there's a live, abandoned mine field between boulder and loveland
colorado.  most people don't know about it, but if you take the road
directly between them, just out side of loveland way down the side of
the road (it's on a hill/mountain edge) if you look down you will see
warning signs for a mile or so.  i've no idea why it was put there.=20
someone must have lost the map or something.  fortunately, with the road
and all it's hard to wonder into, there's a quarry and concrete plant on
the far side of it though i suppose one side is relatively accessible,
haven't been in that area.  you should see people's reaction!  i've only
met one other person who noticed the signs.  if we can't clean up a mine
field in our own country, that we put there just imagine how hard it
must be to deal with other mine fields! =20

there are 4 live land mines for every person on earth!  yeah, they were
way, way too popular once the military figured them out (that number i
trust, it comes from one of the groups working on banning land mines and
cleaning up the old ones, i suspect it's at least close).  now that's a
pollution problem.  many are still active, those that aren't sensitive
any more probably still have functioning high explosive in them.  not to
mention all the unexploded shells etc. that are still lying around in
some parts.  the viet cong, during the vietnam war got good at finding
unexploded shells, removing the explosives and using them to make small
land mines, often putting them in discarded cans from army issue rations
(ours). =20

then again, that's what started the nitrate fertilizer industry, after
wwII they had all these nitrate plants that had been used to make black
powder and explosives, and the chemical industries just found another
market.  of course old farmers can tell you that the nitrates were still
destructive (they kill soil bacteria, after an initial increase in crop
yield the yield starts to drop and goes bellow nitrate fertilizing
levels), i grew up in a farming area and we knew some farmers who'd been
farming for their whole lives.

Russell McMahon wrote:
------
>=20
>     http://www.1914-18.co.uk/Ieper/spanbroekmolenmine.htm
>=20
> On our trip we visited Spanbroekmolen and Roderick turned up with a liv=
e WW1
> shell in hand - about 90 years old. I have photos. We lived! We hid it =
and
> advised the authorities of the location
--------

--=20
Philip Stortz--"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I
didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.=20
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a
Jew.=20
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a trade unionist.=20
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a
Protestant.=20
Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
-- Martin Niem=F6ller, 1892-1984 (German Lutheran Pastor), on the Nazi
Holocaust, Congressional Record 14th October 1968 p31636.

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