Post by Kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 20, 2010 21:02:34 GMT 12
Eruption Iceland's revenge?
REUTERS | 2:01PM - Monday, 19 April 2010
“The last wish of the Icelandic economy was to have its ashes scattered over Europe."
The ash cloud from a volcano in Iceland that has caused travel chaos across Europe has spawned numerous jokes on various Internet blog sites, Facebook and Twitter.
Iceland is only just emerging from the financial crisis and the North Atlantic island nation of just 320,000 has spent months wrangling with Britain and the Netherlands over debts incurred after its tops banks went under in 2008.
It owes the two countries some $5 billion as a result of its failed "Icesave" accounts, but many Icelanders fiercely oppose a repayment and say taxpayers should not have to pay for a mess left by private banks under the watch of other regulators.
"Icelandic taxpayer to Britons and Dutch: forget Icesave, kiss my ash!" one Twitter feed read.
Is Iceland getting the last word?
Jeremy Warner, assistant editor of The Daily Telegraph, wrote in a blog: "Call it Iceland's revenge, but it appears there is no more effective a way for a small country to get its own back on a larger one than to have an erupting volcano in its midst."
No trade embargo, however effective, could compete, he said.
Air travel across much of Europe was paralysed for a fifth day as the cloud of volcanic ash drifted from Iceland and hung over the continent, threatening aircraft and leaving thousands of people stranded.
"We said ‘send cash’, not ash!" another posting read.
www.stuff.co.nz/3597782/Eruption-Icelands-revenge
ASH CLOUD: A plume of volcanic ash rises into the atmosphere from a crater under about 200 metres
of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland. — REUTERS.
VOLCANO FLOOD: An aerial photo from the Icelandic Coast Guard shows flood caused by a volcanic
eruption at Eyjafjalla Glacier. The volcanic eruption Partially melted a glacier, setting off a major
flood that threatened to damage roads and bridges and forcing hundreds to evacuate. — REUTERS.
ASH CLOUD: A plume of volcanic ash rises six to 11km into the atmosphere, from a crater under 200m
of ice at the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland. — REUTERS.
VIEW FROM SPACE: The ice-covered summit of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano can be seen with fluid
magma erupting and a lava flow spreading northeast, spilling into Hrunagil Gully in this image provided
from NASA's Earth Observing (EO-1) satellite. — NASA/REUTERS.
MURKY: A church, engulfed in ash from a nearby volcano, is seen near Vik April 16, 2010. — REUTERS.
ERUPTION: Ash continues to billow from the volcano in Eyjafjallajokull,
April 16, 2010. — REUTERS.
COVERED: A view of the town of Vik, which suffered from power outages, due to ash dissipation,
April 16, 2010. — REUTERS.
FARMERS FEARS: Farmer Thorarinn Olafsson tries to lure his horse back to the stable as a cloud of
black ash looms overhead in Drangshlid 2 at Eyjafjoll. — REUTERS.
LIGHTING UP THE SKIES: Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in
Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, that has caused air travel chaos across Europe. — REUTERS.
DIRTY WATER: A woman stands near a waterfall that has been dirtied by ash that has accumulated
from the ash plume of an erupting volcano near Eyjafjallajokull. — REUTERS.
LESS ASH: Molten lava shoots out of an erupting volcano near Eyjafjallajokull. — REUTERS.
LAVA FLOW: Lava spews from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull. — REUTERS.
That unpronounceable Icelandic volcano
By MICHAEL FIELD - Stuff.co.nz | 8:25AM - Tuesday, 20 April 2010
It's the story everyone's talking about, with a name no one wants to say — Eyjafjallajokull.
Almost all broadcasters, after several days of making a hash of it, have given up and now it's just "the Icelandic volcano".
Radio New Zealand's veteran pronunciation guru Hewitt Humphrey says it is a word that gives them a lot of trouble.
"If you come across it in a script without warning, it is quite a mouthful."
Often the problem for broadcasters is that the struggle to say the name obscures the story itself.
"It can be quite a distraction if people are listening for it."
Radio New Zealand now tends to refer to it as the Icelandic volcano.
Mr Humphrey says the secret to handling such words is confidence: "If you can say whatever you want to say with confidence, you can get away with it."
The name means "(the) island-fells glacier".
The BBC's Pronunciation Unit's guide says the volcano should be pronounced AY-uh-fyat-luh-YOE-kuutl (-uh). That is -ay as in day, -fy as in few, -oe as in French coeur, -uu as in boot, the -tl as in atlas. The (-uh) is "a" as in ago.
But it has given some clever people from Iceland the chance to show their skills. They've not only posted the pronounciation of Eyjafjallajokull to YouTube - but also a collection of global broadcasters attempting it.
www.stuff.co.nz/3599981/That-unpronounceable-Icelandic-volcano