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Rescue by E-mail

Posted by timothy on from the GPS-is-your-friend dept.

BlameFate writes: "This neat article over at The Scotsman tells of a guy trying to be the first person to walk to the north pole solo. He got marooned and needed rescuing though, so how did he co-ordinate the rescue attempt? Why, by making a 400m runway in the snow taking a digital photo of it and then e-mailing the photo to the rescue team in Canada of course! The Scotsman is short on details; but BBC News is out for me right now."

23 comments

  1. What? by weird+mehgny · · Score: 2, Informative

    He didn't use GPS?

    1. Re:What? by jo42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      GPS' start to go weird near the poles unless if you have one that was designed for it.

    2. Re:What? by baudbarf · · Score: 1

      Do you really think that a guy walking to the north pole would take the type of GPS not designed for it??

      --
      You can run but you can't hide, except, apparently, along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
  2. Pictures? by delta407 · · Score: 1

    If he can MIME-encode a picture and e-mail it, why can't he type in "Help I'm stranded at [GPS coords]"? Sure, ice drifts, but come on. It would give them a rough estimate of where, exactly, to start looking. And the article says he has a mobile phone; why doesn't he just ask for help instead of taking a picture.

    And what's more: the news is about a picture, and none of the links have it :-)

    1. Re:Pictures? by sh0rtie · · Score: 2

      because he took a photo of the landing strip he had made so that the rescue plane would have some idea of what condition the landing area they had to land on

    2. Re:Pictures? by SEWilco · · Score: 1

      Apparently the picture also shows which pieces of equipment are marking the runway, so when the plane arrives they will be able to quickly identify the runway. The picture and phone has let them avoid the delay of a recon flight, which would have taken its own pictures back to base, with the rescue crew then identifying (or confirming) a safe landing area.

  3. kinda cool by squaretorus · · Score: 3, Funny

    but somehow I expect populisation of this kind of technology to involve me being sent an awful lot of photos of shoes, skirts, and tops along with the single phrase "what do you think" or "does my bum look big in this".

    Not quite as cool, but a much bigger service to mankind saving us from shopping trips with 'the lass' every weekend.

    At least we'll have more than a TXT MSG to respond to - WHT CLR SKRT WT MY BLK SPRKLY TP TNT? PNK / BLK ?

    response WTFDIC

  4. Minus 1 Flamebait by YanceyAI · · Score: 1, Interesting
    I'm asking for it, I know, but does it occur to you that must of us women who use this type of technology might have better things to do than ask your (or another man's opinion) on how we look in something?

    Of course, I look good in everything, but that's beside the point. :)

    --
    Can I bum a sig?
    1. Re:Minus 1 Flamebait by squaretorus · · Score: 2

      okay

      come on

      your not a chick are you!

      not a 'proper' chick anyway!

    2. Re:Minus 1 Flamebait by YanceyAI · · Score: 1
      I am. A chick anyway. Being that I'm not a Brit, I'm not certain what you mean by 'proper', but I'm pretty sure I'm a 'proper' chick.

      You can check out my bio if you like by checking my user info. If you look hard enough, you can even find me on-line in other places.

      --
      Can I bum a sig?
    3. Re:Minus 1 Flamebait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      why can't a chick post to a geek community without patting herself on the back?

      Narcissistic twat.

    4. Re:Minus 1 Flamebait by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Ooo, ooo, how politically correct of you to point that out. Bonus points for being politically correct. Minus points for saying you look good anyway...feminism is not about looking good.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  5. I Think.... by groupthink · · Score: 1
    This guy just proved you can't walk to the North pole solo. Oh sure, perhaps you can do it alone, meaning noone closer than Canada, but quite obviously one needs a rescue crew on standby if they want to live through the attempt.

    If he really wants to do this solo, next time he gets in trouble, he should walk back on his own... then I'd be impressed.

    1. Re:I Think.... by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 3, Informative

      This guy just proved you can't walk to the North pole solo. Oh sure, perhaps you can do it alone, meaning noone closer than Canada, but quite obviously one needs a rescue crew on standby if they want to live through the attempt.

      Um, according to this article in the April issue of the National Geographic magazine, a Norwegian had already reached both Poles by foot and sled. So there.

      --
      Bush Lies Watch
    2. Re:I Think.... by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oops, I meant the March issue of National Geographic. Read before you post.

      --
      Bush Lies Watch
  6. Various BBC Links by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Informative
    • Explorer 'euphoric' at rescue A Scottish explorer who had been stranded on an ice floe at the North Pole is said to be euphoric after he is rescued.
    • Marooned explorer's last gasp rescue A Scots explorer marooned on an ice floe near the North Pole has been rescued after calling for help via e-mail.
    • Polar Scot's life or death dash A stranded Scots explorer must travel 100km in eight days to be rescued from an expedition to the North Pole.
    • Explorer vows to cheat death A Scots adventurer says he is not scared as he faces a race against time to be rescued from a solo expedition to the North Pole.
    • Scot abandons pole trek A Scottish explorer has abandoned his attempt to be the first person to walk solo from Canada to the North Pole.
    • Scots Marine heads for North Pole A Royal Marine from Stonehaven is racing against time and the weather to complete the UK's first unsupported walk to the North Pole.
    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  7. Flashbacks by MrHat · · Score: 0, Troll

    For a moment there I was having Jon Katz flashbacks.

    But then I remembered that if this were another JonKatz e-mail "rescue", the submission would have been five times as long, communicate half the information, and have no links or grounding in reality.

    And I would have been found by police, slumped over at my keyboard, bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, dead from a second and final brain hemmorage at the hands of Jon Katz.

    Thank you, timothy. In your own special way, you've instilled a little journalistic integrity in all of us. Or maybe I'm thinking of sanity.

  8. Yeah by psavo · · Score: 4, Funny

    And then they e-mailed him back a picture of an aeroplane...

    --
    fucktard is a tenderhearted description
  9. more from The Scotsman by futwick · · Score: 1

    didn't think The Scotsman was short on details...maybe you were looking at their "breaking news" only?

    The Scotsman http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=544202002

    The Scotsman http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=547192002

    Scotland on Sunday http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=540862002

    Edinburgh Evening News http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=544842002

  10. Hero or a jerk by vesko · · Score: 1

    There is a nice angle on it in this Guardian article. By the way, does anybody know the name of the pilot who flew to the rescue?

  11. Full Moon by bbay · · Score: 1
    From the Article:
    If the weather turns and the rescue mission is aborted, Mill has just seven days before the next full moon changes the landscape so dramatically that no plane could land, though he will be parachuted some extra supplies. The gravitational pull of a full moon in a week's time on the icy landscape of the north pole will turn the relatively flat surface of the ice floe into a treacherous series of mini ice-mountains.

    Uh, what? As far as I know, the phase of the moon has very little to do with tidal forces.

  12. What are we losing? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 1

    I remember a newspaper column back when Iridium was proposed. The point was, if we make the planet small enough that you can order a pizza from every point on it, haven't we removed many opportunities for adventure?