Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Top Of The World

Good start to the evening this, with a story about cleaning up rubbish on Mount Everest. Not so much the cleaning up angle to the story (although the Everest junk into Kathmandu frying pans thing is intriguing), but just the fact that there have been over 2000 people get to the summit is amazing - including forty five people in one day a few weeks ago, including a marriage. Geez, next thing you know Contiki will be up there LOL. Almost 350,000 tourists went to the Himalayas in general last year - amazing that, especially since Nepal is in the middle of a not-so-civil war.

And of course talking Everest takes us to New Zealand's most famous living person, Sir Edmund Hillary. Living legend indeed, and yes, it was a joint effort to get to the summit with Tenzing Norgay, but give us Kiwis our little bit of the sun please. We have our sporting people, our actors (although we tend to disown Russell Crowe LOL), even eek our politicians, and Lord Ernest Rutherford discovered the atom, but Sir Edmund is the biggest umm person in the country - celebrity just seems such a stupid word in the context LOL.

The authorities have identified the first victim of the London bombings - official death toll thus far is 52, while there are 76 police liaison officers assigned to families of the dead or missing. There have been raids in Leeds in the first directly related police actions on the London case. I can just imagine the British cops smashing the doors open as in so many cop shows - and being armed to the teeth.

Oh, and this report is interesting - the Spanish seemingly have no idea of what the British are all about (I thought that was only the French LOL). Whereas millions of people held vigils for the Madrid bombings last year, London put out the business as usual sign yesterday, after the chaos of Thursday and Friday.

'"The feeling that people had reacted in an orderly manner was a point of pride in people's conversations in a country where the word 'emotional' is used to indicate a personality defect," El Correo's London correspondent told readers.'

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