OFF: what new century?!

[K Henderson]

Paul said kindly...

>[[Engrossing posting about radiometric dating techniques deleted.]]
>
>This is why I love this list so much!  Thanks for the enlightening
>information, Keith.

OK, cool...I'm always afraid to contribute so much to such off-topic threads...

But now that you've led me on...

If you are interested at all in what 'we' (the research group I'm in) really
do, you can watch NBC tomorrow (sorry folks in Europe, etc.) at 5 PM, about
the failed climbing expedition to Shishapangma (or Xixabangma if you prefer)
on the Nepal-Tibet border.  Two climbers died in an avalanche there last
year.  It's poignant for me because that's the mountain upon which I lived
for two months back in 1997 (and why I missed Strange Daze '97 in NY).  And
my tent mate became sick there and eventually died in a Cleveland hospital.
(BTW, he had gone with me to see Hawkwind at the Agora '95 show, as well as
Gong at the Odeon.)

Anyway, these North Face-sponsored climbers were coming up a different way
than we went up (i.e., the easy way...I don't really know how to climb!).
But once we got up to 23,000 feet, we were able to look down into the valley
to the south and so I know what these guys were faced with, and I had the
vertigo to prove it.  Amazing view...nothing like it anywhere else in the
world I imagine.

Oh, and if anyone sees anything about a balloon taking off from the summit
of Kilimanjaro (or perhaps crashing somewhere nearby) in mid-February,
that's 'us' too.  (Perhaps it's a good thing I'm not there.)  :)

ObMontyPython-reference:
(Note: The plan is *not* to build a bridge between the two peaks.) :)
(Funny thing...there *is* a second, though smaller, peak.)

Keith H. (FAA and Byrd Polar Research Center-Ice Core Paleoclimatology Group)