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Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
The many Welsh words for rain...[ 2405 ]
Weatherwatch: The many Welsh words for rain
- guardian.co.uk,
- Article history
Welsh words for rain tend to be very descriptive. Photograph: Marc Bedingfield /Alamy
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The Inuit are said to have dozens of words to describe snow conditions from the state of the stuff lying on the ground to the speed and direction from which it is falling. Perhaps this is not surprising considering community survival used to depend entirely on the correct interpretation of weather conditions.
Less well known is the number of Welsh words for rain.
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These tend to be very descriptive and anyone who has camped regularly in Wales will be familiar with at least some of the following conditions. What is perhaps most surprising is that most of them are single descriptive words for almost all states of precipitation from drizzle to pouring and worse.
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Although there are words for "spotting", "big spaced drops", "short sharp showers", it is for the more serious rain that the language comes into its own. So there are different single words that translate as "pouring very quickly," "throwing it down" and "fierce rain."
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Moving up a gear at least in the quantity of water coming down there are additional single words that mean "sheets of rain", "fountain rain", "beating rain", "bucketing rain" and "maximum intensity rain." The Welsh also have descriptive phrases.
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The English "It is raining cats and dogs" has the equally baffling but perhaps more colourful Welsh equivalent "It's raining old women and sticks." Unsurprisingly Welsh has fewer descriptive words for sunshine but it is encouraging to know they do exist for both sunbathing and scorching hot.
Libya: The Rebels entered in Tripoli,...[ 2404 ]
Libya Rebels in Tripoli as Qaddafi's Defenses Collapse
Posted Mon August 22, 2011 (Published August 21, 2011)FoxNews.com
Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli Sunday and met little resistance as Muammar Qaddafi's defenders melted away and his 42-year rule rapidly crumbled.
The euphoric fighters celebrated with residents of the capital in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the regime.
Reports from the country indicate rebels met little resistance as they overran a major military base that defends the capital.
Associated Press reporters with the rebels said they reached the Tripoli suburb of Janzour around nightfall Sunday. They were greeted by civilians lining the streets and waving rebel flags.
"It's over, frizz-head," chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking nickname of the curly-haired Qaddafi. The revelers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels' tricolor flag. Some set fire to the green flag of Qaddafi's regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader's image.
By the early hours of Monday, rebels controlled large parts of the capital. They set up checkpoints alongside residents -- many of them secretly armed by rebel smugglers in recent weeks. But pockets of pro-Qaddafi fighters remained: In one area, Associated Press reporters with the rebels were stopped and told to take a different route because of regime snipers nearby.
"We were waiting for the signal and it happened," said Nour Eddin Shatouni, a 50-year-old engineer who was among the residents who flowed out of their homes to join the celebrations.
"All mosques chanted 'God is great' all at once. We smelled a good scent, it is the smell of victory. We know it is the time."
Hours earlier, the same rebel force of hundreds drove out elite forces led by Qaddafi's son in a brief gunbattle. The fighters hauled off truckloads of weapons and advanced full speed toward the capital.
BBC world service says Qaddafi is currently in Algeria. Fox News could not confirm the report.
NATO said in a statement that "the sooner Qaddafi realizes that he cannot win the battle against his own people, the better -- so that the Libyan people can be spared further bloodshed and suffering."
A senior U.S. official, observing the evolving situation in Tripoli, told Fox News that "the momentum that the opposition has built over the past several weeks seems to be paying off. The battle for Tripoli is clearly underway, and what has often seemed impossible--the fall of Qadhafi--may now be attainable."
An Associated Press reporter with the rebels saw them take over the base of the Khamis Brigade, 16 miles west of the capital, on Sunday. The base has been defending Qaddafi's stronghold of Tripoli. After a brief gunbattle, Qaddafi's forces fled.
Qaddafi's 27-year-old son Khamis commands the 32nd Brigade, also known simply as the Khamis Brigade, one of the best trained and equipped units in the Libyan military.
Inside the base, hundreds of rebels cheered wildly and danced, raising the rebel flag on the front gate of a large, gray wall enclosing the compound. They seized large stores of weapons from the base, driving away with truckloads of whatever arms they could get their hands on. One of the rebels carried off a tube of grenades, while another carted off two mortars.
Ahmed al-Ajdal, 27, a fighter from Tripoli, was loading up a truck with ammunition.
"This is the wealth of the Libyan people that he was using against us," he said, pointing to the haul. "Now we will use it against him and any other dictator who goes against the Libyan people."
"Anti-Qaddafi forces have had momentum on their side for some time," a U.S. senior administration official told Fox News on Sunday. "If Tripoli eventually falls to the rebels, Qaddafi's already limited options would become even more limited. Pressure on him and his shrinking circle of loyalists has to be taking a seriously toll."
A Libyan government officials says at least 376 people have been killed in Tripoli during the overnight attacks and over 1,000 were injured.
But a government spokesman also told reporters Sunday that NATO's airstrikes have gone astray, targeting civilian buildings including schools, hospitals, farms and houses.
Anti-regime protests erupted Sunday in several Tripoli neighborhoods where thousands braved the bullets of snipers perched atop high buildings, residents and opposition fighters said.
Mukhtar Lahab, a rebel commander closing in on Tripoli and a former captain in Qaddafi's army, said relatives inside the capital reported mass protests in four neighborhoods known to be sympathetic to the opposition: Fashlum, Souk al-Jouma, Tajoura and Janzour. He said mosques there were rallying residents with chants of "Allahu Akbar" or "God is great," broadcast on loudspeakers.
Snipers on high buildings were firing on protesters in at least one of the four neighborhoods, said Lahab. Residents contacted in the city by telephone also reported snipers firing on civilians.
Fighters said a 600-strong rebel force that set out from Zawiya has reached the outskirts of the village of Jedaim and was coming under heavy fire from regime forces on the eastern side of the town.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Basket : Greece-Germany 69-56.....[ 2403 ]
The Greek basketball team defeated Germany 69-56 and took the lead in the tournament of Bamberg.
Greece - Germany 69-56 ... Sorry "Focus"
After flattened Turkey 62-38 !,the National team of Greece gave lessons of basketball and to Germany's Dirk Nowitzki.
A representative group of 69-56 imposed by the organizers of the tournament Bamberg, in the second day, and conquered the first place no matter what happens in tomorrow's final match against Belgium.
Periods: 14-17, 28-43, 37-53, 56-69
GERMANY (Baouerman) Benzingk 4, Chermper 3 (1), Hamann 6, Schultz, Safartzits 9 (3), Olmprecht, Svetlem 6 (2), side 2, Cayman 15, Guenther, Nowitzki 11, Giagkla, Visofski, Staingker.
GREECE (Zouros): Vassiliadis 4, Bourousis 14, Zissis 11 (1), Xanthopoulos, Calathes 4, Fotsis 9 (2), pap 4, 2 Mavroidis, Koufos 17, Kaimakoglou 1, Sloukas 3 (1), Brahms.
Kathimerini.gr <
Saturday, August 20, 2011
USA, Pitsbourgh Flood...[ 2402 ]
3 dead in Pittsburgh flash flooding
Saturday ,Aug 20,,2011.-. Updated 4h 15m ago
A pair of storms pounded the city Friday, overwhelming the drainage system and causing manhole covers to pop off the road, officials said. Water rose to 9 feet in some places along Washington Boulevard, a main road that runs near the Allegheny River.
Rescue crews used inflatable boats to reach marooned drivers, though some swam to safety on their own. Rhodearland "Bob" Bailey of Penn Hills, who is about 80, was rescued from the roof of his car.
"I can swim a little bit and was looking at a tree branch," Bailey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I heard one woman yelling for help, but the water was coming down so fast, I couldn't see. … I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Lord have mercy."
The area received 2.1 inches of rain in an hour during the evening rush, said Rihaan Gangat, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. But an earlier storm meant the region was drenched by 3 to 4 inches of rain overall on Friday.
The three victims, a woman and two children whose names were not released, were unable to escape their vehicle, which was completely submerged and pinned to a tree, Pittsburgh public safety director Michael Huss said at a news conference.
Rescuers floated over the car without knowing it was below.
"The bottom of the boat didn't even scrape against the top of the car," said Raymond DeMichiei, deputy director of the city Office of Emergency Management.
A fourth person, a 70-year-old woman, was missing and presumed dead, police Chief Nate Harper said.
Harper said 18 vehicles were stranded in the high water and 11 people were rescued. One of the rescued women required hospital treatment.
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