half-mast/staff, contours of a slalom, ingratitude

Helene Binet

Bergisel Ski Jump, Innsbruck, Austria, 2002
For this towering ski jump and café, Hadid created an abstract totem of dynamic motion, launching into the air a curving bend of concrete that signs the sky with something like the contours of a slalom.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1985954_2131980,00.html#ixzz0mdWyGbFL

'No Hope' for Those Buried by Mudslide, Afghanistan Official Says

By AZAM AHMED

President Hamid Karzai declared Sunday a national day of mourning and ordered all flags flown at half-staff, after officials said they feared that more than 2,000 people were dead. 

JUST IN: President Barack Obama orders U.S. flags flown at half-staff in honor of the victims of the ‪#‎ParisAttacks‬.

Churchill once quoted to De Gaulle a passage from Plutarch: "ingratitude towards great men is the mark of a strong people."

《对领袖无情，是伟大民族的标志》

China announces three days of mourningChina has announced three days of national mourning after at least32,000 people died in the country's worst earthquake in threedecades. The state council said in a statement that governmentbuildings would fly the Chinese flag at half-mast for three days.Three minutes of silence are to be held on Monday, exactly one weekto the minute after the 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck south-western Sichuan province. Earlier, President Hu Jintao expressedhis gratitude to countries that have donated aid. He made thestatement following a meeting with emergency workers in Sichuan. Afew hours ago, the province was hit by the strongest aftershock sofar, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale. Teams from severalcountries are in the region assisting in the rescue and recoveryeffort.

half-mast Show phonetics noun (US ALSO half-staff)at half-mast describes a flag that has been lowered to a point half the way down the pole as an expression of sadness at someone's death:

The palace flags were all flying at half-mast.

half-staff

Pronunciation: /ˈhæfstæf; ˈhɑːfstɑːf/

n

(AmE) half-mast

sla·lom (slä'ləm)

n.

1. The act or sport of skiing in a zigzag course.
2. A race on skis or in vehicles along such a course, laid out with markers such as flags.

intr.v., -lomed, -lom·ing, -loms.

1. To race in or as if in a slalom.
2. To waterski using a single ski designed so the feet are secured one behind the other.

[Norwegian slalåm : slad, sloping + låm, path.]

slalomer sla'lom·er or sla'lom·ist n.