When Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the Bahamas he was so certain that he had reached the East Indies that he called the natives ‘Indians’, the name by which they are still known today. He found them a friendly, peaceful people. Spaniards who explored what is now the southwestern United States found the natives equally friendly. They lived …

 When you overturn a sauce bottle that has been left untouched for some time, chances are, either the sauce will not come out at all or a gigantic blob will plop down on your plate. Getting ketchup to �flow� out of the bottle can be quite an ordeal. However, if you shake the bottle before overturning it, the thick gooey …

The Flickr Founders — Tom Sawyer got it right. Why paint a fence when you can get your friends to do it for you for free? He would have been the perfect new-media mogul. Spending time and money creating content on the Internet is so hopelessly dated, so dotcom, so very, very 1.0. The secret of today’s successful Web 2.0 …

As day breaks, a reddish-white ball of light that we call the sun, rises. This red haze gives way to a golden-white sheen as the day advances and reappears when the sun sets in the evening. Does the sun really change colours, or does it only seem so? The explanation lies in-between. Light from the sun consists of three kinds …

Bicycles of many shapes and sizes have led up to the bicycle was know today. The ‘penny-farthing’ bicycle was first seen on the roads of England in 1871. it was invented by James Starley, who later became known as the ‘father of the cycle industry’. It had a large front wheel which varied between 100-150 cm in diameter, and a …

Trade in human slaves began in the earliest times and went on until the nineteenth century. But it was in the sixteenth century, after the discovery of America when the need grew for labour on the new plantations, that the slave trade began to increase. Its center was Africa. Millions of slaves were transported from that continent. The British, French, …

Violet and blue light have short waves and are scattered ten times more than red light waves by atmosphere. While the red light goes almost straight through the atmosphere, blue and violet are scattered by particles in the atmosphere. Thus we see a blue sky.

Tenzing Norgay, GM (late May 1914 – 9 May 1986) born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali Indian Sherpa mountaineer. Among the most famous mountain climbers in history, he was one of the first two individuals known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May …

A large number of people count snakes and spiders among their fears. Now, a new study claims to have unlocked the psychology of the common phobias. Researchers have found that contrary to assumptions that humans possess an evolutionary predisposition to fear the creepy creatures, it is the exposure to negative information about snakes and spiders, which causes phobias. “Previous research …

Teesta Setalvad — Journalist-activist Teesta Setalvad won the Nuremberg International Human Rights Award 2003, and a thumping victory over hostile witness Zahira Sheikh in the Best Bakery case. She’s yet another example of those who’ll stick out their neck and challenge the system, making her an icon for the youth. We have a glorious past. Preserve it. We have grown …