Everest is a dangerous place

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I have an unhealthy fascination with Mount Everest. For some reason (which I can’t really explain) I am really drawn to it. I have literally dreamed of climbing it on several occasions. I would just love to go there. Maybe it has something to do with a drive to achieve something so amazing.

However, Everest is an extremely dangerous place. Extreme cold, lack of oxygen, unpredictable weather, dangerous terrain, avalanches, falling rocks – it is easy to die on Everest. My wise fiancé has already told me that any attempt to climb Everest will result in immediate divorce. It is just too expensive and risky to actually do.

For instance, last year (2007) was a pretty good year on Everest: 600+ people made it up and only 6 died. That is a 1% death-summit ratio which is well below the historic 10% ratio. If someone made me an offer – you can spend $60,000 and several months, you might make it to the top, but there is a 1% chance you will die… I just don’t think a rational person can really take that.

Anyway, another largely unknown thing about Everest is that the dead normally stay up there. The effort to get the bodies down is not feasible so apparently there are several corpses along the way which climbers must move past. National Geographic have this little video about an Australian climber and photographer who got the picture above.

Worth a look – especially for those of us who feel strongly drawn to Everest.

The Economist on our crooked police chief – Jackie Selebi

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The (hopefully former) head of police in South Africa is a crook. As the Economist reports he has “admitted to being a friend of Glen Agliotti, a drug trafficker who was implicated in the murder in 2005 of a shady mining magnate”. Now there are new (well-founded) allegations that “as well as handing out bags of cash to Mr Selebi, Mr Agliotti also paid for some of the police chief’s shopping. In return, Mr Selebi protected Mr Agliotti’s friends and shared confidential documents with him”.

Unfortunately out of loyalty Thabo Mbeki has been protecting Selebi from prosecution – I always complain about the ANC being more concerned with loyalty than competence.

We are now left in a crazy situation:

  • The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) are trying to nail Selebi as the crook he is – this is their job
  • Mbeki made sure that the head of the NPA was fired in September for going after Selebi
  • Now the NPA have followed through and are going to charge Selebi anyway
  • In retaliation the police arrested the NPA investigator on trumped up charges

This stuff is crazy. We need a new government. The ANC have done some things well, but at the moment they are doing a lot of things particularly badly. This is the last paragraph from the Economist:

This murky sort of business would scandalise any country. But in one plagued by some of the highest levels of violent crime in the world, it is tragic that South Africa’s law-enforcement officials should expend so much energy fighting each other rather than the criminals. The police judged that they needed no fewer than 20 armed officers to arrest Mr Nel at his home. On the hopeful side, the charges against Mr Selebi show that no one yet is above the law. But if they turn out to be true, it will further reduce confidence in a police force that is often perceived, at best, as merely incompetent.

More about how Tom Cruise is going to save us all

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Here is a link to some more of these scientology videos about and from Tom Cruise. From what I can make out, they are deadly serious clips from the Scientology awards where Tom Cruise was awarded the “IAS Freedom Medal of Valor”. I can see why he likes this stuff so much. Basically, he believes that he above all others sees the world for what it really is and is going to save us all.

In the first clip there is some ramble from the presenter who then introduces Tom Cruise. He talks about how the world is going down hill because the masses are so deluded. How the government is covering all this up to keep the masses down. And then: “But there’s someone on the other side of the global arena. Someone advancing Scientology on a truly epic scale – to a very different future. And he is Class 4, OT7, Platinum Meritorious and IAS Freedom Medal of Valor winner – Tom Cruise, the greatest movie star in the world.”

Thank God for Tom Cruise!

Part 2 talks about how Tom Cruise personally saved firefighters and police at ground zero after 9-11. He realized that there was a “deadly toxin” in the air (which the government was covering up). So he personally organized a “purification program” which saved the lives of those exposed to the toxin. From the video it looks like the “victims” got free saunas.

Thank you Tom. You are a true hero.

From clip 3: “Night after night, city by city, through 18 and 20 hour days, Tom Cruise travels this world meeting with ministers, ambassadors and the American State Department. Advancing LRH technology straight into the corridors of power. His presence alone opens the door for [Scientology’s] expansion.”

We love you Tom.

Then there is a clip of him accepting his Freedon Medal of Valor: “I think you know that I am there for you. And I do care so very, very much! So what do you say? Do you want to clean this place up?”

Thank you for caring Tom. Please clean this world up for us with your superior knowledge and abilities. Katie must be so proud.

Seriously though – I was left thinking that although completely deluded, Cruise really thinks he is helping people. The thing is that he is actually just selling Scientology to the world. I’m not sure if he does any real good – he just sells his crazy cult.

Tom Cruise is going to save us all

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Scientology is a strange and secretive cult/religion/business invented by a science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, in the 50’s. These guys have some seriously wacky beliefs about spirits, psychiatry, medicine, etc. They are also very rich and they play hardball with their critics.

The cult also makes a lot of money. You have to pay to get the different “courses” (which can cost more than $20,000). You have to pay for your membership. Worse than that – you get paid to recruit more members. It’s basically a pyramid scheme.

In fact, there are several witnesses and people who knew Hubbard who claim that he stated on several occasions that the best way to make money is to start a religion.

Anyway, this stuff is crazy and the most famous of the nuts is Tom Cruise. An “indoctrination” video featuring Tom Cruise has been leaked onto the net in which he basically rambles on about how:

  • Only scientologists really know the truth and only they can save the world
  • Scientologists should be completely committed or thrown out. No “spectators”

Basically he, Tom Cruise, is going to use is power to save the rest of us. He would love to go on holiday – but there is so much to do

Just watch his expressions. The way he laughs and rambles so intensely. You can see that he believes these things – and that he is nuts.

Paper plane over New York

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This is one of the best YouTube videos that I have ever seen. It shows a guy throwing a paper plan from a skyscraper in New York. There is something about the way that the little plane flies over the busy city without anyone noticing which is beautiful. The accompanying music is also perfectly chosen to leave you with a great feeling.

I have watched it a few times already and more than 234,000 other people have seen it. I really recommend watching this if you can.

Disabled athlete Oscar Pistorius should not compete against able-bodied atheletes

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 Oscar Pistorius is a South African disabled athlete who has just been banned from competing against able-bodied athletes. He lost both legs below the knees as a child and runs with carbon fibre prosthetics known as “Cheetahs”. Oscar was in with a chance of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics when the IAAF banned him.

There has been a lot of interest in the issue (here, here) but I agree with the decision. Here is my reasoning:

  1. If a prosthetic offers an advantage then it should not be allowed.
  2. Oscar’s prosthetics have been shown to offer an advantage.
  3. Therefore, Oscar should not be allowed to compete.

Oscar should get into swimming. Instead of the “Cheetahs” he should attach flippers to his legs – he could call them “Dolphins”. He could then power along and kick some serious ass in the pool. If you think that would be unfair then you agree with point 1 – advantageous prosthetics should not be allowed.

Now, my intuition tells me that the Cheetahs do offer an advantage over able-bodied athletes. But don’t rely on that – a pretty detailed study by a lab has concluded just that – the Cheetahs do offer an advantage over normal feet.

So we agree, Oscar should not be allowed to compete. Sorry Oscar, but it just wouldn’t be fair.

2007 Darwin Awards

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The Darwin Awards are true stories (they verify them) about people killing themselves in stupid ways. They are said to “commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.”

The best of 2007  here and as usual they make for pretty funny reading.

Here are a couple of examples:

    • (28 July 2007, Czech Republic) A pack of thieves attempted to steal scrap metal from an abandoned factory in Kladno. Unfortunately for them, they selected the steel girders that supported the factory roof. When the roof supports were dismantled, the roof fell, fatally crushing two thieves and injuring three others.
    • (10 January 2007, East Germany) A 63-year-old man’s extraordinary effort to eradicate a mole from his property resulted in a victory for the mole. The man pounded several metal rods into the ground and connected them to a high-voltage power line, with the intent of rendering the subterranean realm uninhabitable. Incidentally, the maneuver electrified the very ground he stood upon. He was found dead at his holiday property on the Baltic Sea. Police had to trip the main circuit breaker before venturing onto the property.
    • (23 June 2007, Illinois) Two Valparaiso men tested their reflexes by playing “chicken” with a train. Which man could stay on the rail longest in the path of an oncoming train? At the stroke of midnight, the contest was decided. The winner, aptly named Patrick Stiff, lost his life.

      Nuclear power is good – it has an unfair reputation

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      Humans need a lot of energy. We consume energy for light, heat, transport, food… Basically everything we do requires energy. The problem is that using energy in it’s popular forms is doing some serious damage to our environment.

      Currently most of the energy we use comes from fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) which we burn to create energy. Unfortunately burning those fossil fuels also pollutes the air and drives global warming. Global warming = bad.

      So we need to change our habits (waste less energy) and we could change our energy sources (to those less damaging). There are renewable sources like solar and wind power which basically make use of the copious amounts of energy the sun beams down to earth every day. However, these sources are expensive, inconsistent, and chew up large amounts of space.

      Nothing is ideal, but you should be rational and not emotional in your decisions.

      There is another great option, also not ideal, but the best (in my opinion) currently available. Nuclear power has an unfairly bad reputation. When used properly it is an excellent energy source – and it produces no air pollution! As the Economist says:

      • Nuclear power offers the possibility of large quantities of electricity that is cleaner than coal, more secure than gas and more reliable than wind. And if cars switch from oil to electricity, the demand for power generated from carbon-free sources will increase still further. The industry’s image is thus turning from black to green.

      The Economist has articles here, here, here and here describing that:

      • Nuclear power is very clean as the graph below shows.
      • Nuclear power can be safely generated. Even taking into account Chernobyl (4,000 dead) and Three Mile Island (0 dead) nuclear power is extremely safe – and getting safer.
      • Nuclear power can be generated cheaply. Initial costs are extremely high, but over time it makes economic sense. This would be especially true were the negative environmental costs of fossil fuels built into their already high cost.
      • There are pretty good ways of storing the radioactive waste generated.
      • Many previous nuclear protesters and “greens” are changing their minds and advocating nuclear power.