So it's peak season on Everest. Men facing the Death Zone, the brutal forces of nature brought to bear on hapless climbers careening around with dying brain cells.
Climbers always like to disparage Everest as a big rock pile, and not as hard as other climbs, but just being awake at 29,000 feet is a deeply unnatural act for the human body. It is still difficult, even if not a difficult climb, technically.
Then I read that the latest person to top out is a 15 year old girl.
Her name is Ming Kipa Sherpa, and she just ascended with her sister, who became the first woman to climb Everest three times.
Ahem. Well. Go Sherpas.
Hunter S. Thompson wrote an obituary to Richard Nixon, upon the death of the old naked mole rat. This obituary is most notable not for it's almost complete deboning of Nixon's wretched carcass, leaving nothing remaining but the rotting flesh. No, it's notable because it was probably the last time I saw someone write something about a politician without it sounding like it was approved by the politico's handlers.
Behold the bright white light. Honest, it won't blind you. You've just been in the dark too long. For, truly, he was a crook.
"These are harsh words for a man only recently canonized by President Clinton and my old friend George McGovern -- but I have written worse things about Nixon, many times, and the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it. He was scum."
On March 23, 2003 in An Nasiriyah, Iraq, a six vehicle convoy of the 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed. 9 soldiers were killed, 4 were wounded but evaded capture and were rescued, and 7 were taken prisoner, including the now famous Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
The rescue of Pfc. Lynch, and later recovery of her fellow prisoners of war has been played out in the media, and is pretty well known. What's not as well known is that as the ambush of the 507th was occuring another unit was attempting to come to their aid, with tragic results.
Marines from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade apparently attempted to intercede and assist the units of the 507th under attack at a bridge crossing the Euphrates. 9 of those Marines died in that attempt.
All you have to do is go to this article and search through on the phrase "1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade" and you can see that the bridge at An Nasiriyah was a very bad place to be on March 23.
An article interviewing Staff Sergeant Tarik Jackson of the 507th, a survivor who was wounded and escaped capture during the ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company gives some insight into what happened that day, but there aren't too many other reports.
I've found it to be odd how this combat has been reported. a total of 18 soldiers died in one firefight at one bridge, and most of the reporting is acting as if these events weren't even related.
This is going to make one hell of a media study down the road.
Update: Apparently the millitary acknowledged on March 30, one week after the fact, that there was a search and rescue mission, with nine Marines killed, and eight said to be missing.
Why are logrithmic charts the default for displaying historical financial information on Yahoo?
Comapare this graph with this graph.
Is one a more accurate picture than the other? Why?