They find nothing, but decide to plant some evidence (drugs, weapon, whatever).

I had a couple iPhone 3GS that I didn't want anymore, so I tried one of those ecoATM things once. They do require a scan of a drivers license as a form of ID, for whatever that is worth. But the big issue is how much they lowball the offered price compared to what you can get almost anywhere else. The machine offered $20 each for the 8GB phones (in near mint shape), so I declined the offer, and sold them myself on eBay for a bit over $100 each.

Even a desperate thief should be able to find a place to fence a stolen phone that gives them more money than those scam machines...

Why would they "spend MANY thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on investigation, arrest, booking, court hearing/trial, and imprisonment for a $500 piece of electronics" when they could spend MANY thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on investigation, arrest, booking, court hearing/trial, and imprisonment for a $10 bag of weed?

, spread over 3 separate EVAs in 3 days. All of the unmanned US and Russian rovers took a lot longer to set their distance records.

If the Apollo program was allowed to continue past 17, there were plans for even longer distance surface excursions. There were even preliminary studies done for a small flying vehicle to allow the astronauts to cover even longer distances from their landing site.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

And run back to back with moon landing conspiracy shows...

, and if you pass a certification test, commercial motors up to an O-8000 are available if you have the cash:

http://www.pro38.com/products/pro150/motor.php

Model rocketry has come a LONG way since cardboard Estes rockets in the schoolyard....

Wonder no more:

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/16413/washington-state-names-ucla-professor-pot-czar/

http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/16401/mark-kleiman-wins-washington-marijuana-legalization-implementation-contract/

They rely on the resonant frequency of atoms in metal vapors (Cesium or Rubidium), or the output of a hydrogen maser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clock

Radioactive decay is a chaotic process. So chaotic that it can be used as the basis for a random number generator. Just what you DON'T want in a precise time/frequency reference.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/

At least it didn't wipe this hard drive that was found among the debris from the Columbia accident:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9083718/Shuttle_i_Columbia_s_i_hard_drive_data_recovered_from_crash_site_

Just to clarify, you would need to seal the outer surface, and pull a vacuum on the internal volume of the material. Then, assuming that the sealing coating didn't weigh too much, the stuff should float.

Because the material is extremely porous, and is saturated with ambient air.

In a vacuum, the material should float.

Not very effective at removing idiots from the gene pool, unless people are aiming them at their genitals.

Blindness will not prevent idiots from reproducing....

What a waste of psilocybin....