Yesterday afternoon I knew that the celebration had begun. Huge numbers of firecrackers going off with the occasional "BOOM!!" somewhere in the distance.
I ventured outside the building to get some fresh air. As I walked in front of the building, I could hear a string going off. The bang and crackle of exploding firecrackers just kept going and going. I realized that the noise was getter louder, not fainter. I got to the intersection and looked down the street to see a mass of red paper on the sidewalk and a cloud of billowing hazy smoke hanging in the air about 100 feet away.
This may be my hot take, but I think mac & cheese should be pasta coated with a cheese sauce. Most modern mac & cheese recipes are absolute garbage. Go and google any mac and cheese recipe. Look at the ratios - usually 50/50 ratio of dry pasta to cheese by weight. If you add butter, most recipes are about 60% cheese/butter by weight. You cannot possibly cook these sauces with that much cheese & butter without it breaking, clumping, or just being an oily mess. The pictures look disgusting and each recipe seemed to brag about how cheesy/gooey they were. Ick. I made a macaroni w/ gruyere mornay sauce last night with some freshly grated nutmeg. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than what millions of Americans feed their kids.
It wasn't amazing, but the point is to get better at it.
There's a pretty good chance I'll continue to eat food, so it might as well be better/more consistent. While my degree requires me to have an externship, I have little desire to work in a restaurant.
Haven't had chicken in any form since March 1996 when I got food poisoning from chicken. Except for turkey the last few Thanksgivings I haven't had any meat since then.
90 minutes for a 5 pound chicken at 425F sounds like it will overcook it. Things I would change - don't rinse the chicken. Temper it at room temp for about 20 minutes.
Spatchcock the chicken by cutting out the spine with kitchen shears, press it down flat. Pat it dry inside and outside with paper towel.
I'd run my hand underneath the skin - then apply salt, pepper, zest from the lemon, minced garlic, and picked thyme and apply under the skin. Putting things into the cavity of the chicken is just going to steam it and it will smell nice, but you won't taste much of it. Butter the skin, lightly salt the skin.
Put the chicken cavity side down on a mesh laid over foil on an aluminum half-sheet, but the legs facing the convection fan side pointed toward the narrow side of the baking sheet. Convect roast @400 for maybe 40 minutes. Temperature check. Breast should be 150-ish. Legs closer to 160, but they are forgiving. Let rest for 5 minutes. Skin should be crispy and delicious. This method will cook the legs and breast at the same time to different yet correct internal temperatures.
Hm...interesting. Thanks for the advice. When spatchcocking, (that's what she said), do you cut down either side of the spine to detach from the ribs? And also along the other end of the chicken so it can be spread out? And why not rinse the chicken? Asian mothers are shuddering at the thought. And what if you only have a 65 year old regular oven?
Yeah, just cut down either side of the spine/neck and remove the parson's nose (the tail fat pad), reserve for stock. Leave the breast side intact. When I say press down, you're going to get all your torse weight on top of it and shove down. You'll hear the rib bones crack as you flatten it out. When you have the convection fan on, air will circulate around the pan in a spiral around your oven, curling over the edge of the pan and splashing on top of the chicken, more on the outer edge and less on the inner part. That's why your breast and legs will cook to different temperatures in the same oven. The spatchcocking puts the meat where it should be. Again, you want the legs nearer the short end of the pan and the breast away from the fan because often the door-side is counter-intuitively hotter than the fan side because the hot air is pushed against the door and bounces back directly onto the meat, whereas the fan side really only gets one direction of air.
Rinsing is controversial. Obviously, rinsing washes away bacteria and toxins at the surface - but not the inside of the meat. Heat above 138F will kill any bacterial, viral, fungal pathogens if you're cooking that long (specifically 40 minutes) and you'll definitely get there. This is why it's generally safe to slightly pink chicken. But heat doesn't destroy toxins, so you're worried more about the pathogens that create toxins - and the most common one is botulism. Botulism's most common vector is nicking the intestines and then mixing it into a ground mixture or cross-contamination. This is whole meat, so the risk of botulism is much lower. And modern food chains are pretty good in terms of safety. So you're much less worried about safety compared to - say 60 years ago - when supply chains and food safety was much worse. And when you rinse, you contaminate everything where that water goes. If there was botulism - you've just spread it across your sink. Soap cleans but doesn't sanitize, so you'll probably contaminate your sponge, which then means you'll contaminate your entire kitchen for days over and over. Run your sponges through the dishwasher, people.
Rinsing is also a quality issue. Water is the enemy of getting yummy browning. You want your skin to reach the Maillard zone as soon as possible by not having to utilize all the calories in the oven to evaporating water. When I can remember it, I get my meats out of the package the day before, put it on paper towels and into a fairly big bin/tray. I let the fridge convection fan dehydrate my meats a touch. The bin just has to be big enough to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
But a $7 oven thermometer. You hang it from your rack. And you move it around. While you intuitively know where you're ovens hot spots are, this will measure them scientifically. That being said, a 400 degree oven is not 400 degrees. It should average that, but it will be hotter than 400 higher and forward if convection is on and in back if it is not. That data will tell you if your 65 year old oven is good or not.
The Lakers had one of the worst displays of the season on Tuesday, falling to the Sixers on the road on the second night of back-to-back, 118-104.
It was one of the most disappointing defeats of the season as the Sixers shot 47.3% from the field with Tyrese Maxey scoring 41 points in the first three quarters alone. The Lakers had 22 turnovers, leading to 27 points for Philly.
Tuesday night at Chase Center was a battle of shorthanded teams testing their depth. In one corner, the Golden State Warriors, already without Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga, and dealt a late blow when Steph Curry was scratched about two hours before tip. In the other corner, the Utah Jazz, without core players Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Jordan Clarkson, and Walker Kessler.
It was still a game the Warriors needed to win, given that they were at home, against a 10-win team on the back end of a back-to-back. And — spoiler alert! — win they did, beating Utah 114-103 to return to .500.
Hey, the Warriors won without Steph, Draymond, and JK. Thought Schröder tore his ACL, only to come back into the game. Podz looks to be shooting his 3s better than before he got hurt.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark wants her first 3-point contest to come at the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis and will not participate in a special challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend, her representatives at Excel Sports said Wednesday.
Guess there won't be a Steph and Klay vs Sabrina and Caitlin. Wonder what they'll do now. I also wonder if Klay will be interested in it. Steph has the hurt right thumb so that isn't helping him either.
THOUSAND OAKS – Golden Bears Ziqin (Eric) Zhou and Kuangyu (Tony) Chen climbed into the top 20 individually but the California men's golf team fell back into 11th place following round two of the Southwestern Invitational on Tuesday.
Cal (+19), which entered the day in a tie for eighth place, could not make up ground on the field as it shot a 10-over-par 294 in round two. Zhou, a freshman, and Chen, a redshirt senior, carded their second 1-over-par 72s of the tournament and climbed three spots into a tie for 20th place. Zhou shot a front-nine 33 (-2) and was 4-under for the day through 11 holes before a quadruple bogey on No. 13 halted his climb up the leaderboard.
BERKELEY – After a stellar outing at this weekend's win over No. 22 Clemson, Senior Ella Cesario of the No. 8 California women's gymnastics team was named ACC Gymnast of the Week, the conference announced Tuesday.
The Golden Bears have now won the award three out of four weeks to begin their first season in the conference with senior Mya Lauzon and junior eMjae Frazier earning the honor the first two weeks.
BERKELEY – Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox has rounded out his 2025 coaching staff with the addition of Julian Griffin as running backs coach and Allen Brown as co-defensive backs coach.
Griffin comes to Berkeley after five successful seasons at UTSA, where he helped the Roadrunners shatter several school records – including single-season marks for rushing yards, rushing yards per game, rushing average and rushing touchdowns. He tutored Sincere McCormick, an All-American running back who was twice named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year and now plays for the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. Griffin also mentored running back Brenden Brady, who was named the 2021 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Losing Coach Aristotle Thompson was a tough loss. I hate to see him go, but he absolutely should have everyone's support for his reason for leaving. His younger son has life-threatening chronic epilepsy. He, his wife, and his older son spend so much of their time and energy in helping their son out, plus creating charities to help others in a similar situation. Chicago has better epilepsy medical resources. He is one of the real ones and he will always have my support no matter where he goes in this world.
For the second week in a row, a California track & field athlete has been honored by the ACC as redshirt sophomore Giavonna Meeks was named Co-Women's Field Athlete of the Week Tuesday. Meeks, who took a collegiate lead in the women's weight throw over the weekend, shares the honor with Virginia Tech's Julia Fixsen, who achieved the same feat in the women's pole vault. She joins teammates David Foster (Men's Track Athlete of the Week – Jan. 21) and Valentina Savva (Women's Freshman of the Week – Jan. 21) as ACC award-winners.
Fresh off its first regular-season sweep of Stanford since the 1985-86 season, the No. 19 California women's basketball team (18-3, 6-2 ACC) has its eyes set on No. 15 North Carolina (18-4, 6-3). The top-20 matchup, taking place at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night at 7 p.m. PT, is the first since the then-No. 14 Golden Bears hosted then-No. 1 UConn on Dec. 22, 2018.
BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team will ride its three-game win streak into Dallas to face SMU on Wednesday night. Tipoff at Moody Coliseum is at 6 p.m. PT/8 p.m. CT and the contest will be broadcasted on ACC Network and 810 AM.
BERKELEY – California rugby alumnus Robert Paylor will be a featured speaker at the TEDxBerkeley 2025: HighwayX event Saturday on campus.
The event will be held 2:30-5:30 p.m. PT at Zellerbach Hall. Paylor will be giving a talk entitled: "Transforming Paralysis into Power: Lessons from a Quadriplegic".
California football graduate student Craig Woodson has been selected to the Academic All-America Second Team, College Sports Communicators (CSC) announced Tuesday morning. This is the first Academic All-America honor for the Golden Bear after earning three consecutive Academic All-District recognitions from 2022-24.
I have a hard time getting my head around the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, a mere six years before "the Killing Fields" film was released. I have been to Cambodia three times and the scars of its past are still all over the country and its people - including them still living under 40 years of one of the planet's six hereditary dictatorships (NK, Cambodia, Chad, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Togo). The summary extermination of one quarter of your own countrymen in a few years with people who knew they were going to their death is perhaps one of the evilest things ever done on this planet. It reminds me that this happened in my lifetime and our own government is sliding toward evil itself.
there are still a TON of active line mines left in Cambodia. some estimates are 4-5 million.
we went to this cool operation where they train these African rats to sniff out small traces of TNT and they dont weigh enough to set off the land mine
in total they have cleared something like 10000 land mines. obviously a long way to go until some other technology comes along.
we were just in Cambodia over Xmas. and indeed it was a strange history to try to comprehend. usually these mass killing and genocides are all ethnic lines. this one had some component of that, but it seemed mostly political (maybe ?)
Happy CNY to those who celebrate.
Yesterday afternoon I knew that the celebration had begun. Huge numbers of firecrackers going off with the occasional "BOOM!!" somewhere in the distance.
I ventured outside the building to get some fresh air. As I walked in front of the building, I could hear a string going off. The bang and crackle of exploding firecrackers just kept going and going. I realized that the noise was getter louder, not fainter. I got to the intersection and looked down the street to see a mass of red paper on the sidewalk and a cloud of billowing hazy smoke hanging in the air about 100 feet away.
i am celebrating. kids have no school. 2 day holiday
DBD Cooking Academy
This may be my hot take, but I think mac & cheese should be pasta coated with a cheese sauce. Most modern mac & cheese recipes are absolute garbage. Go and google any mac and cheese recipe. Look at the ratios - usually 50/50 ratio of dry pasta to cheese by weight. If you add butter, most recipes are about 60% cheese/butter by weight. You cannot possibly cook these sauces with that much cheese & butter without it breaking, clumping, or just being an oily mess. The pictures look disgusting and each recipe seemed to brag about how cheesy/gooey they were. Ick. I made a macaroni w/ gruyere mornay sauce last night with some freshly grated nutmeg. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than what millions of Americans feed their kids.
sounds amazing. related to culinary school or just dinner?
remind us again if the culinary school is for work/career purposes or mostly "something you always wanted to do/learn"
It wasn't amazing, but the point is to get better at it.
There's a pretty good chance I'll continue to eat food, so it might as well be better/more consistent. While my degree requires me to have an externship, I have little desire to work in a restaurant.
Roast Chicken
Haven't had chicken in any form since March 1996 when I got food poisoning from chicken. Except for turkey the last few Thanksgivings I haven't had any meat since then.
Do you eat fish frequently? I have a vague recollection that you said you did.
I use this recipe. After the first night, I use the breasts to make Chicken Salad for a couple of days.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-roast-chicken-recipe-1940592
90 minutes for a 5 pound chicken at 425F sounds like it will overcook it. Things I would change - don't rinse the chicken. Temper it at room temp for about 20 minutes.
Spatchcock the chicken by cutting out the spine with kitchen shears, press it down flat. Pat it dry inside and outside with paper towel.
I'd run my hand underneath the skin - then apply salt, pepper, zest from the lemon, minced garlic, and picked thyme and apply under the skin. Putting things into the cavity of the chicken is just going to steam it and it will smell nice, but you won't taste much of it. Butter the skin, lightly salt the skin.
Put the chicken cavity side down on a mesh laid over foil on an aluminum half-sheet, but the legs facing the convection fan side pointed toward the narrow side of the baking sheet. Convect roast @400 for maybe 40 minutes. Temperature check. Breast should be 150-ish. Legs closer to 160, but they are forgiving. Let rest for 5 minutes. Skin should be crispy and delicious. This method will cook the legs and breast at the same time to different yet correct internal temperatures.
Hm...interesting. Thanks for the advice. When spatchcocking, (that's what she said), do you cut down either side of the spine to detach from the ribs? And also along the other end of the chicken so it can be spread out? And why not rinse the chicken? Asian mothers are shuddering at the thought. And what if you only have a 65 year old regular oven?
Yeah, just cut down either side of the spine/neck and remove the parson's nose (the tail fat pad), reserve for stock. Leave the breast side intact. When I say press down, you're going to get all your torse weight on top of it and shove down. You'll hear the rib bones crack as you flatten it out. When you have the convection fan on, air will circulate around the pan in a spiral around your oven, curling over the edge of the pan and splashing on top of the chicken, more on the outer edge and less on the inner part. That's why your breast and legs will cook to different temperatures in the same oven. The spatchcocking puts the meat where it should be. Again, you want the legs nearer the short end of the pan and the breast away from the fan because often the door-side is counter-intuitively hotter than the fan side because the hot air is pushed against the door and bounces back directly onto the meat, whereas the fan side really only gets one direction of air.
Rinsing is controversial. Obviously, rinsing washes away bacteria and toxins at the surface - but not the inside of the meat. Heat above 138F will kill any bacterial, viral, fungal pathogens if you're cooking that long (specifically 40 minutes) and you'll definitely get there. This is why it's generally safe to slightly pink chicken. But heat doesn't destroy toxins, so you're worried more about the pathogens that create toxins - and the most common one is botulism. Botulism's most common vector is nicking the intestines and then mixing it into a ground mixture or cross-contamination. This is whole meat, so the risk of botulism is much lower. And modern food chains are pretty good in terms of safety. So you're much less worried about safety compared to - say 60 years ago - when supply chains and food safety was much worse. And when you rinse, you contaminate everything where that water goes. If there was botulism - you've just spread it across your sink. Soap cleans but doesn't sanitize, so you'll probably contaminate your sponge, which then means you'll contaminate your entire kitchen for days over and over. Run your sponges through the dishwasher, people.
Rinsing is also a quality issue. Water is the enemy of getting yummy browning. You want your skin to reach the Maillard zone as soon as possible by not having to utilize all the calories in the oven to evaporating water. When I can remember it, I get my meats out of the package the day before, put it on paper towels and into a fairly big bin/tray. I let the fridge convection fan dehydrate my meats a touch. The bin just has to be big enough to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.
But a $7 oven thermometer. You hang it from your rack. And you move it around. While you intuitively know where you're ovens hot spots are, this will measure them scientifically. That being said, a 400 degree oven is not 400 degrees. It should average that, but it will be hotter than 400 higher and forward if convection is on and in back if it is not. That data will tell you if your 65 year old oven is good or not.
a well done roast chicken is one of the best things you can eat. it is one of the few times. i enjoy the breast meat.
i havent made at home in a while because of pescatarian child. they are back to eating chicken so i'll probably try soon
Lost & Found
PRO
At least two New Jersey school districts are giving students two extra hours to sober up on the day after the Superbowl
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/eagles-super-bowl-school-delayed-opening-new-jersey-gloucester-city/
Lakers lay huge egg in blowout loss to Sixers
https://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2025/1/28/24354163/lakers-vs-76ers-final-score-recap-stats-box-score-lebron-james-anthony-davis-austin-reaves
The Lakers had one of the worst displays of the season on Tuesday, falling to the Sixers on the road on the second night of back-to-back, 118-104.
It was one of the most disappointing defeats of the season as the Sixers shot 47.3% from the field with Tyrese Maxey scoring 41 points in the first three quarters alone. The Lakers had 22 turnovers, leading to 27 points for Philly.
Shorthanded Warriors out-grind and outlast shorthanded Jazz
https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2025/1/28/24354252/warriors-jazz-scores-recap-moses-moody-brandin-podziemski-andrew-wiggins
Tuesday night at Chase Center was a battle of shorthanded teams testing their depth. In one corner, the Golden State Warriors, already without Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga, and dealt a late blow when Steph Curry was scratched about two hours before tip. In the other corner, the Utah Jazz, without core players Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Jordan Clarkson, and Walker Kessler.
It was still a game the Warriors needed to win, given that they were at home, against a 10-win team on the back end of a back-to-back. And — spoiler alert! — win they did, beating Utah 114-103 to return to .500.
Hey, the Warriors won without Steph, Draymond, and JK. Thought Schröder tore his ACL, only to come back into the game. Podz looks to be shooting his 3s better than before he got hurt.
Fever's Caitlin Clark passes on NBA All-Star Game 3-point contest
https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/43613507/caitlin-clark-compete-nba-all-star-game-3-point-contest
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark wants her first 3-point contest to come at the WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis and will not participate in a special challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend, her representatives at Excel Sports said Wednesday.
Guess there won't be a Steph and Klay vs Sabrina and Caitlin. Wonder what they'll do now. I also wonder if Klay will be interested in it. Steph has the hurt right thumb so that isn't helping him either.
CAL
Go Bears!!!
[MGOLF] Zhou, Chen Move Into Top 20 At Southwestern
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/mens-golf-zhou-chen-move-into-top-20-at-southwestern.aspx
THOUSAND OAKS – Golden Bears Ziqin (Eric) Zhou and Kuangyu (Tony) Chen climbed into the top 20 individually but the California men's golf team fell back into 11th place following round two of the Southwestern Invitational on Tuesday.
Cal (+19), which entered the day in a tie for eighth place, could not make up ground on the field as it shot a 10-over-par 294 in round two. Zhou, a freshman, and Chen, a redshirt senior, carded their second 1-over-par 72s of the tournament and climbed three spots into a tie for 20th place. Zhou shot a front-nine 33 (-2) and was 4-under for the day through 11 holes before a quadruple bogey on No. 13 halted his climb up the leaderboard.
[WGYM] Cesario Named ACC Gymnast Of The Week
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/womens-gymnastics-cesario-named-acc-gymnast-of-the-week.aspx
BERKELEY – After a stellar outing at this weekend's win over No. 22 Clemson, Senior Ella Cesario of the No. 8 California women's gymnastics team was named ACC Gymnast of the Week, the conference announced Tuesday.
The Golden Bears have now won the award three out of four weeks to begin their first season in the conference with senior Mya Lauzon and junior eMjae Frazier earning the honor the first two weeks.
[FB] Cal Rounds Out 2025 Coaching Staff
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/football-cal-rounds-out-2025-coaching-staff.aspx
BERKELEY – Travers Family Head Football Coach Justin Wilcox has rounded out his 2025 coaching staff with the addition of Julian Griffin as running backs coach and Allen Brown as co-defensive backs coach.
Griffin comes to Berkeley after five successful seasons at UTSA, where he helped the Roadrunners shatter several school records – including single-season marks for rushing yards, rushing yards per game, rushing average and rushing touchdowns. He tutored Sincere McCormick, an All-American running back who was twice named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year and now plays for the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. Griffin also mentored running back Brenden Brady, who was named the 2021 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Losing Coach Aristotle Thompson was a tough loss. I hate to see him go, but he absolutely should have everyone's support for his reason for leaving. His younger son has life-threatening chronic epilepsy. He, his wife, and his older son spend so much of their time and energy in helping their son out, plus creating charities to help others in a similar situation. Chicago has better epilepsy medical resources. He is one of the real ones and he will always have my support no matter where he goes in this world.
[T&F] NCAA Leader Meeks Picks Up ACC Honor
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/track-field-ncaa-leader-meeks-picks-up-acc-honor.aspx
For the second week in a row, a California track & field athlete has been honored by the ACC as redshirt sophomore Giavonna Meeks was named Co-Women's Field Athlete of the Week Tuesday. Meeks, who took a collegiate lead in the women's weight throw over the weekend, shares the honor with Virginia Tech's Julia Fixsen, who achieved the same feat in the women's pole vault. She joins teammates David Foster (Men's Track Athlete of the Week – Jan. 21) and Valentina Savva (Women's Freshman of the Week – Jan. 21) as ACC award-winners.
[WBB] No. 19 Cal Hosts Top-20 Matchup Against No. 15 North Carolina
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/womens-basketball-no-19-cal-hosts-top-20-matchup-against-no-15-north-carolina.aspx
Fresh off its first regular-season sweep of Stanford since the 1985-86 season, the No. 19 California women's basketball team (18-3, 6-2 ACC) has its eyes set on No. 15 North Carolina (18-4, 6-3). The top-20 matchup, taking place at Haas Pavilion on Thursday night at 7 p.m. PT, is the first since the then-No. 14 Golden Bears hosted then-No. 1 UConn on Dec. 22, 2018.
[MBB] Cal Takes Win Streak On Road
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/mens-basketball-cal-takes-win-streak-on-road.aspx
BERKELEY – The California men's basketball team will ride its three-game win streak into Dallas to face SMU on Wednesday night. Tipoff at Moody Coliseum is at 6 p.m. PT/8 p.m. CT and the contest will be broadcasted on ACC Network and 810 AM.
[RUGBY] Robert Paylor To Speak At TEDxBerkeley Event
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/rugby-robert-paylor-to-speak-at-tedxberkeley-event.aspx
BERKELEY – California rugby alumnus Robert Paylor will be a featured speaker at the TEDxBerkeley 2025: HighwayX event Saturday on campus.
The event will be held 2:30-5:30 p.m. PT at Zellerbach Hall. Paylor will be giving a talk entitled: "Transforming Paralysis into Power: Lessons from a Quadriplegic".
[FB] Woodson Tabbed Second Team Academic All-American
https://calbears.com/news/2025/1/28/football-woodson-tabbed-second-team-academic-all-american.aspx
California football graduate student Craig Woodson has been selected to the Academic All-America Second Team, College Sports Communicators (CSC) announced Tuesday morning. This is the first Academic All-America honor for the Golden Bear after earning three consecutive Academic All-District recognitions from 2022-24.
POLITICS
https://media.tenor.com/MYZgsN2TDJAAAAAM/this-is.gif
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
DBD AV CLUB
It’s time once again for Oski Disciple’s Question of the Day.
Did Pol Pot ever call Ma Kettle black?
I have a hard time getting my head around the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, a mere six years before "the Killing Fields" film was released. I have been to Cambodia three times and the scars of its past are still all over the country and its people - including them still living under 40 years of one of the planet's six hereditary dictatorships (NK, Cambodia, Chad, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Togo). The summary extermination of one quarter of your own countrymen in a few years with people who knew they were going to their death is perhaps one of the evilest things ever done on this planet. It reminds me that this happened in my lifetime and our own government is sliding toward evil itself.
there are still a TON of active line mines left in Cambodia. some estimates are 4-5 million.
we went to this cool operation where they train these African rats to sniff out small traces of TNT and they dont weigh enough to set off the land mine
in total they have cleared something like 10000 land mines. obviously a long way to go until some other technology comes along.
https://apopo.org/what-we-do/detecting-landmines-and-explosives/
we were just in Cambodia over Xmas. and indeed it was a strange history to try to comprehend. usually these mass killing and genocides are all ethnic lines. this one had some component of that, but it seemed mostly political (maybe ?)
Very nicely said, SGBear.