A computational study of 616 languages, using bilingual dictionaries, found which languages have unusually many words for each concept. Inuit languages do have a rich snow vocabulary: Eastern Canadian Inuktitut ranked top for snow, with words such as apingaut for the first snowfall of the year. Other high-ranking languages included several from Alaska, Japanese and Scots. The study also found that languages in dry regions, such as Nyanja and Shona, have many rain-related words, because rain matters for survival even when it is absent. The researchers caution that the method is crude and can reflect dictionary quirks.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.