What Caught My Eye Today

Utah - A video camera lowered into a mine where six workers have been missing for more than five days shows "survivable space," but attempts to signal the miners were met by silence. The nearly 9-inch-wide hole reached the void in the early morning darkness. Rescuers quickly shut down the drill rig and their compressors — anything that could drown out signs of life from down below — and rapped again and again on the drill steel in an attempt to contact the miners. Trapped miners, if they can hear the signal, are trained to respond in kind with tools or rocks. These signals, however, were met with silence. A smaller hole 2 1/2 inches wide that was drilled into the mine earlier was being used to pump oxygen into the void. Sampling of air in that hole had found oxygen levels too low for survival. The two holes are 130 feet apart. The void is 1,868 feet below the drill rigs. The men were more than three miles inside the remote mine at the time of the thunderous collapse Monday. Workers clearing away mounds of rubble had progressed 650 feet into a 2,000-foot tunnel that could lead to the men. Well, things don't look so good, but until the fate of the miners is known, praying for the best certainly annot hurt.

Space Shuttle - A pair of spacewalking astronauts installed a new beam to the international space station as engineers back on Earth scrutinized images of a disturbing gouge in shuttle Endeavour's heat shield. A 3-inch gash in the shuttle's belly will be inspected in greater detail when the shuttle crew pulls out its 100-foot robotic arm and extension boom and probes the difficult-to-reach area with lasers. Mission managers suspect a chunk of ice flew off Endeavour's external fuel tank one minute after liftoff on Wednesday and struck tiles on the shuttle's underside, near the right main landing gear door. Ice is heavier than the tank's foam insulation, and even a small piece could cause major damage to the shuttle's thermal covering, which protects against the intense heat of atmospheric re-entry at flight's end. If NASA determines the gouge in the shuttle's belly — or any other damage to the heat shield — needs to be repaired, the work probably would be done in a fourth spacewalk next Friday or so. The astronauts have a repair kit on board with three types of patching material; the kit has flown on every mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster. While any damage to the space shuttle is disturbing, it is encouraging to see that we have the ability to find and correct such damage in order to avoid another Columbia disaster.

Immigration - Mexicans are increasingly giving up on the American dream and staying home, and the federal crackdown on undocumented workers announced Friday should discourage even potential migrants from taking the risks as the United States purges itself of its illegal population. U.S. and Mexican officials say increased border security, including 6,000 National Guard troops, remote surveillance technology and drone planes, have thwarted smugglers who had succeeded for years at beating the system. Migrants also say they feel Americans are increasingly hostile toward immigrants. Gee, I wonder what gives them that impression? I may be going out on a limb here, but maybe its all those deportations and threats of criminal prosecution of any employer who dares to give a job to undocumented workers. I don't mean to suggest that completely open borders is a realistic option, but its strong reactions like our current immigration policy that tend to make foreign nationals (my polite way of saying terrorists) have a less than favorable opinion of us.

Canada - Let's give a shout out to another country, besides ours for a change, flexing its military might to secure its borders. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the government will install two new military facilities in the Arctic to boost Canada's sovereign claim over the Northwest Passage and signal its long-term commitment to the North. The pressure is on Arctic nations because of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which gives them 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice-pack. All but the United States have ratified the treaty. Russia, Canada and Denmark all claim they are physically connected to the Lomonosov Ridge, a 2,000-kilometre underwater mountain range that stretches to an area between northern Ellesmere Island and Greenland from Siberia. Of course there is a small difference between Canada's use of its military and ours. I'm guessing that they won't suffer 3700 (well, actually 3735and counting) casualties as a result of this operation. Well that, and the fact that they have a legitimate claim to the land that they're defending.

Cycling - The fallout from this year's tainted Tour de France continues. Citing fractious leadership in the sport, constant doping allegations and the struggles of finding a new sponsor, Lance Armstrong and the owners of his former Discovery Channel team said Friday the squad will disband after this season. Armstrong said it was the perfect time to go out on top: Discovery's Alberto Contador of Spain won the team's eighth Tour de France title in nine years last month. The decision shuts down the sport's only elite professional team based in the United States. Armstrong retired from riding in 2005 but remained a visible co-owner of the team operated by Tailwind Sports. Discovery announced in February it would not sponsor the team beyond this year. The team's general manager acknowledged difficulty securing new sponsorship with the sport under the constant pressure of doping allegations. Dude, how bad is it when the team fielding 8 of the past 9 winners of the Tour de France cannot get secure a sponsorship deal?

Baseball - Barry Bonds has upped his homerun total to 758 (3 dingers in the past 4 games). But, you know, it turns out that there are a bunch of other teams, besides the San Francisco Giants, playing the game. Let's see how the division races are going with less than 50 games left in the regular season

AL East - Boston still leads the division, but guess who's starting to got hot? That's right, boys and girls. It's those pesky New York Yankees, who are in a dead heat with Seattle for the AL Wildcard.

AL Central - Cleveland leads Detroit by a game and a half. Honestly, who cares about this division any way?

AL West - The Los Angeles Angels have a 3 and a half game lead over Seattle in what has been a rather quiet divisional race as well.

NL East - The New York Mets lead the division while Washington brings up the rear. Pretty much the same deal as last year.

NL Central - Milwaukee leads the Chicago Cubs by half a game in what has to be the "I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it" division.

NL West - Or as I like to say, the Senior Minor League division. Arizona leads this band of underachievers by 3 and a half games. What about the San Franciso Giants? Well, let's see. At least they're better than Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh...barely.

Golf - Guess who put up a record-tying 63 in the second round, followed by a respectable 69 today in the third round of the PGA Championship to take a 3 stroke lead into the final round? Tiger Woods made 15 pars in his 1-under 69, giving him a three-shot lead over Stephen Ames going into the final round. Woods is 12-0 when going into the final round of major with at least a share of the lead, and he has never lost any tournament when leading by more than one shot after 54 holes. Technically, there is no such thing as a sure thing, but seriously, would you take the field over Tiger with a 3 stroke lead? Me neither.