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Mount Everest Gets 3G Service
bossanovalithium writes "It's what every mountaineer wants when they reach the summit of Mount Everest: a 3G high-speed communication. Those who have trekked to the top will soon able to call their mates, go on Facebook or Twitter, and boast that they got there thanks to TeliaSonera and its subsidiary in Nepal, Ncell, which have brought 3G to the Mount Everest area. Climbers who reached Everest's 8,848-meter-high peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain."
You joke, but I remember when I watched an IMAX documentary on Mt. Everest. One of the guys had climbed it several times, but he messed up and got stuck somewhere halfway up where he would definitely freeze or starve to death. He left behind his pregnant wife, and they played some of their last conversation. After the final conversation, the narrator called the guy a hero. I remember that pissing me off even as a kid. How can someone who pointlessly risks his life when he has responsibilities to a wife and child be called a hero? People who climb Mt. Everest aren't heroes, they're thrillseekers who border on suicidal. Which is fine, but let's be honest about it.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
"So, what caused the Avalanche?"
"Dunno. All I heard was some guy yelling 'Can you hear me NOW?!?' and then all hell broke loose."
K2 is the real challenge these days. With enough money you can have your lazy ass dragged to the summit of Everest. Fitting.
Now, everybody and their dog is doing it. Helicopters land on it. Discovery Channel had a reality show about it. The mountain is heavily littered with garbage. And now you can surf the web from your iPhone up there. I realize this is all inevitable eventually with better technology. But I am a little jealous of our forebearers, for whom there existed unknown frontiers. And solitude is extinct.
We do that all the time. We call slain police officers and soldiers "heroes", when really they aren't. They have dangerous jobs and working a dangerous job means that you run a higher than normal risk of injury or death. They get extra pay and extra benefits (police pension, G.I. bill education, etc) to help compensate for the additional risk. Sure, their deaths are tragic and sad and usually unnecessary, but that doesn't make them heroes.
I only consider someone to be a hero when they go above and beyond. For example, a guy off the street who runs into a burning building to save someone is showing heroism in my book.
I find the overuse of the word "hero" just as annoying as every time there's a natural disaster and thousands of people die, but one child survives, everyone starts calling it a "miracle". A miracle would be if we never had natural disasters. Or if we had a giant earthquake and *not one person* died.
...Their junk to frostbite.
They ARE heroes. They know that they could die in the line of duty, and they do what has to be done anyways (extra pay does not matter). We need policemen and firemen (anybody who suggests otherwise just needs to look no further than Somalia). We do NOT have to have mountain climbers to function as a society. I admire their bravery, but mountain climbers are doing it for themselves and as such are not heroes.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
No, these are people that want to probe the boundaries and limits of their world, want to explore, excel and stretch their own limitations. These are most likely the types that actually will become true heroes if the situation would call for it.
If the guy climbed mt Everest several times than he and his wife were fully aware of the risks involved. About 1 in 10 climbers die on that mountain I think. So if she got pregnant she was fully aware that her husband had a decent chance of never returning.
They made choice, who are you to judge them about that?
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Am a I heartless bastard if the first thought that crossed my mind was "Damn, he successfully passed on his genes before dying of gross stupidity"? I'd suggest a Darwin award but the idiot managed to reproduce before he kicked the bucket.
Let's see, the physical strength and stamina to climb one of the toughest mountains on earth several times, not to mention the mental fitness, flexibility and willpower one needs in large quantities in order to do something like that.
I'd say his genes were top of the bill really
Funny you mention Darwin though.. .
The guy traveled around the world, visiting remote deserted places for years at a time in a era where such voyages were still the equivalent of playing Russian roulette. Also gross stupidity?
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
I read "He left behind his pregnant wife" and my first thoughts were - "Damn that's heartless of him" and "WTF was she doing climbing Everest if she was pregnant anyway?"
> "They get extra pay and benefits..."
I can't speak to the Police pay and benefits, but as a retired USAF E-6 I can speak to military pay & benefits. Military pay is just above the poverty level. As a 15 year NCO in California, I qualified for subsidized housing. Living was paycheck to paycheck and any unanticipated expense (and some of the anticipated ones) were a financial disaster.
Yes, I "retired" after 20 years (while remaining part of the reserve forces for the privilege), but not with anywhere near enough money to actually live on, so I started a second career at the age of 39.
Those of us who have served long years aren't in it for the money - trust me on that.