Words for snow

Actually it's a myth that Iniut's (Eskimo's) have over 400 words for snow. I've even recently heard a reporter on CNN say 'over 1000' words for snow. The number seems to get bigger every other year.

Like German, Inuit words are a combination of separate words/concepts into a new word (ie. in English it would be if there was a word 'freezingsnow' which is just a combination of 'freezing' and 'snow').

More on this and other language myths:

http://www.zompist.com/lang16.html

http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html

As for us, Giselle is enjoying her first blizzard. She's never lived anywhere that it's snowed and since we don't have our car here, we can enjoy.. Still it's pretty frick'n cold this week.

New Years babies

Amid all the sad stories due the tsunami, I'm happy that life goes on both there and closer to home. Two of our friends (Angie in Hawaii and Kerry here in NY) just had their first babies about a week apart. Big props to both ladies, especially Angie who had a 32 hour labor! Both moms and their babies are doing fine.

Giselle and I enjoyed Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou", though there is some debate among my friends who have seen it, if it was better or worse than the Royal Tenenbaums (I think it's better). I consider it a whimsical, absurd and funny tall tale. Though perhaps, the Filipino pirates are only funny to Pinoys watching it. It was pointed out to me that the actor playing the Bond Company stooge was none other than Bud Cort who played Harold in the 70's cult classic "Harold and Maud".

Sadly Happy New Year

It's hard to celebrate New Year after the tragic tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean. G's friend Shehara (who's family is from Sri Lanaka) emailed us immediately about it. Her family is helping the Rottery Club in their home town organize relief efforts.

If you'd like to help by making an aid contribution, here are some good organizations that use most thier donated money to help people instead of their own bloated opperational overhead (like most UN agencies):

www.americares.org

www.crs.org

www.usc.salvationarmy.org

www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

Thanks to my friend Joe Maller for pointing out some of the more effective aid organizations and for his informative Blog links to firsthand accounts from the effected regions, like, India Uncut.

Here are some amazing photos taken by a tourist in Phuket, Thailand.
http://www.pbase.com/issels/phuket_tsunami

The sad truth is that many tourists actually walked out onto the beach after the earthquake to get a better look at the exposed sea foor caused by a super low tide , not realizing that it was the precursor of the sea rushing back in as a tsunami.

I remember that every 1st Monday (or workday) in Hawaii, at 11:45am, they would test the old Air Raid sirens in Waikiki: the tsanami warning. This was set up after a tsunami destroyed much of the city of Hilo in 1946. Oddly, I always imagined a tsunami to be like in the movies: one big huge wave. The reality (which we've no seen in videos on the news) is that it's more like a huge set of waves, except that the ocean tide is rapidly rising and moving in land.

Anyway, don't want to be too much of a downer. Have a safe and prosperous New Year. May we wall see 2006 in better shape than we started 2005.