Topic: PHOTO - on January 29, 2010 at 2:21:00 PM CET
Historical Development: Could a Frozen Camera Dethrone Hillary and Norgay as the First to Summit Everest?
Photo detective work could solve an enigma nearly nine decades old. But will it vindicate Hillary's historic climb or rewrite the record books?
On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine left their camp less than a kilometer from the summit of Mount Everest on a mission to be the first mountaineers to ascend the world's highest peak (8,850 meters). They were never to be heard from again. Whether either man reached the summit—almost three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic 1953 climb—has been an open question for nearly 86 years.
Although more than half a dozen expeditions have gone to Everest in subsequent years to determine the outcome of Mallory and Irvine's expedition (a 1999 search turned up Mallory's body), none have returned with definitive answers. The key to solving the mystery, many climbers say, is finding Irvine's remains and with it the missing Vest Pocket Kodak (VPK) camera he was supposedly carrying with him on that fateful journey.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: ART - on January 29, 2010 at 2:18:00 PM CET
'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies
J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.
Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son, actor Matt Salinger, said in a statement from Salinger's longtime literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in a small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: Glaubensfragen - on January 29, 2010 at 2:17:00 PM CET
Scientologists 'heal' Haiti quake victims using touch
Amid the mass of aid agencies piling in to help Haiti quake victims is a batch of Church of Scientology "volunteer ministers", claiming to use the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems.
Clad in yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the controversial US-based group, smiling volunteers fan out among the injured lying under makeshift shelters in the courtyard of Port-au-Prince's General Hospital.
A wealthy private donor provided his airplane to fly in 80 volunteers from Los Angeles, along with 50 Haitian-American-doctors, in a gesture worth 400,000 dollars, said a Parisian volunteer who gave her name as Sylvie.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: SPORT - on January 29, 2010 at 2:15:00 PM CET
Swiss court upholds basketball headscarf ban
A Muslim woman has failed to overturn a ban stopping her from wearing a headscarf during league basketball matches in Switzerland.
Sura al-Shawk, 19, was told she could not wear a headscarf by the basketball association (ProBasket) in August 2009.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: POLICE REPORT - on January 29, 2010 at 2:13:00 PM CET
Porsche thief 'drove to court in stolen Lexus'
A US man found guilty of stealing a Porsche was re-arrested after police learned he had driven to court in a stolen Lexus.
Tony Van, 37, a hairstylist from San Francisco, was caught out after seven tiny Yorkshire terrier puppies escaped from the Lexus 4WD.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: POLICE REPORT - on January 29, 2010 at 2:09:00 PM CET
Man smuggled 44 lizards in his underpants
A man who tried to smuggle 44 lizards out of New Zealand in his underwear has been jailed for 14 weeks, fined, and will be deported from the country - minus his pants-lizards.
... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
