

What if everything you needed to survive had to fit through a 3 inch wide hole - bobds
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/13/back-story-think-of-the-miners.html

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tyng
What I learned from the article: Keeping the trapped miners mentally inspired
is at least as important as providing food and health care

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bobds
They can communicate with their families and talk to the outside world. They
know efforts are underway to rescue them. I think those make a huge difference
in keeping them hopeful, compared to someone trapped that has no idea if
anyone is even looking for them.

I read that they haven't told them how long it will be until the rescue shaft
will be ready. I'm not sure whether it's better to think that you will be
rescued "any day now" or that you are going to have to tough it out for three
months with 33 sweaty men.

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DougBTX
It would also avoid having to send a "sorry guys, we've had some delays, it'll
take an extra six weeks" message.

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vinhboy
You know what I would want. A jailbroken iPhone and WiFi connection. Fire up
ssh, and do some programming. It would be the most gimmicky startup ever.
Hopefully by the time I get out, I would be Y-funded.

This situation is terrible, and god bless those people and their families, but
that's exactly what I would demand if I was down there. (given that the
government actually gave a shit about me at that point)

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kragen
I don't think 802.11 can penetrate 2300 meters of rock, vinhboy.

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vinhboy
Can't they put a cat5 down there, and like a mini router? Or run an antenna
down?

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Poiesis
802.3 distance limitation: 100 meters. Only about 2200 meters short!

This is actually a bit of a fascinating question. Even if you found an
appropriate technology, I would think mist cable would break under it's weight
(I don't know if it would hanging straight down). Even if you got a cable
sown, what would they hook it to? And I'm not sure I'd want to have a cable
stuck in the only hole I have that's gotta serve for anything else that I
would want to get down there.

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extension
It says there are three holes, so I'm guessing at least one is dedicated to
hoses.

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kabdib
Treatment in fiction: _The Space Eater_ (David Langford). Only it was 1.8cm in
his story.

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petercooper
It does. They're called my mouth and nostrils ;-)

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dkarl
I was thinking about my brain emerging through the birth canal.

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kragen
A related historical event:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbalZ5DUbE>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springhill_mining_disaster>

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Mz
Not just a thought experiment. This is about something a school kid did to try
to simulate what thirty three trapped Chilean miners are living with and have
been since August 5th.

Related articles:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/26/rescue-
capsule-c...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/26/rescue-capsule-
chilean-miners-delivered)

[http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/trapped-chilean-
mi...](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/trapped-chilean-miners-signs-
cabin-fever/story?id=11585408)

