El sorteo de grupos y la fase previa de la Copa Santander Libertadores 2010 se acaba de llevar a cabo en Paraguay, este año con la peculiaridad de que los clubes mexicanos Guadalajara y San Luis empezarán la copa en los octavos de final, debido a la discriminación que sufrieron en la edición pasada, cuando sus rivales no quisieron viajar a México por la epidemia de la gripe AH1N1.

En la edición 2010 del torneo latinoamericano, que empezará en 27 de enero y terminará el 18 de agosto de 2010, con una pausa incluída por el desarrollo del Mundial Sudáfrica 2010, serán 40 los clubes participantes, siendo el número más alto hasta la fecha. También habrá dos grupos en los que sólo avanzará el primer lugar, cuando la tradición es que avancen siempre los dos primeros.

Después del salto podrán encontrar los grupos de la Copa Libertadores 2010, además de los partidos de la primera fase, de donde saldrán el resto de los clasificados a la fase de grupos.

Recordamos que clasifican los 8 primeros lugares de cada grupo y los 6 mejores segundos lugares.

PRIMERA FASE*

• 1) Deportivo Táchira (Ven.)-Paraguay 3
• 2) México 3-Perú 3
• 3) Argentina 5-Chile 3
• 4) Brasil 5-Bolivia 3
• 5) Argentina 6-Ecuador 3
• 6) Racing (Uru.)-Colombia 3

FASE DE GRUPOS*

Grupo 1

• Corinthians (Bra.)
• Cerro Porteño (Par.)
• Colombia 2
• Ganador 6

Grupo 2

• Brasil 4
• Paraguay 2
• Once Caldas (Col.)
• México 2

Grupo 3

• Estudiantes (Arg.)
• Bolivar (Bol.)
• Perú 2
• Ganador 2

Grupo 4

• Argentina 4
• Blooming (Bol.)
• Perú 1
• Ganador 1

Grupo 5

• Brasil 3
• Cerro (Uru.)
• Ecuador 1
• Ganador 5

Grupo 6

• Argentina 3
• Nacional (Uru.)
• Ecuador 2
• Morelia

Grupo 7

• Vélez Sarsfield
• Chile 2
• Deportivo Italia (Ven.)
• Ganador 4

Grupo 8

• Brasil 2
• Universidad de Chile
• Caracas FC (Ven.)
• Ganador 3

*Esta lista se irá actualizando conforme los equipos restantes vayan colocándose, pues recordemos que hace falta que terminen los torneos de diferentes países para determinar quiénes serán el resto de los clasificados.

I´m starting to come toward the end of my time here,  so I would like to start a series of posts that reflect on my time and experience here as a whole.  I was thinking over recently some of the things that shocked me a bit when I first arrived, but that I now accept as a part of everyday life.

Uruguay is interesting in that it is in many ways very modern and developed, but nevertheless there are still some social realities here that would be unheard of in most parts of the U.S..  So here it is, 15 things that no longer shock me in Montevideo:

1. Very cracked sidewalks
2. Dog poop on the sidewalks and lots of stray dogs. The lower class the neighborhood, the more dogs there are, and sometimes cats too. Oh, and people in general don´t seem to believe in castrating their pets here.
3. Vendors and street musicians on the buses
4. graffiti. Lots of it. Especially most of it relates to sports teams (Piñarol, Nacional, Bolsa or the most popular national teams) or politics (mostly for ¨Pepe¨ Mujica, but also Lacalle).
5. The people riding through town in horsedrawn carts collecting and sorting through the garbage

6. The traffic: lanes seem to be only suggestions or guidelines. Cars have a habbit of cutting in right in front of or right behind a pedestrian when turning (taxis are the worst). It is often common to hear a horn blowing as they drive through the intersection, should a brave pedestrian be attempting to cross and save themselves a few minutes, as though to say, ¨Don´t even try to cross in front of me ´cuz i´m not slowing down¨.
7. ¨Lindos Ojos.¨ Lighter colored eyes are not as common here and are apparently coveted and worshiped by men. If I had a peso for every time I heard ¨lindos ojos¨ (pretty eyes) from an older man passing by, I would be one wealthy gringa.
8. Montevideo fashion. A lot of people wear more subdued colors, like black, brown, olive, white. But there seems to be a fashion trend among certain groups of the younger generartion to wear bright green, bright purple, or bright peachy, orange-y coral.
9. People–especially men in their 20s, 30s, 40s carrying a thermos under their elbow and mate in their hand. They are everywhere. On the sidewalks, in the plazas, on the rambla, on the bus. In Argentina they say that uruguayans have a longer arm to hold the thermos.
10. People trying to make money at crosswalks during redlights. They juggle, wash windows, and sell flowers or newspapers to the people in cars.

11. ¨Guardacoches¨ — the people who sit on the sidewalks and help people to parallel park and watch the cars while their away. They operate privately and live off of the change people give them for their services.
12. Besos. The normal form of greating someone is a kiss or an air kiss on the cheek. When entering a room it is polite to greet everyone in the group (even if it takes a looong time).
13. No indoor heating and air conditioning in most houses. I lucked out that mine had heat.
14. Milk in bags (those who have been following my blog since the beginning may remember my first supermarket experience…)
15. Artigas statues everywhere. General Artigas is their equivelent of the founding father of Uruguay. You see images and statues of him all over the place.

I arrived in Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay by ferry on a rainy Sunday morning. I’d had a very scanty night’s sleep  – you could hardly call it a night, just a couple of fleeting hours following a tango show, dinner and drinks, some unsatisfying calls to banks (my cards had been stolen on the Friday evening ) and a hasty dawn packing up of my apartment. The former Portuguese colony is tiny, picture-postcard pretty and immediately lifted my tired spirits. There is a palm-draped square, evocative cobbled street and a collection of small but sweet museums. For some reason you also frequently come upon tropical flowers sprouting from classic cars and old-fashioned carts like colourful pink cress.

I felt under-dressed and scruffy compared with the immaculately turned-out day-tripping portenos, but I bought my museum pass, pulled on my waterproof and roamed around. Most of the museums are converted colonial homes (the Portuguese occupied the place in the early 18^th century), faithfully preserved and proudly displaying a range of artefacts from crockery, silver and paintings to pinned butterflies and dinosaur bones. My favourite exhibits were the glyptodont (a sort of giant armadillo) in the Museo Municipal de Dr Bautista Rebuffo and the beautifully illustrated 16^th century maps in the hushed downstairs rooms of the Museo del Periodo Historico Portugues (once a geographer …).

A dazzling white lighthouse broods alongside the old city walls, and I made the scramble to the top to stand alongisde the admirably solar-powered lamp to peer into the wind at the Rio de la Plata separating Colonia from Buenos Aires by 40 muddy brown kilometers. That evening I drank an overpriced sauvignon blanc in the delightful arty-photograph lined 1717 cafe bar, listening to jazz while the owners watched Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn in ‘Face of an Angel’ with the sound turned off. He was unselfconsciously wearing a smart Panama hat and told me they had a huge collection of old films.

The next day I arrived in Montevideo on a wet bank holiday Monday. The city was not at its best and everything was closed. I scurried through the old town, where litter whirled in the wind-whipped rain and down-and-outs lurched and loitered in doorways, to the Mercado de la Puerte. I’d wanted to visit this place since I read about it in Colm Toibin’s The Story of the Night (a great read, meticulously written) and it didn’t disappoint. I perched on a bar stool opposite the grill at La Chacra del Puerta . There I happily whiled away most of the afternoon eating juicy swordfish and drinking the market speciality media y media (half ordinary white wine, half sparkling white wine, a light, slightly sweet fizz that seems very at home alongside the hot coals of the parilla) with the extremely entertaining John-Robert (from Austria but now living in Cordoba in Argentina and running his own software business)  and Pascal who had flown in that morning from Switzerland. The stout Don Pascual commanded the grilling of huge chunks of meats and fish, while handsome young waiters in red T-shirts dispensed huge platters of food and refilled an endless stream of media y media glasses. The vaulted roof held captive the sizzling smells of grilling meat, the enchanting sound of popping corks and the rumbling of countless conversations, trapping the faintly medieval atmosphere in a smoky fuzz. Montevidean magic.

i wish i was from south america

i wish i from uruguay

i wish i was from montevideo

it’s hard to explain

i wish my head would fall off

hehe

By Dian Hasan | November 22, 2009

Hotels have long been known for their social roles, and for their ability to continually reinvent themselves to relevant for today’s lifestyle taste. After all, consumer taste seems to change faster than changing bed linens.

In line with the idea of making every inch of the hotel a profit center. First it was the Spa, a permanent fixture in fine hotels today. And now, all eyes are on the best underutilized space: the Rooftop Area!

Here’s a look at how rooftops are rejuvenating hotels across the world. Wether for lounging with cocktail in hand, or pools and spas, launch parties, cool events, film parties… all making their way to the top of the hotel… where it’s Hot, Hip & Happening! And the bright city lights and skyline make for a spectacular backdrop.

Cela faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas retrouvé des routes digne de ce nom et surtout des distances à l’européenne; 170 kms sans se tordre le dos ni prendre peur à chaque virage dans les graviers,

Je ne me suis pas attardé sur la route sachant qu’il me faudra de toute manière y repasser, le crachin ne mettant d’ailleurs pas à mal cette décision , j’arrive dans Montevideo sous un ciel gris vers midi.

La première impression est désastreuse; dans la vieille ville en totale décripitude les maisons à l’abandon sont monnaie courante. Il ne se passe pas 100m sans voir trois ou quatre de ces anciennes maisons coloniales en totale décrépitude; il n’est pas rare non plus de les voir malgré tout occupées…

Le brin de soleil sera finalement venu de la classification de l’Uruguay à la coupe du monde; avenida 18 de julio complètement bloquée avec les gens dansant dans la rue; gamins, parents vieillards édentés tous rassemblés dans la fête.

Je les y ai laissé mais la rue chantait encore de ces “Soy celeste, celeste soy yo” au reveil du lendemain…

Pablo Brañas-Garza, Juan-Camilo Cardenas, and Maximo Rossi have new paper on gender, education and reciprocal generosity:

There is not general consensus about if women are more or less generous than men. Although the number of papers supporting more generous females is a bit larger than the opposed it is not possible to establish any definitive and systematic gender bias. This paper provides new evidence on this topic using a unique experimental dataset. We used data from a field experiment conducted under identical conditions (and monetary payoffs) in 6 Latin American cities, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lima, Montevideo and San José. Our dataset amounted to 3,107 experimental subjects who played the Trust Game. We will analyze the determinants of behavior of second movers, that is, what determines reciprocal generosity.

In sharp contrast to previous papers we found that males are more generous than females. In the light of this result, we carried out a systematic analysis of individual features (income, education, age, etc.) for females and males separately. We found differential motivations for women and men. Third, we see that (individual) education enhances prosocial behavior. Lastly, we see that subjects’ expectations are crucial.

Great Uruguayan videoclip:

Vom 18. bis 22. Februar geht wieder die neue Freizeitmesse f.re.e in München an den Start. Neben Ausstellern aus den Segmenten Caravaning, Outdoor und Reise organisiert das Magazin TOURS erneut den Stand “LiteraTOURS”, an dem Verlagsprodukte aus dem Tourismusbereich präsentiert werden.

So stellt unser Haus dort seinen neuen Städteführer “Buenos Aires & Montevideo” von Michael Moll vor, der im Frühjahr 2009 in erster Auflage mit rund 600 Vorbestellungen ausgeliefert wurde.

Abgerundet wird das Messeprogramm durch Kletterwände, Wasserbecken, Multimedia-Shows uvm. Im kommenden Jahr rechnen die Veranstalter wieder mit rund 100.000 Besuchern aus dem gesamten süddeutschen Raum.

Mi gran amigo bygermy me pasó este video para que mire, me dijo que estaba bueno. Se quedó corto.

Es un corto sin más historia que el ataque de robots que sufre Montevideo, no hay una historia secundaria, sólo al comienzo se destaca un niño que está jugando con unos robots bajo un puente cuando ve a los verdaderos robots gigantes atravesar el río con apenas unos pasos, para luego destruir la ciudad.

El director se llama Federico Álvarez, de MURDOC Films, según el blog FayerMayer sólo gastó 300 dólares e invirtió 6 meses de su tiempo, y lo hizo con ayuda de Aparato. Lo cierto es que además del corto, utilizó las imágenes para hacer un videoclip para la banda SNAKE que podés ver aquí. Según dice en el detalle del video se basaron en el corto para hacer el tema.

Entonces, los dejo con: Ataque de pánico! (Panic attack)

A Roundup of Australian Jewish News

By Garry Fabian

ECAJ calls for compassion on asylum seekers

SYDNEY- While reconciling Australia’s obligations under international refugee laws with the need for proper screening might prove a difficult balancing act for the
federal Government, the Jewish community has called for asylum seekers to be processed “expeditiously” and “in a spirit of compassion.”

A statement on asylum seekers from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) last week also called on the Rudd Government to “to work
constructively with other governments and appropriate non-government organisations to ameliorate the plight of refugees around the world and in Australia”.

It called on the Government “to implement in good faith and with humanity, Australia’s important legal and moral obligations” on refugees.

The ECAJ statement drew on the recent history of world Jewry in highlighting that “especially prior to, but also during and immediately after World War II, many thousands of Jewish refugees attempting to flee persecution in Europe were
denied entry into other countries or [were] forced to engage ’smugglers’ to try to escape to freedom”.

The ECAJ stated that the International Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951, to which Australia is a signatory, “came into existence in belated recognition by the international community of the great wrong that had been done by civilised nations in refusing to grant asylum to Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe prior to and during World War II.”

More broadly, ECAJ president Robert Goot called on Australians to discuss asylum seekers in a considered and respectful manner and avoid resorting to “pejorative generalisations”, which he said are unhelpful and can be misleading and unfair.

Wide selection at Jewish Film Festival

MELBOURNE and SYDNEY– The Festival of Jewish Cinema’s 2009 program kicks off on a decidedly light note with the quirky fish-out-of-water tale, A Matter of Size.

From co-directors Sharon Maymon and Erez Tadmor, the film follows four overweight friends and their quest to find their place in the world.

Resigned to an endless regime of diets and fitness groups, the friends stumble upon the one place that accepts them for who they are — the world of Israeli sumo wrestling.

The festival opens in Sydney on November 11 at Bondi Junction and in Melbourne on November 12 at ACMI Cinemas, Federation Square and the Classic Cinema, Elsternwick.

A Touch Away is one of Israel’s best-kept secrets. A riveting drama series produced for the small screen, the series follows two families in a religious suburb of Tel Aviv. One is ultra Orthodox and the other is a newly arrived secular Russian family.

The powerful, confronting eight-part series broke ratings records in Israel and will be screened in two parts as an encore presentation.

Acne is an offbeat coming-of-age tale about a bar mitzvah-age boy who is beginning to awaken sexually. Set in Montevideo, Uruguay, Rafa has
lost his virginity, but has never kissed a girl.

His efforts to do so are thwarted by bad skin, an interfering Jewish community and his parents’ messy divorce. A charming outsider tale, Acne’s
sexually charged plot will likely divide audiences, but it’s a romp not to be missed.

One of the picks of the festival is Adam Resurrected, starring stalwart Jeff Goldblum and based on the novel of the same name.

Goldblum plays Adam Stein, a former Berlin magician, who used his talents to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

Forbidden love in the Orthodox community is examined in the contoversial feature Eyes Wide Open. The film focuses on the gay realtionship between a father of four and his younger shop assistant, and is sure to divide audiences.

French film Hello Goodbye stars two of the country’s iconic figures: Gerard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant. A middle-upper-class French couple
uproots and makes aliyah in the hope of re-discovering their Jewish identity.

The mid-life sea change swings into action after their son’s decision to marry out in this romantic comedy.

Other films to look out for include From My Father, a love story about the relationship between a Palestinian and an Israeli; Cycles, which looks at four different generations of a French Jewish family; and Slovakian Holocaust drama Broken Promise.

Being Jewish in France is a documentary about Jewish lie in the European country from the Dreyfus Affair to the rise of anti-Semitism in modern France.

Other documentaries in the program include Inside Hana’s Suitcase, about a group of present-day Japanese students that unravel the mystery of a
young Auschwitz inmate; Killing Kasztner, which looks at the controversial figure Israel Kasztnerwho saved nearly 2000 Hungarian Jews
during the Holocaust; and Operation Moses, which tlls the story of the emergency evacuation of Ehiopian Jews to Israel during the 1970s and ’80s.

Australian filmmakers are also well represented inthe documentary section of the festival. Leave the Stone’s Throw is a documentary by journalist
Julie Szego, who details her struggle to accept the legacy of the Holocaust in her family, while Israeli documentaries A History of Israeli Cinema, Z32 and the Tunisia/France co-production The Wedding Song are also featured.

In the 20th anniversary retrospective section is From Hell to Hell, a film about the events leading up to the Kielce Pogrom in Poland in 1946,
German political thriller The Giraffe Mechugge) — from the producers of Run Lola Run, Khroustaliov and My Car – about Stalin’s
infamous Doctor’s Plot to get rid of Jewish doctors,Dutch film Left Luggage about a secular Jewish girl in Antwerp who takes a job with an Orthodox
family and the brilliant Phyllis and Harold, a film about the family of artist Cindy Kleine, are also in the retrospective.

Pilger continues diatribe on Israel

SYDNEY– Peace Prize winner John Pilger launched a scathing attack on the
media’s coverage of Israel during a lecture at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday night.

Speaking before a capacity audience in the concert hall, Pilger, a journalist, author and filmmaker, criticised the Australian media for its “modern propaganda”, particularly when it came to coverage of the Gaza war.

“In no other democratic country is the discussion of the brutal occupation of Palestine as limited as it is in Australia,” he said to applause. “Are we aware of the sheer scale of the crime against humanity in Gaza? Twenty nine members of one
family – babies, grannies – are gunned down, blown up, buried alive, their home bulldozed.”

He urged the audience to read the Goldstone Commission Report, stressing the point that it was written by “Jewish judge” Richard Goldstone.

“Those who speak from the article of freedom are working hard to bury the United Nations report. For only one nation, Israel, has the right to exist in the Middle East, only one nation has the right to attack others, only one nation has the
impunity to run a racist apartheid regime with the approval of the western world, and with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia fawning over its leaders.”

Pilger also criticised United States President Barack Obama for “stepping up [George W Bush's] wars and starting his own war in Pakistan”.

“Like Bush, [Obama] is threatening Iran, a country Hillary Clinton said she was ‘prepared to annihilate’. Iran’s crime is its independence . Iran is the only resource-rich Muslim country beyond American control. It doesn’t occupy anyone
else’s land and it hasn’t attacked any country, unlike Israel, which is nuclear-armed and dominates and provides for the Middle East on America’s behalf.”

The Sydney Peace Prize is the only international peace prize awarded in Australia.

The citation for the Sydney Peace Prize refers to significant contributions to “peace with justice”, awarded to an organisation or individual “who has made significant contributions to global peace”.

Past recipients of the prize have included Professor Muhammad Yanus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.

*
American professor to bring Talmudic guidance down under

MELBOURNE–What guidance does the Talmud have for ethical decisions on space travel or human cloning? Plenty, according to Professor Laurie Zoloth.

Prof Zoloth is professor of religion and Jewish studies at Chicago’s Northwestern University and is also the director of the university’s Centre for Bioethics, Science and Society.

She will be in Australia next week to take part in Hadassah Australia’s stem-cell awareness week of activities, together with her colleagues in science, Professor Alan Trounson and Professor Ben Reubinoff.

A secular ethicist, Prof Zoloth served for two-and-a-half terms as the sole philosopher on NASA’s National Advisory Council, one of the highest positions a civilian can hold.

Today she chairs the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Bioethics Advisory Board, and serves on NASA’s planetary protection advisory committee and the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Like a lawyer, Prof Zoloth draws precedents from classical texts, including Jewish ones.

“It is one of many traditions that I use. If there’s a really good argument that emerges from the Orthodox or halachic texts, I bring it in,” she said.

Indeed, much of talmudic teaching is highly resonant with the aspirations of science. “The rabbinical position is that much is permitted in order to learn,” she explained.

Prof Zoloth is renowned by her peers for her rigorous intellect.

“She is very demanding and articulate,” said Prof Trounson, the Australian scientist who since 2008 has been president of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and a guest speaker at Hadassah Australia’s dinner next week.

“If you say something that requires a better philosophical or scientific underpinning, she’ll challenge you,” he said. “I don’t always agree with her, but it’s always intellectually satisfying,” Prof Trounson added.

Prof Zoloth’s visit is timely, with a review of Australia’s human embryos and cloning legislation imminent.

Her visit also coincides with a major shift in the scientific and ethical landscape of stem-cell research.

Since 2007, researchers have learnt how to avoid the use of embryos altogether in the making of embryonic stem cells. Skin cells can be turned directly into embryonic stem cells – cells that could provide a patient with a limitless supply
of matched tissue to treat diabetes, blindness, bone-marrow disease, skin diseases and neurodegenerative disease.

According to Prof Trounson, CIRM is now funding translational studies in these areas ­ meaning in the next four years stem cells will be making their way out of the lab and into the clinic.

Another guest speaker at the dinner, Hadassah University Hospital’s Prof Reubinoff, is one of the pioneers of that journey.

Working together with neurologist Tamir Ben Hur at Jerusalem’s Hadassah, Prof Reubinoff ­ who worked with Prof Trounson at Monash University ­ is using embryonic stem cells to treat macular degeneration and multiple sclerosis.

###

Scriu în grabă.

Sunt într-o călătorie de câteva zile prin Uruguay şi Argentina. N-am mai călătorit prin ţările astea. Ieri am sosit în Montevideo (Uruguay). Când am intrat în aeroport, am avut parcă o senzaţie de deja vu. Părea România la vreo doi ani după revoluţie (azi am auzit că noul aeroport e deja în construcţie). Drumul spre hotel mi s-a părut întunecat dar, odată cu intrarea în oraş, au apărut şi luminile. Oraşul e situat într-un golfuleţ pe malul unei ape care, ieri, mi s-a părut oceanul. Azi am aflat că e vorba de un estuar imens pe care-l face aici râul La Plata. Râul face graniţă naturală cu Argentina.

La Plata a fost descoperit iniţial de portughezi care au venit aici să caute argint, de aici şi numele râului. În expediţia portughezilor se afla şi un spaniol. După ce portughezii au renunţat la căutări, spaniolul şi-a chemat conaţionalii pe melagurile astea continuând căutările. Spaniolii au ajuns până la urmă să găsească argint, însă mult mai spre interiorul ţării.

Ca şi în Brazilia, şi aici există câteva colonii importante. Dacă în Sao Paulo cele mai importante colonii erau cea a italienilor, cea a arabilor şi apoi cea a portughezilor, în ordinea numărului de locuitori, aici, cea mai importantă colonie e cea a spaniolilor, apoi cea a italienilor şi apoi cea a evreilor germani. Ţara e micuţă. Capitala are un milion şi jumătate de locuitori iar ţara are doar trei milioane.
 
Mă simt mult mai în siguranţă aici. Criminalitatea există dar nu la nivelul atins în Brazilia. Oamenii sunt foarte simpatici. Nu văd prea mulţi oameni de culoare ca în Brazilia şi nici indieni. Figurile lor amintesc faptul că, cei mai multi dintre ei, au descendenţi europeni.

Clima e minunată. În Sao Paulo era înăbuşitor. Cald şi umed. Aici aerul e respirabil. Chiar dacă au tot două anotimpuri, vară şi iarnă, vara nu are mai mult de 32 de grade, în zilele calde, iar iarna temperatura nu scade mai mult de 5 grade dimineaţa. Într-un cuvânt, un loc ideal în care să te retragi la bătrâneţe. 
 
PS. La sfârşitul lunii vor fi alegeri. Lumea spune că va câştiga stânga .

Starting October 19, 2009, we will be offering Yoga in English classes in Villa Biarritz in Montevideo, Uruguay, in front of the park.  Email us for the exact address.  

Schedule:

Monday, 7.30 a.m.–9.00 a.m.
Tuesday, 7.00 p.m.–8.30 p.m.
Thursday, 8.00–9.30 p.m.

Please arrive promptly, or 5-10 minutes early.  Private sessions are also available.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Please note: Classes are on a terrace, so there will be no class if it is raining.