Let’s all pray to keep the flame of hope burning brightly for these guys.
On the 24th August, Learning from Dogs published a piece about 33 Chilean miners trapped underground. I’m sure many read that.
Well the BBC are still covering the event and their news web site has an informative update on what is happening.
The plan to rescue the 33 men trapped 700m (2,300ft) underground in the San Jose copper mine in Chile is a complex undertaking that could take engineers until the end of the year to achieve.
In a similar operation in 2002, American rescuers spent two days drilling a hole just wide enough to fit a man to rescue nine miners trapped underground.
The Americans had to drill down just 74m. By comparison, the plan to rescue the 33 men in Chile nearly three quarters of a kilometre underground is a much greater challenge. But, says John Urosek, who took part in the 2002 Quecreek mine rescue in Pennsylvania, it is not “mission impossible.”
“I would put this at the tough end of things. It’s not mission impossible but it’s a difficult mission,” says Mr Urosek who is now chief of mine emergency operations for the US Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The key to the operation is the use of a specialist drilling machine, designed to bore deep narrow holes through any rock to a depth of just over a kilometre.
I have long subscribed to Baseline Scenario and the latest article from James Kwak is a great example of why.
On August 23rd James published a Post with the compelling title of, “Housing in Ten Words”. Here’s a flavour:
By James Kwak
“Housing Fades as a Means to Build Wealth, Analysts Say.” That’s the title of a New York Times article by David Streitfeld. Here’s most of the lead:
“Many real estate experts now believe that home ownership will never again yield rewards like those enjoyed in the second half of the 20th century, when houses not only provided shelter but also a plump nest egg.
“The wealth generated by housing in those decades, particularly on the coasts, did more than assure the owners a comfortable retirement. It powered the economy, paying for the education of children and grandchildren, keeping the cruise ships and golf courses full and the restaurants humming.
“More than likely, that era is gone for good.”
I’ve been telling my friends for a decade that housing is a bad investment. These are real housing prices over the past century, based on data collected by Robert Shiller:
Robert Schiller is, of course, the well-known Yale University professor who wrote the book, Irrational Exuberance. From Wikipedia:
Irrational Exuberance is a March 2000 book written by Yale University professor Robert Shiller, named after Alan Greenspan‘s “irrational exuberance” quote. Published at the height of the dot-com boom, it put forth several arguments demonstrating how the stock markets were overvalued at the time. Shiller was soon proven right when the Nasdaq peaked on the very month of the book’s publication, and the stock markets collapsed right after.
The second edition of Irrational Exuberance published in 2005 is updated to cover the housing bubble, especially in the United States. Shiller writes that the real estate bubble may soon burst, and he supports his claim by showing that median home prices are now six to nine times greater than median income in some areas of the country. He also shows that home prices, when adjusted for inflation, have produced very modest returns of less than 1%/year.
Anyway, do read the full article from James on Baseline Scenario as it has plenty of messages that are still critically important for those trying to work out where it’s all still heading, economically.
For my money, I still think that slowly but steadily we are reverting to the old mean of home prices being about 2 to 2.5 times average annual salaries. With the added proviso that I think that it is more than likely that average salaries will slowly decline on both sides of the Atlantic over the next few years. Tough times indeed!
Jean and I watched this film the other evening. I have seen it a number of times but Jean just once before when it first was released in 1968! Yes, over 40 years ago!
What struck me watching it today was how beautifully slow the film was. I mean in the sense of camera and scene changes. I had forgotten just how beautiful the film was from a technical perspective. It held the eye and brain in a way that seemed so foreign to the way that films have been made in the last so many years.
And there are more summaries on the INDB website, here’s an example:
“2001” is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon’s surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and human (Bowman) to reach the monolith placers. The winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.
The sign!
What is just as interesting is remembering the feelings that I had when I first saw the film, probably in 1968 or 1969, when I was living out in Australia, aged mid-twenties!
I was incredibly fascinated by the US expeditions out to the moon with the actual landing in July 1969. Indeed, I rented a TV and took a complete week’s holiday from work just to watch every minute of this historical event.
So the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, seemed to capture, for me anyway, the feelings and mood of a brave new world reaching out beyond Planet Earth. The year 2001 felt like aeons away. It was obvious that when we eventually got to the 21st century, mankind would be unbelievably advanced in many exciting and positive ways.
Ah, the dreams of the naive young!
Now here we are heading towards the year 2011 and the world, I mean mankind, seems to be going where? Here’s Jon Lavin’s rather sombre view:
Have been musing about the part failure of the Russian grain harvest and the resultant speculation, that has forced the grain price up astronomically, the impact on bread/food/beer etc., evidence of the same mentality that kicked the banks/investments recession off.
Also, the fact that Lloyds TSB are 43% owned by the British people and are charging interest on non-approved loans of 165% and have a bonus fund of half billion pounds that certainly they have not asked my permission about.
This continuing lack of integrity, in the face of food shortages, untold hardship for millions of people, just goes to show that until an absolute calamity strikes to stop the whole of mankind in our tracks, it’s business as usual for the financially-led people and get-rich-on-the-back-of-anything-and-anybody crowd.
Are we still at consciousness level 204 or have we crossed back below the threshold, back below integrity 200, where falsehood rules?
The answer is to retain faith in the future, faith in the power of love and compassion, and faith in the fact that being the best that we can be today, now, in the present, just as dogs are so wonderful at doing, will bring us the better tomorrows we all dreamed about in 1968. Here’s a reminder:
By Paul Handover
P.S. Serendipity at work. Saw this from the BBC less than 5 minutes after completing this Post!
A dog retrieves another dog hit on a busy Chilean highway.
This video has been widely circulated to many television stations around the world. Some commentators say that the rescued dog lived.
Most who watch it think that the rescuer is risking its own life to save or retrieve the wounded dog.
Most who watch it also think that it is an amazing example of the love of a dog for another dog.
But the truth is probably less romantic. Feral dogs do eat their brethren when the opportunity arises. Having watched feral dogs in Mexico, it beggars belief as to the lengths that they will go to in order to survive.
Most likely this was the poor dog’s next meal being dragged off the highway.
So if you are having a bad day, stop and think about these 33 souls buried some 4.5 miles (7km) inside a Chilean mine some 2,300 feet (700m) down .
The announcement that they were still alive was made on Sunday by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.
Surrounded by relatives of the miners who have gathered outside the mine, he held up a note from the miners saying: “All 33 of us are fine in the shelter.”
“It will take months to get them out,” Mr Pinera said. “They’ll come out thin and dirty, but whole and strong.”
Todd Russell, an Australian miner who was trapped 3,000ft underground in Tasmania after an earthquake in 2006, said he and a second miner who survived the collapse relied on each other for support.
“It’s amazing what your body can do,” he told the BBC World Service. “We survived on hope and courage, and each other, [and] we were lucky enough to have a bit of underground mine water.”
“They’re lucky that they’ve got 33 guys there with them that they can rely on each other,” Mr Russell said.
Here’s some footage of their rescue:
Let’s all pray that these 33 Chilean miners end up arm-in-arm back on the surface as Todd and Brant did.
Just a quick follow-on from the Post yesterday to say that the BBC have published an excellent graphic that allows one to review the events of the Battle of Britain day-by-day.
The link is here – well worth looking at. If only because it shows that the week of the 23rd August 1940 was one of the more bloody weeks in the whole battle. From that BBC web page:
The defence of Britain by RAF Fighter Command against extensive air raids by the German Luftwaffe in 1940 ensured Britain’s survival and blocked the possibility of invasion. Roll over the graphic to see the daily toll inflicted on men and machine in the Battle of Britain and read James Holland’s commentary on why Germany lost.
Many of the English readers of Learning from Dogs will comfortably skip this Post as already much of the news has been reporting the fact that we are 70 years after the Battle of Britain in 1940.
But for those that are from other places, where the BoB is not in the psyche of their national bloodstream, these links may be of interest.
The BBC has been doing well in presenting material.
While memories of the Battle of Britain remain fresh in the minds of The Few who flew, and the staff who supported them, veterans fear its significance could soon be forgotten by others.
The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 aircraft and the RAF 915 in the Battle of Britain
Seventy years ago the RAF was locked in a life and death struggle with the Luftwaffe in the skies over England.
The three weeks between mid-August and early September in 1940 were decisive for the Battle of Britain.
The bravery of the RAF pilots was captured in Winston Churchill’s speech on 20 August when he said “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”.
Those left of The Few, as those pilots became known, are now in their 90s. Some of them fear they will soon not be around to remind people of the events that summer.
And if you want a flavour of what it was like to fly a Spitfire, then click here – excellent piece from Evan Davis of the BBC.
Seventy years on from the Battle of Britain, can the current generation comprehend what it is like to fly a Spitfire?
To find out, BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter Evan Davis took a flight with The Aircraft Restoration Company’s chief engineer and test pilot John Romain.
And a thank-you to my Uncle who, despite being rather ill, is still alive. He was in the RAF and stationed at Biggin Hill during those demanding months in 1940.
Researchers working in the Black Sea have found currents of water 350 times greater than the River Thames flowing along the sea bed, carving out channels much like a river on the land.
The undersea river, which is up to 115ft deep in places, even has rapids and waterfalls much like its terrestrial equivalents.
If found on land, scientists estimate it would be the world’s sixth largest river in terms of the amount of water flowing through it.
These channels are the main transport pathway for sediments to the deep sea where they form sedimentary deposits. These deposits ultimately hold not only untapped reserves of gas and oil, they also house important secrets – from clues on past climate change to the ways in which mountains were formed.
Now the team, led by Dr Dan Parsons and Dr Jeff Peakall from the University of Leeds, has been able to study the detailed flow within these channels. Dr Parsons, said: “The channel complex and the density flow provide the ideal natural laboratory for investigating and detailing the structure of the flow field through the channel.
Humans understand, if we stop and think about it, that the most powerful force in the world is …. love!
As the American psychiatrist, David Viscott put it, “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”
That’s one reason why dogs are so special to humans. Dogs naturally and easily demonstrate unconditional love which is the highest form of love. Even dogs that have been terribly treated in previous times, if given sufficient space and patience, will let their instinct to love come to the fore.
We have 13 dogs here at home and one of them, Loopy, is a great example of that. Loopy was a Mexican rescue dog that took weeks and weeks before she would even allow one of us to touch her. Food had to be left at a distance. It took nearly a year before I could cuddle her and even longer before we trusted each other sufficient for me to put my face up against the side of her jaw.
Compare that to my German Shepherd, Pharaoh, whom I bought out from England in 2008, who has been loved by me since he was 6 weeks old. He and I trust each other so deeply that we can get up to all sorts of fun things.
For example, a few years ago I was at the private airstrip where I used to keep my Piper Super Cub. It’s a large grass airstrip and while I was pottering around the aircraft, Pharaoh was enjoying the wide open spaces and all the great smells. The plan was to go off for a short flight on this wonderful spring day.
I walked back to the hangar to fetch something just prior to putting Pharaoh in the car for 30 minutes while I did my flight.
Pharaoh, as is his way, must have worked out that he was due to be shut in the car because as I came out of the hangar, Pharaoh was running towards the open cockpit and with one bound had jumped up into the rear passenger seat. Miraculously, as he leapt up, he had placed his feet on the hard wooden edge to the fuselage and not punched a hole through the fabric!
I turned back and grabbed his body harness from the car, walked up to the Super Cub and proceeded to strap him tightly into the rear seat.
There was no way that it would have been safe to fly with him but I was interested to see how he would react to me taxiing around the grass airfield. That’s when his trust towards me paid off.
I started the engine – no reaction at all. Even to the powerful draft coming off the propeller through the open door.
Then I taxied slowly – again no reaction at all. Unless one can count what looked suspiciously like a grin on a dog’s face!
Smiles from ear to ear!
Then I taxied quickly – same result.
Then I lined up at the start of the runway, closed the door, put on full power and let the aircraft accelerate until we just lifted clear of the grass. Almost immediately I closed the throttle, we touched down and slowed to a walking pace and we returned to the hangar. There was no question of us flying even though it looked like it would have been a non-event!
That was one of the many highlights of being Pharaoh’s friend, companion and protector – just as he is towards me. That sort of closeness would have been impossible without huge trust from Pharaoh that I would never do anything to hurt him.
So the moral of this message? That is, that when we love everyone and everything around us, it is reflected back to us – every moment of the day. This allows us to live in a world of mutual trust and reap the rewards of closeness.
The Luftwaffe lost 1,733 aircraft and the RAF 915 in the Battle of Britain
Learning from Dogs 