On 2010-06-24, Stormin Mormon wrote:
Not my idea, but wish it was.

At the govt lab where I once worked, a draught year brought in
thousands of mice. A contest was held to see who could build the most
efficient mouse trap and kill the most mice in one night. It was big
lab with about a 10K working population, so a lot of brainiacs.

The winners used a simple galvanized washtub, the kind used to make a
washtub bass, and mounted a hinged one-by stick on the edge so it
would teeter-totter down into the tub, filled about a quarter full
with water, when a mouse ran out on the stick to eat the peanut butter
smeared on the end. After the mouse fell in the water, the
teeter-totter would automatically reset for the next mouse. It caught
over 100 mice the first night.

What makes this so interesting is the fact that this being a govt lab,
money was no object. Anyone could have built a radar guided laser
death ray killing thingie, spending hundreds of thousands without
batting an eye. In fact, someone may have done just that. But in the
end, out of dozens of entries and research teams and literally "rocket
science" efforts, the winner by a large margin was about as low tech
as it gets. True story.

nb