The Berkeley Pit is a former open pit copper mine in Butte, Montana. Approximately 320 million tons of ore and over 700 million tons of waste rock were mined from the Butte Hill.
The mine was opened in 1955 and operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, and later by the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO), until its closure on Earth Day in 1982. When the pit was closed, the water pumps in the nearby Kelley Mine, 3,800 feet below the surface, were turned off, and groundwater from the surrounding aquifers began to slowly fill the Berkeley Pit, rising at about the rate of one foot a month. Since its closure in 1982, the water level in the pit has risen to within 150 feet of the natural water table.
Today the Berkeley Pit has become a symbol of dark tourism. People stop to take pictures and take in the effects of humans on the environment.
It’s not the most glamorous attraction in Butte, but it’s one of the only places in the world where you can pay to see toxic waste.
Admission is $2 per person to see “51 billion gallons of arsenic, lead, and cadmium-laced liquid,” Justin Nobel wrote on Topic.
The Pit measures more than a mile long and a half-mile wide, and is currently a 1,085-foot-deep deposit of toxic water, and it’s rising about seven feet each year. By 2023, the water is expected to overflow, break its bedrock, and seep into Butte, contaminating the drinking water.
Well it appears that the flu season is once again upon us and healthcare officials are encouraging everyone to be vaccinated.
Most heed the warnings and notices and head right out to get their flu shots.
But what if you followed all of the advice and did everything by the book and still caught the flu? Does it mean that your vaccination was bogus? Did health officials lie?
Well, not exactly.
Flu vaccine administered (tap or click on image to enlarge)
You see, there are many different variations of what we have come to know as the “flu” — The “flu”, over the years, has been used to describe nearly anything that might cause us to not feel well, and generally speaking, the flu does seem to cover quite a bit when you stop to consider just how many strains and sub-strains of the flu there actually are.
The flu, or Influenza, as it’s commonly referred to in medical circles, comes in three main types:
Among these main types are what we like to call sub-types, or subdivisions.
The influenza A virus, for instance, can be subdivided into different serotypes based on the type of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. The “H” in “H1N1” for example refers to hemagglutinin (HA) and “N” in “H1N1” refers to neuraminidase (NA). There are 16 different types of HA and 9 different types of NA, therefore, there are potentially 144 different sub-types of influenza A viruses.
Among them, two sub-types of influenza A, H1N1 and H3N2, most commonly infect humans. For each sub-type virus, the hemagglutinin gene mutates all the time and hence there are many variants of the same sub-type viruses, and hence the need to change the virus strain for seasonal flu vaccines on an annual basis.
So you got your flu shot and you still got sick.
Since there are so many different sub-types, or subdivisions of just the type A virus, a lot of work goes into determining just which vaccine should be used for the upcoming flu season. Health officials usually do a pretty good job of getting it right, but sometimes, even with all of their combined calculative effort, it can still come out wrong. The right vaccine could have been selected for the season only to have the strain change or drift before the start of flu season.
And so maybe this year health officials got it right, but you just ended up with a strain that wasn’t covered in the vaccine you received. Maybe your version of the flu had drifted a little before the season started.
The flu virus in and of itself is a constantly evolving thing. Pitching and yawing tither and yon on a seemingly monthly basis. Coming up with a new or different vaccine every year might remind some of us of that whack-a-mole game we like to play at the county fair, although getting to a right vaccine is somewhat more scientific.
Seasonal flu vaccine effectiveness (tap or click on image to enlarge)
The average rate of effectiveness of any annual vaccine can range anywhere between 37% to 60% — You may have noticed the large swing in percentages, or most notably the lowest percentage. There isn’t just one single reason for the swings in statistics.
When you stop and consider the variants, or subdivisions related to just the Influenza A virus itself, and then pile on all of the millions of people who never wash their hands, or who never cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze, or as a general rule fail to practice every day personal hygiene, one might come away with the notion of just how good these statistics actually do look.
Our medical professionals aren’t gods or miracle workers by any stretch – They are just a cog in your every day wheel of health — Your health depends on you too — Staying healthy during the flu season, or any other season for that matter, is a team sport and we all need to be team players when it comes down to our health.
Despite beer’s bad reputation, it actually has a number of natural antioxidants and vitamins that can help prevent heart disease and even rebuild muscle. It also has one of the highest energy contents of any food or drink. Of course, this means you need to set limits – one beer gets you going, four makes you fat.
If you’re worried about dehydration, keep in mind that beer is 93 percent water. Also, according to a Spanish study, beer may actually provide better hydration than H2O alone when you’re sweating it out under the sun.
So with all of this in mind, which kind of beer should you reach for? Calorie-wise, you may be tempted to grab a light lager, but for health benefits, a dark beer is the better choice.
Dark beers tend to have the most antioxidants, which help reverse cellular damage that occurs naturally in the body. A recent study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture has also found that dark beer has higher iron content compared to lighter beers. Remember, iron is an essential mineral that our bodies need. Iron is a part of all cells and does many jobs including carrying oxygen from our lungs throughout the rest of our bodies.
Another good choice is micro-brews, which are healthier than mass-produced cans, because they have more hops. Hops contain polyphenols, which help lower cholesterol, fight cancer and kill viruses.
Just remember the golden rule: Everything in moderation. You don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of your friends by drinking too much, and you certainly don’t want to put yourself at risk for any long-term health effects like liver problems, kidney diseases and heart disease.
