Ten days ago I posted a short piece about Rod Baber who was planning to be the first person to make a mobile phone call from the top of Mount Everest. Every Englishman will puff his chest out in pride at the news that in the early hours of 21 May, he made not one, but two calls from the mountain's north ridge. If that was not achievement enough, Mr Baber also entered the annals of history by sending the highest text message ever.
To be fair making a call at that altitude is dangerous as he had to remove his oxygen mask to talk into the handset. But still, it just doesn’t quite stir the imagination as Magellan’s circumnavigation (okay, partial circumnavigation) or Scott and Amundsen’s race to the South Pole.
2 comments:
The wife of the mayor of Houston wrote a junior fiction book last year called "Surviving Antarctica," detailing a futuristic reality show that places teenagers recreating the Scott and Amundsen explorations. It was surprisingly good and we chose that for our turn at hosting Homeschool Book Club.
A cell phone interrupting a moment of serene tranquility surrounded by the greatest natural marvels on the face of the earth. How lovely.
It sounds like a great story for teh kids. I take it that they enjoyed it?
The idea of doing great exploring stuff, like wlakign to the north pole on your knees and then, teh Nokia themes.. or worse - the Crazy Frog (if anyone still has that bloody thing on their phone anymore!)
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