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Category Archives: life in general

Giant hole in the ground

Guys.  I have a fascination with sinkholes (because they’re generally spontaneous) and other giant holes in the ground, like blue holes and the Door to Hell and excessively deep open pit mines (I once worked at one, but only as a contractor).

And I have discovered a giant hole in the ground.

Ok, so I did not personally discover a giant hole in the ground.  I discovered that it exists.  And this giant hole in the ground is really the now inactive Mirny mine, the second biggest open pit mine in the world.  The biggest one is the Bingham Canyon Mine (the company that owns this mine also owns the one I worked at), which I actually think looks less impressive than the Mirny mine.

Here is the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Bingham mine 5-10-03.jpg
“Bingham mine 5-10-03“. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

 

And here is the Mirny mine.

Mirny in Yakutia.jpg
“Mirny in Yakutia” by Staselnik – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

They are impressive looking, wot?  Especially the Mirny mine.

So, both photos show you a giant hole in the ground, but even though you don’t really have the context of the surroundings for the Mirny mine, you can see that the grade into the pit is much steeper than that of the Bingham Canyon Mine.  It looks much more like a giant hole than it does a canyon, which is arguably less impressive than a hole.

But take a look at these photos here.  You can see that there were support buildings pretty much built right up to the brink of the pit.  And the hole is just…giant.  It’s kind of mind-boggling that there’s this giant hole in the ground that helicopters are apparently not allowed to fly over because the air is too unstable for them to maintain proper flight.

I also like the story with the De Beers people only having 20 minutes with the mine to try and solve the mystery of it’s never-ending gem quality diamonds.

Um…that was it.  I just wanted to show you a giant pit in the ground.  You can carry on with your day now.

In which Horse and Yaris go to their interview

Horse and Yaris recently had an entrance interview to be enrolled in the local doggy camp.  While I do understand why the process is completely necessary, I still find it entirely ridiculous.  Maybe because of how they call it an “interview.”  It’s not an interview.  It’s just an observation day to make sure your dogs play nice with the other dogs.  There are no questions being asked.  You can’t prep your dogs for it.  They don’t have to dress up.  It’s not an interview.  But it does feel like what I imagine enrolling children into camp is like with the immunization requirement and whatnot.

Anyway, Horse and Yaris went in for their interview.  The camp staff got a kick out of Horse’s name.  He’s the only Horse in their system.

There actually ended up being an even bigger lab (yellow) that day.  That lab was big.  And fat.  I saw him on the webcam (there are live webcams in the yard so you can check in on your dog from time to time).  Horse stood next to that other lab and there was a very distinct size difference.  The staff said even Horse seemed taken aback when he saw how big that lab was.  Haha.  I caught them next to each other a few times during the day.  I imagine they were discussing the trials of being so big and how finally there was another lab who could understand.

There are always a bunch of GSDs around and on interview day, it was no different.  Yaris made some friends with other GSDs and also a pair of greyhounds for some reason.  Maybe she was comparing notes on running fast.  I was pretty impressed with Yaris in that she didn’t really freak out and seemed relatively calm.  She would make her rounds and then go back to lie down in close proximity to Horse.  Horse would not make rounds and basically spent the entire day lounging and dog watching the other yards.  The giant yellow did the same, but he staked out a different corner.

Anyway, they both did well and passed their interview and are welcome back at the doggy camp.  They also took the most ridiculous looking ID photos ever after having passed their interviews.

They caught Horse mid-lick. He looks like he has a mustache or lips.

They caught Horse mid-lick. He looks like he has a mustache or lips.

What is that face?!

What is that face?!

I guess dogs don’t take good ID photos either.  ID photos are just destined to look bad for everyone.