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> There are signs everywhere telling people to stay on the trail. I have never seen so many people disregard them in my life. When I went to the Falkland Islan

> There are signs everywhere telling people to stay on the trail. I have never seen so many people disregard them in my life. When I went to the Falkland Islands the trails have clearly marked signs telling tourists not to leave the path under any circumstances because the area is covered in land mines. The signs had skull & crossbones on them and everything. It was very clear that leaving the path would risk life and limb. And in the hour or so I was on the trail I saw several people leave the path to take a closer picture of the penguins. The things people will do for the perfect Instagram photo are unbelievable.

hiram112 7y ago
I'm a little confused. Are theses landmines to keep people on the trail or are they left over from the war in the 80's? And if the latter, why the hell haven't they removed them yet? If it's the former, I'm impressed with their dedication to keeping the tourists on the marked path.
- smileysteve 7y ago
  Definitely from the war; and landmines can be difficult to find.
- detritus 7y ago
  The Falklands are mostly boggy, mostly empty and the spread of mines mostly everywhere. There were efforts to clear mines after the war, but the nature of mines means that it's best to play safe in the [many] decades after. There's a reason people have tried to get mines banned - they're a pain in the ass.
- elliekelly 7y ago
  > And if the latter, why the hell haven't they removed them yet? Apparently Argentina used plastic land mines (I believe they were new at the time) which are difficult to detect. After the war Argentina gave the British military a map of where they had placed the mines but because the mines had mostly been placed in sandy or swampy terrain many of them had shifted so they’re difficult to locate safely even with a map. This was maybe the most interesting part of visiting the Islands for me because it’s a very contentious topic among locals. Some want the mines removed (and I was told they are working on that with a specialized company from Africa but it’s apparently a slow, expensive and of course dangerous process). There has been at least one death in the removal process so a lot of the locals feel its better/safer to just leave the mines were they are and things are fine with the clearly marked signs that show which areas of the islands are off limits. Also, in case you were concerned for the safety of the penguins like me, they don’t weigh enough to trigger the mines so they walk over them all the time without issue.
  - robocat 7y ago
    Wouldn't cows be a low-tech (although cruel) solution?
    - elliekelly 7y ago
      I actually asked if they could drop a bunch of bowling balls from planes... like WW2 planes that dropped cannon balls instead of bombs. I was told those types solutions aren’t possible because one explosion could set off several others which then interferes with their carefully plotted (but evidently not particularly useful) map of where the mines are thought to be located. Supposedly the only way to know with 100% certainty that an area is free of land mines is to remove them individually without detonating them. I guess I understand the logic but I also can’t help but think there has to be a better way that’s both cheaper and doesn’t involve humans risking their lives. Perhaps one day.
      - lazyasciiart 7y ago
        There is - rats have been trained to find landmines with great success https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151006-giant-rats-landmines-cambodia-science-animals/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151006-giant... https://www.apopo.org/en https://www.apopo.org/en
        elliekelly 7y ago
        This is incredible. (And those rats are massive!) You should submit that National Geographic article to the main page.
        lazyasciiart 7y ago
        Huh, thanks for the suggestion - done!
    - SiVal 7y ago
      Seems as though robots would do a much better job. I'm imagining a giant spider that walks into a minefield with its armored body fairly high above the ground. The body very methodically scans, probes, digs, ...whatever works. Its probes sometimes get blown off and are replaced from a quiver. A leg is occasionally blown off, but a spider can keep working without a leg or two. At the end of its shift, it walks out and has its legs fixed. A big hook on its back can be snagged to helicopter it out in case it is immobilized by an uncaught exception.
- culturestate 7y ago
  > Are theses landmines to keep people on the trail or are they left over from the war in the 80's The idea that someone would deploy land mines to keep people from straying off of a nature trail is a bit dystopian, no?
  - jointpdf 7y ago
    /giggle I did some volunteer trail maintenance over the weekend, and we deployed logs and brush along the side of the trails to provide visual cues to stay on the path and block off “social trails”. The mental image of volunteers/rangers laying mines for this purpose is...quite hilarious.
    - irrational 7y ago
      They don't need to lay mines. They just need to put up signs telling people that there are (hypothetical) land mines.
- astura 7y ago
  Um... "just remove the landmines" isn't exactly that simple. It's difficult, slow, dangerous, and expensive work and resources aren't exactly unlimited. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demining >As of 2017, antipersonnel mines are known to contaminate 61 states and suspected in another 10. The most heavily contaminated (with more than 100 square kilometres of minefield each) are Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Iraq, Thailand and Turkey. >A 2003 RAND Corporation report estimated that there are 45–50 million mines and 100,000 are cleared each year, so at present rates it would take about 500 years to clear them all. Another 1.9 million (19 more years of clearance) are added each year. >Demining is a dangerous occupation. If a mine is prodded too hard or it is not detected, the deminer can suffer injury or death. The large number of false positives from metal detectors can make deminers tired and careless. According to one report, there is one such incident for every 1000–2000 mines cleared. 35 percent of the accidents occur during mine excavation and 24 percent result from missed mines.
  - haihaibye 7y ago
    Wow I had no idea the problem was that big. Please someone launch a mine clearing robot startup/charity.
shados 7y ago
A friend of mine went to an African safari guided tour, lead by a professional, on a truck. It was extremely clear that everyone had to stay on the truck because wild lions don't give a fuck about the whole "murder is illegal" thing. From what they told me, halfway through someone on the tour noticed a rhino, and without telling anyone jumped off and started running toward it with a file to try to get some rhino horn powder (they had missed the memo that rhinos are not exactly gentle creatures) and almost got themselves killed as the guide screamed for them to get the hell back. Supposedly when they finally listened, they came back explaining they just wanted to file down a little bit of the horns without hurting the rhino. Some people are seriously self centered.
- Balgair 7y ago
  I've seen people get far too comfy with bears before in Yosemite and with Elk in rut at Rocky Mountain National Park, but this takes the cake! Having your babys pose with a black bear is one thing (yes, really, I wasn't the only one rushing for the kids). But actually going up to an adult rhino and then molesting it's horn with a file?! I'm actually speechless, I've not idea what to make of that type of idiot. To me, that is clearly a suicide attempt.
- vmlinuz 7y ago
  This seems to be a clear case for letting nature, red in tooth and horn, have its way...

hiram112 7y ago

I'm a little confused. Are theses landmines to keep people on the trail or are they left over from the war in the 80's? And if the latter, why the hell haven't they removed them yet? If it's the former, I'm impressed with their dedication to keeping the tourists on the marked path.

smileysteve 7y ago
Definitely from the war; and landmines can be difficult to find.
detritus 7y ago
The Falklands are mostly boggy, mostly empty and the spread of mines mostly everywhere. There were efforts to clear mines after the war, but the nature of mines means that it's best to play safe in the [many] decades after. There's a reason people have tried to get mines banned - they're a pain in the ass.
elliekelly 7y ago
> And if the latter, why the hell haven't they removed them yet? Apparently Argentina used plastic land mines (I believe they were new at the time) which are difficult to detect. After the war Argentina gave the British military a map of where they had placed the mines but because the mines had mostly been placed in sandy or swampy terrain many of them had shifted so they’re difficult to locate safely even with a map. This was maybe the most interesting part of visiting the Islands for me because it’s a very contentious topic among locals. Some want the mines removed (and I was told they are working on that with a specialized company from Africa but it’s apparently a slow, expensive and of course dangerous process). There has been at least one death in the removal process so a lot of the locals feel its better/safer to just leave the mines were they are and things are fine with the clearly marked signs that show which areas of the islands are off limits. Also, in case you were concerned for the safety of the penguins like me, they don’t weigh enough to trigger the mines so they walk over them all the time without issue.
- robocat 7y ago
  Wouldn't cows be a low-tech (although cruel) solution?
  - elliekelly 7y ago
    I actually asked if they could drop a bunch of bowling balls from planes... like WW2 planes that dropped cannon balls instead of bombs. I was told those types solutions aren’t possible because one explosion could set off several others which then interferes with their carefully plotted (but evidently not particularly useful) map of where the mines are thought to be located. Supposedly the only way to know with 100% certainty that an area is free of land mines is to remove them individually without detonating them. I guess I understand the logic but I also can’t help but think there has to be a better way that’s both cheaper and doesn’t involve humans risking their lives. Perhaps one day.
    - lazyasciiart 7y ago
      There is - rats have been trained to find landmines with great success https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151006-giant-rats-landmines-cambodia-science-animals/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151006-giant... https://www.apopo.org/en https://www.apopo.org/en
      - elliekelly 7y ago
        This is incredible. (And those rats are massive!) You should submit that National Geographic article to the main page.
        lazyasciiart 7y ago
        Huh, thanks for the suggestion - done!
  - SiVal 7y ago
    Seems as though robots would do a much better job. I'm imagining a giant spider that walks into a minefield with its armored body fairly high above the ground. The body very methodically scans, probes, digs, ...whatever works. Its probes sometimes get blown off and are replaced from a quiver. A leg is occasionally blown off, but a spider can keep working without a leg or two. At the end of its shift, it walks out and has its legs fixed. A big hook on its back can be snagged to helicopter it out in case it is immobilized by an uncaught exception.
culturestate 7y ago
> Are theses landmines to keep people on the trail or are they left over from the war in the 80's The idea that someone would deploy land mines to keep people from straying off of a nature trail is a bit dystopian, no?
- jointpdf 7y ago
  /giggle I did some volunteer trail maintenance over the weekend, and we deployed logs and brush along the side of the trails to provide visual cues to stay on the path and block off “social trails”. The mental image of volunteers/rangers laying mines for this purpose is...quite hilarious.
  - irrational 7y ago
    They don't need to lay mines. They just need to put up signs telling people that there are (hypothetical) land mines.
astura 7y ago
Um... "just remove the landmines" isn't exactly that simple. It's difficult, slow, dangerous, and expensive work and resources aren't exactly unlimited. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demining https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demining >As of 2017, antipersonnel mines are known to contaminate 61 states and suspected in another 10. The most heavily contaminated (with more than 100 square kilometres of minefield each) are Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Iraq, Thailand and Turkey. >A 2003 RAND Corporation report estimated that there are 45–50 million mines and 100,000 are cleared each year, so at present rates it would take about 500 years to clear them all. Another 1.9 million (19 more years of clearance) are added each year. >Demining is a dangerous occupation. If a mine is prodded too hard or it is not detected, the deminer can suffer injury or death. The large number of false positives from metal detectors can make deminers tired and careless. According to one report, there is one such incident for every 1000–2000 mines cleared. 35 percent of the accidents occur during mine excavation and 24 percent result from missed mines.
- haihaibye 7y ago
  Wow I had no idea the problem was that big. Please someone launch a mine clearing robot startup/charity.

shados 7y ago

A friend of mine went to an African safari guided tour, lead by a professional, on a truck. It was extremely clear that everyone had to stay on the truck because wild lions don't give a fuck about the whole "murder is illegal" thing. From what they told me, halfway through someone on the tour noticed a rhino, and without telling anyone jumped off and started running toward it with a file to try to get some rhino horn powder (they had missed the memo that rhinos are not exactly gentle creatures) and almost got themselves killed as the guide screamed for them to get the hell back. Supposedly when they finally listened, they came back explaining they just wanted to file down a little bit of the horns without hurting the rhino. Some people are seriously self centered.

Balgair 7y ago
I've seen people get far too comfy with bears before in Yosemite and with Elk in rut at Rocky Mountain National Park, but this takes the cake! Having your babys pose with a black bear is one thing (yes, really, I wasn't the only one rushing for the kids). But actually going up to an adult rhino and then molesting it's horn with a file?! I'm actually speechless, I've not idea what to make of that type of idiot. To me, that is clearly a suicide attempt.
vmlinuz 7y ago
This seems to be a clear case for letting nature, red in tooth and horn, have its way...