In what we'll tag as the most useless spend of cash, a recent study commissioned by Canada's armed forces actually asked if superheroes could fly.

The Ottawa Citizen said that the survey had obvious questions, and that it wanted to learn how to "win the hearts and minds" of locals in conflict zones. According to the research arm of Canada's National Defense, they spent $14,000 on data collection for the study. They say:

"This work will not only allow cultural scientists to better understand the spread of non-natural and religious concepts but also allow the Canadian Armed Forces... to design messages that are more memorable for their target audiences."

Are there really superheroes hiding amongst us? The Soviets thought so. [Ottawa Citizen via Peter Singer]