^^The roads are OK. It the ones in Hargaisa that need fixing Can someone not run away with my suitcase at the airport, I can carry my own bag. Thank you. They are only trying to help and make some money at the same time. I would only request that the eaterie at Berbera beach be improved. That place (Berbera) has so much potential.

^^Can UDUB do the same outside of Hargaisa?

I saw the dark clouds as soon as I left home. Got in the office and it rained heavily but it was over within approx 7 mins. GG, same concerns here. As long as the rain drops don't contain anything which may be detrimental to crops/people I think it should continue. The success rate may be higher in Africa than in the ME as Africa actually has clouds all year round.

I'm often critical of this guy but not this time.

Al Waleed gives $15.7m to Cambridge and Edinburgh varsities Bloomberg Published: May 08, 2008, 18:21 London: Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, the biggest shareholder in Citigroup Inc., gave 8 million pounds ($15.7 million) each to the UK universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh to start Islamic studies research centers. Alwaleed signed an agreement on Wednesday at London's Buckingham Palace in the company of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Chancellor of both universities, the Arab investor's Riyadh-based Kingdom Foundation said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. "It is paramount for both Islam and the West to reach mutual ground for proactive dialogue, respect, acceptance and tolerance," Al Waleed said in the statement. http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi_arabia/10211680.html

^^Me too. But a bit of rain never hurt anyone. Ibtisam, Ngonge was not taking any pics. He was busy walking into road signs,lamp posts and bus shelters

The Americans just seem to enjoy throwing the race card in people's face! The media will play it up and so will the arm chair politicians but to come from an opponents mouth (Hilary) is what gets me. This race has less to do with policy and more to do with appearance. It will be interesting if Barack wins. Maybe I will pay much more attention but I doubt it. Not until November anyway.

Well I won't be making ayn predictions as they often turn out wrong but it will be a good final. I'm hoping for a classic.

Originally posted by Cadaan: I really hope the british pound takes a nosedive within the next 2 weeks, that way my CDN$$$$ will actually be worth something.... I hear that! The damn thing is too qaali!

America and race! It just never goes away,,,,

Guess what happened the other day, it rained in the May in Dubai! It rained bucket loads in the middle of the desert! This was no ordanary rain however,,,,, Cloud seeding experiment has thundering success By Aftab Kazmi, Bureau Chief Published: May 08, 2008, 00:09 Al Ain: Tuesday's thunderstorm in the western and southern parts of the emirates was a result of a cloud seeding (artificial rain) test conducted by the weather authorities. The storm produced intermittent rain in parts of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It was a surprising phenomenon in the late-spring month of May for the public and some weathermen. An official of the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) on Wednesday confirmed the centre had carried out cloud seeding tests on clouds that came in from southern Saudi Arabia. Residents and weathermen were baffled by the occurrence of thunderstorms in May. "I was amazed to hear about a thunderstorm," said a weatherman requesting anonymity. He said it was an unusual development of CB clouds, the clouds that generate thunderstorms, as most converge over the UAE in the winter, he added. Abdullah Ahmad Al Mandoos, Executive Director of NCMS, said the cloud seeding test was successful and more experiments would be conducted in the next three months but depending on the weather conditions. The NCMS director said Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs, has played a vital role in the project and has provided a plane and other facilities for its implementation. "He gives continuous guidance," he added. International prize Shaikh Mansour has also encouraged scientists in cloud seeding research and announced an international prize for the best study in the field. "This prize provided immeasurable benefits not only for science but also for many countries in the world," he said. The centre has its own aircraft that is used for sprinkling cloud seeding salts in the moist clouds. The sprinklers are attached to the wings of the aircraft that drop the salt from a certain height on the clouds. The project was started in 2001 by the Department of Atmospheric Studies at the Ministry of Presidential Affairs. The department has now absorbed the UAE Met Department and taken a new identity as NCMS. The implementation of the project was started in cooperation with the National Centre of the Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the United States, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, and the National Astronomy Space Agency in the United States NASA, said Al Mandoos. A total of 200 flights were undertaken during the winter and summer of 2001. About half of the flights collected microphysical data in clouds and precipitation, with seeding trials having been performed on about half of those flights. Further studies continued during 2003 and 2004. The studies help NCMS in developing the seeding techniques as per UAE climatic requirements to increase the rainfall, said Al Mandoos. He said the objective of the project is to enhance the national water resources, ground storage, and recycling of freshwater. Research: Solving water problems We dream of being able to modify the weather, especially as pearls of perspiration line brows and march down collars. It may not be such an outlandish idea if one goes by cloud seeding. It is a science that can be used to control winds, suppress hail, dissolve fog or create rain. Scientists have been dabbling in it since 1946, when Dr Vincent J. Shaefer conducted his first field experiments in New York. Today nearly 40 countries are working with it, foremost being China. Rumour has it that not a cloud shall pass over Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It also plans to use cloud seeding to clear the air pollution problem. Some of the other countries include the United States, UK, Russia, India, Australia, Canada, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. It rains because millions of extremely tiny water droplets come together around a nuclei, which could be anything from sand, smoke, salt or dust, to form one big drop of rain. There are two basic forms of rain - warm and cold. Warm rain is from clouds, in tropical regions, with temperatures never colder than 0C. Cold rain happens when the cloud temperatures are lower than 0C. This is the natural process, in case of cloud seeding different types of cloud condensation nuclei are artificially introduced to accelerate the warm rain or cold rain process. However, it can only be done if the cloud system is of the necessary size, with sufficient lifespan and has enough water saturation. Most scientists say it is all about assisting nature. Seeding is done using flares dropped from aircrafts or shot from the ground using artillery or rockets. One of the earliest techniques was the 'static mode' wherein silver iodide or dry ice was introduced into cold clouds. This was followed up by the 'dynamic mode', which had a greater number of silver iodide nuclei being introduced to get more rain. You also have hygroscopic seeding that introduces salt crystals, which function as bigger nuclei to accelerate the warm rain process. As nations look for answers to the problem of water shortage, controlled cloud seeding could be one of the key options. http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Environment/10211450.html

Typical, Brits. The weather is nice and all are in a happy mood :rolleyes: Val, I will actually be a tourist and vist all those touristy place IA ps I hope to see a bit of rain when I'm over there :cool:

The gold and green out in force!!!

lass than a week Thurs morning we are there IA

no prep yet, last minute as usual,,,,,

This time next week I will be in Edgware Rd in London,,,IA

Never!

Allah yarxamu

Baashe, The author provides nothing new. 80% of the article is a re-hash of old news which most people already know and would agree with. The UIC were a breath of fresh air – agreed, they brought peace – agreed, they were naïve – agreed, things could have worked out for the better – hmm ok agreed. It’s a classic example of praising an individual/group throughout most of the article with a twist near the end of it based on deliberately manipulated and inaccurate information. The objective of an ‘objective’ journalist is to use as many facts as possible in order to give as holistic opinion as possible on the subject. He failed miserably here! Failure lambar waaxid: the UIC did not tell the government to surrender. Failure raqam laba: the author fails to mention that the UIC got rid of the same warlords the ‘president’ wanted to get rid of with the help of UN forces. Ta sadexaad: the author fails to mention that the UIC did indeed invite him and the govnt to take up their seats in Muqdisho. Failure raqam afar: the author fails to mention the govnt’s lie that there were only 200 Ethiopian soldiers training the TFG when there were in fact more than 8,000 plus CIA preparing for battle. Khamsaa: the author forgets to mention Yeey was/is a warlord Also note the reference to the Ethio military as Yeey’s ‘friends’. It usually takes a couple of sentences before you see the author’s angle and who he is actually favouring. In this case a took 3 or 4 paragraphs. Kudos to him I suppose.

LoL Ngonge has finally caught up with his work load

^^That was Mathew and his "there was an old African saying" was always confusing to his peers Desmond and Porkpie. Got the intro song in my head now,,,,

Forget all that American stuff. It was all about Desmonds!

^^How was your home town Shiekh last week?

Originally posted by Baashi: Don't you miss the tastiest nugget in the dish. quote: Of course, the Islamist leaders' mistakes were many. After securing Mogadishu, they ran around southern and central Somalia atop armored jeeps, ordering everyone including the country's UN-endorsed Transitional Federal Government to surrender or risk being overrun. To put it mildly, the Islamic Courts leadership lacked the universal vision of viewing the globe's geopolitical landscape outside the Somali context. Instead of focusing on restoring the dignity of Mogadishu, the Islamist leadership was hijacked by hardliners intent on overthrowing warlord-turned-President Abdullahi Yusuf and decapitating his transitional government before it ever set foot in the Somali capital. Well, Mr. Yusuf invited his Ethiopian army friends and the rest is history. Could the situation have taken a different route? Could the Islamist leadership show the governments of Ethiopia and the West that they were not, in fact, a part of an international agenda with questionable means and motives? Further, could the Islamic Courts have done a better job convincing the Somali public that they were not a bunch of power-hungry clerics? It was always an open secret that the Islamists kept among their top elite some of the most ruthless warlords ever known in Somalia. Ain't that the truth. Kudos to GO for being objective on such radioactive issue. Right on the money! Are you seriously in agreement with those two paragraphs? They are the only two I don't agree with.

^^Madaxaaba nowgu madowbaaday!