"We finally flew our first thermal camera flight yesterday afternoon. About 10 seconds after launch my co pilot looked at the screen and said something like, 'We now have our very own predator drone'" A rice farmer in Louisiana had a real problem, feral pigs were coming out of the woods at night, into the rice fields, tearing up his crops and causing
thousands of dollars worth of damage. The only solution is to bring in hunters to shoot the pigs.
Hunting feral pigs in waist high rice plants, in the dead of night, is very difficult. You have to be within 10 feet of them to shoot them and it can take hours to stalk them down. So the farmer calls his brother, an Electronic Warfare engineer who flies
RC airplanes as a hobby.
$5000 worth of electronics, including a
$4500 infrared camera, are installed on a $80 model airplane, and the
Dehogaflier is born!
posted by smoothvirus
on Oct 18, 2011 -
52 comments
A group of scientists have
announced that they have created cloned and genetically modified pigs that make their own omega-3 fatty acids. NPR
has more on the story, including an audio report from Joe Palca. There are apparently some naturally occuring pigs with their own omega-3 fatty acids, primarily a Spanish breed called Ibérico. Descended from native Iberian wild boar, black-footed Ibérico hogs are raised in specially maintained oak forests, and feed primarily on acorns.
Until last September, however, no Spanish producer had been approved to export Ibérico products to the United States, and consumers may have to wait a few more months before they can get their hands on the
tasty pork. As the ham is sure to be in short supply, you can put down a $199 deposit now for a ham that will carry a final price tag of as much as $1000. If you're unable to wait for—or afford—the Spanish version, you can treat yourself now to the
Bacon of the Month Club, which serves up a different artisanal bacon each month. For more on raising hogs, read
James Buchan's account in the London Review of Books. And don't forget the bacon blogs: [
1] [
2] [
3] [
4] [
5].
posted by monju_bosatsu
on Mar 27, 2006 -
28 comments
