Saturday, February 21, 2009

Thought you'd love this like I did

http://www.answers.com/hurricane#Word_Origins_ans

Word Origins: hurricane Top
from Taino
This word originated in Haiti, Puerto Rico, and Cuba

Among the wonders of the new world encountered by Columbus were storms different from any seen in Europe or the Mediterranean. These were not little tempests but huge cyclones of wind and rain that developed, moved, and faded over many days. They were distinguished by a clear, calm space at the center, and so the Taino Indians who lived in what is now Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico called the storms huraca'n or "center of the wind," where hura means "wind" and ca'n means "center." Columbus's expeditions captured huraca'n and made it a Spanish word; it found its way from Spanish to English as early as 1555. A similar storm in Asia is called a typhoon, deriving from words in both Greek and Chinese that happened to sound the same.

We know all about hurricanes now, or at least we know a lot. We know that they are centers of low air pressure and that the lower the pressure, the more intense they are. We track them by radar, by satellite, by airplane, and on the Internet. We have even turned them into a kind of sporting event, with season counts and records for intensity and damage, and with the players named in advance each season. Thanks to the National Hurricane Center, we know that the total number of hurricanes in the past century was 23 in June, 25 in July, 152 in August, 196 in September, 96 in October, and 22 in November. We know that the deadliest was Hurricane Mitch in October and November 1998, which killed 10,000 people in the Central American countries of Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. We know the costliest was Andrew in Florida and Louisiana in 1992, causing $26.5 billion of damage.

Every hurricane is now named in advance, thanks to a practice that began with George Stewart's novel Storm fifty years ago, in which a California weatherman called a storm Maria. The names used to be all female, but now they alternate between male and female, going down the alphabet each year. Particularly strong storms are honored by having their names retired.

Taino is a member of the Caribbean branch of the large Maipúrean language family. Hurricane is also found in the related Carib language, so some sources derive it from that. The Taino language and people are extinct today, thanks to the European invasion, but they left us, via Spanish, three of the most important ingredients of their lifestyle and ours: potato (1565), tobacco (1577), and barbecue (1709). From Taino we also have hammock (1555), savanna (1555), cassava (1555), guava (1604), mangrove (1613), and key (island, 1697).


Monday, February 16, 2009

Interesting!! DID YOU KNOW?

  DID YOU KNOW?
As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view ... it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!



DID YOU KNOW?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the Two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments
Engraved on each lower portion of each door.



DID YOU KNOW?

As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see The wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!



DID YOU KNOW?





There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington , D.C.


DID YOU KNOW?

James Madison, the fourth president, known as 'The Father of Our Constitution' made the following statement:

'We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for
self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control
ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.'



DID YOU KNOW?



Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said:
'It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ'.



DID YOU KNOW?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.


DID YOU KNOW?




Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.


DID YOU KNOW?

Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law
an oligarchy
the rule of few over many.

DID YOU KNOW?

The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:



'Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers.'

How then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this
country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?


Lets put it around the world and let the world see and remember what this great country was built on.




I was asked to send this on if I agreed or delete if I didn't. Now it is your turn...

It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or 'In God We Trust' on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the other 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!