General Knowledge

Among the riskiest adventures human beings have undertaken till date, the attempts to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon is one of the most thrilling and sensational. It might sound bizarre, but it happened in reality. It didn’t however come overnight. Before the ultimate successful flight in 1978, fourteen previous attempts had failed with the loss of five lives: Malcolm Brighton with Rodney and Pamela Anderson in Free Life, 1970, Tom Gatch in Light Heart, 1974, and Bob Berger, the same year, in Spirit of Man.

The remnant of the ash is collected and made into a small pile. A crater is made on the top, and milk is poured into it. If the milk turns red it is taken as the sign of love. After six days, the close relatives of the dead go to the nearest river or pond and offer mustard in the name of the dead. On twelfth day the final rites are performed.

These materials expand into an enormous escaping atmosphere called the coma, which becomes far bigger than a planet, and they are forced back into long tails of dust and gas by radiation and charged particles flowing from the Sun. Comets are cold bodies, and we see them only because the gases in their comae and tails fluoresce in sunlight and because of sunlight reflected from the solids.

By Mahesh Paudyal

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world's wealthiest basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage.