What Caught My Eye Today

Utah - Rescuers bulldozed a mountain path to erect a seismic listening device outside a mine where six miners had been trapped for more than a day, hoping to establish contact. Once the device is in place, crews will set off dynamite, a sign to the stranded men to tap the ceiling with hammers. Efforts to reach the miners trapped more than 1,500 feet underground will take at least three days, and rescuers weren't even sure the men had survived the cave-in. Crews moved only 310 feet closer to the miners in the first 30 hours after the cave-in. The trapped miners were believed to be in a chamber 3.4 miles inside the mine. Rescuers were able to reach a point about 1,700 feet from that point before being blocked by debris. Here's wishing well to both the trapped miners and the rescuers.

Two Koreas - Nope, this is not a typo. The leaders of North and South Korea will meet for their second-ever summit later this month, reprising the historic 2000 meeting that launched unprecedented reconciliation between the two longtime foes. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun will convene in Pyongyang for the summit from Aug. 28-30. The only other summit between the two Koreas was in June 2000, when Kim met then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung also in Pyongyang. Wouldn't you like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation? Maybe it'll go something like this:

KMI: So Roh, have you heard the one about the Rabbi, the cleric and the priest?
RMH: Oh Kim, you kill me.
KMI: Well, yes. That is the general idea.
RHM: Say what?
KMI: So like I was saying. This rabbi, cleric and priest are sitting in a bar...

Middle East - The Bush administration announced a series of arms sales to Arab countries, which it said were aimed at countering growing Iranian influence in the Middle East. Under the deals, Saudi Arabia and five other oil rich gulf states will get sophisticated weaponry worth $20 billion. Additional deals provided for an increase in military aid to Egypt as well as to Israel, to allow it to maintain its military edge over the Arab states. So let me get this straight. We're willing shipping weapons to a bunch of countries known as breeding grounds for Islam extremists who want nothing more than to take up arms against American. Hmm. Is it just me or is there the teeniest little flaw in the logic of this plan?

Public Decency - I do my best to keep the content on this blog suitable for all ages, but I couldn't pass this next item up. The Federal Communications Commission issued the call letters KUNT to a new Hawaiian TV station. The station's owner has filed a request to have the call letters changed. You cannot dream up irony like this. One has to wonder how it was possible that no one at the FCC noticed that this particular arrangement of letters could raise an eye brow or two.

Baseball - With all the attention being given to Barry Bonds tying Hank Aaron's home run record, one can be forgiven for forgetting that Barry is still 113 dingers short of the record for most records in professional baseball history. That's right, folks. Sadaharu Oh (also known as "the Babe Ruth of Japan) racked up 868 home runs over a 22 year career with the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. I guess Barry will have to make do with just the Major League Baseball home run record. Now if we're talking about A-Rod, well then, he may have a chance to surpass Oh's record.