Cuil (pronounced cool) is a new search engine.  It aims to compete with Google.  I have no complaints with Google, which i use extensively every day.  In fact i am always impressed when Google picks up my latest posting on this blog within minutes of its first appearance.  I am even more impressed when Google ranks my blog posting very high on many topics including, strangely enough “pretty ladies in hard hats.”

But ever keen for the new, I tried Cuil.  Try as I might i could not find this blog or any of its postings.   For example a search using the blog name I THINK MINING brings up many articles on information and data mining….but no blog.  Strike one.

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To save old mines for tourism or to reopen them for profit?  That is the question.  And like any dream of riches, there is always the possibility of a nightmare. 

A site new to me, Mining Companies Exploration and Mining Investment News carries a fine article that highlights the dilemma of maintaining old mines as tourist attractions versus mining the resources left behind by the old miners.  The article is Mining Companies Race to Reopen Old Mexican Mines.

In relatively unemotional prose, we are told of the conflict between those who live and dream of the past and those who look forward to development:  The conflict, as always, is rooted in the quick, here and now, new job, and the dream of a sleepy town grown rich off unidentified tourists.   But, as they note:

In the race between mining — which offers quick investments and lots of blue-collar jobs — and the slow, arduous task of luring tourism, mining often wins.

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The disconnect between reality and idealism is stark.  Or is it just the disconnect between Fort McMurray and Vancouver?  

The people on the oil sands mines I worked with are honest and earnest.  But the Vancouver news makes them sound like prime scallywags.  Consider these two links:

The Tyee (admittedly a “fiesty one online”)   They write about another of those lawsuites that will bring oil sands mining to an end, save the water, and make it possible for Indians to wonder free through the woods shooting buffalo and rabbits.  I somehow doubt it. 

Root Force (clearly a troubled mind at work and rest)  They write about the success of Greenpeace in impeding tailings deposition at Syncrude.  Symbolic but so silly.  I doubt they walked from Fort McMurray to Syncrude.  In fact they probably flew from Calgary to Fort McMurray.