Wacky dudes in Russia open 1940s war ration can and eat it because Russia

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See? Who needs fruit or cheese?

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Anyone else notice a cut around 4:28?

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70 years old? Amateurs!

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I ate a lot of WWII and Viet Nam C-rations in the Boy Scouts around 1975 or so. The scout master always confiscated the cigarettes from the WWII ones.

We thought it was cool, but my (army veteran) father thought we were idiots. I still have at least one P-38 from the Viet Nam C-rats somewhere.

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I now know why Kruschev said the survivors of a nuclear war would envy the dead.

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Anyone else see the bulge in that can?

I hope they swapped it out for something else, because a bulging can is a classic sign of botulism.

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And Ponch and John aren’t anywhere to save them:

http://chips-tv.com/wiki/Baby_Food

"A Surprising Story of 100-Year-Old Meat

Still not sure you want to store canned foods for years on your shelves for emergency preparedness? Would you guess that a can of meat could last more than 100 years? Perhaps this story will convince you of the long shelf life of canned foods.

Canned foods were first introduced at the turn of the 19th century. It was a revolutionary concept–to be able to store perishable foods in containers without refrigeration. One of the things that really encouraged their use was the practicality of canned foods in ships for long voyages. In the 1820’s Sir William Edward Parry took two voyages to the Northwest Passage. Along with him Parry took some canned foods. One four-pound can of roasted veal was brought on both ships and recovered as an artifact of the expeditions. It was kept in a museum until 1938 when it was opened and analyzed.

Shocking to all, this meat was found to be still edible! Laboratory tests showed that the meat still had most of its nutritive qualities and was still of good quality. This meat was fed to a cat which ate it happily and showed no poor side effects after eating it. For the original story"

Though - if it’s that bad that you’re considering eating 120 year old meat - maybe the cat is a better choice?

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They even bring it up during the video, and while i don’t speak russian the word Botulism does come up after than can has been opened. And they still went ahead and ate it. Go figure…

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Mmmm. Botulism-y.

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Commentary track highlights…

“That green stuff, that’s botulism, right?”

“Bring over the bread, I’m gonna try it.”
“Want me to call a doctor?”
“Vadik, did you fully think this through?”

“Vadik, go ahead and take the bread…”
“Just cross yourself first”

(after the first bite)
“Here, let me try some”
“Wait five mintues, maybe he’ll croak!”

(after almost everyone takes a bite)
“Misha, you’re not gonna have any?”
“No, I won’t. I’m just going to watch you.”

Oh, and the voiceover identifies the can as being made on May 27, 1940.

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Well of course they ate it, it was 70 years old, better eat it now before it goes bad!

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homer simpson voice
“mmmm…Stalinist…”

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Yeah, there’s a fairly obvious sandwich swap going on right there if you pay attention.

Funny gag though.

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I think I would like a world map with countries sized relative to their populations of wacky dudes and gentlemen. I would also like one with countries sized relative to their population of florida men, because i am looking for a big map of Florida in a blue circle.

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Came here to mention having the same experience, including the confiscation of the mini-packs of cigarettes. The food wasn’t horrible but when we ate it cold the similarity in appearance and smell to canned dog food was undeniable.

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Might be more interesting than it started out:

They dredged up a can from the bottom of the ocean? Seems like the constant very cold temperature and liquid water probably had a hand in that. Seeing as this was dredged up from what looks like a freshwater pond in Russia, there’s no telling how many freeze-thaw cycles that can went through, and how structurally intact it was when they finally recovered it.

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The next time will be because this video plus lack of criticality.