the first sentence of its report on the same device:

Government-funded researchers are building a flashlight that makes people puke on command.