Earlier this week, American climber Don Cash died on Everest hours after he had reached the summit. As Alan Arnette reported for Outside, Cash was one of about 200 people who went to the top of the world that day, and he encountered a traffic jam on his way down. “When Cash and his Sherpa guides got to the Hillary Step they were forced to wait their turn for at least two hours,” wrote Arnette.
Today, we can better understand what that traffic jam looked like.
Climber Nirmal Purja posted this photo on Facebook early on May 23. It shows a dense line of climbers on their way to the Hillary Step and then the summit. “I summited everest at 5:30 am and lhotse 3:45 pm despite of [sic] the heavy traffic (roughly 320 people),” wrote Purja, who is currently attempting to climb all 14 of the Himalayas’ 8,000-meter peaks in a single season.
China has unveiled a prototype of a new magnetic levitation (maglev) train designed to reach speeds of up to 600 km/h.
Maglev technology uses strong electromagnets which lift and propel the train forward on a cushion of air. Without the problem of friction between wheels and rails, maglev trains are able to hit greater speeds than conventional locomotives, and with less noise and vibration.
China already has the world’s fastest commercial maglev service. The Shanghai Maglev, with a top operational speed of 431 km/h, has been carrying passengers on a 30 km stretch between Shanghai’s Pudong airport and the city centre since 2003.
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The super-fast train is set to roll off the production line in 2020.
A picture says more than a thousand words, and that goes for this world map as well. This map conveys not just the size but also the distribution of world religions, at both a global and national level.
Strictly speaking it’s an infographic rather than a map, but you get the idea. The circles represent countries, their varying sizes reflect population sizes, and the slices in each circle indicate religious affiliation.
The result is both panoramic and detailed. In other words, this is the best, simplest map of world religions ever.
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Devotees try to form a human pyramid to break a clay pot, to mark the Hindu festival of Janmashtami in Mumbai
You’re taught about history, science, and math when you’re growing up. Most of us, however, aren’t taught how to identify or deal with our own emotions, or the emotions of others. These skills can be valuable, but you’ll never get them in a classroom.
Emotional intelligence is a shorthand that psychological researchers use to describe how well individuals can manage their own emotions and react to the emotions of others. People who exhibit emotional intelligence have the less obvious skills necessary to get ahead in life, such as managing conflict resolution, reading and responding to the needs of others, and keeping their own emotions from overflowing and disrupting their lives. In this guide, we’ll look at what emotional intelligence is, and how to develop your own.
Bill Benson and his wife had planned to fortify their retirement savings once their children left home, so they’d have enough to travel and relax. But at 68, Benson is still working full-time, and that empty nest he envisioned isn’t so empty. Benson’s eldest daughter moved home with her two young sons after a divorce, and the two children he and his wife adopted later in life are just now finishing high school and starting college.
Along the way, Benson exhausted a federal pension to pay for one son’s special needs, and he expects to keep supporting that son, as well as his grandsons, now ages 3 and 5, through retirement—whenever that may come. “It’s nose to the grindstone,” says Benson, who consults full-time on aging policy. “We had to make choices to spend on our kids—because you have to do that. I guess it’s a crazy modern family, but we also know we are fortunate, with decent jobs and good incomes.”
The NRA is in real freefall and it’s because of all of the work our movement — and you! — have done to chip away at its power.
In fact, over the last several months, the NRA’s long-time ad agency cut ties with the gun lobby2, its president was forced to resign3, the New York Attorney General opened an investigation into its tax-exempt status4, board members resigned and called for Wayne LaPierre’s ouster5. Independent investigations also exposed the NRA’s deep financial mismanagement and greed6 and the Senate continues to investigate the lobby’s connections to Putin’s Russia7.
The NRA is in real trouble, but our work is not yet over. In the days and weeks ahead we’ll continue to work together to financially drain the gun industry and its lobby. Together, we are building a future with fewer guns.
– The Guns Down Team
P.S. Just this afternoon, news broke that Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, officially resigned from the gun lobby following accusations he helped orchestrate a failed coup against leader Wayne LaPierre8. It’s getting hard to keep up with of the NRA’s woes these days!
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UPDATE: June 25 ― The SumofUs resolution, which received approximately 4.8% of the independent shareholder vote, did not pass.
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For months, Mastercard has tried to suffocate the creation of an internal committee that would monitor payments to white supremacists and far-right extremists. But on Tuesday, renegade shareholders will finally force a vote on the matter during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Like most credit card companies, Mastercard is hesitant to surrender profits by blocking violent white supremacists from using its services unless laws are being broken. Mastercard currently processes payments for several extremist groups, including the League of the South, National Policy Institute, Proud Boys, Stormfront, VDare, Identity Evropa, Occidental Dissent and Radix Journal, according to Color of Change, a racial justice organization that tracks financial service companies that do business with hate groups.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
The super-fast train is set to roll off the production line in 2020.
Illustration by Patrick Ledger
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James' World 2 