The Siachen Glacier lies south of the great watershed that separates China from the Indian subcontinent in the extensively glaciated portion of the Karakoram. The word 'Siachen' means "the place of wild roses". Siachen also has the dubious distinction of being the highest battleground on earth. India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since April 13, 1984. The volume of the glacier has been reduced by 35 percent over the last twenty years. Global warming and military activity have been cited as the main reasons for the receding of the glacier. The Siachen glacier is the most inhospitable and heavily glaciated area in the world and is surrounded by the largest group of first magnitude peaks in the world. The 76.5 Km long Siachen is the second largest glacier outside the polar region and towers at heights of over 22,000 feet (6,700 meters), and where the temperature regularly drops to in -76ºF (-60ºC.)
You've
probably never heard of Gwilym Hughes, but he held one of the coolest,
most enviable records of all time. The Welshman, who recently died at
age 65, had watched over 28,000 movies (a world record, according to
Guinness) during the course of his life.
The BBC hosts a buzzy article
on the world's ultimate movie buff. The first film he ever watched was
"King Solomon's Mines" in 1953, but his all-time number-one flick was
"Lawrence of Arabia," starring Peter O'Toole.































