[U: Nine Bodies Recovered] Eleven Gold Miners In China Are Rescued; Ten Still Unaccounted For — And Over 580 Dead In 2020 Overall In Chinese Mining Accidents.

This “eleven rescued” news is good, to be sure — as these miners last saw sunlight, on the morning of January 10, China time. [Updated, on Monday: sadly the other nine bodies have been found. The tenth was documented to have been standing at the “zero” site of the explosion, and thus his remains are. . . unrecoverable. This is immensely sad — but as I expected would be the case. End of update.]

They’d been under about a half-mile of rock for two solid weeks — without much food, even less clean water. . . in what we call “very bad air“. Sadly, I think it is highly likely that the remaining ten are already dead, and/or their bodies… will never even be recovered, given the severity of the explosion and resulting rib and back collapse. But to be clear, that is solely my experienced conjecture, here — looking at the mine maps, and the source(s) of the explosion(s).

We will hold a very good thought for them, just the same — and for their families. More than most, I do know what it is like to be that deep (or even a mile and a half deep), in a sweltering drift, in hip deep hot water… and yet gasping for the thinly-oxygenated air… under the mineral belt. And I know what it is like to have relatives trapped deep in such a black mine shaft… hoping for a rescue. Here is NPR’s reporting:

…China’s mines are among the most dangerous in the world. In December, 23 miners died after a carbon monoxide leak at a mine in the southwest city of Chongqing. Three months before that, 16 miners died in a similar accident in the city. For all of 2020, China recorded 434 mining accidents and 573 mining-related deaths, according to the country’s National Mine Safety Administration….

This is not a uniquely Chinese failure of safety. Inside the US, OSHA mining regulations were under attack by lobbyists primarily for the dirty coal and oil and gas industries. . . and many of those attacks, at least for the last four years, succeeded. It is time for mine owners who make hundreds of billions, industry wide… to get very serious, globally — about miner safety, and miner retirement pay, and retiree health benefits — when, as it nearly-always does… gray-, or black- lung disease comes a-calling, in their later years.

Onward, as the heaviest bands of snow are now forming, out to the west… rolling down off of those same Rockies I mined deep beneath… smile.

नमस्ते

[O/T, Space Science] To Boost Our Collective Vibration/Energy — Juno Will Take An Extended Tour, Now — Around Lord Jupiter’s Fine Shepherded Moons…

The lithely graceful, long legged copper-hued Juno — periodically dipping in close to Jupiter, ever since July of 2016, will now extend its mission, and float weighlessly very close to three of the massive, whirring giant’s captive, and sheperded moons. So I am… thrilled, in a word. This is the sort of space science where we get a huge additional return on our investment, for nearly no new additional cap ex — as we only need spend for ground support teams and the dish time to stay in communication, as we adjust the smooth sailing beauty’s orbital paths, into 2025.

As you may imagine (if you’re a longer term reader), I am grinning widely — expectantly awaiting what we learn, about Europa, especially. Here is the latest, from Ars Technica:

…As part of a research plan submitted by Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, the spacecraft will fly to within 1,000km of the surface of Ganymede this summer to within 320km of Europa in late 2022 and to within 1,500km of the volcanically active Io twice in 2024….

With these flybys, Juno will be able to study surface changes on Ganymede since the Voyager and Galileo missions and investigate the 3-D structure of Ganymede’s magnetosphere. In coming so close to Europa, Juno should be able to identify regions where the moon’s ice shell is thick or thin and confirm the presence of subsurface liquid water. In making multiple close flybys of Io, Juno will monitor short-term changes in volcanic activity, which evolved dramatically between Voyager and Galileo over a matter of months….

Join me, please — in applauding the idea that even in a time of crisis for our system of ordered liberty, the best and brightest of us can keep their eyes fixed on these admittedly distant prizes, and the interplanetary / interstellar insights we may glean, glistening in the clear cold night skies… way… out there. We all sleep, afterall, under these same night skies. Onward.

नमस्ते

Arnold Was By No Means A Good Governor — But He Is Right, About This.

I think it is fair to say that the more apt analogy — in his opening minute or so — might well be the burning of the Reichstag, as the Nazi Party used the fire as a pretext to claim that communists were plotting against the German government, which made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. Moreover, Jews might correctly point out that six million haven’t died, here — so it is unfair, to invoke the holocaust — in the same breath as Wednesday’s sedition.

I will say though, Arnold’s more generally-made points are good ones.

Additionally, I do appreciate that he takes responsibility for the pathos that was post-war Austria. And he is right, that the slope is a very slippery one, from democracy, to chaos — on to totalitarianism. It is over seven minutes long, but well worth the watch time.

[He may be making a bid to be the 2024 candidate, in a “reformed” Republican party. But I’d never vote for him, based on his record as California Governor; even so, he does make solid points here.] And if it changes even one rabid Baby-T supporter’s view… it is a worthwhile effort.

As sad as the story of Arnold’s childhood is — and there still remain ten or so dark days ahead — I remain, in turn… filled with optimism, for America’s future, post the dotard.

नमस्ते

BREAKING! Jared & Ivanka Win The Fourth Annual Shkreli Awards! Woot!

Charming.

Utterly… charming. [We will cover this, as we await — likely not before tomorrow midday… winners in the Georgia Senate runoff races.]

The runners up this year included defrocked televangelist Jim Bakker (on Tee-Vee, selling crap as a COVID-19 “cure”), and the MyPillow guy. But Javanka won, hands down.

Prior years’ award winners included the Sackler family. Here’s the latest iteration:

“…The Shkreli Awards for profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare, an annual tribute to the worst actors of the US health system, have unsurprisingly focused this year on misconduct during the covid-19 pandemic, with the place of dishonour taken by the Trump administration’s federal personal protective equipment (PPE) taskforce.

Led by Jared Kushner, the procurement taskforce launched “Project Airbridge” to find PPE abroad and bring it quickly to the US. But rather than distribute it to needy state governments, the taskforce gave these supplies to six private medical supply companies to sell to the highest bidder, creating a bidding war among states.

Half of the PPE was meant to go to designated pandemic “hot spots,” but no officials from the 10 hardest hit counties in the first covid-19 wave could confirm that they received any PPE from Project Airbridge, the Washington Post found….”

Lovely. 15 Days until they are… history. And control of the Senate now hangs in the balance, but we will await an orderly election outcome, even if it takes several days to count some thee million mailed in votes.

Grinning, in the Arizona sunshine, here….

As An “Access To Life Saving Medicines” Story, This Belongs Here: Hamilton County, Tennessee’s Shame.

This is… deeply disappointing. At a minimum, with these early drop-shipped, limited availability vaccine doses, there should be a protocol that anyone over 75 years of age is automatically moved ahead in line, and anyone (without other risk factors) under the age of 30… is automatically shunted toward the back of the line. And when the doses run out for the day, so be it.

I suspect there is some dramatizing of the way this was reported, but the essential facts seem undisputed, and confirmed by several outlets:

…Officials in Hamilton County, Tennessee have been caught giving the COVID-19 vaccination to “close friends and family” after turning away elderly people by claiming they had run out of the vaccine.

When a journalist questioned a car of seven younger people who had been vaccinated, the people in the car laughed and said, “We got contacts,” as in, they’re connected to people who could give them the vaccination over older people who need it far more.

WRCB reports that on Thursday, the Hamilton County Health Department began offering vaccines to people 75 and older at 9 a.m., quickly causing a traffic jam and causing the department to start turning away cars by 1 p.m., including cars filled with old people who had been waiting over four hours….

People — we need to be… better. We are better… than this would imply, as a nation. Please think of those who have come before you, and sacrificed… for your life to be… what it is.

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