Kitchen tip: always wash and inspect your potatoes before cooking!

[struggle4progress]

WWI grenade found in French potatoes in Hong Kong (February 2019)



HONG KONG — A Hong Kong police bomb squad on Saturday destroyed a First World War-era hand grenade found at a food-processing facility in a shipment of potatoes from France, news reports said.

Employees reported a suspicious object encased in mud at the facility in Tseung Kwan O district in the New Territories, according to the Sing Tao Daily newspaper and other outlets ...

https://canoe.com/news/weird/wwi-grenade-found-in-potatoes-in-hong-kong

[calimary]

1. !!!!!

[ProudLib72]

2. Hot potato!

Last edited Sat Jun 1, 2019, 01:19 AM - Edit history (1)

It didn't blow up being 'harvested.' I suspect it's a dud spud.

[murielm99]

4. Be careful there, dearie.

You don't want a visit from Agent Mike.

[iluvtennis]

3. Wow, very interesting.

[NBachers]

5. Iron Harvest-

During World War I an estimated one tonne of explosives was fired for every square meter of territory on the Western front.

The French Department of Mine Clearance recovers about 900 tons of unexploded munitions every year.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Oh, my.

Just imagine if they'd planned to bake that potato.

Oh, and on a more serious note, read Aftermath: The Remnants of War: From Landmines to Chemical Warfare--The Devastating Effects of Modern Combat by Donovan Webster.

I'll wait while you do so.





Okay, are you finished? Pretty amazing, isn't it? Some years before the book was finished I heard what amounted to a teaser for it on NPR. It was several more years before the book came out and by then I was truly desperate to read it. So no one here has an excuse. This book has been out for some time now.

Read it, and convene back here in six months for discussion and test.

[struggle4progress]

7. thanx. i'll look it up

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. A completely amazing book.

I hope you find it and read it.

I am not one to suggest people spend all of their disposable income on books. Among the many things I love about public libraries is inter library loan. If your own library doesn't have the book you want, request it on inter library loan, and you'll get it after a while All libraries have limited budgets to buy new books, and although I frequently make purchase suggestions (and isn't the internet wonderful in this regard?) no one library can possibly buy all the books you or I might want. But they can temporarily borrow them from another library and that's just as good.

Hooray for libraries!

[Codeine]

12. Less than five bucks shipped on AbeBooks. nt

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. If this thing had made it into automated processing machinery....

that could have been a disaster for workers.

One would think there would be metal detectors somewhere along the way to catch such things as well as pieces of broken harvest machinery.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. That's the problem.

Why should metal detectors be a normal part of harvesting?

Right. There's no reason to think they should be. Again read the book Aftermath: The Remnants of War: From Landmines to Chemical Warfare--The Devastating Effects of Modern Combat by Donovan Webster. It will give you a lot of insight into this topic.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. Thanks, I'll check out the book - sounds very interesting...

From an Amazon review:

I'd never read about the aftermath of battles - the cleanup and removal of bodies and weapons - until now. Supremely fascinating, and written with depth and emotionally charged feelings from people that have to do the cleanup.

BTW, I was referring to metal detectors or magnets which might be wise at the food processing plants to protect the machinery from broken pieces of plows and harrows, etc. Would also detect shrapnel and grenades. Detectors and/or powerful magnets are commonly used in coal-fired power plants to prevent metal pieces (from mining) from entering the pulverizers.

............

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Apologies for my substandard

reading comprehension.