Slow news day

You know it's a slow news day when, on every major news website and every local station, there's a "headline" trumpeting a story about a man who beheaded a snake, but the snake bit him anyway after its decapitation. This is news? Hell, this isn't even interesting.

The thing about the miners in Utah, though, that's vexing me. It seems obscene and unfair that they continue to tout their "optimism," cautious though it may be, and repeatedly announce that they're soon going to be lowering food, water, toothbrushes, combs, etc., down to the trapped miners. Like they KNOW the guys are still alive. Why are they doing this to the families of those miners? They are dead. After five days, they'd have died of thirst, shock and probably suffocation. More than likely, though, they were killed in the initial cave-in.

We're talking about seasoned miners, here, guys that are extensively trained in survival and safety techniques, and the foremost of those is to make lots of noise if you're trapped in a collapse, so the rescuers know you're alive and know where to dig to come get you. They've heard not one single tap in the entire time they've been attempting their rescue. No hammers banging, no rocks being smashed together, no shouts or anything at all.

Now, putting aside the "possibility" that they were miraculously encased in a little pocket area, and the fact that they would have had a whopping half-gallon of water each (at the most), why aren't they smacking their hammers against the rocks like they're trained to do? If they were too injured to do so, they'd certainly be too injured to survive this long in those conditions.

It just irks me that there's such unjustifiable optimism for these guys. I know that sounds terribly heartless and cynical, but honestly, if I was a surviving wife, mother, sister, or whatever, of one of these people, I don't think I'd want these officials stringing me along like that. You have to know they're almost certainly deceased, why keep feeding hope to these distraught families, telling them you've got faith the workers not only survived but were able to sustain life in the conditions they're trapped in (they've got breathable air, it's 58 degrees which is not too cold, it's dark but they have water, etc.)... they talk about it like those dudes are sitting around down there, playing cards and smoking cigarettes and just waiting to be rescued.

I actually think it's MORE heartless to feed these surviving family members hope in what appears to be a hopeless situation. In short, they're lying to these people. That's pretty wrong, considering the circumstances.