Landmines and Soccer Don't Mix

Personally, I play soccer, and I find it really sad that that happens every day. Someone loses a loved one because of a landmine. In the video it showed one of the girl's lifeless, limp body, and I thought that was just awful. I can't even find words to describe what I saw on that video.

And no I haven't heard of a landmine case in the US yet. Yet.

I don't think there is a landmine crisis in the US, but as someone who lives in the US, I've heard of it, sure.

And lest you think it's just 'cause I'm a nerd who reads the NYT more or less cover to cover every day, one of the first things that actually comes to mind is that it was one of Princess Diana's main causes.

The ad agency sent it to US broadcasters. They really want to take care of the huge dillema we have in the US of land mines blasting off junior's legs on our little league fields.

Personally, I can't believe none of the girls took advantage of the wide open goal and scored.

The blasted girl was celebrating a goal, so the ball wasn't in play.

I hope you can sleep better now, with that information, Slappy.

Well if the other team was heads up, they should have put the ball back in play and rolled down the field to put another point on the board...assuming nobody would step on another landmine and blow their face off.

The referee should have blown his whistle to restart play.

But, hey, maybe he was blowing his whistle calling for an ambulance.

So perhaps you're right: those girls probably missed a chance to score.

See, whiney girls like that are a perfect example of why nobody respects the WNBA.

Belive it or not this is an issue in the US. The National Parks Serves has regulation about, and the US Army maintains a special unit to, remove military ordinance and there is a lot lying around, Civil War battlefields, Revolutionary War battlefields, test ranges, training ranges etc. This is a particular problem for archaeologist and I have been involved in some of this.

How realistic do you think something like this commercial happening?

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It has happened. Gunpoweder gets very touchy when it ages. There was an incident in Connecticut 30 years ago (approximately) where a family picked up two cannon balls from a rev. war site around New York, took them home and used them has andirons in a fire place. They exploded killing several family members. I have found a civil war artillery shell fuse being used in a class room civil war display. A local historical society in Connecticut had a collection of civil war artillery shells, one of which was cracked and dribbling gun powder. There are many more examples.

Cannonballs as andirons?

I don't wish any particular ill-will on anyone much less death, but that has to earn them a Darwin award...

When most people think of cannon balls they think of solid shot, which many of them are, particularly in the 18th century. It was a foolish thing to do but understandable.

This is my favorite story about stray Civil War ordinance. It concerns a cannon that sits in the North Portico of the Rhode Island State House in Providence Rhode Island. Fortunately, the situation was resolved safely. The quotes are from a web site on the capital building.


"The gun was one of six used by the First Rhode Island Light Artillery, Battery B, at the Battle of Gettysburg. At around 1 p.m. on July 3, 1863, just before General George Pickett's assault on Union lines, two cannoneers were reloading this weapon when it was struck on the left side of the bore by a Confederate shell."

"The muzzle of the gun was altered by the heat of the explosion, and efforts to reload it with new shot were unsuccessful despite attempts to whack the ball into place with a hammer and axe. As the barrel cooled, it contracted, wedging the cannonball firmly inside, where it remains today."

"In 1874 the cannon was returned to the State of Rhode Island at the request of Battery B veterans."

"In 1962 someone realized that since the cannonball had never been removed from the muzzle of the gun, two-and-a-half pounds of black gunpowder must still be inside the barrel. Members of the Rhode Island National Guard's Army Corps of Engineers drilled holes in the barrel and submerged it in water so that the powder could be removed safely."


Link to full story:

http://www.quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=62

Link to State House

http://www.woonsocket.org/river/statehouse.htm

OOOh all that technical stuff is so dull.

Don't you realize the glorious history of a loaded gun--which can't fire?

I'm going to give out M-80's for Halloween this year.

A loaded gun that cannot fire may be glorious, but gun powder gets very unstable with age. That means that the Rhode Island legislature was meeting for almost 90 years with a loaded pipe bomb in their midst. If you have any familiarity with Rhode Island politics, this is a situation which, in my more cynical moments, I find hilarious.

Acquiunk--

Ignorance is no excuse? How about:

LYRICS ONLY



Oh Miss Effie was her name

Through the west she won her fame

Being handy with the gun

But she drove the men insane

Cause she'd whip out her pistol

And shoot most any guy

And sing out this alibi



I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'm so sorry my friend

I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'll never, never do it again



But one night she made a slip

Shot the sheriff in the hip

So the law it took a hand

And made Effie take the stand

And she pled, 'oh your honor

I'll know you turn me loose

When you hear my one excuse'



I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'm so sorry my friend

I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'll never, never do it again



I didn't know the gun was loaded

But regarding the gun that I toted

All I did was hold it high and go ...

BANG, PING, HUHH, ZSSS

I'll never, never do it again



INSTRUMENTAL



Yes the jury all agreed

That Miss Effie should be freed

But the sheriff's jealous wife

Was indignant (yes, indeed)

So she borrowed a pistol

And shot this village belle

And sang as Miss Effie fell



I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'm so sorry my friend

I didn't know the gun was loaded

And I'll never, never do it again



I didn't know the gun was loaded

But regarding the gun that I toted

All I did was hold it high and go ...

BANG, PING, HUHH, ZSSS

I'll never, never do it again