Holy mackerel.

Well, that sucks.

(Reads the farking article)

On the other hand, it's good that these guys are probably going to make it out.

What's sad is that the mine safety laws in Chile probably aren't much worse than they are here in the US.

/Doesn't actually know

Hopefully they have adult supervision.

The miners are in an emergency shelter. Wasn't that one of the problems with the recent mine accident here in WV, that the shelters that should have been there weren't?

I hope there are jackets in that shelter, because they are all Chile.

What the hell have they been eating?

Morlocks?

I wonder if Chilean miners have the same survival instincts as Uruguayan rugby players?

NOM NOM NOM!

I read the article, and the optimism in it was uncanny. All the Chilean government responses were vague: the miners seemed in better health "than expected", and the excerpts taken from the letters seem uncharacteristic of letters written by men fearing starvation in a mineshaft. The article reads like government propaganda.

How can miners stuck so far underground, having lost 18 to 20 pounds each, be in such good health? The article says they have water to drink, but what food have they to eat?

I doubt the answer to that question can be written about optimistically.

jst3p : I hope there are jackets in that shelter, because they are all Chile.

Nahh, they probably have heaters in the shelter, so no worries, they're just Chilean.

Russ Feingold's Brass Balls:
What's sad is that the mine safety laws in Chile probably aren't much worse than they are here in the US.

/Doesn't actually know

The laws in the US are probably MUCH better. The enforcement, not so much.

//Doesn't know either

In four months, there's just going to be one big fat Chilean miner.

e_man182: well, I'd imagine it's probably because after 17 days the miners just being alive was "better than they expected". Although I agree it was a pretty optimistic article, if they have a hole bored where they can put a camera in, then they can actually get stuff to these miners so their health won't get any worse than it is now.

At least they'll be able to get some soup now.

i'd like to be happy for this development in the story, but MONTHS to get them out??????

someone better send down a few hookers or they're all gonna f*ck each other to death.

"God is great," 63-year-old Mario Gomez, the eldest of the trapped miners, wrote in a letter to his wife attached to the drill along with the message, which Pinera read on television.

'NEVER LOST FAITH'

This is what I love about Christians ... they can rationalize anything.

The long term effects of this are awful to think about, even if they survive.
Stuck in those close quarters together, all that time crowded,hungry, tired, scared, waste piling up, the smell.
Ugh

SpaceLord: Morlocks?



Touching those "silicon nodules" was a bad idea.

Good news: they will get a free frogurt!

And we have the technology to get them some beer too.


And they could lower in some sausages maybe.

Health officials estimated the miners may have lost about 17.5 to 20 pounds (8 to 9 kg) each.

At that rate they should all be down to their birth weights by the time they get out. So they've got that going for them.

I'm guessing if the borehole is big enough to pass down food and video cameras, they can probably rig a bucket or something to haul up poop.

By then they would have turned into mole people.

SpaceLord: Morlocks?

*shakes fist*

Sure hope they got cameras down there. I can't wait to watch live feeds of cannibalism.

What if there is no way to rescue them.

How long do you keep pumping fluids down the hole?

This poses a question that makes me thankful I'm not a miner.

grimnir: The miners are in an emergency shelter. Wasn't that one of the problems with the recent mine accident here in WV, that the shelters that should have been there weren't?


The miners in WV were all dead in seconds or minutes. No need for any shelters.

The Chilean President is named Sebastian Pinera. In Castillian Spanish, that means bread basket.

So, he's Sebastian Breadbasket.

Alright.

/RTFA
//Got a long wait ahead of 'em.

Shuichi: e_man182: well, I'd imagine it's probably because after 17 days the miners just being alive was "better than they expected". Although I agree it was a pretty optimistic article, if they have a hole bored where they can put a camera in, then they can actually get stuff to these miners so their health won't get any worse than it is now.

That they are alive is cause for celebration, and that they are alive after 17 days underground is a surprise to anyone's expectation. To capture such pleasant news, the article must have optimism.

Yet the article's optimism bothered me not because it was hopeful, but because a news article has a duty to inform, and the clarity of information in this article is hidden behind rhetoric that reads like propaganda.

I do not know what it is like to be trapped in a mine, but I can imagine: poor air quality, famine, dementia from fear, suffering from injuries, disease from filth. I, an interested reader of the article, want to know what is known about the health of these men. I want information; from that, I can create hope. But the information in the article is obfuscated by its source, the Chilean government.

The article troubles me because I do not read in it the story of 33 trapped miners, but the posturing of a nation. The article reports that a letter from the miners says all 33 are well, as though 33 men will survive. The Chilean President, holding the letter to a television audience, wants people to believe it, but that cannot be the truth. The family of a dead miner deserves to know the truth, rather than to have hope in lies.

This disservice by the article stood out to me.

It's the 21st century, and it boggles my mind that we are still sending human beings into the bowels of the earth to mine ore, coal etc.

We can do organ transplants, play around in space, do sex changes, grow stem cells, spend billions on unnecessary wars, detox half of Hollywood or a regular basis, but we haven't yet come up with some sort of mining robot.

It's about time we had mining robots. Isaac Asimov said we would. Or was that Heinlein?

/glad I'm not a miner

Re: poop and other gross stuff

They'll suck all that out through the hole they drilled.

The real challenge will be keeping the men psychologically stable for the next 120 days or so.
This kind of thing happens all the time: shipwreck survivors stranded, expeditions cut off, the cannibal football team, etc. This same exact situation has probably happened thousands of times to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. Throughout the industrial revolution, hundreds of workers, including children, could be buried together in a collapse or explosion, suffocating in hours, or dying of thirst in days.

The difference is that we have all this technology and a government to organize the effort, and we can keep these men alive and sane until they come out.

Thank God indeed.

Can't we just pave over the area and get on with our lives?



Jamieboy:
It's about time we had mining robots. Isaac Asimov said we would. Or was that Heinlein?


I know Asimov had a story about mining robots that malfunctioned underground and the operator had to figure out why to get out...

/actually got the DVD out to make that screenshot
//I'm still awake, so why not...

Jamieboy:
It's about time we had mining robots. Isaac Asimov said we would. Or was that Heinlein?


Found it... Catch that Rabbit

/good luck to the trapped miners

The Huntsman's Hound: I wonder if Chilean miners have the same survival instincts as Uruguayan rugby players?

NOM NOM NOM!

Well, if they have a bore hole, they can lower in food and water and pump in fresh air.

Won't be pleasant (especially if there are no functional electric lights working), but can be survivable.

Jamieboy: It's the 21st century, and it boggles my mind that we are still sending human beings into the bowels of the earth to mine ore, coal etc.

It's about time we had mining robots.

People are cheaper and can be mass produced using unskilled labor.

Good: Four months holiday!
Not so good: At work, down a hole, with the collegeagues.
Fark: No internet, and no posting on Fark.

hopfully they get the vodak...

Naturally, psychologists will be watching very closely to see what effects confinement of this nature will have, both before and after rescue. Especially those with an eye towards long-term space/interplanetary expeditions. True, the conditions won't be the same (hopefully), but perhaps this could be considered as a "concentrated" version of a year+ trip?

/God grant it doesn't take 4 months to pull them out!

After four months of cannibalism and radio-active rock exposure, who knows what's going to come out.

Hope they're careful when they open the hatch.

/om nom nom

Gridlock: The Huntsman's Hound: I wonder if Chilean miners have the same survival instincts as Uruguayan rugby players?

NOM NOM NOM!

Well, if they have a bore hole, they can lower in food and water and pump in fresh air.

Won't be pleasant (especially if there are no functional electric lights working), but can be survivable.

If they have a bore hole, they can lower down The DaVinci Code.

Diarrhea Anne Frank: Gridlock: The Huntsman's Hound: I wonder if Chilean miners have the same survival instincts as Uruguayan rugby players?

NOM NOM NOM!

Well, if they have a bore hole, they can lower in food and water and pump in fresh air.

Won't be pleasant (especially if there are no functional electric lights working), but can be survivable.

If they have a bore hole, they can lower down The DaVinci Code.

I think they've already been through enough, don't you?

cantsleep: Diarrhea Anne Frank: Gridlock: The Huntsman's Hound: I wonder if Chilean miners have the same survival instincts as Uruguayan rugby players?

NOM NOM NOM!

Well, if they have a bore hole, they can lower in food and water and pump in fresh air.

Won't be pleasant (especially if there are no functional electric lights working), but can be survivable.

If they have a bore hole, they can lower down The DaVinci Code.

I think they've already been through enough, don't you?

It will help them get to sleep, at least. A bore hole sounds like it would also fit a DVD of The English Patient. If the government is serious they'll shell out for a fat bore hole, and stuff Oprah down there. "You get a tin of beans! And YOU get a tin of beans! YOU get a tin of beans! Everybody's getting a tin of beans!!!" Or just an arse hole, and they can stuff Mel Gibson down. "You will get out of here, BUT YOU WILL BLOW ME FIRST!"

Barack annd Tony Howard could get them out in just four months.

Well they should be losing weight. After all, they're going to be pulled to the surface through a pipe, 700 meters long, 68 centimetres in diameter.

*shudder*

Coming on a Bicycle: Well they should be losing weight. After all, they're going to be pulled to the surface through a pipe, 700 meters long, 68 centimetres in diameter.

*shudder*

The Enigma of Amigara Fault, anyone?

/minus the cracks shaped like people.
//DRR DRR DRR