Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 4, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba By Karen Wright four pounds does no to feel like a lot when its a bag of groceries you re schlepping out to the parking lot. But if you re lugging it up to the top of mount Everest four extra pounds in your pack can feel like a ton. The climbers who took a four Pound Gas receiver to the Summit of the worlds highest Mountain last year were convinced nonetheless that the extra weight would be Worth the Effort. That a because Gas a Short for a global positioning system Quot a satellite based network that uses radio signals to determine location a can gauge a mountains height with an accuracy unequalled by Standard surveying methods. Mapmakers Hope the new technology will bring some finality to a Field Long plagued by fuzzy numbers. But like most Alpine pursuits the urge to quantify Everest is largely metaphysical they measure it because its there. Mountains done to have a a official elevations since there a no officially designated International body to sort out competing claims. And the claims do compete estimates of Everest a height for example have differed by More than too feet since British surveyors spied a speak 15�?� in the mid-1800s. Those geographers instantly suspected that they were looking at the highest Mountain in the world. Their calculations made from six Sites on the Low and Distant Plains of India put its Altitude at 29,002 feet. At the turn of the Century a second Survey which added several stations in the mountains to the East gave an Elevation of 29,141 feet. When Nepal opened its Borders in the 1950s, Indian surveyors were Able to get closer to the Mountain than Ever before and the average of their 12 readings resulted in the Elevation most widely cited today 29,028 feet. Shifting plates cartographers now have Many reasons to doubt this number. Although the Indian Survey was meticulous it preceded the discovery of movements in the Earth a crust called plate tectonics that revolutionized studies of geological features. It turns out for example that the entire Himalayan Range is creeping toward China at a rate of about five centimetres a year shifting mount Everest a latitude Ever northward. And geophysicists have since devised an improved Model of the shape of the Earth called the Geoid that is crucial for determining sea level at any specified location. Given that exact measurements of both latitude and sea level Are required to calculate Altitude the Indian figure has become suspect. Meanwhile Gas technology has turned into the Darling of cartographers and geophysicists alike because its accuracy is far less dependent on unpredictable variables such As human eyesight and hazy skies. Unlike traditional surveying however Gas requires that you visit the place itself a no mean feat when that place is higher than some Jet flight paths. The Everest project was born of a collaboration Between one of americans preeminent cartographers Bradford Washburn of the Boston museum of science and geophysicist Roger Kilham of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Known for his definitive maps of mount Mckinley and the grand Canyon Washburn a who turns 90 in june a had crowned his career in the late 1980s with a detailed Everest topographical map. Ongoing collision in the Early 1990s, As Gas receivers started to shrink Washburn a hankering to use the new technology to remeasured the grand Mountain grew. He contacted Kilham who was setting up Gas stations in India Tibet and Nepal to Monitor earthquake hazards caused by the ongoing collision of crustal plates that had created the Himalayan Range. The two secured funding and by 1995 the first Crew was crawling up the glacial sheets above base Camp. Only one Gas receiver is necessary for determining location but pinpointing Altitude is a bit trickier. To get a Good fast fix on the Summit position the Everest climbers had to co ordinate their Gas readings with those of two other receivers one running near base Camp at 18,000 feet and one perched on a 26,000-foot Saddle called the South col a mile from the top. After five attempts on May 5,1999, two guides and five Sherpa reached the top after a five Day climb and ran their receiver for 56 minutes. The Reading gives the distance from the top of the Mountain to the Earth a Centre which Gas has helped to locate with unprecedented precision. Using the latest version of the Geoid Kilham and his colleagues then translated that number into a height above sea level. The figure they arrived at was announced in november at the annual meeting of the american Alpine club 29,035 feet. The margin of error is seven feet. Some experts have questioned the payoff of such herculean Effort. A most of us still done to really agree with this number a says Fred Blume a colleague of Bill am sat the University of Colorado. A a we re claiming that its better but its Only accurate to seven the uncertainty is due to the Geoid. Finding sea level in the Himalayan Range is notoriously difficult because it requires Gravity measurements taken on location in a dense Grid a nearly impossible in such terrain. Then there a the Snow problem. All estimates of Everest a Elevation including the latest one have measured the height of the Snow pack on the Summit. Each year the Himalayas Are being pushed upward about five to eight Millimetres As the Indian subcontinent dives under Asia. In the face of All this uncertainty the Gas measurement of Everest illustrates the difficulty of deploying a precise technology in an imprecise world a a world full of seasonally variable Snow packs and sketchy Gravity profiles and tectonic pirouettes. A discover Magazine de Viesturs National geographic society estimates of Everest a height have differed by More than too feet. Expedition mounts Spring cleanup at a worlds highest garbage dump by Michelle Guido san Jose Calif. A exhausted but elated 12 members of an environmental expedition to mount Everest reached the top of the world last week. And that was just half of their goal. The trips purpose was twofold to reach the Summit but More importantly to conduct the largest environmental cleanup Ever on the Mountain. The group met the More profound Challenge of helping to rid Everest of its shameful nickname a a a world a highest garbage they have brought Down More than 500 used and abandoned oxygen bottles and nearly a ton of trash. Its Short of their goal of 1,000 oxygen bottles and every piece of visible trash but they re not done yet keep bringing trash Down for the next several Days. The invent Everest 2000 environmental expedition was led by Bob Hoffman of san Francisco. For nearly 50 years mountaineers have risked life and limb to tackle the Peak and Many have died trying to reach the Summit a or on their Way Down. But in their quest to reach personal goals or gain notoriety they be left behind a legacy of trash. Not Only is the garbage an eyesore and environmental Hazard its considered an insult by the Sherpa people of Nepal who respect and worship the Mountain. A you can to see it from a distance but when you re there you Start finding the garbage a Hoffman said in March before leaving for Nepal. A Cereal boxes tins of fruit or whatever. You have Glass paper or tin that a just sitting there. People tend to pile up garbage and then pile rocks on top of it. When the Glacier moves the garbage is so Hoffman 57, spent the last two years organizing the cleanup and raised enough Money a More than $500,000 a to hire 23 Sherpa to remove the trash from the Mountain. In the six weeks the team has been gone Usa Tauscher a a filmmaker who is producing a documentary of the cleanup and the climb a has been sending frequent email dispatches Home to a group of family members and friends. They Are frequently littered with Humour. Good Yak a we have yet to order our Yak team a she wrote m one recent dispatch. A it seems everyone is waiting for yaks at this Point. Of there a never a Good Yak team around when you need one a Over the last several weeks the climbing teams efforts were thwarted by bad weather and there was some worry that they be Able to climb past Camp in the High est Camp at 26,300 feet. The bad weather and the huge amounts of Snow that have been falling High on the Mountain also hampered the cleanup Effort covering much of the trash and oxygen bottles. Mixed in with the trash on Everest expedition members have found some treasures. Hoffman believes he found an oxygen bottle from a Swiss expedition in 1952 a one year before sir Edmund Hillary reached the Summit. And Tauscher sent word Home that she and Hoffman found a helicopter wire from a crash in 1982, old Sherpa mittens pieces of aluminium ladders and even a human spinal Cord. They believe it might have been from a Canadian expedition in the 1980s where several Sherpa were lost. A the Sherpa have done an amazing Job they feel they have about half of the oxygen bottles removed from the Mountain a Hoffman said in a phone Call from base Camp on May to. A when the weather Breaks they Are confident that they will be Able to clean off the remaining More than 200 yaks will be needed to lug the belongings of the team its base Camp managers film Crew Sherpa a and of course the trash a Back into the lower valleys of Nepal. They re expected to return to the United states in Early june. A Knight Ridder newspaper internet rebels establish Independent Colony by John Markoff if the mouse roared in cyberspace would anyone hear it in the annals of internet history june 5,2000, May be remembered As the Date that a Hardy band of True believers tried to establish the first Independent Colony in cyberspace. Tomorrow a Small International group of computer rebels plans to introduce what they Are calling a data Haven perched precariously on a second world War military fortress six Miles off England a coast. They Are hoping that the installation connected to the internet by High Speed microwave and satellite links will become a Refuge from governments increasingly trying to tame and regulate the internet. Their company Haven co has struck a financial arrangement with Roy Bates an eccentric retired British army major who in 1968 briefly gained notoriety when he landed at the abandoned fortress and declared it a Sovereign nation a the principality of Sealand a outside the reach of British Law. Data Haven a Refuge from government regulations the Haven co founders Are loosely associated with a movement of american computer mavens known As cyberpunk a largely libertarian group espousing the idea that advanced computer encryption technologies can create electronic privacy and provide Liberty and Freedom from potential government big Brothers. The company intends to offer its data Haven to a diverse clientele that May wish to operate beyond the reach of Large nations for reasons of privacy or financial necessity. They expect their customers to include people who wish to keep their email Safe from government subpoenas As Well As other businesses seeking to avoid regulation like International electronic Commerce banking and gambling. A technology has made it easier to move information and hide information a said Sean Hastings a 32-year-old . Citizen who is the chief executive and co founder of Haven co. A soon it will be impossible to Trace where Money is and who has Money and that will eventually Force governments to move away from income taxes and toward consumption in its bid to offer both Security and sovereignty Haven co has a formidable task. Computer Security experts generally say no networked computer systems can be proved to be perfectly secure and email by its very nature is a two Way communication. Legal experts also said that while Britain might have done Little to assert jurisdiction Over the offshore enclave in the past any Prospect of its use for digital Money laundering gambling or tax evasion might quickly Force the Issue. Digital currency several years ago As a Programmer for a similar Effort to create an offshore data Haven on the Island of Anguilla in the British West indies Hastings sharpened his ideas on building computer systems that offered what he Calls genuine privacy and Security. While there he designed an Anonymous digital currency system intended to help create an efficient barter system in cyberspace Safe from the worlds taxation systems. But the government of Anguilla was unwilling to give the assurances Hastings Felt were necessary to set up a secure data Haven. So last year he began his search for another sympathetic base of operations turning to a Book called a How to Start your own country a from which he Learned about Bates and his principality of Sealand a former antiaircraft Bunker sitting in 20 feet of water East of London. Hastings said he was in the final stages of raising $3 million to Start his company which is incorporated in Anguilla. He said he believed that Sealand a sovereignty would stand up to a court Challenge but some american Legal experts Are sceptical. A offshore markets have become a focus of attention recently among the g-7,�?� the conference of leading industrialized nations said Michael Mann a Washington lawyer who is the former director of International enforcement for the securities and Exchange commission. He said the flaw in the Haven co plan was that cyberspace markets must still have Points of Contact with the worlds conventional economies. A you can have All the secrecy and Protection in the world As Long As you done to need to write a Cheque or wire a Dollar a he said. The Haven co executives May find their Haven illusory said Mann who was involved in a number of Law enforcement actions with investors who tried to establish offshore havens while he was at the Sec. A a what a so ironic about the internet is As impersonal As it is it creates the ultimate paper Trail a he said. That possibility has not deterred Hastings and his colleagues who have moved three Power generators to the offshore site. The group is now finishing the work including that on a special room housing hundreds of server computers and expects to open for business within weeks. N. Y. Times news service measuring it. Everest Uphill Battle experts can t agree on height of worlds tallest Mountain ;