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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: steve harris who wrote (289434)	5/27/2006 10:35:46 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 1571707

Australian climber left for dead on Everest reaches base camp 1 hour, 25 minutes ago SYDNEY (AFP) - In an astonishing feat of survival, an Australian mountaineer left for dead shortly after conquering the summit of Mount Everest has been found alive and walked back to base camp in "reasonably good" condition, a colleague said. Lincoln Hall, 50, had been reported dead by his expedition teammates after reaching the 8,848-meter (29,028-feet) summit of Everest on Thursday but then succumbing to acute altitude sickness as he began his descent. Hall, one of Australia's most experienced climbers, became disoriented, lay down in the snow and resisted attempts by accompanying sherpas to help him, according to an account of the incident posted on the Internet by his expedition leader, Alexander Abramov. The two sherpas with Hall were forced to leave him behind when they ran out of oxygen and Abramov issued a statement Friday that the Australian was dead. But another team of climbers led by American Dan Mazur came upon Hall several hours later and found the Australian alive. Mazur radioed the news back to camp and in a rescue operation involving about a dozen sherpas and a Russian doctor, Hall was brought to safety. Duncan Chessell, another Australian climber who organises mountaineering expeditions, said one of his guides on Everest informed him Hall had spent the night in a heated tent at North Col camp, at 7,000 meters altitude. He was then able to walk Saturday morning into the advanced base camp, which is at 6,400 meters, he told the Australian national news agency AAP. "He's in reasonably good condition but he doesn't have much memory of things at this stage," Chessell said. "Basically he's been able to come down under his own steam, without assistance," he said. "I imagine he got up in the morning after being treated with oxygen and hydration and left (North Col)." Hall still faces a 22 kilometer (14 mile) trek across loose rocks and ice to reach the Everest base camp at 5,000 meters. Abramov said earlier on an Everest news website that Hall was suffering "acute psychosis, a disorientation in space" and had been resisting efforts to help him. He was diagnosed as suffering from acute edema of a brain, a frequently fatal swelling of the brain that occurs at extremely high altitudes. Hall, who lost several toes to frostbite on an earlier climb, was also said to be again suffering from frostbite. He was a member of the first Australian team to climb Mount Everest in 1984, but had to stop short of the summit. He also served as a director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation and was the author of several books, including "First Ascent" and "The Life of an Explorer", and numerous magazine articles. His second, and now apparently successful, assault on Everest was part of an expedition that included 15-year-old Sydney boy Christopher Harris, who was aiming to become the youngest person to climb the mountain. Harris turned back short of the summit because of respiratory problems, but Hall continued with a team of sherpas. Another member of the same expedition, Thomas Weber from Germany, who was visually impaired, stopped 50 meters (165 feet) short of the summit after his sight failed and died during the descent. The initial decision to leave Hall on the mountain and the erroneous reports of his death are likely to revive debate about the ethics and practices of the high-priced Everest expeditions. Last week a British climber, David Sharp, 34, died on Everest after being passed by up to 40 climbers who said they were unable to help him. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to conquer Everest, joined in a raging controversy over the incident, sharply criticising the climbers who left Sharp to die.

To: steve harris who wrote (289434)	6/3/2006 1:48:34 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571707

does it bother you that American voters do not have a better alternative than Bush? I don't know why you keep posting to me. I don't confer with people who call me a terrorist. You are an asshole and no American as far as I am concerned. In fact, I would love to have you deported to Iran.........that's where people of your paticular mindset seem be congregating. So back off.......this is no longer a cute exchange between two disagreeing Americans at opposite ends of the political spectrum. You are an offensive human being and I would never encourage anyone to think that we share the same country. It's obvious to me you don't have an alternative. And THAT keeps me going.... In times of deep crisis, America has been fortunate that great people have risen to the occasion. This time may be different and we may be going down for the count. Its clear that things are very bad in this country. Much worse than it would have seemed 6 years ago. If so, then the US will follow the downward spiral of other once great civilizations. It won't be pretty. One thing is clear to stop the downward spiral will require turning our backs on the rhetoric and spin which your side, the side I consider evil, has become very good at promoting. Nonetheless, there is still hope.......FOX news ratings and the ratings of Bush continue to drop. For the first time in six years, there looks to be a modicum of hope that this mess can be turned around......but its still only a modicum.