Undulatus Asperatus Clouds

 A rare and mesmerizing phenomenon has recently appeared in the skies above New Hampshire: undulatus asperatus clouds.

Their wave-like patterns make the sky look like a turbulent sea turned upside down. Despite their dramatic appearance, these clouds are not indicative of storms. More often than not, they are just nature’s way of creating a breathtaking view.

First officially classified in 2017, asperatus clouds are the first new cloud type to be added to the International Cloud Atlas in decades. Their undulating shapes, formed by the turbulence of the wind beneath the cloud layer, shape the sky into waves that appear like an otherworldly scene suspended in time.

Solar panel on railway track

Railways has successfully installed solar panels between railway tracks to generate electricity for the first time.

The Banaras Locomotive Works in Varanasi conducted this experiment on its workshop line and succeeded. 28 panels were installed over a length of 70 meters. 15 kW of electricity was generated through these panels. This is a milestone for the railways in green energy innovation.

309 MW is currently being generated from solar energy at 2249 railway stations in India. Rajasthan has the most solar plants - 275. Kerala has 13. The railways also aims to generate 20 gigawatts of solar electricity by 2030 by utilizing the vacant land of the railways. The solar power project from the tracks is a different model of this. The panels were installed between the tracks without disrupting train traffic. These are durable and ensure efficiency.  These can be removed for maintenance and weather changes.

The Railways will extend this pilot project to all zones. The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is implementing a project to install solar panels at railway stations. A 125 kW plant at Kannur Railway Station is generating 120 kW of solar power. It will generate 450 units a day. This is one-third of the units used by the station. There are 284 solar panels on the roof of the station....

City of Nizams

 Hyderabad is the sixth largest metro city in India. It is a city of great historical, cultural and artistic heritage. It is also a geographical and linguistic crossroads of North and South India. Known as the "City of Nizams", this city is one of the most developed cities in India. 

Hyderabad and Secunderabad are twin cities located on the banks of the man-made lake "Hussain Sagar" built by Ibrahim Qutb Shah in 1562. The city of Hyderabad was founded in 1591 by Muhammad Qili Qutb Shah, a ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty.  It is also known as the “City of Pearls” and the “Istanbul of South India”.

There are several stories about the origin of the name Hyderabad, which is known as the “City of Fortune” in Telugu. The most popular story is that after founding the city, Muhammad Qili Qutb Shah fell in love with and married a Banjara girl named Bhagymati and named the city Bhagymati. Bhagymati later converted to Islam and changed her name to Hyder Mahal, and the city became Hyderabad, meaning “City of Hyder”.

As the Qutb Shahi dynasty grew in power and wealth during the 16th and 17th centuries, Hyderabad became a center for a vibrant diamond trade.

(The Kohinoor, the diamond in Queen Elizabeth’s crown jewel, was found in Hyderabad,  (History says that they are from the Ghanis)

The Mughal army led by Aurangzeb captured Golconda Fort in 1687. In 1724, Asaf Jah established power over Hyderabad. The rule of the Asaf Jah dynasty continued in Hyderabad until a year after India gained independence from Britain. Asaf Jah's descendants were the Nizams of Hyderabad who later ruled.

In 1948, Hyderabad joined the Indian Union through the "Polo Operation" in post-independence India.

Today, Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, is a major hub for the IT industry and education. It is also known as "Cyberabad".

Hyderabad's history is a melting pot of cultures and languages. Persian, Telugu, Urdu, English, and Hindi have all blended here.

The most famous monument representing the history and culture of Hyderabad is the  Charminar.

Standing proudly in the heart of the city, this building is the identity of Hyderabad.

It was built in 1591 by Sultan Muhammad Qili Qutb Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty.

The building was built to celebrate the founding of the city of Hyderabad and to express gratitude for saving the city from a plague. Charminar is located on the eastern bank of the Musi River.

Charminar was designed by Mir Momin Astravadi, an Iranian architect who settled in Hyderabad. It is a magnificent structure that has clearly stood the test of time.

The name “Charminar” is derived from the Persian language. ‘Char’ means four and ‘Minar’ means tower. Charminar means “Four Towers”. Each minaret rises in four parts, approximately 48.7 meters high.  The minarets are topped with copper-covered domes.

The square monument is 20 meters long on each side. The four minarets, which are 56 meters high, are rich in beautiful carvings. The walls of the minar are decorated with intricate carvings of flowers, artistic designs, and geometric shapes. Each minar has a winding staircase. There are 149 steps inside the minarets. Construction began in 1589 and was completed in two years at a cost of Rs 9 lakh.

Each side is 11 meters wide and can be viewed from all four main avenues. 

The architecture of Charminar is Indo-Islamic. It shows a fusion of Islamic, Persian, and Hindu styles. The construction was completed using granite, limestone, mortar, and plaster. The main avenues of the city extend in all four directions and from the four gates of Charminar.  In 1889, four more clocks were added to the structure on all four sides.

It is said that there is a secret underground tunnel connecting Charminar and the famous Golconda Fort, built as an escape route for the royal family in case of emergency. 

Historically, Charminar was the social, economic, and religious centre of Hyderabad. The Mecca Masjid built nearby was one of the largest mosques in the world at that time. In the middle of the Charminar courtyard, there is a small fountain built to provide water for ablution before offering prayers.

While laying the foundation stone of Charminar, Qutub Shah prayed, "O Allah, grant peace and prosperity to this city. Make this city a shelter for millions of people of all castes and religions."

Even today, Charminar is one of the most visited tourist attractions in Hyderabad, with tens of thousands of people flocking to it every day.

Love Lock

 A "love lock" with an inscribed locket

It was first seen on a roadside grill at Corniche Point in Luxembourg. Thousands of locks are locked to the iron fence along the roadside. Names are written on the locks. It was later seen on the Adolphe Bridge and in Cologne, Germany. The grille of the Pointe-à-Pitre in Paris was filled with millions of locks over time. They had to cut some of the locks out of fear that the bridge would collapse due to the excessive weight of the locks. .

This is a symbolic romantic lock that lovers use to strengthen their relationship. They write their names on the locket and throw the key into the river or the nearest body of water. They believe that with it they will never be separated. Husbands and wives also do this.  They believe that this love lock will never break. Today, this love lock can be seen all over Europe.

There is a story about how this custom started. This story first took place in Hungary. When a woman's lover went to World War I, she locked the grill of that romantic bridge that was always a truce. They wrote their names on it. They tied their never-ending relationship around their waists and threw the key into the river. They continued to wait at that bridge every day.

It became a custom and belief to strengthen the bond of love, and thus spread throughout Europe.

Tantiya Bhil- Indian Tribal Hero

The Tantiya Bhil are a tribal group from East Nimar (present-day Khandya district) in Madhya Pradesh. The Bhil tribe was a continuation of the mass and multifaceted uprisings that had been going on against the British before the 1857 freedom struggle and also fought against the British occupation after the 57 rebellion.

With the outbreak of the 1857 freedom struggle, the shadow of the British Queen spread over the rule of the East India Company. The unjust tolls and trade practices of the East India Company continued even under the new administration. Many tribal groups suffered from exploitation and tolls. Some of them held a grudge against the whites and carried out small and big attacks.

One of them was Tanthiya. Born in the early 1840s in the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh, Tanthiya lived by farming, collecting tobacco and forest products and selling them. The Bhils began to react to the exploitative system. Gradually, Tanthiya also joined the struggle. In 1874, Tanthiya was sentenced to prison. After being released after a year of imprisonment, Tanthiya expanded his activities. He and his tribesmen fought against the whites in the dense forests of the Patipo hills. The Bhils, who were unable to fight directly, used guerrilla warfare. Tanthiya and his followers resisted the whites, their spies, pawns, and brokers. They looted the treasures stored by the whites and gave a fierce response to their attacks. They also learned to steal British guns and use them. The treasures obtained by looting treasuries and godowns were distributed among the starving farmers due to the heavy tax burden.  It was also distributed among the poor.

Tantiya's unwavering courage and bravery drew people to him. He grew up as the leader of the Bhil tribe. Everyone respectfully called him Tantiya Mama. From 1874 to 1888, Tantiya Bhil or Tantiya Mama posed a formidable challenge to the British from the Bhil tribe.

The main weapon of the Bhils was the Gofan, a slingshot used to sling stones. They also used swords, bows, arrows, and implements in this struggle. Tantiya was captured by the British army and the British-Indian police several times. He was brutally tortured and died several times. He escaped from prison several times. With each capture and escape, Tantiya became a more dangerous fighter. Even when Tantiya was captured, his close associates, Dipya Bhil and Bijnya Bhil, continued to attack him.

In the raids conducted to capture Tantiya Bhil, his tribesmen and supporters were brutally tortured. Hundreds of people were arrested and imprisoned.

In 1888, Bhipya and Bijnya were arrested. Bhipya escaped from prison, but Bijnya was sentenced to hang.

The very next year, Tanthiya was also arrested. Tanthiya was caught in a trap on the pretext of a settlement and was hanged on charges of murder, theft, and sedition. It is also said that the husband of the woman who came to rescue Tanthiya on Raksha Bandhan day betrayed her.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After many years, in 2017, an incident occurred that brought the Bhils to national attention. It was during these times that tensions and stone-pelting by separatists were rife in Kashmir. The Bhil tribes wrote a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, demanding that they be sent to Kashmir and given a chance to confront those who were pelting stones at the Indian army.

 They also said with enthusiasm that they will cause ten times the damage that the stone pelters in Kashmir are doing with their gofan.

"We cannot tolerate separatists insulting the soldiers in Kashmir on TV and social media. We are ready to fight them. The fight is not new to us. The memory of the tribal leader Tanthiya Bhil, who fought against the British rule, is enough for us, and we need a chance to fight for the country once again," Bhil leader Bahadur Hatilla told the media at that time.

Note:-

Once a British officer came to a tribal village to arrest Tantiya. There were two or three officers and a hired man to carry her suitcase in the group. When the group reached Tantiya's house, they searched for a while but could not find her and were about to go back, when their hired man said - 'What, sir, are you not arresting me?'. There is a story that the officers were frightened when they realized that it was Tantiya Mama who had been carrying their suitcase all this time and left the place. Whether it is true or not, there is nothing that can replace the blood, pride and courage left by thousands who have left their mark in the history of the Indian freedom struggle.

Tsar Bomb (RDS-220)

The Tsar Bomb was the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated by humans. It was eight meters long, 2.1 meters in diameter, and weighed 27,000 kg.

Its official designation was RDS-220, but its codename was AN-602. It was also known by the names Big Ivan and Kuzmina Mat ("Kuaka's Mother"). The Tsar Bomb was the most popular name. The Tsar Bomb had an explosive yield of 50 to 58 megatons. 

The Tsar Bomb was 1,500 times the combined yield of the Little Boy and Fat Man atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and ten times the combined yield of all the bombs used in the seven-year-long Second World War. The actual yield of the Tsar Bomb was 100 megatons. It  Before detonation, its power was reduced by about half.

The Tsar Bomb was detonated on October 30, 1961. Location: Mityuzhikha Bay Test Range, Novaya Zemlya. Novaya Zemlya is an island in the northwestern corner of Russia, with an area of ​​90,650 square kilometers. A narrow strait across the island divides Novaya Zemlya into north and south. The Tsar Bomb was detonated over the Mityuzhikha Bay Test Range, which is adjacent to this strait, known as the Matochkin Strait. Although Novaya Zemlya is larger than our West Bengal, its current population is only 2,429. West Bengal has 90 million. 

In 1961, before the Tsar Bomb was detonated, the entire population of Novaya Zemlya had been evacuated.

The lightning that struck the Tsar Bomb was a thousand kilometers away  It was visible even from a distance. Although the Tsar bomb exploded four kilometers above the ground, the explosion caused a shockwave on the ground. The impact was equivalent to an earthquake of about five on the Richter scale. The pressure generated when the bomb exploded circled the globe three times. Windowpanes were shattered as far away as Norway and Finland, 900 kilometers away.

It has been mentioned above that the explosion of the Tsar bomb produced an explosive force equivalent to fifty to fifty-eight megatons of TNT. This was ten times the combined explosive force of all the explosives used in World War II, and it is estimated that this was more than ten times the combined explosive force of all the explosives used in World War II.

Excluding China, India, and the United States, just one such Tsar bomb would be enough to wipe out humanity from any of the remaining 243 countries. If it had exploded in the United States, only 14 percent of the population would have survived.  Suppose the Tsar Bomb had exploded in Russia, as happened to Bhasmasura: the entire human race in Russia, with a population of less than 150 million, would have been reduced to ashes.

That is just a theoretical statement. Even a bomb as devastating as the Tsar Bomb would only cause damage within a radius of five or six hundred kilometers. The entire population of Russia, which has an area of ​​13.4 million square kilometers, cannot be killed by a single bomb, of course. The same is true of China and the United States, which have an area of ​​about ten million square kilometers. India, which is 3.3 million square kilometers, cannot be destroyed by a single Tsar Bomb.

Suppose a nuclear war were to break out, and all the countries that have nuclear weapons were to use them indiscriminately. What would happen then?

It is estimated that there are 10,144 nuclear bombs ready to be used in the world today.  Most of these are five or six megatons each. Some are ten or twenty megatons. But for the sake of simplicity, let's assume that they are all one megaton each. So the total power of today's nuclear arsenal is 10,144 megatons. If 36 kilotons killed 200,000 people, how many people would be killed by 10,144 megatons?

The answer is 56.35 billion people! The current population of the Earth is only 7 billion. Today's nuclear arsenal is enough to wipe out humanity eight times over.

The Death of Brendan Lee

Bruce Lee was the first person Hollywood called the Thunder of the East. Even today, Bruce Lee's death remains a mystery, shrouded in mystery. Many have already said about Bruce Lee. Although death took him away prematurely like a clown without a sense of humor, Bruce Lee still holds the first place in the hearts of martial arts enthusiasts.

This time, I am not talking about Bruce Lee, but about Brendan Lee, Bruce Lee's son, who passed away prematurely like his father. 

Brendan Lee is credited with being the first martial artist child star

Born on February 1, 1965, Brendan Lee, the son of Brendan Lee and Linda Emery, followed in his father's footsteps at a very young age.  Brendan trained in Jeet Kune Do, a martial art developed by Bruce Lee himself, which emphasized balancing and free-kicks. Although he showed his talent in films as a child actor, the main problem that Brendan faced, who entered the film industry completely after his father's death, was Bruce Lee's fame. Brendan, who initially acted in low-budget action films, soon realized that if he continued to accept only the same type of films, he would have to leave this field before long. Brendan was waiting for a different opportunity to establish his own personality in the film, beyond being known as the son of Bruce Lee.

The Crow, a comic book that became a hit in the 1989s, tells the story of the main character, rocker Eric Draven, who is killed by an attacker and gains superhuman strength to open his grave and take revenge on his enemies. When he learned that James O'Barr, the creator of this hugely successful comic, had decided to make a film based on the same story under the same name, Brendan realized that this was the opportunity he had been waiting for and visited James O'Barr privately.

 Although he had Johnny Depp and Christian Slater in mind to play the lead role, James, who was impressed by Brendan's character and interactions, decided on Brendan as the lead character. That decision was not a mistake. Later, many of the mannerisms of the Joker, the greatest villain of the century in the Batman series, and the movements of Captain Jack Sparrow, who Johnny Depp played brilliantly in Pirates of the Caribbean, were displayed by Brendan Lee in The Crow.

Thus, the filming of The Crow began on a budget of $15 million, and with it, many obstacles began to appear on the shooting site, as if a harbinger of the great disaster to come. A carpenter on the site unexpectedly caught fire. A stuntman fell from a rope and was in critical condition. A crew member, who lost his balance due to personal problems, dangerously drove a car through the studio, causing extensive damage, and the set, which had been prepared for the strongest storm of the century, was completely destroyed. 

In addition to choreographing the fight scenes in the film, Lee himself performed all the fight scenes. Brendan Lee, who had lost about 20 pounds for the perfection of the character, looked very tired. 

On the day of the accident, heavy rain fell throughout the area and Lee shivered in the bitter cold.  Lee's manager, concerned about his health, who was drinking more than usual and unable to stand the cold, requested that the shooting not take place in this condition, but no one took it seriously. March 31, 1993 was Brendan Lee's last day on earth. During filming, two real guns containing bullets were accidentally included among the dummy guns. There are still rumors about whether they were accidentally left there or if someone deliberately left them. The scene was supposed to be filmed in which the protagonist Lee was surrounded by his opponents and shot.

 In the last action movie, Brendan Lee, who heard the director's loud call for action and walked into the middle of the enemy, said the cut forever. Brendan, who had a real bullet in his body, was immediately taken to the hospital, but he was too late. Although he was immediately operated on, Brendan Lee succumbed to his death a few hours later. The police investigating the case found no evidence of conspiracy or intentional homicide. James O'Barr, the creator of The Crow, withdrew from the production project due to the impact of Lee's death. The unfinished Brendan Lee scenes were later filmed with a stunt man and Lee's face was added in post-production work.

 The Crow was released in 1994, dedicated to Brendan Lee and his wife, Eliza. Brendan Lee was not there to see the film, which would have been a huge commercial success and the breakthrough of his career. Brendan was also buried next to his legendary father's grave.

Inventor of bicycle tires

 John Dunlop (1840 - 1921), inventor of bicycle tires, on his bicycle; 1915 photo...

Dunlop made the invention that changed the automotive industry in 1867. 

Dunlop, who emerged from his mother's womb in the seventh month, lived to be eighty-one years old without health problems. Dunlop, who worked as a veterinarian in Ireland, became a prominent brand name in the tire industry, but he had already sold the rights to his invention. 

Kirkpatrick Macmillan (1812 - 1878), a blacksmith in Scotland, had already invented the bicycle (early 1840s).  The first evidence of the bicycle was a local newspaper report in 1842 of a gentleman who had to pay a five-shilling fine for hitting a passerby. That 'gentleman' was Macmillan. 

The earliest bicycles were wooden wheels with iron rims. Over time, steel wheels came into being. Riding such bicycles was very difficult. Pneumatic tires were invented by John Dunlop as a solution to this. 

The truth is that John Dunlop did not actually invent rubber tires. In 1893, the American Charles Goodyear invented the process of vulcanization, which is the addition of certain chemicals to the bark of the rubber tree found in South America, making it strong and durable. Scotsman Robert William Thomson developed this technology a little further and invented pneumatic tires.  Bicycles were not popular at that time. Therefore, the world did not understand the use of Thomson's invention. Over time, the world forgot about that invention. Later, Dunlop's invention was a re-invention. 

Dunlop's invention was quickly applied to motor vehicles. In 1885, a German company called Daimler-Reitwagen invented a gasoline-powered motorcycle. In 1894, rubber tires were used for the first time in Germany on a motorcycle. 

A German engineer named Karl Friedrich Benz also launched the first motor car on the road in 1885. Benz used gasoline mixed with ethanol as the fuel. The Benz car has a history of losing control and crashing into a wall during its first demonstration run. The car's 'top speed' was sixteen kilometers per hour. 

Ten years later, rubber tires for cars came to the world's attention through a car race held in Paris. 

The method of filling rubber tubes with air, wrapping them around an iron wheel, and then securing them with a rubber ring was introduced by Philip Strauss in 1911.