Word: shrapnel
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...with all but one contestant still in play, but Round Two signaled the introduction of more difficult words. At times the word difficulty seem to vary dramatically from contestant to contestant. One ousted speller highlighted this trend with the statement, “Are you serious? We went from shrapnel to Gethsemane?” As the competition reached its later stages, the field was trimmed dramatically due to the appearance of words that not even Microsoft Word’s spellcheck could comprehend, such as fomites, skookum, and sialogogue. By this point, the number of contestants was reduced...
...shouting mortar coordinates into their radios. "I can't see s---," said one. "Where's it coming from?" Reports of more fire started coming in from the Korengal Outpost, the main base, and then from Dallas, a nearby observation post where one of the men had been hit by shrapnel. It was a coordinated attack; the dense clouds blanketing the valley provided the perfect cover for the insurgents. A new command came over the radio: "If you see anyone standing outside of a building, consider it hostile intent and fire at will." "As soon as I can see a building...
...wounds: "Shrapnel wounds almost always look like someone took a jagged shovel and dug a chunk of flesh out of the body, then filled it in awkwardly with hairless, discolored skin that shouldn't be on a human being. Burn wounds are smoothly hideous, like the skin was turned into peanut butter and then spread in stretched, uneven dollops on the body. Or maybe you come back missing a finger or your face, or the whole or parts of your limbs. Maybe your eyes are gone...
...Galilee for Beirut in 1948 - the year Israel was founded. Since then, there have been six wars and dozens of violent upheavals in Lebanon, and more often than not Sulhani's family has been caught in the middle. Abdullah's 59-year-old daughter Ahlam is still picking shrapnel out of wounds she received from artillery fire in 1975. The family survived the infamous Shatila massacre of 1982 by sheer luck, fleeing from Lebanese militiamen almost as soon as the slaughter began. When they returned afterwards, most of their neighbors were dead, and there was a body in the living...
...former NATO official in Afghanistan compares the warlords to shrapnel lodged in an artery: Infection is a risk, he says, but pulling it out could be even worse. "There are so many other things we have to worry about, so why go and open this can of worms?" he asks. In some areas, tackling the militias can backfire. In the northeastern province of Badakhshan, local commander Nazir Mohammad runs the provincial capital, Faizabad, as one big protection racket. Foreign humanitarian organizations that don't hire his security services face attacks. When organizers at the German-run regional military-assistance base...