Posted on 04/25/2015 10:27:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Google executive has been confirmed dead in an avalanche at Mount Everest triggered by a massive magnitude-7.8 earthquake in Nepal, the Mountain View internet company said.
Google issued a statement Saturday confirming the death of Google "X" privacy executive Dan Fredinburg.
"Sadly, we lost one of our own in this tragedy," the statement said in part. "Dan Fredinburg a long-time member of the Privacy organization in Mountain View, was in Nepal with three other Googlers, hiking Mount Everest. He has passed away. The other three Googlers with him are safe and we are working to get them home quickly."
Fredinburg's sister had posted on his Instagram Saturday that the 33-year-old had died.
Actress Sophia Bush dated the exec from 2013 to 2014. She posted on instagram that the loss has left her with "no adequate words."
According to the San Jose Mercury News, Fredinburg was climbing with three other Google employees. The three were found safe, according to Google.
An official with Nepal's mountaineering department, Gyanendra Shretha, said the bodies of eight people had been recovered and an unknown number remain missing or injured. An army spokesman said 18 bodies had been found by an Indian army mountaineering team, according to Reuters. NBC News has not immediately confirmed this number.
Not to be mean, or argumentative, but who cares? From what I hear, a lot of people lost people in Nepal today. The attitude is not directed at you, but the press that elevates this one person above the rest.
I don’t think it’s elevating one person above the rest. It’s a local angle to a faraway tragedy.
I’ve read in other sources that the death toll on the mountain will be much, much higher than 18. Dozens, maybe over a hundred. I hope the media doesn’t focus on that to the exclusion of the much larger plight of the local Nepalis.
From Twitter, it sounds as if the incredibly dangerous Lukla Airport is open, and that it be used as a Helicopter base to get to Base Camp 1.
We should know more by tomorrow about how bad it really is up there.
Here's a Google Doodle for them.
confirming the death of Google "X" privacy executiveSorry to hear people who really matter in life were killed. < /sarcasm >
BUT...Google and privacy? Is this some kind of joke?
Yeah. I am in a cantankerous mood tonight. Even when I hit “post” I didn’t like the tone. I understand recognizeable names bring trageties closer to home, but we always seem to collectively grieve the big names, while all the regular people are overlooked.
I sure hope that he was able to pay his Sherpas with his four month vacation pay before he assumed mountain temperature!
I have no comment on the leftist Google manifestation. No comment.
“BUT...Google and privacy? Is this some kind of joke?”
Google is very, VERY concerned about privacy.
Theirs, not yours.
Had no idea that the fashion trend of wearing pajamas while shopping at Walmart had spread to mountain climbers on Everest.
Before the climb
>> but we always seem to collectively grieve the big names, while all the regular people are overlooked.
True. But I doubt the attention given to this accident will come close to the prolonged, hyper-emotional attention given to Robin Williams who’s death was intentional and self-inflicted.
The earthquake - Nepal’s worst in 81 years - has killed at more than 1,300
7.8/9 in range of Everest? I bet it was like the hand of God wiped off the sides of the mountain. It had to be insanity on there.
Everest’s deadliest day ever: At least 17 climbers and sherpas dead,................
No, it’s trolling for hits.
“...while all the regular people are overlooked.”
I don’t think the regular people will be overlooked. There’ll be a huge humanitarian effort put together to help and care for everyone affected. (Hopefully, the effort will be organized, efficient and effective...and not run by a Clinton.)
But...you have a right to be cantankerous about it. Many folks glom on to these situations to further themselves. My city’s local news organizations would be filing headlines if a local citizen had been killed there. Call me jaded but I think they’d be doing it just to say “Hey, look at us. We’re important. We lost a citizen too!”
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