annoying perhaps but rarely fatal

The Men Who Stare at Goats
by Jon Ronson, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most
gifted minds within the U.S. Army. Defying all known
accepted military practice -- and indeed, the laws of
physics -- they believed that a soldier could adopt a
cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls,
and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by
staring at them.

Entrusted with defending America from all known
adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And
they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back
and fighting the War on Terror. [...]