What Caught My Eye Today - Facebook, Nepal, Iraq, Winter Olympics

Facebook - Facebook announced that its 159 million U.S. users now have dozens of options for completing the gender question on their profiles. When did the world start becoming so complicated? In what universe does, male, female, other or decline to state, not cover all possibilities for the human race? The social media giant has been working with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights groups to expand the choices beyond male and female. The result: a "custom" option that lets users pick from about 50 terms, including transsexual, androgynous and intersex. Intersex? Hold please (I'm not familiar with this particular gender classification). Definition of intersex: In humans, biological sex is determined by five factors present at birth. Facebook said the changes are aimed at giving gender nonconforming people the opportunity to be transparent about who they really are, whether that’s androgynous, bi-gender, intersex, gender fluid (there's another one, I've never heard of) or transsexual. I think its great that Facebook is providing a more inclusive choice of gender classifications. I guess it's on me to brush up on the dozens of gender choices that I did not know existed before now. 

Nepal - Nepal will slash the climbing fees for Mount Everest to attract more mountaineers to the world's highest peak, even as concerns grow about the environmental effects of climbers who already crowd the mountain during the high season. Under the current rules, a single climber pays $25,000, but starting next year hat beginning next year, it will cost $11,000 per climber to climb Everest. Silly me. I was planning to go to Disneyland, but with these bargain basement prices, I'm totally going to have to rethink next year's vacation plans. Last spring, 810 climbers attempted to scale Everest from the Nepalese side. What concerns me is the choice of words here. 810 climbers attempted to do this? How many failed, or to be more precise, how many died? Garbage including food wrappers, climbing gear and oxygen cylinders, has littered the mountain in recent years, and some people have referred to Everest as the world's highest garbage dump. Some climbers have called for Nepal to close down Everest for a few years for the mountain to rest and recover, but Nepal has refused. The country collects $3.3 million annually from climbing fees. Tens of thousands more Nepalese hotel owners, trekking guides and porters depend on these climbers for their livelihoods. I have to say, $3.3 million does not seem like that much money in the giant scheme of things. Heck, the U.S. spends $4.5 million for a military drone and $1.5 million per Tomahawk missile. 

Iraq - I don't have much to say about this last item, other than this--Ain't karma a bitch? A terrorist commander teaching a class on suicide bombing accidentally blew himself up along with his 21 pupils. I'm guessing they use pass/fail for this class. The explosion took place at a training camp for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a militant group once affiliated with Al Qaida. Many Iraqis took a grim pleasure in the news. Iraq is enduring its worst violence in five years as fighting rages between militant groups and government-allied forces.

Winter Olympics - If you have been paying attention to the Medal Table count, you know that the 22nd Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia are coming into the home stretch.  To date there has not been a whisper of terrorism threats against any of the venues or athletes. Among some notable items that may have escaped your notice:

• The most decorated athlete so far is Darya Domracheva of Belarus has won 3 gold medals, all in biathlon. Two other athletes (also women) have also won 3 medals. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won a gold medal and 2 silver medals in cross-country skiing and Irene Wust of the Netherlands won a gold medal and 2 silver medals in long track speed skating.
• Of the 17 medals the Netherlands has won so far, 16 were for long track speed skating. The other medal (a bronze) was for short track speed skating
• 26 of 88 nations have won at least one medal.
• Poland has won 4 medals, all gold -- 2 in  ski jumping, 1 in cross country and one in long track speed skating) -- just one less gold medal than the United States.
• To date, the United States has won 18 medals in 7 events. (5 gold, 4 silver and 9 bronze).  It will take quite an effort in the days to come close to its medal tally from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.  In those games the United States took home a record 37 medals in 9 events (9 gold, 15 silver and 13 bronze). It was the first time that the United States ever led the medal table in a Winter Games.