After the Resurrection

Humor in the face of adversity is something Australians regard as a national trait. And snippets of information that reached the public from the rescue mission at Beaconsfield gold mine, in northeast Tasmania, probably pumped more life into that notion. Miners Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, were trapped almost a kilometer underground when a small earthquake caused a rock fall in the mine on April 25. They spent five days entombed in darkness, with only a muesli bar to share between them, before rescuers using imaging equipment made the startling discovery that the pair were still alive. Webb and...