Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Bouncing Baker Minesweeping

 well it's at least as good as the other ideas
  (+5, -2)
(+5, -2) 		  [vote for,
against]

Inflatable rubber balls are dropped from an aircraft into an area suspected of harboring live, deprecated ordinance.

Packed with shock-hardened GPS and inertial sensors and equipped with a small energy source and moveable weights internally to partially control and enhance rebounds, they bounce around the area sending back positional information to the mother-ship, until they hit a landmine or run out of energy.

The ones that haven't found anything can be collected, recharged and reused. If the area is deemed "too hot" for a ground-based collection, they can be set to reserve enough energy for one final jump into the air as the collection aircraft passes over to catch them in a cargo net.

—FlyingToaster, May 25 2008

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       Gets my vote!
—DrCurry, May 25 2008
   

       I'd like to watch any of that, but it'll be tricky to explain to kids that the bouncing balls are where they *shouldn't* go.   

       Why inflatable? My first thought would have been solid rubber. Can we really make inflatable balls that jump high enough to be recaptured by an airplane?
—jutta, May 25 2008
   

       //why inflatable?//
quite a thick skin, but it's there mostly to keep the internal powered , sprung "spokes" from getting hung up in trees and branches and bent out of shape from rocks.
—FlyingToaster, May 25 2008
   

       Comes in Smiley Face, Yin & Yang and Peace Sign.
—jscottpete, May 25 2008
   

       Might smash worms and helpful bacteria, so Toaster must get the bone on this one via his own logic, and undermining a humanitarian idea with just silliness.
—plynthe, May 25 2008
   

       What is the big to-do about mines, lately?
—MikeD, May 25 2008
   

       ...But... I would like to see a B52 fully loaded with balls dump them, especially instead of aerial bombs.
—plynthe, May 25 2008
   


 

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