Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat • Hacker News Board

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#121

Post by jampekka » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #60

jampekka wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

161 countries are still in the Ottawa Treaty, including all European countries except the ones who withdrew. I have hard time seeing how this treaty would have much effect on wartime alliances. But if that's the case, what are "all the force multipliers"? Chemical weapons? Biological weapons? What share of the GDP for defence?

It's nice that so many countries are signatories, but the countries which are currently involved in significant conflicts, have been, or are likely to be, are all non-signatories, have withdrawn, or are not abiding by their commitment. I'm not sure how much it matters that many non-warring countries are signatories to the convention, unless you think the Ottawa Treaty has actually prevented one or more conflicts (whi…

The main effect of the treaty is that personnel mine production and trade has dramatically decreased, thus making it harder for (small) non-signatories to deploy too.

International treaties tend to be always somewhat aspirational and are often violated and sparsely enforced. This does not mean they don't have any effect.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#122

Post by jampekka » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 6:48 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #114

aa-jv wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trolling - its pretty evident that diplomacy was not effective and that the decision was made to go to war, whatever the cost - because thats what happened. The diplomatic effort to save over a million men from needless massacre on the battlefield was not considered worthwhile by the ruling elites running Ukraine for the past two decades, in face of the immense profits to be made - by an elite few - in war pr…

Ukraine did not decide to go to war. I really don't know where you got the idea that they had any agency in preventing this short of giving Russia all of their territory and fleeing West. Since you're an immigrant into Europe maybe study the lay of the land a bit before having such outspoken opinions. You are effectively a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda which I have now idea where you picked it up (you're from Aus…

> I really don't know where you got the idea that they had any agency in preventing this short of giving Russia all of their territory and fleeing West.

This is at best a conjecture. It's arguable what terms are acceptable and to whom, but Russia has offered and is offering substantially milder terms than taking all of Ukraine. They probably wouldn't even want western Ukraine if offered.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#123

Post by rigonkulous » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC

mopsi wrote: post #120

toast0 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ukraine decided war with Russia was worth the cost that would otherwise have been imposed on it by Russia, during negotiations. Both nations chose war, because their cultures require it. Ukraine certainly could have chosen to accept Russia's demands, but the demand was essentially the extinguishment of soverign Ukraine, and the extinguishment of Ukrainian identity. At least, those were the demands I saw. Not a lot…

Russia's intentions for Ukraine were not limited to only destruction of statehood and identity, but included the physical extermination of Ukrainians too; at least to such extent that Ukrainians would not be able to self-govern anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Russia_Should_Do_with_Ukr... This closely mirrors the actions of Russians in the 1940s against a number of countries in Eastern Europe. Exterminate…

If you are using Wikipedia as a source to determine "what Russia wants", instead of Russian sources, then whose propaganda are you truly propagating?

Which is to say, your "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine" is just a projection of the, indeed very materialist, "Project for a New American Century" - so shall we castigate all Americans for callously allowing such totalitarian schemes to have been committed, in their names?

Your agitation against Russia is the kind of smooth talking that gets people into conflict, not out.

Regardless, let us not ignore the statistics for "# of states considered inferior by ones own states' ruling elite and thus qualified for destruction and then actually destroyed", per-state, shall we .. the OP is right to point out the sheer magnitude of crimes when comparing Russia vs. Western-5-eyes states...

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#124

Post by rigonkulous » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #118

aa-jv wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine decided war with Russia was worth the cost that would otherwise have been imposed on it by Russia, during negotiations. Both nations chose war, because their cultures require it . >Immigrant to Europe To me, this reads as a banal attempt at doxxing, since you have assumed yourself the position of arbiter of moral authority, which is being challenged by my assertions - but since you choose to frame things in t…

> Ukraine decided war with Russia was worth the cost that would otherwise have been imposed on it by Russia, during negotiations. Both nations chose war, because their cultures require it. Ukraine certainly could have chosen to accept Russia's demands, but the demand was essentially the extinguishment of soverign Ukraine, and the extinguishment of Ukrainian identity. At least, those were the demands I saw. Not a lot…

>At least, those were the demands I saw.

In which documents, please? I would like to see for myself where Russia demands the extinguishment of sovereign Ukraine, that's bound to be interesting language.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#125

Post by toast0 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

rigonkulous wrote: post #124

toast0 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ukraine decided war with Russia was worth the cost that would otherwise have been imposed on it by Russia, during negotiations. Both nations chose war, because their cultures require it. Ukraine certainly could have chosen to accept Russia's demands, but the demand was essentially the extinguishment of soverign Ukraine, and the extinguishment of Ukrainian identity. At least, those were the demands I saw. Not a lot…

>At least, those were the demands I saw. In which documents, please? I would like to see for myself where Russia demands the extinguishment of sovereign Ukraine, that's bound to be interesting language.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-ukrain...

> “I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” Putin said, according to Sky News.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#126

Post by mopsi » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

rigonkulous wrote: post #123

mopsi wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's intentions for Ukraine were not limited to only destruction of statehood and identity, but included the physical extermination of Ukrainians too; at least to such extent that Ukrainians would not be able to self-govern anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Russia_Should_Do_with_Ukr... This closely mirrors the actions of Russians in the 1940s against a number of countries in Eastern Europe. Exterminate…

If you are using Wikipedia as a source to determine "what Russia wants", instead of Russian sources, then whose propaganda are you truly propagating? Which is to say, your "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine" is just a projection of the, indeed very materialist, "Project for a New American Century" - so shall we castigate all Americans for callously allowing such totalitarian schemes to have been committed, in their…

The Wikipedia article summarizes a notable piece published in Russian state media.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#127

Post by toast0 » Wed, Apr 08, 2026, 10:47 PM UTC

rigonkulous wrote: post #123

mopsi wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's intentions for Ukraine were not limited to only destruction of statehood and identity, but included the physical extermination of Ukrainians too; at least to such extent that Ukrainians would not be able to self-govern anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Russia_Should_Do_with_Ukr... This closely mirrors the actions of Russians in the 1940s against a number of countries in Eastern Europe. Exterminate…

If you are using Wikipedia as a source to determine "what Russia wants", instead of Russian sources, then whose propaganda are you truly propagating? Which is to say, your "What Russia Should Do with Ukraine" is just a projection of the, indeed very materialist, "Project for a New American Century" - so shall we castigate all Americans for callously allowing such totalitarian schemes to have been committed, in their…

> If you are using Wikipedia as a source to determine "what Russia wants", instead of Russian sources, then whose propaganda are you truly propagating?

Wikipedia says:

> What Russia Should Do with Ukraine" (Russian: Что Россия должна сделать с Украиной, romanized: Chto Rossiya dolzhna sdelat s Ukrainoy),[a][1] is an article written by Timofey Sergeytsev and published by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.[2] The article calls for the full destruction of Ukraine as a state, as well as the full destruction of the Ukrainian national identity in accordance with Russia's aim to accomplish the "denazification" of the latter.

Sounds like Wikipedia describing an Russian source. I can't read Russian, can you? Is the description of the source inacurate? Is the summary inacurate?

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#128

Post by poulpy123 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:32 AM UTC

cobbzilla wrote: post #61

dtsykunov wrote: post #7

> Magawa retired from bomb sniffing in June 2021 owing to his old age, as is standard for APOPO's HeroRATs. > He spent a number of weeks mentoring 20 newly-recruited rats before ultimately retiring to a life of "snacking on bananas and peanuts". > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magawa End to life worthy of being envied.

8 years is an extraordinarily long lifespan for a rat, isn’t it? And he got a lot done!!

They are not the same species than rats and mice longers

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#129

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:48 AM UTC

jampekka wrote: post #119

jacquesm wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You couldn't be more wrong about that.

That's a bit difficult argument to exhaustively address. Personnel mines has been a topic of considerable public, political and military discussion about personnel mines in Finland for a long time and has been analyzed in depth. Even now, after a significant political mood change at around 2024, the official line (e.g. in the government proposal[1] that led to the withdrawal) is that personnel mines have mostly an au…

Indeed, but without them Ukraine would have been overrun by now. They are 'auxiliary' but very important. Ukraine is pretty clever about them too: most of these expire after a few days or weeks.

Re: Cambodia unveils statue to honour famous landmine-sniffing rat

#130

Post by jacquesm » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 1:50 AM UTC

jampekka wrote: post #122

jacquesm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ukraine did not decide to go to war. I really don't know where you got the idea that they had any agency in preventing this short of giving Russia all of their territory and fleeing West. Since you're an immigrant into Europe maybe study the lay of the land a bit before having such outspoken opinions. You are effectively a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda which I have now idea where you picked it up (you're from Aus…

> I really don't know where you got the idea that they had any agency in preventing this short of giving Russia all of their territory and fleeing West. This is at best a conjecture. It's arguable what terms are acceptable and to whom, but Russia has offered and is offering substantially milder terms than taking all of Ukraine. They probably wouldn't even want western Ukraine if offered.

No, they would definitely want western Ukraine and they would take it too. From the beginning of the war it was pretty clear that they were going for all of it. Remember the assault on Kyiv, as well as the leaked map that showed all of Ukraine and Moldova as the target of the 'special operation'.