Military dolphins, medical maggots, pest-control falcons, and more
Posted 11.09.2011 at 2:00 pm
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After DARPA announced, somewhat sheepishly, that after $19 billion and six years of research, they had concluded that the best bomb-detecting device is a dog, we got to thinking: what other instances are there in which you'd reach not for a traditional tool, but for an animal? These eight examples range from the medical to the military to the culinary fields, but all have one thing in common: there's no better tool for the job than an animal.
Click to launch a tour of some amazing, and amazingly useful, animals.
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This is animal cruelty.
Nope, this is animal entertainment for the Taliban's watching dogs sniffing IED's.
" Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind." Albert Einstein
ive tried stuffing my 90 pound pitbull in my pocket before. he ended up ripping my pants.
_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.
- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri
$19 billion?! This has got to be the largest sum of money ever spent on fixing that which was not broken.
why does DARPA always spend so much money on things that aren't broken?
Yeah, I saw that Japanese Robot Monstrosity, that's supposed to replace a seeing-eye dog. Well, it's slow, it's big, it's noisy, and shows no affection!