[W.F. Lantry]

So there was this open pit tin mine in Malaysia. Huge! You wouldn't think human beings could dig a hole that big.

One problem: they dug it where the tin was, of course. Which was right next to the ocean. And the owner got a little too ambitious, and dug too close to the shore:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa3nFLZIvbU

Really quite something. But the amazing thing: in spite of all that water rushing in, and there's a LOT of water, if you look closely, right at the end, the level of the ocean doesn't change!

Thanks,

Bill

[dean peterson]

That's a pretty amazing video, Bill.

[Roger Slater]

I just read that so far 10 tons of paper have been sent by a combined 600 people to the art gallery in Mexico City. I can't access the full articles since it's behind the Washington Post paywall, but what more do you need to know?

[marly youmans]

"I think Robert Frost’s dictum that: 'No one can call themselves a poet. It is a name that is given to you, not one you give to yourself' still holds true. It’s not that there are too many poets writing right now, it’s that there are too many people who make that claim without checking first if anyone agrees with it." -Zachary Jean, at http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/fir...ts/#more-22184

[Roger Slater]

I don't know what that has to do with anything, but since you brought it up, my view is that Mr. Frost, normally so wise, said something stupid. He is insisting that the word "poet" implies not just someone who writes poems, but someone who does it well. But to most of us, it is not an oxymoron to call someone a "very bad poet" or "failed poet." To insist that the word "poet" implies quality is to deprive the word of its utility in describing someone who is continuously and seriously engaged in the activity of writing poems. I suppose you'd have to co-opt the term "poem" as well and insist that someone who writes even rhyming and metrical verses that you don't like is not just not a "poet" but also has not written a "poem." To me it's easier to let the critical assessment reside in the adjectives.