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Trained Rats for Mine Detection
rikomatic writes "The dangerous profession of anti-personnel mine detection is getting a surprising new tool: giant Gambian rats (NY Times reg). Some resourceful Belgians have figured out how to train these 30-inch rodents to hunt out landmines. They are cheaper and work harder than dogs and are more reliable than metal detectors. Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?"
Well, they can't be trained too well or they'd have enough sense to stay away from those land mines.
Rats don't have a union and get paid 1/10th the food dogs do...
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I'm sick of this anti-rodent bias in humans! "Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?" says the poster, and not a one of you will disagree with him, will you?
Fuckin' speciests, the lot of you!
On a more serious note, people will be upset about this, if only because it costs time and money to train any animal, even rats.
The previous sig has been removed due to
Why not use lawyers instead. They aren't as cute and no-one gets attached to them.
> Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?
My father was a giant Gambian rat, you insensitive clod!
John.
"Rodents of unusual size? They don't exist!" *rat attacks*
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Not as cool as my trained sharks with frickin laser beams....
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?
uhm.. the guy who paid x thousand dollars to have it trained?
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me
"Rats don't have a union and get paid 1/10th the food dogs do..."
That's OK, just wait 'til those damn rats get outsourced to IT workers, who don't have a union and get paid 1/10th of the rats.
Bats baby... Then you even have operatives that can work in total darkness.
Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?
The rats' pan-dimensional, super-intelligent kindred will care, and I would not want to tangle with them.
And how long 'til we hear "Hey! Whose rat is this?"
"MINE!"
"Rodents Of Unusual Size? Frankly, I don't think they... " *boom*
from Dr. Fegg's Encyclopedia of All World Knowledge
::Note::
Dr. Fegg has only ever written one national anthem. Here it is, reproduced for the first time. Dr. Fegg would like to remind all his readers that he has not yet been paid for it.
-The Gambian National Anthem-
Gambia, Oh Gambia,
Though only small and thin,
When it comes to being called Gambia,
You are the one to win.
Your capital is Bathurst
A name that means so much
To you who live in Gambia,
Though less so to the Dutch.
Gambia, where men are men
And trees fit in the ground.
The one six-lettered nation
Where Gambians abound!
Gambians! O Gambians!
Though your country is so thin
And most of it a river
It's the place that you live in.
From mountains down to flat bits,
Ring out your anthem great,
Though now you're part of Senegal
The words are out of date.
-Bertram Wesley Fegg DD
WARNING: Humming of this anthem, even to oneself, renders the reader liable for royalty payments. These should be sent to Dr. Fegg personally and *not*, repeat *not* to the chisellers at the Gambian embassy.
Many people ask: What is Dr. Fegg a doctor *of*? Well, without going into specifics Dr. Fegg has tried his hand at many things in his time.
His is the sort of mind that can encompass deck chair repairing, sweeping, billposting and the buying and selling of cars with one previous owner. So it is perhaps unfair and irrelevant to confine his extraordinary talents to the mundane world of labels and categories.
Dr. Fegg *has* delivered babies, but only during the busy pre-Christmas period when the Post Office can't cope. And Dr. Fegg has done brain surgery-- though *never*, repeat *never* in the Bournemouth area.
I am sure countries with mine infestation problems will really care what animal rights organizations have to cry about. All I would have to do to gain some sympathy is put two-four 8 year olds with missing limbs because of land mines. That will shut up most people who want to complain about rats that breed like...well rats...
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
...so, Darl has finally been trained to do something useful?
that at the end of the article, it was going to mention how Mr. Cox has an uncle who died and left US 3.4M in a Tanzanian bank and with your help, it can be recovered?
They should use womp rats.
They're not much bigger than two meters.
So what if a bunch of kids on Tatooine don't have live targets anymore? They should be using their T16s for more constructive things, anyway.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
better yet, make it into a Junkyard Wars episode. the team to detonate the most land mines by hurling giant rats with a catapult wins.
The solution is obvious... use PETA members instead of the rats. I like rats.
If the rats do get killed by the mines it'll give the troops a nice break from their MREs.
Any prisoner for life can apply - you just have to run through a field potentially filled with landmines. If you make it, you're free. If not, well, too bad.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I for one welcome our new Gaint Rat overlords...
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
Why the hell are kids playing soccer in the ocean surrounded by mines?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Or...
Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering? Pinky: I think so Brain, but I'd rather go hump a landmine.. Narf! {BOOM!!!}
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
PETA. They'll be all over this.
We could use PETA members to sniff them out instead but I think the patchouli might interfere with the mine-detection.
Is there a People for the Ethical Treatment of PETA Members (PETPETAM) we need to worry about?
Jason.
Heh heh heh.
But clearly your friend wasn't a true PETA member, or he/she would have been violent toward you when you received your meal. This also would have kept you distracted while the ELF people lit your SUV on fire in the parking lot.
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Are you saying PETA destroyed any credibility with "holocaust on your plate"? That's where PETA compared bacon to millions of dead Jews, Roma (Gypsies), the handicapped, Slavs (Poles, Russians, and others), Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. If so, you're crazy. It's obviously the same thing, as any Hannibal Lector will tell you.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
Doesn't PETA stand for People Eating Tasty Animals?
(just wondering)
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
Actually, when they start they aren't heavy enough. But each time they find a mine, they get food. So after a certain number of mines, the rats will be heavy enough and then: Rat-burgers!
Hey I think you just invented the next x-game.
Yes. But I've never heard of dolphins being trained to find them.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
According to this article on The Age, the rats do not weigh enough to set off the mines. So, they are far less likely to get blown up as a human or dog. Therefore, using them is more humane than using a dog. If demining organizations don't use rats or dogs, what do they use? I suppose we could use PETA members. Any volunteers???
Lets follow this thread through and see what happened. First, thebra made a statement, then he cited a similar example to back himself up.
thebra:
Statement: "Well I'm gonna guess PETA might care."
Support:"They aren't happy about the military using dolphins."
Next kunudo made an assertion that we shouldn't care about thebra's statement
kunudo's Reply: "Screw PETA, kids avoid getting blown up while playing soccer etc beacuse of stuff like this."
Then you came out of left field, obviously having not understood the above sequence of posts.
You: "Why the hell are kids playing soccer in the ocean surrounded by mines?"
I think you missed something.
Aww, I think they're cute. Any chance of training Darl instead?
...and say we did, and send him out there anyway.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It seems to me that the areas that are most heavily mind also grow or have easy access to heroin. I say we use one problem to solve another. Why not get a bunch of rats, and make them into a bunch of raging crack whores. during training the lab techs could mix small amouns of the explosive they are trying to clear in with the drugs they get as a reward for doing a job. Then you haul a bunch of these rats into the target area, wait till they are really jonesing for a fix and let them go. It might be good to tell everyone to stay under cover first though. Like the above and the article points out, the rats may not set off the mines by walking on them, but would they if they started clawing at them thinking that somebody hid a dime bag inside? I know this sounds terribly bloody minded, but it seems like a good choice on ethical and rational grounds. And, I admit, it would be fun to see the PETA freaks explode in rage.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
"Plus, if one of them blows up, who's going to cry?"
I was raised by giant Gambian rats, you insensitive... oh nevermind. I'm calling Peta, the People for the Eating of Tasty Animals.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
After reading the various replies, it is obvious that there is a small percentage of people who would actually regret the loss of a rat.
We should train Spammers instead! Certainly no one would miss them. In fact, we could outfit them with lead boots for extra fun.
That's why there's so many college kids that have nutritional problems. They decide to become vegetarians because it's "cool" or whatever, but they don't actually do their homework and learn how to do it properly, so they end up with insufficient protein, low iron, etc.
;)
Silly me, I thought my nutritional problems in college were due to junk food and alcohol.
This space for rent, inquire within.
But they got too many false positives. Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I could use some trained mines for rat detection in my apartment.
Rest assured that that connection would cease to be there if it doesn't find the mine carefully enough. At that point it would fail the sentient test and become merely "sent'.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes quite often. -- Mark Twain
I have always hated mine sweeper. I say let the rats have it. They must be better than me at guessing what all those numbers over the squares mean!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Bender: Who wants dolphin? [Everyone gasps]
Leela: Dolphin? But dolphins are intelligent.
Bender: Not this one. He blew all his money on instant lottery tickets.
Leela: Oh. That's different. Pass the blowhole.
Yet there is no logical reason to deny animals the same rights that protect individual humans from being sacrificed for the common good.
I will happily grant Rover the exact same "human" rights as a person as soon as he files his lawsuit against the government.
Karma: Excellent (Mainly due to Bill & Ted's Karma Adventure)
Even if it wasn't mine, I'd save the dog.
Because the dog's family are less likely to sue if I hurt the person in the process of saving their life.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
*Mild spoiler warning!* ... Which you had to use to clear the minefield in front of the Vulture's hideout. Cute, yellow, mechanical bunnies handled by a grizzly biker. LucasArts was ahead of its time on that one!