DAY AND NIGHT AT THE SAME TIME

THIS PHOTO IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. BE SURE TO
READ THE TEXT BELOW TO HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING
OF WHAT YOU ARE VIEWING. IT IS HISTORIC TOO AS THIS
IS THE LAST MISSION FOR COLUMBIA ..

The photograph attached was taken by the crew on board the Columbia
during its last mission, on a cloudless day.
The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting.
Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities' lights.

The top part of Africa is the Sahara Desert .

Note that the lights are already on in Holland , Paris , and Barcelona,
and that's it's still daylight in Dublin , London , Lisbon , and Madrid .

The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar . The Mediterranean Sea is
already in darkness.

In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands;
below them to the right are the Madeira Islands ; a bit below are the
Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point
of Africa , are the Cape Verde Islands.

Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during
day time and night time

To the left on top, is Greenland, totally frozen..

Chilli - the world’s largest bull

Chilli is a black and white Fresian bull, weighing a whopping 1.25 tons and standing at 6 feet and 6 inches in height. Abandoned by its owner on the doorstep of the sanctuary he lives in today, when he was just 6 days old, back in 1999, Chilli grew up to become the biggest bovine in the world, according to Guinness Book of Records. According to Naomi Clarke, manager of the Ferne animal Sanctuary in Ferne, Somerset, the bull doesn’t eat as much as the other cows and yet he outgrows them by far. He’s also abnormally friendly and gentle.

You could say Chilli had a stroke of luck when he ended up in the shelter, because normally he would have ended up chopped into pieces and on the shelves of a meat market somewhere. Now he’s 9 years old and the proud owner of the title “Largest Bovine in the World“, nice going Chilli.

New 10 Rupee Indian Coin introduced by RBI

Its released and now you can have it on your pocket!
RBI is ready to issue a new bimetallic 10 Rupee coin for circulation.

The look: The obverse side has the lion capitol with numeral 10 and year of manufacture. On reverse side, a double line cross with a dot in each pellet of cross and denomination written in Hindi and English around. This design has been prepared by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad with the theme of Unity in Diversity. The outer side metal is Nickel-Bronze and the inner side metal is Ferrous Steel.. The weight of the coin would be 8 grams and the diameter would be 28 mm.

The coins are being minted at mainly Noida and Mumbai mint. The coins worth Rs.70 million was already stored in its stock till August 2008.

Hockey

The game of Hockey has been around from the time of early civilization. Some of the reports find the earliest origin of the game 4000 years back. Field hockey was reportedly played even before the birth of Christ. Basically known as the “ball and stick” game, it was played since ancient times in places diverse as Rome, Scotland, Egypt and South America. The game was referred to in different names but the basic idea of playing the game was the same. The most apt used term was “Hockie” by the Irish. Though the term was coined centuries ago, the word found its way through to the present generation.

In the 17th and the early 18th century England, the game acquired a fiercely competitive and chaotic form. Villages would compete against their neighboring hamlets and there were nearly 100 players in one team. The game was a matter of pride and manhood; so the game acquired a dangerous form. The game would last for half a month and many players would end up injured and grievously hurt. The umpires were there but they were more of mute spectators, who would make a call only if a team asked them to.

After some years, common sense and a logical and organized approach to the game came into play with the introduction of revision of rules. The game was limited to 30 players for each team. The Eton College of England drafted some rules to bring sanity to the game. The Hockey Association was formed in the year 1875 and some of the rules chalked out were implemented. The results were quite positive and more rules like giving the umpire enough authority were soon drawn to improve the quality of the game.

Source

History of golf

A History of Golf since 1497

Golf as we know it today originated from a game played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Players would hit a pebble around a natural course of sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick or primitive club.

Some historians believe that Kolven from Holland and Chole from Belgium influenced the game. The latter was introduced into Scotland in 1421.Chole However while these games and countless others are stick and ball games, they are missing that vital ingredient that is unique to golf - the hole. Whatever the argument, there can be no dispute that Scotland gave birth to the game we know as golf today.

During the mid-15th century, Scotland was preparing to defend itself against an English invasion. The population's enthusiastic pursuit of golf and soccer to the neglect of military training (archery primarily) caused the Scottish parliament of King James II to ban both sports in 1457. The ban was reaffirmed in 1470 and 1491 although people largely ignored it. Only in 1502 with the Treaty of Glasgow was the ban lifted with King James IV (James 1 of England) himself taking up the sport.

Mary Queen of ScotsGolf's status and popularity quickly spread throughout the 16th century due to it's royal endorsement. King Charles I popularised the game in England and Mary Queen of Scots, who was French, introduced the game to France while she studied there. Indeed the term 'caddie stems from the name given to her helpers who were the French Military, known in french as cadets.

William InglisThe premier golf course of the time was Leith near Edinburgh. Indeed King Charles I was on the course when given the news of the Irish rebellion of 1641. Leith was also the scene of the first international golf match in 1682 when the Duke of York and George Patterson playing for Scotland beat two English noblemen.

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