| s-603
| Once in a fever I heard thousands of birds outside my window and I was terrified that they would fling themselves through the glass and attack me, but it was only the rain on the eaves. |
| s-604
| Chapter Two: Master Lunre |
| s-605
| My father’s actions were largely incomprehensible to me, guided by his own secret and labyrinthine calculations. |
| s-606
| He dwelt in another world, a world of intrigue, bargains, contracts and clandestine purchases of land all over the island. |
| s-607
| He was in many ways a world in himself, whole as a sphere. |
| s-608
| No doubt his decisions were perfectly logical in his own eyes — even the one that prompted him, a patriotic islander, to bring me a tutor from Bain: Master Lunre, an Olondrian. |
| s-609
| The day began as it usually did when my father was expected home from his travels, the house festooned with flowers and stocked with coconut liquor. |
| s-610
| We stood by the gate, washed and perfumed and arrayed in our brightest clothes, my mother twisting her hands in her skirt, my father’s wife with red eyes. |
| s-611
| Jom, grown taller and broad in the shoulders, moaned gently to himself, while I stood nervously rubbing the heel of one sandal on the flagstones. |
| s-612
| We scanned the deep blue valley for the first sign of the company, but before we saw them we heard the children shouting: “A yellow man!” |
| s-613
| A yellow man! |
| s-614
| We glanced at one another in confusion. |
| s-615
| My mother bit her lower lip; Jom gave a groan of alarm. |
| s-616
| At first I thought the children meant my father, whose golden skin, the color of the night-monkey’s pelt, was a rarity in the islands; but certainly the children of Tyom were familiar with my father, and would never have greeted a council-member with such ill-mannered yells. |
| s-617
| Then I remembered the only “yellow man” I had ever seen, an Olondrian wizard and doctor who had visited Tyom in my childhood, who wore two pieces of glass on his eyes, attached to his ears with wires, and roamed the hills of Tinimavet, cutting bits off the trees. |
| s-618
| I have since learned that that doctor wrote a well-received treatise, On the Medicinal Properties of the Juice of the Young Coconut, and died a respected man in his native city of Deinivel; but at the time I felt certain he had returned with his sack of tree-cuttings. |
| s-619
| “There they are,” said Pavit, the head house-servant, in a strained voice. |
| s-620
| And there they were: a chain of riders weaving among the trees. |
| s-621
| My father’s plaited umbrella appeared, his still, imposing figure, and beside him another man, tall and lean, astride an island mule. |
| s-622
| The hectic screams of the children preceded the company into the village, so that they advanced like a festival, drawing people out of their houses. |
| s-623
| As they approached I saw that my father’s face was shining with pride, and his bearing had in it a new hauteur, like that of the old island kings. |
| s-624
| The man who rode beside him, looking uncomfortable with his long legs, kept his gaze lowered and fixed between the ears of his plodding mule. |
| s-625
| He was not yellow, but very pale brown, the color of raw cashews; he had silver hair, worn cropped close to the skull so that it resembled a cap. |
| s-626
| He was not the leaf-collecting doctor, but an altogether strange man, with silver eyebrows in his smooth face and long fine-knuckled hands. |
| s-627
| As he dismounted in front of the house I heard my mother whispering: “Protect us, God with the Black-and-White Tail, from that which is not of this earth.” |
| s-628
| My father dismounted from his mule and strutted toward us, grinning. |
| s-629
| I thought I caught an odor off him, of fish, sea-sickness and sweat. |
| s-630
| We knelt and stared down at the bald ground, murmuring ritual greetings, until he touched the tops of our heads with the palm of his fleshy hand. |
| s-631
| Then we stood, unable to keep from staring at the stranger, who faced us awkwardly, half-smiling, taller than any man there. |
| s-632
| Wikinews interviews meteorological experts on Cyclone Phalin |
| s-633
| File photo of interviewee David Titley. |
| s-634
| Image: David Titley. |
| s-635
| Cyclone Phailin has winds that have been measured at 200 km / h, as it surges over land will it begin to lose strength? |
| s-636
| Yes, all tropical cyclones are driven by high heat content waters. |
| s-637
| Once a storm moves over any appreciably sized piece of land, the moisture source is removed and the storm begins to dissipate. |
| s-638
| As of the last advisory, T C Phailin has winds of 190 kilometers per hour and has moved inland, headed on a northwest track. |
| s-639
| That is a Category 3 storm. |
| s-640
| The forecast is for a continued decline in strength to a tropical storm within 24 hours and a tropical depression within 36 hours. |
| s-641
| However, there will be very heavy rains and flooding along its path. |
| s-642
| Yes, it will loose strength steadily as more and more of this swirling system moves from being over ocean to being over land. |
| s-643
| This occurs for two reasons: |
| s-644
| As it moves over land, it is cut off from the source of energy driving the storm [which is] the evaporation of water from the warm sea surface; |
| s-645
| Increased friction - the ocean surface is much, much smoother than the land surface. |
| s-646
| Tropical cyclones are sustained by a form of energy called latent heat, which is released by moisture evaporated from the ocean that condenses to form rain. |
| s-647
| As tropical cyclones make landfall, this energy source is cut-off and they rapidly lose strength as they move over land. |
| s-648
| Yes, the Cyclone is almost certain to lose strength as it surges over land. |
| s-649
| Cyclones gather their strength through scraping moisture and heat from warm ocean water that it is not the case over land. |
| s-650
| In the mean time, much stronger friction over land quickly reduces their strength. |
| s-651
| Yes. |
| s-652
| All tropical cyclones lose strength once they make landfall. |
| s-653
| However, they can remain dangerous storms due to very heavy rains and subsequent landslides, and river flooding. |
| s-654
| Phailin's winds will rapidly weaken as it pushes inland. |
| s-655
| Once Cyclone Phailin comes on shore it will immediately begin to lose strength. |
| s-656
| However, and this is important, it still will contain lots of rainfall making flooding an almost certainty. |
| s-657
| File photo of interviewee R Saravanan. |
| s-658
| Image: R Saravanan. |
| s-659
| A previous cyclone in 1999 in the Bay of Bengal area of India left 10,000 people dead. |
| s-660
| Is the Indian government well prepared to deal with this cyclone? |
| s-661
| I have not followed that aspect of the societal response for the present storm. |
| s-662
| However, historically, there have been several events that should cause a societal response. |
| s-663
| Hopefully, we all learn from past mistakes. |
| s-664
| The history of strong cyclones and death in the region is notable, with at least 5 large cyclone events in the past 35 years with 10,000 and as many as 300,000 people killed, millions left homeless and estimated damages as high as US$ 10 billion. |
| s-665
| I don't have enough information to answer this question, one way or the other. |
| s-666
| From all the press reports that I have read, the Indian government appears to have taken the threat of Cyclone Phailin very seriously indeed. |
| s-667
| The government has been much more pro-active in preparing for this cyclone than in the past. |
| s-668
| The forecasts of cyclone track and intensity have been fairly accurate. |
| s-669
| Mandatory mass evacuations have been carried out, which is essential to minimize loss of life in these situations. |
| s-670
| Unfortunately, extensive property damage is bound to occur even with the best preparation. |
| s-671
| My knowledge of the responsiveness of the Indian government to this storm is purely from the cyber space. |
| s-672
| I heard that they orchestrated the largest people evacuation to a natural disaster in Indian history. |
| s-673
| This shall be applauded given the size and strength of Phailin. |
| s-674
| I visited the damaged area of the 1999 storm near Bhubaneshwar in the summer of 2012 for an invited symposium and summer school on tropical cyclones [...] sponsored by the Indian government. |
| s-675
| Given the living standard and residence of people living near the coastal areas in this region, the evacuation is certainly necessary and essential to save lives. |
| s-676
| I cannot comment directly on how the Indian government was prepared for this cyclone. |
| s-677
| However, the news reports (BBC etc.) were very encouraging in that the authorities were reportedly making strenuous efforts to evacuate the population from near the coast and areas that are prone to flooding. |
| s-678
| Water is the main killer in these storms. |
| s-679
| From all reports that I have seen, the government was well prepared for this cyclone. |
| s-680
| For this question I don't know the 'preparedness' of the Indian gov't to deal with this. |
| s-681
| Wikinews interviews Mario J. Lucero and Isabel Ruiz of Heaven Sent Gaming |
| s-682
| General questions |
| s-683
| What is Heaven Sent Gaming? |
| s-684
| Heaven Sent Gaming is basically me and Isabel, I'm Mario J. Lucero. |
| s-685
| And, I'm Isabel Ruiz. |
| s-686
| And, together we formed this thing, it's sort of like an entertainment team. |
| s-687
| We started it basically, because I wanted to - I wanted to work with Isabel on a lot of projects that we had going on together. |
| s-688
| We were coming with comics, like, left and right, we were coming up with things like Karis, in high school she came up with that one, I came up with an individual story called Thad's World Destruction and, she wanted to illustrate it, and so, that's the way we ended up doing it. |
| s-689
| Yep, we like to just make our own original content, and, yep, that's what we wanted to do. |
| s-690
| How did you two meet? |
| s-691
| We met back in high school. |
| s-692
| In this private, tiny-tiny private school of 50 students. |
| s-693
| But, before hand in middle school, I kept on hearing about this guy named Mario, and he kept on hearing about me, this girl named Isabel. |
| s-694
| And, everyone, all of our friends and all of our acquaintances would say, 'Hey, you'd get along with him really well.' |
| s-695
| So before hand I kinda knew about him, but I never met him. |
| s-696
| And one of our friends, our common friends, he introduced us during study hall, and we just kind of hit it off from there. |
| s-697
| It's true. |
| s-698
| Who else is involved in this project? |
| s-699
| Currently, we're in talks with people. |
| s-700
| There's Jeff [Drake], who is behind the camera. |
| s-701
| Right now, yeah, he's helping us right now. |
| s-702
| We're talking about doing some individual web series, video series. |