July | Weird and Funny World | Weird and Funny World

Warming and Warning – Mt. Everest, Arctic

Melting ice in Arctic have been the hot news lately. Today there was another news about a 20 sq km (eight sq miles) of ice from the Ward Hunt shelf that split away from Ellesmere Island. This split is thought to be the biggest piece of ice shed by one of Canada’s six ice shelves since 60 sq km of the nearby Ayles Ice Shelf broke away in 2005. In an article in the New York Times in late July 2008 by an author promoting a forthcoming book about “global warming” calls the Greenland ice-sheet “one of ‘global warming’s’ most disturbing threats”. The article says: “The vast expanses of glaciers – massed, on average, 1.6 miles deep – contain enough water to raise sea levels worldwide by 23 feet (link). It is also told that the ice roads that were open 245 days a year have been restricted to only 100 days a year in Alaska.

That was North Pole; what about the third pole, the top of the world? Scientists and climbers are also witnessing the rapid melting of snow cover exposing bare rock on the climbing route.

“Climbing is becoming more dangerous, and I think we will start to see more injuries and even fatalities because of the difficult terrain,” said Dawa Steven Sherpa, team leader of Eco-Everest Expedition 2008, who successfully ascended Everest for the second time this May.

According to him, there was only 50 meters of rock to climb on the famous Hillary Step last year. This year, there was about 150 meters of rock. “Wearing crampons (metal shoes made for climbing in snow and ice) and standing on the bare rock at over 8,600 meters was a very scary experience,” said Sherpa. “At one point I slipped and if I hadn’t been clipped in I would have fallen 2,000 meters to Camp Two. (kantipur)

Some people claim that the Nature has its own way of doing things and we have done nothing much to upset it. Most others however disagree. Melting of Arctic ice seems way faster than some computer models predict.

Do we need to do more to offset this? Are we in the right direction?

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Miss Venezuela crowned Miss Universe 2008

Miss Venezuela, 22-year-old Dayana Mendoza, won the Miss Universe pageant held in Vietnam on Monday, beating models from three other Latin American countries and Russia.

Mendoza, 178-centimetre (5′ 10″) beauty, clinched the diamond-studded gold crown after answering a question on the difference between men and women.

“Men think that the fastest way to go to a point is to go straight,” explained the trilingual contestant from Amazonas state. “Women know that the faster way to go to a point is to go to the curves.”

Mendoza’s Venezuela is a “pageant superpower” with 4 previous Miss Universe and 5 Miss World winners. (Read more about her in Wikipedia and official Miss Universe site)
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13 year old Kid rescued a toddler

Heroic act of a 13 year Kid, Kamal Nepali, saved the life of a two and half years old Aradhana Pradhan who fell into the gorge of Seti River in Pokhara, Nepal.

Aradhana fell some 60 meters into the Seti River gorge while she was following her father who was going towards the Seti River.

Several rescue attempts by the Military People, Armed Police Force, and the local people went in vain. Even a A rescue squad from the Franch Embassy in Kathmandu was also sent to aid the rescue operation. It was because the gorge was dark and too small to go in for the rescue squad the rescue squad couldn’t rescue the toddler.

Kamal Nepali volunteered himself to make an attempt to rescue the girl by crawling into the gorge with ropes attached to him. He was a small kid so he could reach places adults couldn’t get in.

Finally, the little girl was rescued 22 hours after she fell down the gorge. She was rushed to the local hospital after her rescue. She had suffered only minor bruises, but was kept in hospital to check whether she sustained internal injuries.

The incident made headlines and Nepal is Nepali was awarded various prizes. More photos of the incident in phokharacity.

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