DAVID HUME, EMPIRICISM & PHILOSOPHICAL SCEPTICISM

Today, The Grandma has been reading about David Hume, the Scottish philosopher who was born on a day like today in 1711.

David Hume (7 May 1711-25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism.

Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume followed John Locke in rejecting the existence of innate ideas, concluding that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley as an empiricist.

Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the constant conjunction of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past; this metaphysical presupposition cannot itself be grounded in prior experience.

An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, famously proclaiming that Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually accepted by historians of European philosophy to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done.

Hume denied that humans have an actual conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of perceptions connected by an association of ideas. 

Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles, and critique of the argument from design for God's existence, were especially controversial for their time. 

Hume left a legacy that affected utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration that had awakened him from his dogmatic slumbers.

Hume was born on 26 April 1711, as David Home, in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket.

Regardless of how boundless it may seem; a person's imagination is confined to the mind's ability to recombine the information it has already acquired from the body's sensory experience (the ideas that have been derived from impressions). In addition, as our imagination takes our most basic ideas and leads us to form new ones, it is directed by three principles of association, namely, resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect:

-The principle of resemblance refers to the tendency of ideas to become associated if the objects they represent resemble one another. For example, someone looking at an illustration of a flower can conceive an idea of the physical flower because the idea of the illustrated object is associated with the physical object's idea.

-The principle of contiguity describes the tendency of ideas to become associated if the objects they represent are near to each other in time or space, such as when the thought of a crayon in a box leads one to think of the crayon contiguous to it.

-The principle of cause and effect refers to the tendency of ideas to become associated if the objects they represent are causally related, which explains how remembering a broken window can make someone think of a ball that had caused the window to shatter.

More information: EU vs DiSiNFO

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.

David Hume

THE FINAL EPISODE OF TV SERIES 'FRIENDS' WAS AIRED

Today, The Grandma has been watching Friends, the American television sitcom whose last episode was aired on a day like today in 2004.

Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and David Crane.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.

All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; ultimately reaching the number 1 spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s. 

Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular and highest-grossing television shows of all time. The show's success led to a spin-off series, Joey, and a reunion special, Friends: The Reunion.

The Last One, also known as The One Where They Say Goodbye, is the series finale of the American sitcom Friends. Originally shown in its entirety, the episode's two parts were classified as the seventeenth and eighteenth episodes of the tenth season, and the 235th and the 236th episodes overall. It was written by series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman and directed by executive producer Kevin S. Bright. 

The series finale first aired on NBC in the United States on May 6, 2004, when it was watched by 52.5 million viewers, making it the most watched entertainment telecast in six years and the fifth most watched overall television series finale in American history as well as the most watched episode from any television series throughout the 2000s decade on American television. In Canada, the finale aired simultaneously on May 6, 2004, on Global, and was viewed by 5.16 million viewers, becoming the second-highest viewed episode of the series.

The series finale closes several long-running storylines. Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) confesses his love for Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), and they decide to resume their relationship; and Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) and Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) adopt twins and move to the suburbs. The episode's final scene shows the group leaving Monica and Chandler's apartment for the final time and going for one last cup of coffee together.

Prior to writing the episode, Crane, Kauffman and Bright watched finales from other sitcoms for the inspiration. Kauffman found that she liked the ones that stayed true to the series. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California; part one was filmed on January 16, and part two on January 23, making it the only episode that was filmed in 2004. The series finale was well received by critics and the cast members.

The series' creators completed the first draft of the hour-long finale in January 2004, four months prior to its airing on May 6. Before writing the episode, David Crane, Marta Kauffman and Kevin S. Bright decided to watch the series finales of other sitcoms, paying attention to what worked and what did not. Kauffman found that they liked the ones which stayed true to the series, and they found the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show to be the gold standard. The writers had difficulty writing the finale, and spent several days thinking about the final scene without being able to write a word. Crane said that they did not want to do something high concept, or take the show out of the show.

The music playing as the camera pans across the empty apartment at the end of the episode is Embryonic Journey by Jefferson Airplane. The song Yellow Ledbetter by the band Pearl Jam is also featured in the episode -after Rachel boards the plane for the first time-making it the first Pearl Jam song to be licensed for a television show. A spokesperson for the group said it was, simply a matter of the show's producers asking permission.

More information: Instagram-Friends

 We are dessert stealers.
We are living outside the law.

Rachel Green

CÉSAR LUIS MENOTTI, THE GREAT ARGENTINE MANAGER

Today, The Grandma has been reading about César Luis Menotti, the Argentine football player and manager, who died on a day like today in 2024.

César Luis Menotti (22 October 1938-5 May 2024), known as El Flaco, was an Argentine football player and manager who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team.

Menotti was born on 22 October 1938 in Rosario, Argentina.

Menotti played as a striker, most notably for Argentine clubs Rosario Central and Boca Juniors. As a manager, he won three cups with Barcelona and also led Atlético Madrid in La Liga in the 1980s, as well as leading Superclásico rivals Boca Juniors and River Plate. He was briefly the manager of Mexico and Italian Serie A club Sampdoria in the 1990s.

During Menotti's tenure as manager of the Argentina national team (from 1974 to 1982), he carried out a project that differed from previous processes, bringing him to be recognised as one of the most influential managers in the history of Argentine football.

After playing some games for the reserve team, Menotti debuted in Primera División playing for Rosario Central in 1960. His first professional match was on 3 July versus Boca Juniors, a 3-1 victory.

On 27 November 1963, Menotti played a friendly for River Plate against Juventus. He scored in the 2-1 loss in Italy. The following June, he scored in another exhibition defeat, 2-1 away to Nacional in Montevideo, and was then approached by the host team.

Menotti remained four seasons in Rosario Central prior to be transferred in 1964 to Racing, then moving to Boca Juniors in 1965, where he would win his first title as player, the 1965 Primera División. Two years later Menotti arrived to the North American Soccer League to play for the New York Generals. 

In 1968 Menotti was traded to Santos where he was teammate of Pelé and won the Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa, a tournament later recognized as national championship of Brazil, of that year. Menotti signed with Clube Atlético Juventus, where he retired from football in 1970 after playing games and scoring twice.

After retiring from play, Menotti became friends with coach Miguel "Gitano" Juárez, with whom he traveled to the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Fascinated by the Brazilian style of play led by his friend Pelé, he decided to become a coach himself. Menotti worked as coach assistant of Juárez in Newell's Old Boys.

As manager, Menotti won his first title with Huracán, the 1973 Torneo Metropolitano with a side that included notable players such as Carlos Babington, Miguel Brindisi, Roque Avallay and the outstanding René Houseman. That squad was widely praised by the media due to their style of playing, being considered one of the best Argentine teams of all time. Huracán played 32 matches, winning 19 with 5 loses. The squad scored 62 goals and conceded 30.

In March 1983, Barcelona sacked Udo Lattek and brought in Menotti, who reunited with Maradona.

After a brief spell back home with Boca Juniors, Menotti returned to Spain in July 1987 to manage Atlético Madrid, who had gone a decade without a league title.

Menotti returned to Buenos Aires in July 1988, taking over at Boca's Superclásico rivals River Plate.

In July 1990, Menotti was hired at Peñarol, a Uruguayan club going through restructuring after selling most of their team that had won the Copa Libertadores in 1987.

In 1991, Menotti returned to international football when he was appointed by Mexico, who were recovering from the Cachirules scandal that had seen them banned from the 1990 FIFA World Cup.

Menotti had a third spell in Europe when he led Sampdoria of the Italian Serie A briefly in 1997.

Before and after his short stint in Italy, Menotti was manager of Independiente. His team came runners-up in the 1996-97 Argentine Primera División.

In March 2002, Menotti was hired at Rosario Central, his hometown club where he had begun playing and had always supported.

Menotti returned to Independiente for 2005, amidst financial problems at the club. Through his friendship with Emilio Maurer  -one of the executives he resigned from the Mexico national team in solidarity with- Menotti was hired by Puebla.

In late August 2007, Menotti was hired by another Mexican team, Tecos of the Liga MX.

On 3 February 2017, Guadalajara made a formal offer to sign him on as their academy director.

In January 2019, Menotti was named as the director of the Argentina national teams.

Menotti died on 5 May 2024.

More information: Coaches' Voice

To be a footballer means being a privileged interpreter
of the feelings and dreams of thousands of people.

César Luis Menotti

THE USA BEGINS CONSTRUCTION OF THE PANAMA CANAL

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Panama Canal that was started being constructed by the United States on a day like today in 1904.

The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometer waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

Locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial fresh water lake 26 metres above sea level, created by damming the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal. Locks then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200 ML of fresh water is used in a single passing of a ship. The canal is threatened by low water levels during droughts.

The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage, the Strait of Magellan or the Beagle Channel. 

Its construction was one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. Since its inauguration on 15 August 1914, the canal has succeeded in shortening maritime communication in time and distance, invigorating maritime and economic transportation by providing a short and relatively inexpensive transit route between the two oceans, decisively influencing global trade patterns, boosting economic growth in developed and developing countries, as well as providing the basic impetus for economic expansion in many remote regions of the world.

Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped in 1889 because of a lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. 

The US took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos-Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American-Panamanian control, the Panamanian government took control in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority.

The original locks are 33.5 metres wide and allow the passage of Panamax ships. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded waterway began commercial operation on 26 June 2016. The new locks allow for the transit of larger, Neopanamax ships.

Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System (PC/UMS) tons.

By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. In that year, the top five users of the canal were the United States, China, Chile, Japan, and South Korea.

In 2017, it took ships an average of 11.38 hours to pass between the canal's two outer locks. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

In 1897-1899, US President William McKinley (1897-1901) tasked two commissions headed by Admiral John Grimes Walker to recommend the best route for a canal across Central America. Although the first commission had been tasked only to consider routes across Nicaragua, William Nelson Cromwell successfully lobbied the Government to broaden the terms of reference to also consider the Panamanian isthmus. The commission issued a confidential preliminary report on 21 November 1901, shortly after Theodore Roosevelt had become president following the assassination of McKinley. The preliminary report favored the Nicaragua route on pricing grounds; although the commissioners noted the technical advantages of the Panama route, they considered its informally quoted price of $109 million to be excessive.

The report was leaked to Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who during an emergency shareholders' meeting of the Compagnie Nouvelle amended the price to a formal offer of $40 million, the estimated sale value of the existing Panama assets acceptable to the commissioners.

On 10 December, George S. Morison, the most eminent engineer on the commission, wrote a letter to President Roosevelt giving the technical reasons for preferring the Panama route.

In January 1902, Roosevelt called the members of the commission into his office individually and asked them to give their own personal evaluations of the best route. Roosevelt then held a closed meeting with the entire commission, where he made it clear that he wanted the offer to take over the Panama route from the Compagnie Nouvelle to be accepted. In late January, the commission issued a final report, unanimously recommending Panama.

The US formally took control of the canal property on 4 May 1904, inheriting from the French a depleted workforce and a vast jumble of buildings, infrastructure, and equipment, much of it in poor condition. A US government commission, the Isthmian Canal Commission (ICC), was established to oversee construction; it was given control of the Panama Canal Zone, over which the United States exercised sovereignty.

More information: Canal de Panamá

Panama is a country that's been dealing
with issues of identity since its very birth.
It was born on Wall Street.
It was born out of engineering construction.
It was the canal. Because of the canal, the country was born,
so the country has been divided into pro-canal
and against-canal people for so long.

Edgar Ramirez

THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL OPENS IN LONDON IN 1951

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Royal Festival Hall, the venue that opened in London on a day like today in 1951.

The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England.

It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected in 1981.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the London Sinfonietta, Chineke! and Aurora are resident orchestras at Southbank Centre.

The hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain for London County Council, and was officially opened on 3 May 1951. When the LCC's successor, the Greater London Council, was abolished in 1986, the Festival Hall was taken over by the Arts Council, and managed together with the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room (opened 1967) and the Hayward Gallery (1968), eventually becoming an independent arts organisation, now known as the Southbank Centre, in April 1998.

The complex includes several reception rooms, bars and restaurants, and the Clore Ballroom, accommodating up to 440 for a seated dinner. A large head and shoulders bust of Nelson Mandela by Ian Walters, created in 1985, stands on the walkway between the hall and Hungerford Bridge approach viaduct. The sculpture was originally made of fibreglass until re-cast in bronze.

The complex's variety of open spaces and foyers are popular for social or work-related meetings.

The closest tube stations are Waterloo and, across the river via the Jubilee Bridges, Embankment and Charing Cross.

The Festival Hall project was led by London County Council's then chief architect, Robert Matthew, who gathered around him a young team of talented designers including Leslie Martin, who was eventually to lead the project with Edwin Williams and Peter Moro, along with the furniture designer Robin Day and his wife, the textile designer Lucienne Day. The acoustical consultant was Hope Bagenal, working with members of the Building Research Station; Henry Humphreys, Peter Parkin and William Allen. Martin was 39 at the time, and very taken with the Nordic activities of Alvar Aalto and Gunnar Asplund.

The figure who really drove the project forward was Herbert Morrison, a Labour Party politician. It was he who had insisted that Matthew had Martin as his deputy architect, treating the Festival Hall as a special project.

As a structure, the new Festival Hall was technically stretched, and maintenance was soon required. The building was substantially altered in 1964 by adding the foyers and terraces to the river side of the building, extending the footprint by 30 ft, and more dressing rooms to the rear. Alterations to the façades overlooking the river removed the decorative tiles, altering the Scandinavian Modernism of the building's primary public face in favour of a plainer and hard-edged style.

The building's original entrance sequence was much compromised by these changes and the later additions of raised concrete walkways around the building to serve the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and The Hayward, built in 1967/8.

More information: Southbank Centre

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life;
for there is in London all that life can afford.

Samuel Johnson

1920-1931, THE NEGRO NATIONAL LEAGUE BASEBALL

The Grandma loves baseball and today she has been reading about the first Negro National League, whose first game was played in Indianapolis on a day like today in 1920.

The first Negro National League (NNL I) was one of the several Negro leagues that were established during the period in the United States when organized baseball was segregated. The league was formed in 1920 with former player Rube Foster as its president.

Led by Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the NNL was established on February 13, 1920, by a coalition of team owners at a meeting in a Kansas City YMCA.

The formation included the creation of the NLL constitution, written by journalist Cary B. Lewis, David Wyatt from the Indianapolis Ledger, Elwood C. Knox from the Indianapolis Freeman, and attorney Elisha Scott.

The new league was the first African-American baseball circuit to achieve stability and last more than one season. At first the league operated mainly in midwestern cities, ranging from Kansas City in the west to Pittsburgh in the east; in 1924 it expanded into the south, adding franchises in Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee.

The two most important east coast clubs, the Hilldale Club of Darby, Pennsylvania, and the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, were affiliated with the NNL as associate clubs from 1920 to 1922, but did not compete for the championship.

In 1923, they and four other eastern teams formed the Eastern Colored League (ECL) and raided the NNL for many of its top players, including John Henry Lloyd, Biz Mackey, George Scales, George Carr, and Clint Thomas, and signing Oscar Charleston, and Rube Curry in 1924. The war between the two leagues came to an end in 1924, when they agreed to respect each other's contracts and arranged for the Colored World Series between their champions.

The NNL survived controversies over umpiring, scheduling, and what some perceived as league president Rube Foster's disproportionate influence and favouritism toward his own team. It also outlasted Foster's decline into mental illness in 1926, and its eastern rival, the ECL, which folded in early 1928. 

The NNL finally fell apart in 1931 under the economic stress of the Great Depression.

The Negro American League, founded in 1937 and including several of the same teams that played in the original Negro National League, would eventually carry on as the western circuit of black baseball. A second Negro National League was organized in 1933, but eventually became concentrated on the east coast.

To distinguish between the two unrelated leagues, they are usually referred to as the first Negro National League (NNL I) and the second Negro National League (NNL II).

More information: Baseball Hall

Baseball is a game based on adversity.
It's a game that's going to test you repeatedly.
It's going to find your weaknesses
and vulnerabilities and force you to adjust.
That adversity, in the big picture,
is a really good thing because
it shows you where your weaknesses are.
It gives you the opportunity to improve.

Theo Epstein

THE SCOFIELD MINE DISASTER, THE BIG TRAGEDY IN UTAH

Today is International Workers' Day, also called Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, or the first Monday in May.

The Grandma wants to remember all these people who have lost their lives working, sometimes, in terrible conditions. She wants to remember the Scofield Mine disaster, the mining explosion that occurred at the Winter Quarters coal mine on a day like today in 1900.

The Scofield Mine disaster was a mining explosion that occurred at the Winter Quarters coal mine on May 1, 1900. 

The mine was located at 39°42′57″N 111°11′17″W near the town of Scofield, Utah. In terms of life lost, it was the worst mining accident at that point in American history. The explosion is also a key element in the plot of the Carla Kelly novel My Loving Vigil Keeping.

On May 1, 1900, a dust explosion in the Winter Quarters Mine killed at least 200 men, with some rescuers placing the death toll as high as 246. Some were killed outright by the explosion, but most died of asphyxiation by whitedamp and afterdamp. Death came so quickly that some of the mine workers were found still clutching their tools. It still ranks as one of the worst mining disasters in the United States with a high number of deaths. The death toll is 200 but there was some confusion about this as one of the bodies was not found until August 1900. Other numbers have been suggested, but little or no evidence is available to support these claims.

One of the deceased had a watch that had stopped at 10:28 AM. The State Mine Inspector's Report determined that ten 25-pound kegs of black powder detonated in the Number 4 Section. This ignited coal dust which spread throughout Number 4 with explosive force killing the miners, and igniting another 20 scattered kegs of powder. The explosion blew up the fan used to ventilate Number 4. However in Number 1 mine which was connected, the fan continued to run and pulled the remnants of the explosion, including afterdamp (primarily carbon monoxide) into Number 1. When the miners inside Number 1 felt the explosion they tried to escape through the most direct route, which happened to be through Number 4. Unaware of where the explosion originated they walked directly into the poisonous gas, and were overcome and killed. Many workers were too far into the mine to escape.

Over the next two days many people from the towns of Clear Creek and Scofield worked to remove the bodies and care for the dead and wounded. Most of the bodies from Number 4 were burned and mutilated and had to be placed in sacks whereas those killed by gas were loaded into coal carts by the dozen to be hauled out of the mine. The bodies were taken to the company boarding house to be cleaned up and dressed. They were then taken to the school house, where families anxiously waited to claim their husbands and sons. Many of the dead were laid to rest on May 5, 1900, during two large funerals.

Every family in the town of Scofield was affected. The disaster left 107 widows and 268 fatherless children. In order to bury all of the dead, 75 caskets had to be imported from Denver, Colorado, because only 125 caskets could be brought in from Salt Lake City. 135 graves were dug at the Scofield cemetery, some of which were widened to hold fathers and sons. Funeral trains with more than 51 coffins carried the remaining miners home. Sixty-one of the dead were Finnish Americans. The elderly Luoma family, who had arrived from Finland just three months earlier, lost 6 sons and 3 grandsons; one 18-year-old bride lost her father, both brothers, and husband.

At the time, the Winter Quarters Mine explosion was the country's worst mining disaster; it now ranks fifth. President William McKinley sent a wire, expressing "... my intense sorrow upon learning of the terrible calamity which has occurred at Scofield, and my deep sympathy with the wives, children and friends of the unfortunate victims of the explosion."

The disaster led to a strike the following year and to calls for better safety in coal mines and better treatment of mine workers.

One man, one of six Evans brothers working at the mine that day, went through the Abercarn colliery disaster in Wales in 1878, when 268 miners had been killed. He reported that the scenes [at Abercarn] were tame compared with [Scofield]. Two of his brothers were killed. They were professional musicians, and natives of Wales. They have taken prizes at all musical events in this locality. A local writer praised Richard T. Evans as the sweetest singer in Israel.

The Pleasant Valley Coal Company discontinued its operations in 1928. Other coal mines continue to operate in the area. 

In Scofield, Utah, there is now a memorial for those who died.

More information: Salt Lake

Mining is a dangerous profession.
There's no way to make a mine completely safe:
These are the words owners have always used
to excuse needless deaths
and the words miners use to prepare for them.

Tawni O'Dell