In order to grade the effectiveness of mousetraps, it is necessary to have a range of mice, from the easily caught cheese obsessive, through the nonplussed opportunist to the cautios, paranoid type.

A good mosetrap will catch even the paranoid mouse.

In order to evaluate a better mousetrap, one must first produce a better mouse in order to verify the trap's effectiveness.

One might even go so far as defining a better mousetrap as one which catches exclusively better mice, causing a decline in the quality of the mouse population, so making them easier to catch by conventional means.
-- Twizz, Mar 14 2011

British researchers say the chicken must have come first. http://www.metro.co...gg-scientists-prove
There go those British researchers again. [sqeaketh the wheel, Mar 15 2011]

A Better Mouse Trap [pashute, Mar 16 2011]

A Better Mouse Trap? A_20Better_20Mouse_20Trap_3f
[MauiChuck] [pashute, Mar 16 2011]

How many better mice does it take to make a better mouse Better mouse jokes
[pashute, Mar 16 2011]

Halfbakery: A Better Mouse A Better Mouse
Thematic [zen_tom, May 20 2015]

I'm not quite sure what the idea is.
-- FlyingToaster, Mar 14 2011


I think Twizz wants to distribute Chinese finger traps to the mouse population in order to weed out the clever ones.
-- DrBob, Mar 14 2011


"Four legs good, two legs better ....."
-- 8th of 7, Mar 14 2011


And what about the paranoid cheese-obsessive? The flaw, here, is the assumption that mouse-quality is scalar.
-- mouseposture, Mar 15 2011


And a smarter chicken, which could actually answer the question, "Why did you cross that road?"
-- sqeaketh the wheel, Mar 15 2011


And a smarter egg, which could ...But no, there are some things Man was not meant to know.
-- mouseposture, Mar 15 2011


//And a smarter egg, which could ..//

From the anno: ‘It had long been suspected that the egg came first but now we have the scientific proof that shows that in fact the chicken came first,’ said Dr Colin Freeman, from Sheffield University.
-- sqeaketh the wheel, Mar 15 2011


// a smarter chicken //

As if there could be a dumber chicken ...
-- 8th of 7, Mar 15 2011


A smart enough chicken might well ask why we built the road there in the first place, I mean, where was the consultation with the chicken population?
-- Twizz, Mar 16 2011


Eek! Mouse eugenics! Nazis! Must be nazis!
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 16 2011


Some questions: How many mice does it take to change a mousetrap.

How much better is a better mousetrap if a better mousetrap catches better mice?

That's better. What's the catch?

Why did ze count always keep 'eez mouse shut? Ozerwize when he opens 'eez trep, ee ken be 'atchet before ee cheeken. So what eez ze moral? (Int: Zeez explain ze dumb count)

Next presidential campaigns: Yes Chicken. Mouse weekend.
-- pashute, Mar 16 2011


// Smart chickens would obviously use gps //

Yes, but Zeno's paradox might trip him up.
-- sqeaketh the wheel, Mar 17 2011


No no... dead reckoning and navigation by stars, of course.
-- RayfordSteele, Mar 17 2011


Our mice move the mousetrap. [Grayure] was not amused.
-- nineteenthly, Mar 17 2011


The downside to this idea is that it would essentially force the development of a better mousetrap, which is something we do not currently have a need for.
-- Alterother, Apr 01 2011


The fact that we do not currently have a need for a better mousetrap is the problem this idea solves.

In order for the economy to keep growing (and it must keep growing, for the same reason that the Red Queen must keep running [1]), we must somehow sustain demand. But if everybody's content with the mousetraps they already own, they won't spend money on NEW! IMPROVED!! ones. The mousetrap manufacturers will lay off workers, the economy will tank, the government will have to step in, and before you know it CREEPING SOCIALISM! [2]

So we urgently need an urgent need for better mousetraps.

[1] The snark was a boojum, you see.

[2] Come The Revolution, the inventors of better mousetraps will be first up against the wall.
-- mouseposture, Apr 02 2011


I stand corrected. It's much better than standing up against the wall.

Vive la Souris Rouge!!
-- Alterother, Apr 04 2011


Assuming mice can be placed on a bell curve, a trap could be rated based on the IQ cutoff of the mice caught (using the same rules as for humans: 100 mean, 15 standard deviation). Then we could have fancy marketing terms, like "Standard" grade (100), "George Washington" (140), "Michael Faraday" (170) or the very expensive "Isaac Newton" (190).
-- kevinthenerd, Feb 29 2012


A bitter-chocolate mousse.
-- pashute, May 20 2015



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