On Jun 24, 3:03*pm, notbob wrote:
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

Low technology is good technology.
I know people who think you need a computer to turn a ligh off.