No accidents in Samoa, and more

No accidents in Samoa

Amid cheers, honking horns, and ringing church bells, Samoa became the first nation in more than 30 years to switch its driving from one side of the road to the other—without a single accident. At 5:50 a.m., Police Minister Toleafoa Fa’afisa made a radio announcement for motorists to stop; at 6 a.m., Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi ordered all cars to switch sides, from right to left; and at 6:10 a.m., a final announcement was made to resume driving. The switch was made to bring Samoa in line with the traffic flow in Australia and New Zealand.

MIT students invent impressive new camera system

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Spending only $148, two MIT students have invented a camera system that can take pictures of Earth from a height of almost 18 miles. Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh hung a Styrofoam beer cooler containing a Canon A470 compact camera from a helium-filled balloon. The camera was equipped with an interval timer to snap shots every five seconds. Chemical hand warmers kept the camera from freezing, and a GPS-equipped cell phone tracked the cooler to earth when the balloon burst. Lee and Yeh say they will post instructions on how to make the device on the Internet, free of charge.

Finding a mesage in a bottle

Tony Hoskings was walking along the beach in Cornwall, England, when he found a barnacle-encrusted green bottle. Inside was a note dated June 21, 2004, and signed by 14-year-old Daniel Knopp of Baltimore wishing whoever found it “great joy.” It took seven weeks, but Hoskings tracked down Knopp, who recounted that he’d tossed the bottle from a cruise ship in the Bahamas, 4,000 miles away. “I was astounded by it not only being found,” said Knopp, now a college student, “but the message still being legible.”