Sounds real damn expensive. The countries that have to deal with land mines are usually Third World and their leaders would probably opt for another mansion rather then spending their money on something like this.
well they can't be harmless to everything because they must eat something. also, what help would the be on minefields to new for enough chemicals to have leeched into the surrounding soil? what about land mines that leech nothing into the surrounding soil?
@tetracycloide: Yeah, I was thinking "this must react to some explosive compound or part thereof... what if someone makes a hermetically-sealed landmine?
I'd think that wouldn't be so hard to do - nonmetallic ones were an easy enough leap.
But still, there are countless old mines still buried all over the world, so I think this is great.
@fuchikoma: that still leaves the question of what do they eat. they have to sustain themselves with something and even if it's photosynthesis they would still require nutriants from the surrounding soil that, more than likely, some other indegenous plant species needs too. a plant that's probalby eaten by some local animal life that is in turn eaten by some other local animal life and oh my god the native apex predator just went extinct and we're knee deep in frogs or some shit.
@tetracycloide: It's a good question for sure, and one I wouldn't count on a military product necessarily answering. I'd imagine the most logical choice would be to mod some common soil bacteria, but... who knows?
Stromatolites are the oldest living things we can see or touch. (There are probably older subterranean and deep sea bacterial colonies and rock-based bacterial coloniesthat that are older but difficult to age.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite
I have seen these at Jurien Bay and they have them at Hamelin Pool Shark Bay, Western Australia also.
Some fossilised ones date back to 3,500 Million years ago. There are individuals estimated at hundreds of thousands of years old. Smaller ones are mere tens of thousands of years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamelin_Pool_Marine_Nature_Res...
(GPS Coordinates supplied on Wikipedia for nathanst.)
@QuinbyFisher: Stromatolites are pretty darn interesting, and are on my list -- though I'm not actually convinced they are a single living organism. Nothing against clones (some of my best photos are of clones; ), but my understanding of Stromatolites is that they are comprised of many different types of microorganisms, as well as different types of sediment (rock, sand, etc.) While they are an absolutely fascinating record -- and a beautiful biological palimpsest -- I would be hard pressed to put them in the same category as the clonal aspen, for instance, which is a clear example of a single, self-propagating organism, or the clonal bacteria, which is a mass of genetically identical material.
On a related note. Did I read about a giant mushroom like thing that lived underground in several states in the Northeast? Or was I eating the wrong mushrooms, again?
does a clonal population really count as old? i mean, the genes have been around for however many thousand years, but the individual plant may only be a couple of hundred.
@ninjajazza: I am with you on this. If you clone me and then kill me, I am still dead and the clone is still young. If they are all still attached by rhizomes or something then I guess that would be a tough call, but if they stand completely on their own I would call that a single organism.
@Experiment626: Well if they start contradicting our politicians by correcting their misappropriation of history then yes, we will bomb them to hell. But for now their silent majesty is safe.
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I've always wondered why people don't just use one of these things to 'look' for land mines...
just drive around making a huge amount of noise and disturbing the ground should set all the mines off...and these this are indestructible!
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I'd think that wouldn't be so hard to do - nonmetallic ones were an easy enough leap.
But still, there are countless old mines still buried all over the world, so I think this is great.
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#speakup
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09/30/09
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite
I have seen these at Jurien Bay and they have them at Hamelin Pool Shark Bay, Western Australia also.
Some fossilised ones date back to 3,500 Million years ago. There are individuals estimated at hundreds of thousands of years old. Smaller ones are mere tens of thousands of years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamelin_Pool_Marine_Nature_Res...
(GPS Coordinates supplied on Wikipedia for nathanst.)
http://pilbara.mq.edu.au/wiki/Stromatolites
Other exist in the Bahamas, Brazil and Turkey.
Enjoy!
PeterSW
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Don't tempt me.
09/30/09
Any GPS coordinates on these wonders of the ancient world?? It's for science, I promise!
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Kill Me Now !!!
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Friend of mine ate not-shrooms thinking he was getting an easy trip. Explaining that to hospital staff was fun...
09/30/09
#@!
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Besides, everybody has a photo of redwoods.
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