Future of mine rescue effort uncertain after cave-in kills three

Evening Echo: News

The search for six miners missing deep underground in the US was abruptly halted after a second cave-in killed three rescue workers and injured at least six others trying to tunnel through rubble to reach them.

Huntington Mayor Hilary Gordon said: “It just feels like a really hard blow to swallow after all we’ve been through the last week and a half and everyone trying to hope in their own individual way.

The setback yesterday came on the 11th day of the effort to find six miners who have been confined at least 1,500 feet below ground at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah state. It was unknown if the six were alive.

All rescue workers were evacuated from the mine and work underground was stopped...

“The seismic activity underground has just been relentless. The mountain is still alive, the mountain is still moving and we cannot endanger the rescue workers as we drive toward these trapped miners,” said Bob Murray, chief of Murray Energy Corp., the co-owner and operator of the Crandall Canyon mine.

Mining rescues after 10 or more days aren't unheard of. Two miners were rescued in May 2006 after being trapped for 14 days following a collapse at an Australian mine. In 1968, six miners were rescued after 10 days in West Virginia. But the Aug. 6 cave-in released low-oxygen air into the working area of the mine. Downward pressure on the walls sent chunks of coal flying like bullets through the shaft.

Discussion: When do you stop a rescue effort?

New trial for teacher over cyberporn in classroom

New trial for teacher over cyberporn in classroom - World - smh.com.au
Porn pop-ups on a classroom computer- instructor found guilty may spend up to 40 years in jail-or may be aquitted in a new trial. Read on (or click the link above for the full story):

WASHINGTON: A US judge has ordered a retrial of a schoolteacher found guilty of computer porn charges after a sustained campaign by internet specialists proclaiming her innocence.

Julie Amero, 40, was convicted in January of causing a series of sex advertisements to pop up on a classroom computer, which were seen by pupils in October 2004. She faces up to 40 years in jail...

The prosecution at the trial in Connecticut had alleged Amero must have clicked on porn websites for the pop-ups to begin appearing. But after the trial 28 computer science academics in the state sought to prove that the rapid-fire sequence could have appeared automatically.

Sympathetic campaigners argue such pop-ups are one of the scourges of the internet and say she is the victim of a witchhunt...

Pupils, some of them as young as 12, told police that the computer had been left on for several hours and they had seen men and women engaged in oral sex.

Discussion: What are the implications of this trial? How might this situation apply in a fire station or other public facility? What about a fire service training classroom? Or even during a public education program!? Is there a different standard for an adult classroom? How might the outcome of this case impact your job?

Certainly the outcome of the new trial will be interesting! (In the meantime- note to self: turn on the pop-up blocker!)