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August 20, 2007
When MSHA's Gary Jensen, 53, died last week in a rockburst at the Crandall Canyon mine, it had been 26 years since a federal mine inspector had died in the line of duty. Mr. Jensen joined MSHA in 2001 as an inspector. He had worked for nearly 30 years as a coal miner, and was especially…
August 20, 2007
Cross-posted by Revere at Effect Measure
In an email letter sent internally to all National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) personnel, its Director, Dr. David Schwartz, has announced he is temporarily stepping aside while the NIH Director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, conducts an internal…
August 19, 2007
Well, not all of these pictures of the sciblings are in the "LOLCats" style, but they do have captions....
August 19, 2007
Poor Dr. Steve Steve. Such is his international celebrity that he cannot show his furry little face in New York without being hounded by the (new) media! He tries to hide in Tara Smith's bag, but it's to no avail....
...as sciblings and paparazzi MIke Dunford, PZ Myers, Josh Rosenau, and…
August 19, 2007
For the first year on the job, a new underground coal miner wears a red-colored hardhat to signal to everyone on the crew that he (or she) is a rookie. These so-called "red hats" receive 40 hours of safety training before they are allowed to take on any mining duties, on topics ranging roof…
August 18, 2007
This is mostly just an MLP ("Mindless Link Post"), and it's nearly two weeks late, but there's a post by Julianne over at Cosmic Variance that I think is of crucial importance. People who are outside the field of science very often lose sight of the huge amount of important science that is done,…
August 17, 2007
This post has been resurrected from my old blog's location. I've copied the 2006-03-19 post as-is, and I've added a few addenda at the bottom.
I overstimulate fairly easily. This is a serious social disadvantage.
I don’t know how much there is really to this, but I’m attracted to the notion of…
August 17, 2007
Apparently, thereâs something about a study involving cats and flame retardants that makes it irresistible blogging fodder. Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth was the first to alert us to the study, reporting that it linked catsâ PBDE exposure and hyperthyroidism. (PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl…
August 17, 2007
I've only sampled a few outlets, so I can't say this definitively. However, the few electrical outlets I've sampled at the Nashville airport are not working.
I've read before at BoingBoing about Pay-per use electrical outlets at DFW.
I'm guessing (just guessing; again, I don't know, as I've only…
August 17, 2007
MSHA reports:
"At approximately 8:39 pm (EDT) Thursday night, a significant bounce occurred at the mine. Three rescue workers are confirmed dead, including one MSHA inspector. Six others remain hospitalized. At this time, all rescue efforts have been suspended."
The MSHA inspector who was…
August 17, 2007
I'm off on 2 weeks+ of travel. At the moment, I'm sitting in the Nashville airport, waiting to take off on a two-day flight to New York for FNORD. I come back Sunday, and Monday I leave for a 2-week trip to San Francisco to spend a couple of weeks at the main Linden Lab office (with perhaps a…
August 16, 2007
By Liz Borkowski
Aman at Technology, Health & Development reminds us that itâs World Water Week, and provides a great collection of water-related links for the occasion. Several of the articles are about a backlash against bottled water â apparently, a critical mass of people has just…
August 16, 2007
Join an on-line chat at 1:00 pm today (8/16) on technology to locate trapped miners.
On day 11, the rescue efforts continue for the six trapped miners at a Utah coal mine. A third borehole (2") punctured the mine workings yesterday afternoon to allow a camera to be lowered into the mine to…
August 15, 2007
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that a third borehole has reached a cavity in the Crandall Canyon mine, but efforts to lower a microphone into it have failed so far. The Tribune has the most extensive coverage of the rescue efforts, and in a blog post yesterday Arianna Huffington contrasts its…
August 15, 2007
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its preliminary numbers on 2006 fatal occupational injuries, and Katherine Torres at Occupational Hazards reports on what they show. The rate of fatal work injuries declined slightly, from 4 per 100,000 in 2005 to 3.9 in 2006, but some industries showed…
August 15, 2007
by Tom Bethell                                                                                                     (Posted with permission from The Mountain Eagle, Whitesburg, KY)
As we go to press…
August 14, 2007
Following the talk I gave in Second Life about the discovery of the accelerating Universe, we held a couple of Q&A sessions. The original plan was to have questions right after the talk, but the Second Life main grid crashed right at that moment. We all got online about half an hour later,…
August 14, 2007
In "Memo shows mine already had roof problems," (Aug 12) the Salt Lake Tribune's Robert Gehrke first reported on a history of rockbursts at the Crandall Canyon mine.* I first learned this on NPR's Morning Edition (Aug 14) when Frank Langfitt reported that in March of this year, another …
August 14, 2007
I realized that I had several comments that hadn't been flagged as "junk," but which had been flagged for moderation. I don't see those much, so I haven't been looking for them. As such, several of them have been sitting there for as much as 3 weeks.
I apologize to those of you whose comments…
August 13, 2007
OSHA's Area Office in Pittsburgh issued 46 citations, including 16 repeat violations and one willful against Shane Felter Industries, Inc. of Uniontown, PA. A proposed penalty of $166,400 accompanied the citations.  OSHA's Area Director Robert Szymanski said:
"Shane Felter Industries' refusal…
August 13, 2007
In Indiana on Friday, three men died from a 500-foot plunge down an air shaft being built at a coal mine:
Christopher Todd Richardson, 38, of Cedar Bluff, Virginia
Daniel McFadden, 66, of Greybull, Wyoming
Jarred A. Ashmore, 23, of Henderson, Kentucky
The Associated Press reports:
The trip [into…
August 13, 2007
Ellen Smith, Managing Editor of Mine Safety and Health News reported at 5:30 pm (EST, 8/12) on the status of the operation to rescue the six trapped miners at the Crandall Canyon mine in Emery County, Utah. She wrote that MSHA Assistant Secretary Richard Sticker, said they are dealing with
"…
August 11, 2007
by Ken Ward, Jr. (This item first appeared on Nieman Watchdog; posted with permission)
Often after accidents like the one at Crandall Canyon, Utah, mine operators claim their mines had relatively few violations. Even if thatâs trueâand often it isnâtâârelatively fewâ just isnât good enough in a…
August 10, 2007
In the last few days, we have all been in a state of shock over the situation in Utah. Like several of my colleagues, I have been praying for the trapped Utah miners and their families and friends. I have been tuning in to the press conferences with mine owner Bob Murray, and I have been refreshing…
August 10, 2007
While weâre all sending our thoughts and hopes to the miners and their families at Crandall Canyon, we also owe it to all coal miners to highlight the conditions that make such mining disasters more likely and to pressure those in charge to correct them.
Tula Connell at Firedoglake delves into the…
August 10, 2007
Video of a Second Life virtual reality simulation of psychosis in schizophrenia, created by UC Davis Professor of Psychiatry Peter Yellowlees.
Also, create a psychotic VR therapeutic scenario with NeuroVR (from Positive Technology Journal).
August 9, 2007
Marty Bennett was a coal miner with 29 years of experience, including work at operations that practiced "retreat mining." He died at age 51 at the Sago mine in January 2006, along with 11 other coal miners. Today, his family organized a letter of support for the Crandall Canyon miners'…
August 9, 2007
The expert panel evaluating the chemical bisphenol A for the National Toxicology Program has âsome concernâ that BPA exposure causes neural and behavioral effects in developing fetuses, infants, and children. The panel has âminimal concernâ or ânegligible concernâ that BPA affects the prostate or…
August 9, 2007
Jeff Lehr at the Joplin Globe reports that a new round of lawsuits has been filed against makers of an artificial butter flavoring used at a microwave popcorn plant in Jasper County, Missouri. Exposure to artificial butter flavoring â in particular, the chemical diacetyl â has been linked to severe…
August 9, 2007
It's been a few days. I was out in West Virginia last weekend watching my cousin get married. After driving back Monday, I started the new job with Linden Labs, and that has been occupying most of my focus.
I've spoken at length before (in that and other posts) about why, despite how much I loved…