Best Art

2011-04-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

Movie Review: My Name Is Khan (2010)

2 Stars (out of 4)
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The message of My Name Is Khan is a laudable one: good and bad people are identifiable by their actions, not by characteristics like race or religion. But a laudable message can’t excuse the fact that My Name Is Khan just doesn’t work.
MNIK‘s protagonist is Rizvan Khan (Shahrukh Khan), an Indian Muslim with Asperger syndrome. Asperger’s is an autism spectrum disorder usually characterized by physical awkwardness and trouble forming emotional connections with other people. As a child, Rizvan’s special needs demand almost constant attention from his mother, alienating his younger brother, Zakir.
As an adult, Rizvan is forced to move to San Francisco to live with Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) after their mother dies. Zakir makes Rizvan work as a traveling cosmetics salesman, an odd assignment for a guy who doesn’t make eye contact and who’s frightened by loud noises and the color yellow. Rizvan is capable of navigating San Francisco, but he’s better at following instructions than he is at improvising.
Rizvan develops a crush on Mandira (Kajol), a divorced hairdresser with a young son named Sameer. Rizvan eventually wins over Mandira with his persistence, and they marry. They live happily for several years until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Tragedy strikes the family, and Mandira — a Hindu — tells Rizvan that she regrets marrying a Muslim man. She tells him to go away until he can convince the President of The United States that he’s not a terrorist just because his last name is Khan. Rizvan takes Mandira’s command literally and sets off to find the president.
For a number of reasons, MNIK just doesn’t work. American filmgoers won’t be able to ignore the things the movie gets wrong about America. While the non-Indian American actors in the movie are actually pretty good (most Hindi films hire terrible American actors), characters don’t speak in proper American colloquialisms. Phrases like “piss off” and “bloody Paki” are British insults, not American insults.
The movie shows footage of a turban-wearing Sikh man targeted by thugs who mistake him for an Arab, establishing correctly that many Americans can’t differentiate between people of Indian, Middle Eastern and northern African origin. But the movie later attributes a beating to the fact that the character’s last name is Khan, a Muslim surname. This defies the movie’s own conclusions about American worldliness. Most Americans don’t associate the name Khan with Islam; they associate it with Star Trek.
MNIK‘s weakest element is the romance between Rizvan and Mandira. The movie spends a long time establishing that Rizvan, despite certain competencies, isn’t able to live independently. He’s not able to be a full partner to Mandira, and she often treats him the same as she does her son. It’s hard to understand why she agreed to marry him.
But, given that they are married, it’s incomprehensible that Mandira would be so cruel as to send Rizvan on a fool’s errand by himself. That she doesn’t feel bad about it makes her heartless, and the excuses the film offers on her behalf don’t hold water.
The movie tries to explain how Rizvan is able to execute a cross-country trek that spans years, but I don’t buy it. The movie doesn’t make it clear exactly how long Rizvan’s journey takes, but it would be almost impossible for anyone to execute, let alone someone coping with Asperger’s.
My Name Is Khan is watchable, but it ultimately fails by overreaching. It might have worked as a story about a couple dealing with the challenges of one partner’s Asperger syndrome. It might have worked as a story about a man who wants to show America that not all Muslims are terrorists. But compressing both stories into one movie is an impossible task, even for superstars like SRK and Kajol.
*AMC theaters list the movie’s runtime as 2 hrs. 25 min. It’s closer to 2 hrs. 35 min., plus 10 minutes of previews. Also, the movie has an MPAA rating of PG-13, though there’s nothing in the film’s content to warrant a rating stronger than PG.

Imran Khan's Prediction of the Semi Final of Cricket world cup 2011

2011-04-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Bollywood Movie for April 2011

2011-04-02T12:10:00.000-07:00

April

Release Date	Film-Title	Star-Cast	Genre	Director	Producer
Apr 1	F.A.L.T.U	Jackky Bhagnani, Pooja Gupta, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh	Comedy	Remo D'Souza	Vashu Bhagnani
Apr 1	Game	Abhishek Bachchan, Sarah Jane Dias, Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Sheirgill	Action, Drama	Abhinay Deo	Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani
Apr 8	Thank You	Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Sunil Shetty, Celina Jaitly	Comedy, Romance	Anees Bazmee	Ronnie Screwvala, Twinkle Khanna
Apr 15	Teen Thay Bhai	Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade, Deepak Dobriyal	Comedy	Mrigdeep Singh Lamba	Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Apr 22	Naughty @ 40	Govinda, Uvika Chaudhary	Comedy	Jagmohan Mundhra	Anuj Sharma
Apr 22	Dum Maaro Dum	Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Aditya Pancholi, Prateik Babbar	Thriller	Rohan Sippy	Ramesh Sippy
Apr 22	I Am	Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Arjun Mathur	Social	Onir	Onir, Sanjay Suri
Apr 22	Zokkomon	Darsheel Safary, Anupam Kher, Manjari Fadnis	Children, SuperHero	Satyajit Bhatkal	-
Apr 28	Shor In The City	Tusshar Kapoor, Preeti Desai, Alok Chaturvedi, Sudhir Chowdhary	Thriller	Raj Nidimoru, Krishna Dk	Ekta Kapoor, Shobha Kapoor
Apr 29	404	Nishikant Kamat, Tisca Chopra, Imaad Shah	Thriller	Prawaal Raman	Nameeta Nair
Apr 29	Chalo Dilli	Vinay Pathak, Lara Dutta	Comedy	Shashant Shah	Lara Dutta, Krishika Lulla
Apr -	Bheja Fry 2	Vinay Pathak, Minissha Lamba, Amol Gupte, Kay Kay Menon	Comedy	Sagar Ballary	Mukul Deora
Apr -	Mumbai Cutting	Soha Ali Khan, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sonali Kulkarni, Ranvir Shorey	Anthology	Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia & others	Seemanto Roy
Apr -	Run Bhola Run	Govinda, Tusshar Kapoor, Amisha Patel, Celina Jaitly	Comedy	Neeraj Vora	Dhillin Mehta
Apr -	S	Areesz Gandhi, Manisha Kelkar, Lucky Vakharia	Horror	Devang Dholakia	Falguni Mehta, Sandeep Mehta
Apr -	Shaitan	Arshad Warsi, Kalki Koechlin, Jackie Shroff	Thriller	Bijoy Nambiar	-
Apr -	Yeh Dooriyan	Deepshikha Nagpal, Kaishav Arora	Romance	Deepshikha Nagpal	Deepshikha Nagpal

World Cup 2011 Fever Ended As Pakistan lose semifinal to India

2011-04-02T12:07:00.001-07:00

Posted by Express Pakistan on March 30th, 2011

Shahid Afridi congratulates Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag after the hard-fought game, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011© Getty Images

The fire-crackers that had been stacked up and the euphoria that was building came to naught as India beat Pakistan by 29 runs in the Cricket World Cup 2011 semifinal at Mohali 30th March 2011 Wednesday.
The cheers turned into mourning and the smiles faded away into tears, as people of every age group – be it children, youngsters, the elderly – everyone just couldn’t help but shake their heads in despair for fighting hard till the last minute and reaching so close, and yet losing a match in which the fortunes of the two sides swung widely.
“We got off to good start, but then at regular intervals, we started losing two-three quick wickets. But when (captain) Shahid Afridi was out, all our hopes were completely dashed,” said Yousuf Bashir, an elderly resident in Lahore.
“I don’t want to say anything,” said a crying Khan a resident in Lahore.
“I am in tears, it is just not happening. We played well in this World cup, and after breaking the Australian jink, I was hopeful of breaking it this time too, but it just didn’t happen,” said artist Nabiha Hasan.

“Is totally shattered and heartbroken…”, Omar Jamil, CEO of PR firm Latitude posted on his page.

“Looking at the way Pakistan was playing, we had assumed we were going to party all night, but, it just turned out to be opposite. It is grim and sour now,” said Rahimtoola a resident in Lahore.

2011-04-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ijaz Butt welcomed Pakistan team players on their arrival here at Allama Iqbal International airport on Friday.
The players and officials who arrived here at Allama Iqbal International airport were Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Rehman, Misbahul Haq, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez, Umar Akmal, Ahmad Shahzad, Shoaib Akhtar and Wahab Riaz, team manager Intikhab Alam, coaches Waqar Younis and Aaqib Javed.
The players were garlanded and showered with flowers and a large number of cricket lovers were also present there to receive them on airport.
“Pakistan cricket team players showed superb performance and they should continue working hard to perform better in the upcoming international cricket events,” Shahbaz Sharif said during a media talk. “It was a remarkable performance on part of the team and reaching the semi-final was the result of their all-out efforts, hard working and collective team efforts,” praised CM Punjab. He, on the occasion, announced that he would arrange a reception in their honour and would award them cash prizes on April 5.
PCB Chairman said that he was delighted that the Chief Minister came here to receive Pakistan team players who really done hard work to reach semi-finals of World Cup and raised Pakistani flag in India.
Intikhab Alam, team manager, also thanked CM Punjab for receiving the team members. He said the team performed well in the World Cup but unfortunately they could not come up to the expectations in the semi final against India. “I am satisfied with the overall showing of the team in the mega event.”
Medium pacer Wahab Riaz termed his five-wicket haul in semi-final against India ‘a memorable feeling’ which will always inspire him to do better. He said the team was united and ready to notch World Cup but sadly they could not win the semi-final.

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2011-03-28T14:39:00.001-07:00

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2011-03-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

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10 Best Secret Islands Around The World

2011-03-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

1. Ulleungdo – South Korea

Ulleungdo Island is an ideal place when travelling to South Korea. Though it is a simple paradise on earth but it cannot be ideal for those seeking amusement parks or major resort sites. It is a place where you can relax, walk and watch the world going slowly. Ulleungdo is a quiet fishing town with just few hotels and restaurants for the travelers who visit there.

Hiking is a good way to explore Ulleungdo. It is worth seeing for those wanting to relax for a few days after a hectic travelling itinerary in South Korea.

2. Torres Strait Islands -Australia

The Torres Strait Islands are situated off the Cape York Peninsula in Australia. More than 100 islands form the Torres Strait stretching from the peninsula north to the Papua New Guinea border.

Only 3 of the Torres Strait Islands are open for the public where as other islands are only for the Islanders, who originally came from Polynesia and Melanesia. The population of the Torres Strait Islands is now more than 6000. Each of the Torres Strait Islands has unique cultures and languages.

3. Yaeyama Islands – Japan

The Yaeyama Islands are located in both the southernmost and westernmost inhabited islands of Japan. Together with the Miyako and Okinawa Islands they form the three main island chains of Okinawa Prefectures.

With their tropical atmosphere and rural lifestyle, the Yaeyama Islands are considered to be popular getaway destinations for those wishing to escape from the busy bustling life Japan’s metropolises. These paradise islands have beautiful beaches, snorkeling, diving and relaxation.

4. Socotra Island – Yemen

Socorta Island is considered to be the most alien-looking place on earth”. Split from the coast of Gondwanaland by plate tectonics, the four desert islands that form the Socotra group is a treasure-house of biodiversity, with thousands of plants and animals species found nowhere else on earth. Cucumber trees and the dragon’s blood trees are peculiar and ooze blood-red sap. Socorta Island despite being closer to Africa is administered by Yemen – the Arabian Peninsula, which keeps the islands off the tourist for many reasons.

5. Iles du Salut – French Guiana

The Iles du Salut Island, French Guiana group of French Guiana Northeastern in the Atlantic ocean about 11 Kilometers of Northeast Kourou comprises of three main Islands: Royale, Saint-Joseph and Diable, the site of infamous devil’s Island :”Penal colony” from 1862 to 1953. Originally the entire group was called IIes du Diable by their earlier known settlers; a group of colonists from France retreated to the islands in 1760s from the lowlands around Kou. The archipelago served as an out port for ships to large dock at Cayenne, the national capital.

6. Koh Yao Noi Island – Thailand

Koh Yao Noi Island is located in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, not far from Phuket, one of the last bastions of unspoilt wilderness in the area. It is considered to be the simple refuge from the bigger islands which has received the World Legacy Award in 2002 for its eco-friendly home-stay program. The island is privileged for having old villages, many of them remain just as they have been for centuries and dive in the pristine reefs. The island offers some of the world’s finest diving. In 2010, the island’s first luxury resort ‘Six Senses Hideaway’ at Yao Noi opened, but the company promises its commitment to create enriching experiences in a sustainable environment.

7. Sovalye Island – Turkey

Sovalye (pronounced ‘chevalier’ in Turkish) Island is located just 20 minutes by water taxi from the bustling port of Fethiye on Turkey’s Lycian coast. This is a car free island and no car means no roads and just rugged paths that weave through its forests and along beaches to the ruins of Byzantine and Romans, walls and churches. It is so close to the mainland that it gets overlooked by the excursion boats. There is only boutique hotel in the island. The 12-bedroom hotel which sits right on the rocks by the sea is the perfect base for tourists. Double rooms cost from £40 and the hotel remains open from May to October. The cheerful owner Handan Aydin treats his guests like family friends, leaving out snorkeling gear and dispensing picnics, dinghies and canoes.

8. San Blas Archipelago – Panama

The San Blas Archipelago in Panama South America is scattered of small islands of soft white sand dotted with swaying palm trees and gently lapped by clear blue-green waters. If you find yourself in Panama, and want to go off the beaten path, the San Blas Islands are the best. Forget luxury resorts – the only hotels are home stays in village houses and dinner is whatever the fishermen bring home in their canoes each evening.

The exact number of islands in the San Blas archipelago is unclear, but it is believed there are somewhere between 350 and 400, mostly quite small and home to only a few families, or uninhabited altogether. This is an autonomous region of Panama run by the Kuna people.

9. Penghu Islands – Taiwan

The Penghu Islands, also known as Pescadores in the Portuguese, meaning “fishermen” are an archipelago off the western coast of Taiwan. It consists of 90 small islands and islets covering an area of 141 square kilometers.

In sunny days the beaches and windsurfing seem very impressive. The Penghu archipelago islands have a large number of volcanic hills of basalt magma. Frequent erosions over the years have shaped the current magnificent geological landscape. Magnificent coral reefs surround them, and they’ve become a popular destination for divers, fishermen and snorkelers

10. Langara Island – British Columbia

Langara Island is part of the Queen Charlotte Island group, located within one of the world’s most diverse marine eco-systems. It may be on the border of the stormy Pacific Ocean but the island has plenty of protected inlets and coves ideal for sheltered fishing. The best season for visiting this island is from early May to late September, when you can expect to see dolphins, whales, humpback, porpoises and sea lions while bald eagles and falcons swoop overhead. For the perfect wedding and adventure, book into Langara Island Lodge where you can set out into the wilderness to fish and forage during the day.

Cute Animal Friendships

2011-03-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

5 Best and Worst of Laptop Designs

2011-03-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Laptops fever. Technology and concept have made up thousands of laptop designs in history. Some are best, some good, some bad, and some worst too, as per user usage. See the top 5 collection of best and worst laptop designs of history. Starting with number 5 for each.

Worst-5- Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 (2006)

The Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 is one of those notebooks that makes you question the sanity of its designers. It’s bad enough the system’s plain, black chassis comes straight out of Generic Notebook Design 101, but what thrusts this notebook into the realm of the visually offensive is the low-end copper strip that lines the keyboard’s perimeter. It makes the NoteMagix L80 look as though it were manufactured about 30 years ago, or that part of the machine was ripped away to expose the copper finish. It’s a shame that the notebook is so unattractive, as it packs some solid muscle under the hood with the included Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 GS graphics card and a speedy 2.1-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, but if you place any value in appearance, it will be hard to appreciate the power.

Best-5- Sony VAIO R505 SuperSlim Pro (1998)

As more people go mobile, slim notebooks are becoming increasingly popular. But when did the slimming phenom start? In 1998, when Sony announced the Sony VAIO R505 JSP SuperSlim Pro. It impressed the mobile tech world with its style and slim, one-inch-thick frame. That tiny frame packed a lot of power: a 30GB hard drive, 850-MHz Pentium III processor, and 256MB of RAM. (Remember: This is 1998.) Alas, Sony had to sacrifice the optical drive to get the system that slim. The R505 also boasted an eye-catching silver-purple lid and a bright purple touchpad and mouse buttons that tech fashionistas drooled over.

Worst-4- Sharp Actius RD3D (2003)

We’re all for pushing technology to the next level–but we have to question Sharp’s motivation for developing the Actius RD3D, other than to prove it could. Although it was the first laptop with a 3D display, the proprietary technology, which used a 15-inch XGA panel and a parallax barrier, didn’t always produce realistic three-dimensional images as much as it generated a lot of vertical banding, ghosting, and eye-strain. Of course, it didn’t help that this notebook weighed ten pounds and didn’t have Wi-Fi. But the death blow for the RD3D was the lack of 3D-optimized applications. You know a 3D notebook is a niche play when one of the included apps is a molecular viewer.

IBM 701C TrackWrite (1995)

Back in the day when we had to endure small, cramped keyboards, IBM thought it would ease the burden on our collective wrists and fingers by coming up with the TrackWrite folding keyboard. Nicknamed the “Butterfly Keyboard,” it was split into triangular-shaped pieces that meshed together like puzzle pieces to form a complete, full-sized keyboard as the notebook was opened; when the lid was being closed, the halves split and slid back into place. With the arrival of wider notebooks with more spacious keyboards, the TrackWrite quickly became obsolete, but it was certainly a winning idea that many still remember fondly.

Worst-3- IBM ThinkPad TransNote (2001)

As notebooks became more mainstream, many people found themselves debating the use of good old paper-and-pen versus the mighty PC. IBM attempted to please both camps with the IBM ThinkPad TransNote. The TransNote came in a folio case that featured the ThinkPad computer on one side and a standard 8.5 x 11-inch paper notepad on the other. The notepad sat atop an electronic digitizer that translated notes taken with a special pen for use in the PC. User notes could be organized into files and folders on the computer side; even searched through using keywords. While it certainly sounded like a good idea, the Tablet PC, which debuted the following year, was more in keeping with technologic evolution. The TransNote was more of a mashup of the new and the old. Plus, the digital pen was rather thick and proved uncomfortable to use with extended use, and the whole contraption had a massive 23 x 12.5-inch footprint.

Best-3- HP Pavilion dv2000 (2006)

There’s a reason why HP has become the top notebook manufacturer in the United States; besides being consistent performers, the systems in the Pavilion line simply look sweet. The company’s design renaissance began with the dv2000′s debut, which featured a stunning piano-black glossy coating and the wavy HP Imprint design. This pattern was the precursor to the recently released Radiance and Dragon patterns. If you doubt the impact of HP’s designs, take a look at what Dell and Gateway have done to move beyond stale pedestrian design for something more slick and eye-catching. Both companies have followed HP’s lead, Dell with more colors and Gateway with an in-mold design of its own.

Worst-2- Dell Inspiron 5150 (2003)

Bad design doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to a product’s exterior. Take the Dell Inspiron 5150, for example: This notebook’s heatsink was improperly designed and resulted in dust being sucked through the vent, which prevented the system from properly cooling. The overheating was so severe and prevalent in these models that in September 2006, a class action was made against Dell on behalf of Inspiron 5150 owners. They saw a settlement that resulted in 100 percent cash reimbursement for repairs.

Best-2- Apple PowerBook 500 series (1994)

Notebook newbies may take the ubiquitous trackpad found on their systems for granted, but those of us who have been tech geeks for more than a decade remember when trackballs were the only way to navigate the desktop. Trackballs went away when Apple designers emerged from their labs with what would go on to become the de facto notebook control method–the trackpad. Without any moving parts, the trackpad was far less likely to fail than the trackball, and the single mouse button used for clicking onscreen objects made the PowerBook 500 notebook the prototype for today’s notebooks.

5 Best and Worst of Laptop Designs

July 9, 2010 3 Comments

Worst-1- Apple iBook (1999)

The first-generation Apple iBook was one of those love-it or hate-it designs–we choose the latter. Featuring translucent colored plastics (Graphite, Tangerine, Blueberry, Indigo, or Key Lime), and a handle built into the hinge, it resembled an overgrown makeup compact. While Apple went on to produce the sweet-looking iBook G4 (in which we can see some of the sexiness of the MacBook), this machine, despite being the first notebook to house an internal wireless connection, gets the thumbs down for design.

Best-1- Acer TravelMate C100 (2000)

Before the Acer TravelMate C100, Tablet PCs looked like, well, tablets. They were flat, one-dimensional systems too clunky to do more than just jot notes, and there wasn’t software to organize your notes. Tablets needed organization, and that came with the debut of the TravelMate C100, the world’s first convertible Tablet PC. (The simultaneously released Windows Tablet Edition OS added the much-needed software component.) By adding a rotating hinge to the laptop’s 10.4-inch display, Acer gave mobile professionals the ability to swivel the display and lay it flat over the keyboard when taking handwritten notes or to use it like a regular notebook by typing on the standard keyboard

Top 10 AircraftIt design

2011-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Top 10 dead design Aircraft It has been 107 years, since Wright brothers made you up fly. Since then, man is busy to build up as many designs of airplanes as he can, sometimes creative, some time bogus, but the race of making the efficient design to fly away is not over, lets examine some of the worst or deadly designed

10- Tupolev TU- 144

Tupolev TU-144 was a Russian plane. It was the first supersonic transport and the only commercial plane to exceed Mach 2. The “Concordski” was fast but plagued by bad luck. Three crashes — including a dramatic mid-air breakup during the 1973 Paris Air Show — relegated it largely to a lifetime delivering mail. It was mothballed in 1985 but briefly brought back a few years later as a research plane.

9- B.O.A.C. DE HAVILLAND COMET

The Comet was the creative and jumbo commercial jet airliner and a landmark in British aeronautics when it gave first flight in 1949. Today it’s better known for its atrocious safety record. Of the 114 Comets built, 13 were involved in fatal accidents, most of them attributed to design flaws and metal fatigue.

8- HUGHES H-4 HERCULES

The “Spruce Goose” was either a brilliant aircraft years ahead of its time or the biggest government boondoggle ever. Since then, the largest aircraft ever conceived — its wingspan was 319 feet — the Spruce Goose was intended to be a military transport plane. But it wasn’t finished until well after World War II ended, rendering it both obsolete and irrelevance.

7- A-12 AVENGER II

Defense Department projects are famous for cost overruns, and General Dynamic’s flying wing bomber was a doozy. The Flying Dorito was the most troubled of the stealth aircraft projects the Pentagon embraced during the 1980s, experiencing problems with its radar systems and use of composite materials. When the projected cost of each plane ballooned to $165 million, a Secretary of Defense named Dick Cheney killed it in 1991

6- ROYAL AIRCRAFT B.E.2

With its anemic engine, poor maneuverability and gunner blocking the pilot’s view, the British B.E. 2 was doomed from the start. German pilots had no problem shooting them down during the First World War, making it just about useless as a fighter. It had no problems against German Zeppelins, though, so the plane lived out its days attacking them instead

5- BOEING XB 15

The XB 15 was the largest plane ever built in the United States until the Spruce Goose came along. The heavy bomber was so massive it had passageways in the wings and bunks for the crew. But big planes need big engines and no one made one big enough to give the XB any kind of speed for its maiden flight in 1937. The plane maxed out at 200 mph, and the U.S. Army Air Corps killed the project. The only XB ever built saw duty as a cargo plane in the Caribbean during World War II.

4- BEECHCRAFT STARSHIP

With its carbon-composite construction, unique design and rearward-facing turboprop engines, the Starship was a groundbreaking aircraft. But it was slow, difficult to fly and a bear to maintain. It took to the air in 1989, but Beechcraft only sold a few of the 53 it built.

3- LWS-4 ZUBR

The Zubr was as useless as it was ugly. Not only was it incapable of flying with the landing gear retracted, the airframe was so highly stressed the plane could disintegrate without warning. If that wasn’t enough, it couldn’t take off with a payload much heavier than a few cartons of cigarettes. The Polish Air Force had a few in its fleet during World War II, but none of them saw combat.

2- CHRISTMAS BULLET

Cool name, lousy plane. Dr. William Christmas didn’t know the first thing about planes when he designed one for the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and it showed. He didn’t think the plane needed wing struts, so of course the wings fell off during the plane’s maiden flight in 1918

1- HILLER VZ-1

The Hiller VZ-1 hovercraft must have looked good on paper, because it sure didn’t look good in the air. The idea was simple — a fan provides lift and the pilot steers by shifting his weight. The Defense Department loved it until it saw the Pawnee in flight. It was good for just 16 mph and it tended to be uncontrollable. The project was killed in the late 1950s.

20 Worlds greatest unresolved mysteries ever

2011-03-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

1. The mighty Incan Empire of South America

The mighty Incan Empire of South America flourished between 1200 and 1535 AD. They developed drainage systems and canals to expand their crops, and built stone cities atop steep mountains — such as Machu Picchu (above) — without ever inventing the wheel. Despite their vast achievements, the Incan Empire with its 40,000 manned army was no match for 180 Spanish conquistadors armed with advanced weapons and smallpox.
2. Ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt

Khafre (l.) and Khufu (r.) are two of the three ancient Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Khufu is the biggest, consisting of more than 2 million stones with some weighing 9 tons. The Pyramids, built as elaborate tombs for divine kings, date back to 2,550 BC. Modern Egyptologists believe that the Pyramids are made from stones dragged from quarries and, despite ancient Greek testimony, were built predominantly by skilled craftsmen rather than slave labor.
3. The Mayan Temple

According to the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, made famous by the ancient Mayan people, December 2012 marks the ending of the current baktun cycle. This little bit of information has many archeologists spooked. Some believe the Mayans were warning of a coming apocalypse, while others insist it’s simply a mathematical misconception.
4. The Legend of El Dorado

The Legend of El Dorado originates from the Muisca, who lived in the modern country of Colombia from 1000 to 1538 AD. In a ritual ceremony for their goddess, the tribal chief would cover himself in gold dust and jump into a lake as an offering. This spawned the legend of a lost golden city, which led Spanish conquistadors on a wild goose chase to nowhere.
5. Easter Island

Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, is remotely located 2,000 miles off the coast of Tahiti. The original settlers of the island were Polynesians who migrated to the far-off land between 400 and 600 BC. They built many shrines and statues, called moai, from stones quarried throughout the island including a volcano site. Researchers still question exactly how the large stones were moved.
6. The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle — located in the Atlantic between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico — is a thief, stealing planes and boats right out of existence. The area got its name after Sgt. Howell Thompson (l.), along with 27 Navy airmen, vanished from the devilish spot during a routine flight in 1945. Rumors persist on a supernatural explanation, but many specialists blame hurricanes, a heavy Gulf Stream and human error.
7. The Nazca Lines

The Nazca Lines cover more than 190 square miles in the southern deserts of Peru. The mysterious shapes etched into the land rival football fields and predate the Incan Empire. The ‘Las Manos’ figure (above) is 2,000 years old. Little is know about why the Nazca people constructed such vast pieces of sand art, some believe they are extraterrestrial in nature, while others claim they may have carried and pointed to sources of water.
8. Aliens
Area 51, located on Groom Lake in southern Nevada (c.), was founded in 1955 by the U.S. Air Force to develop and test new aircrafts – such as the U-2 Spy Plane, A-12 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter. The secretive nature of the military base, combined with its classified aircraft research, helped conspiracy theorists imagine an installation filled with time-travel experimentation, UFO coverups and alien autopsies.

9. Sphinx of Giza, Egypt
Another Egyptian wonder, the Sphinx of Giza has the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh, believed by most to be that of king Khafre. It was carved from soft limestone, and has been slowly falling apart over the years. A popular theory of the missing nose claims Napoleon’s soldiers shot it off with a cannon in 1798, but early sketches discovered of the Sphinx without a nose predate Napoleon’s rampage.

10. The Loch Ness Monster
According to Scottish folklore, a mystical creature called a water horse lures small children to a watery grave by tricking them to ride on its sticky back. The Loch Ness Monster became an English wonder in 1933, after witness accounts made newspaper headlines. No hard evidence of the creature has ever been recorded with several pictures, including the one above, being proven as hoaxes.

11. The Fountain of Youth
Don Juan Ponce de Leon completed Spain’s claim on America in 1509, and soon after was made governor of Puerto Rico. Six years later, following Indian rumors, he traveled north to the island of Bimini in search of the Fountain of Youth. Bimini turned out to be the peninsula of Florida, and the fountain remained hidden until July 2006, when famed magician David Copperfield claimed the waters on his $50 million Exumas Island (c.) had healing properties.

12. Chupacabra
Phylis Canion holds the head of what she is calling a Chupacabra at her home in Cuero, Tex. The strange-looking animal, first reported in Puerto Rico in 1995, apparently has a taste for chicken and goat blood. Although many pictures like the above might prove its existence, biologists assure none such creature exists.

13. The Ark of the Covenant
The Ark of the Covenant is described in the Bible as a wooden casket, gold plated, made for carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The casket was carried throughout the desert and remained in the Israelite Temple until its destruction by the hand of the Babylonian Empire. Its whereabouts are still unknown, but Hollywood made its own version for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’

14. The Stonehenge
The Stonehenge landscape of Salisbury Plain, England, has become a tourist hotspot. But before foreigners with windbreakers and cameras showed up, the area may have been a burial ground and ceremonial den dating back 5,000 years.

15. The Iron Pillar of Delhi
The Iron Pillar of Delhi is a 1,600-year-old, 22 feet high pillar located in the Qutb complex in India. The pillar, made from 98% wrought iron, has been astounding scientists by its ability to resist corrosion after all these years.

16. Stone Spheres in Costa Rica
Discovered in the early 1940s in Costa Rica during excavations by the United Fruit Company, these perfectly formed stone spheres date from 600 AD to the 16th century. Their makers and purpose still unconfirmed, many believe them to be some religious effigy made to worship the sun.

17. Mothman
A humanoid with insect wings and crimson eyes, known as the Mothman, terrorized Point Pleasant, W.Va., during the late 1960s. No solid evidence exists of the creature, except for a handful of witness reports documented in paranormal-journalist John A Keel’s ‘Mothman Prophecies’.

18. Jersey Devil
According to legend, 250 years ago a Jersey woman by the name of Mrs. Leeds cried out in despair during her 13th pregnancy, ‘Let it be the Devil!’ After childbirth, the baby was revealed to be a kangaroo-like creature with wings, and flew away to cause all sorts of Jersey Devil mischief. Today the Jersey Devil can be seen getting fans riled up during local hockey games.

19. The Tunguska Explosion of Russia
The Tunguska Explosion in Russia occurred around 7:14 a.m. on June 30, 1908. To this date, the exact cause of the explosion – which leveled 80 million trees over 830 square miles – remains a heated debate. Most believe it to be caused by a meteoroid fragment, others insist either a black hole or UFO origin.

20. The Lost City of Atlantis
The Lost City of Atlantis was introduced to the West 2,400 years ago by Plato, who claimed it to be the island home of an advanced society. Legend says it was sunk by an earthquake, with later interpretations as an underwater kingdom protected by mermaids. Its whereabouts still a mystery, recent underwater evidence suggests it was once apart of a larger landmass in Cyprus off the Mediterranean (c.), but the only true Atlantis exists in the Bahamas as a grand casino and resort hotel.

Peace Sign: The Most Awesome Symbol Ever

2011-03-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

50 years had passed. Another 100 will pass and there is always going to be someone who is wondering what is that mark standing for. It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.Many people have speculated on just what the symbol represents; some religious zealots even claim it signifies Christ on the cross with arms broken, or a Teutonic rune representing death and despair. But the truth is not so mysterious.

What does it mean?

One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain it is recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament —and in particular as the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). It was designed from the naval code of semaphore, and the symbol represents the code letters for ND which means Nuclear Disarmament.The circle, representing the concept of total or complete, surrounds the N and D signifying total or complete nuclear disarmament.
In the United States and much of the rest of the world it is known more broadly as the peace symbol. It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several smaller organisations that came together to set up CND.
The Direct Action Committee had already planned what was to be the first major anti-nuclear march, from London to Aldermaston, where British nuclear weapons were and still are manufactured. It was on that march, over the 1958 Easter weekend that the symbol first appeared in public. Five hundred cardboard lollipops on sticks were produced. Half were black on white and half white on green. Just as the church’s liturgical colours change over Easter, so the colours were to change, “from Winter to Spring, from Death to Life.” Black and white would be displayed on Good Friday and Saturday, green and white on Easter Sunday and Monday.
The first badges were made by Eric Austin of Kensington CND using white clay with the symbol painted black. Again there was a conscious symbolism. They were distributed with a note explaining that in the event of a nuclear war, these fired pottery badges would be among the few human artifacts to survive the nuclear inferno. These early ceramic badges can still be found and one, lent by CND, was included in the Imperial War Museum’s 1999/2000 exhibition ”From the Bomb to the Beatles”.

Later, in a letter, Holtom also admitted that the symbol reflected his mood at the time. “I was in despair,” he wrote. “Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya’s peasant before the firing squad. I formalized the drawing into a line and put a circle around it.”
American journalist and playwright Herb Greer adds support for the Holtom explanation. He reported, “I was actually there on and before the first Aldermaston march for which it was created. I visited Holtom, I saw the original sketches and discussed it with him.”
Ken Kolsbun, author of the book Peace: The Biography of a Symbol, reported that Holtom expressed regret in not designing the peace symbol with the joyful lifting of arms towards the sky. For most of Holtom’s life he would draw only the upright peace symbol. Holtom requested that the upright peace symbol be placed on his tombstone in Kent, England. If we take a look on the picture of his tombstone, we’ll see that his wish was unfortunately ignored.

While it appears reasonable that the modern day peace symbol comes from Gerald Holtom, this logic fails to address the fact that the symbol has been used for evil both in modern times and for thousands of years.
This same symbol was used by Hitler’s 3rd Panzer Division from 1941 to 1945. The image on the left is the regimental 3rd Panzer Division symbol. Soviet, Polish, and Hungarian citizens, having suffered from the Nazi massacres, undoubtedly struggled with Holtom’s use of the symbol as a thoughtful way to communicate peace. The symbol can also be found on some of Hitler’s SS soldiers’ tombstones.
Another flaw in the Holtom creation story is the use of the symbol as an anti-Christian symbol by the Saracens as early as 711 A.D.For the Saracens, the image placed on their shields symbolized the breaking of the Christian cross. For some the broken cross was equated to a satanic symbol known as the raven’s craw or witch’s foot. While Holtom may not have known the historical meaning of the peace symbol, Bertrand Russell was a historian and member of the Fabian Society. A 1970 article in the American Opinion magazine claimed Russell knew the historical occult meaning and intentionally selected an “anti-Christian design long associated with Satanism.”
The fifth and final Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Nero (born Lucius Domitius Ahenabarbus 37 – 68 AD), is remembered in history for persecuting Christians. Nero’s rule was so wicked he even had his mother executed. The First Roman-Jewish War (66 – 70 AD) started during his reign and today the term “Nero Cross” is the symbol of the “broken Jew” or “broken cross.” The most famous person believed to be crucified by Nero was the Apostle Peter. To symbolize humility and unworthiness in comparison to Christ, Peter requested that he be crucified with his head toward the ground. As a result of Peter’s death the upside down cross was used by early Christians as a positive symbol for peace.

The symbol of the upside down cross changes its meaning when the person on the upside down cross is no longer Peter but Jesus. Anti-religious and satanic groups use the “Nero Cross” or inverted “Latin Cross” to symbolize everything opposite of Christianity. Today this is clearly illustrated by “black metal” or heavy metal music lyrics and imagery that communicate anti-Christian sentiments. In addition to musicians, film makers have reinforced the notion that the upside down cross is an anti-Christian symbol as illustrated by The Omen in 1976 and The Exorcism of Emily Rose in 2005.
The symbol has also been used to communicate support for communism. Bertrand Russell once said: “There is no hope in anything but the Soviet way.” Governments–both those who supported communism and those opposed to it–have perceived benefits in aligning the peace symbol with communist ideology. For people like Bertrand Russell, the author of the 1927 essay Why I Am Not Christian, the symbol represented not only a pro-communism meaning but peace without God.

CND has never registered the sign as a trademark, arguing that “a symbol of freedom, it is free for all”. It has now appeared on millions of mugs, T-shirts, rings and nose-studs. Bizarrely, it has also made an appearance on packets of Lucky Strike cigarettes.A decade ago, the sign was chosen during a public vote to appear on a US commemorative postage stamp saluting the 1960s.The symbol that helped define a generation of baby boomers may not be as widely used today as in the past. It is in danger of becoming to many people a retro fashion item, although the Iraq war has seen it re-emerge with something like its original purpose.
“It is still the dominant peace sign,” argues Lawrence Wittner, an expert on peace movements at the University at Albany in New York.”Part of that is down to its simplicity. It can be used as a shorthand for many causes because it can be reproduced really quickly – on walls on floors, which is important, in say, repressive societies.”
And can its success be measured? Fifty years on, wars have continued to be waged and the list of nuclear-armed states has steadily lengthened.But the cup is half-full as well as half empty.
“There are many ways in which nuclear war has been prevented,” says Mr Wittner. “The hawks say that the reason nuclear weapons have not been used is because of the deterrent. But I believe popular pressure has restrained powers from using them and helped curbed the arms race.And the symbol of and inspiration for that popular pressure, says Mr Wittner, is Mr Holtom’s graphic.

“Today because many people carry the symbol without understanding the history, we miss an opportunity to address historical uses and move forward to reclaim the symbol for good.When you see the peace symbol, I encourage you to see the person displaying it as communicating a message of love.If you display the peace symbol, my recommendation is point the arms of the peace symbol toward the sky to honor Holtom’s wish, address historical objections, and communicate love of all people.”Dave Dionisi, Teach Peace Foundation

Duck, everybody: two asteroids to zip close by Earth today

2011-03-25T13:54:00.001-07:00

Later today, two asteroids will swing so close to the Earth that they pass between us and the orbit of the moon.
Anyone with a reasonable-sized amateur telescope should be able to spot the objects, which are both a few meters in diameter. However, because they are moving so fast, observers will need sharp eyes.
Neither has any chance of hitting Earth, says NASA.
The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona, discovered both objects on Sunday morning, during a routine scan of the skies. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachussetts worked out the orbits.
Near-Earth asteroid 2010 RX30 is estimated to be 10 to 20 meters in size and will pass within 248,000 kilometers of the earth at 2:51am PDT today. The second object, 2010 RF12, is a little smaller at around 6 to 14 meters in size, but will come even closer, at 79,000 kilometers from Earth, at 2:12pm PDT.
What's unusual is for two asteroids to make such close passes at almost the same time. In fact, with around 50 million undiscovered asteroids out there, NASA reckons the odds are that one this size passes this close almost daily. One might strike Earth's atmosphere about every 10 years on average, it says.
More worrying is an asteroid predicted to arrive in 2182, which has a one-in-a-thousand chance of hitting Earth unless it is deflected.
Earlier this year, a new telescope in Hawaii started searching for potentially dangerous asteroids. However, the National Academy of Sciences recently warned that NASA's near-Earth asteroid tracking program may be in danger of running out of funds.

Child Abuse

2011-03-25T13:35:00.001-07:00

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/60058/child_abuse/

Volcano Creat Hole

2011-03-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Stunning pictures of the volcano that blew a hole in the sky as astronauts witness eruption from International Space Station

By Eddie Wrenn
Last updated at 7:46 PM on 25th June 2009

Framed by a circle of clouds, this is a stunning illustration of Nature's powerful force.

A plume of smoke, ash and steam soars five miles into the sky from an erupting volcano.

The extraordinary image was captured by the crew of the International Space Station 220 miles above a remote Russian island in the North Pacific.

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Bird's eye view: Safe from harm, NASA scientists look down on the Sarychev Peak volcano as the dramatic eruption takes place. The force of the blast sends clouds scattering

The round hole in the clouds is thought to have been caused by the shockwave of the initial explosion. At the centre lies the billowing mushroom tower of grey and brown ash.

For volcano experts, the most exciting part of the image is the layer of smooth white cloud that caps the plume - a little like a layer of snow on a mushroom.

This cap of condensed air is created from the rapid rising and then cooling of the air directly above the ash column. When moist, warm air rises quickly it creates a cloud.

As the ISS continues its perfectly-timed flyby, the eruption continues unabated. The perfect 'plume' at the top of the volcano implies there is no shearing wind, which would have disrupted the pattern

Stretching behind the volcano lies the vast shadow caused by the eruption, as the blast continues to grow

This cap, which meteorologists call a pileus cloud, is already beginning to break up in these images - and would have vanished soon afterwards.

Far below, a thunderous line of light grey cloud can be seen falling down the sloping sides of the volcano.

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This is a deadly pyroclastic flow - a mixture of hot gas and ash that destroys everything in its path.

Reaching temperatures of 600C (1,112F) and moving at 130mph, a pyroclastic flow is the most dangerous part of a volcanic eruption.

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Where in the world? Sarychev Peak is to the north of Japan and east of Russia

Thankfully, Matua Island is uninhabited. The eruption of Sarychev Peak began a week ago and is still under way. The International Space Station has continued to track the ash cloud over the last few days.

The plume is a few hundred miles from one of the world's busiest air corridors. Hundreds of flights across the Pacific have been diverted to avoid any chance of it knocking out plane engines.

Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in Russia's Kuril archipelago. Eruptions have been recorded as far back as the 1700s, with the last known one in 1989.

These images show the plume drifting through the atmosphere in the hours and days after the eruption

Between the two overpasses on June 14, the ash spread north and west from the volcano

By June 15, the ash had spread out to the east and west

You've seen the hole in the clouds - now see the hole in the universe:

A hole in the clouds is one thing, but a hole in the fabric of the universe is quite another.
With interstellar matter evenly distributed across the skies, this black anomaly is a bit of a head-scratcher - is it a black hole? A worm-hole? A stairway to Heaven? Or just the start of the collapse of the universe, which doomsayers assure us will start in 2012?
No, it's none of these things. Instead, its a dark molecular cloud - a mass of of dust and gases which combine to blank out all the visible light from the background stars.
Many of these 'dark absorption nebulae' have been discovered across the galaxy, with this one called Barnard 68 in the Ophiuchus constellation.

NASA's picture of the 'hole in the sky' - now known to be a dark molecular cloud absorbing all the visible light from stars behind it

Measurements place this at a relatively close 500 light years away - much further away and the odds are there would be stars visible in front of Barnard 68.
It is calculated to be about half-a-light year across (a light-year being the distance light can travel through a vacuum in the course of a year).
How they are formed is unknown, but clouds such as this are thought to be a birthing place for new stars.

bridge shakes during earthquake

2011-03-25T05:25:00.000-07:00

Battledore and Shuttlecock

2011-03-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Battledore and Shuttlecock or Jeu de Volantis is an early game similar to that of modern Badminton.
This game is played by two persons with small rackets, called battledores, made of parchment or rows of gut stretched across wooden frames, and shuttlecocks, made of a base of some light material, like cork, with trimmed feathers fixed round the top.
The object of the players is to bat the shuttlecock from one to the other as many times as possible without allowing it to fall to the ground.
Games with a shuttlecock are believed to have originated in ancient Greece about 2000 years ago. From there they spread via the Indo-Greek kingdoms to India and then further east to China and Siam.
There are Greek drawings extant representing a game almost identical with battledore and shuttlecock, and it has been popular in India, China, Japan, and Siam for at least 2000 years. In Europe it has been played by children for centuries. A further development is Badminton.

History of Football

2011-03-24T16:47:00.001-07:00

ootball also known as American Football is a sport played between two teams competing for territory on a football field using a ball and set play. The objective of the game is getting the ball to the opposing team's goal line by either scoring a running touchdown or by kicking the ball over the post and between the uprights of the goal. It is not like soccer which has a goal keeper; instead it is more similar to Rugby and Australian Rules football.

Rugby which was the predecessor of Football was invented in England during 1860s. Its forerunners are similar to soccer and dates back to the middle ages when groups of rival villages competed to score a goal against each other.

In England during the 1860s, some schools, universities and clubs got together to form a set of rules allowing different teams from different schools and districts to play with each other. The published rules were the predecessor of modern soccer. However, every teams did not accept them and chose make their own code known as rugby.

The rules of football date back to the English parent games. American Football is also native to North America and old versions were played in the early 1800s in Princeton. The game was called ‘Ballown' and it eventually became known as football but the rules kept on changing.

A similar form of game was played at Harvard University which was greatly enjoyed by senior students. The game was called ‘Bloody Monday' as it was played on first Monday of the academic year.

When the rules of rugby and soccer were agreed on in England, the US entered a new period of prosperity brought about by the end of the civil war. Princeton and Rutgers created their own rules and played the very first intercollegiate game of football on the 6th November 1869.

When the intercollegiate games were admired, the representatives from Princeton, Rutgers, Columbia and Yale met to formulate a set of rules to be used for future intercollegiate games. They established the Intercollegiate Football Association and adopted many of the rules of rugby.

Football in the Americas was very much similar to rugby had its dissenters. One was Walter Camp of Yale who wanted a shorter playing field and fewer players.

American style football became more popular with Americans than the older rugby styled game. Colleges in the US soon adopted Camps new rules and established American Football as the leading football code.

During the 1890s, many colleges banned the game for being very rough with serious injuries. Later President Roosevelt called on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), successor to IFA, to eliminate brutality from the game. Changes were made which were so successful to American Football that non college teams based around community athletic clubs formed and began to compete against each other.

Professional football and the NFL started to dominate with increasing viewers by the 1950s. A rival association called the American Football League (AFL) started in areas not already serviced by NFL teams and quickly competed for the best players, viewers and network broadcasting contracts numbers, and network broadcasting contracts. In 1970, NFL and AFL were merged and expressed as an important moment in the history of American Football. A stronger league also emerged and created the Super Bowl as its defining championship game.

History of cricket

2011-03-24T15:36:00.001-07:00

Cricket is undoubtedly one of the most popular games in the world. The game probably originated as a pastime for shepherd children in England and survived for centuries before the first known match was played between English Counties in 1709. In the 18th century cricket left the shores of England and entered the various British Colonies like the West Indies and India and then into Australia when it was colonized in 1788. This was followed by its introduction in New Zealand and South Africa in the beginning of the 19th century.
The first laws of cricket were brought into force and subsequently amended in 1774, when new items like the leg before wicket rule, middle stump and the maximum permissible width of a bat were added to the existing rules. These laws also held that the principals or captains would choose a couple of gentlemen from the crowds present to settle all disputes to be known as umpires. The codes were formulated by the Star and Garter Club whose members subsequently formed the Marylebourne Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord’s Cricket ground in 1787. The MCC thereafter became the custodian of the Laws and has been responsible for all changes, alterations made to it.
Initially bowling was done by rolling the ball all along the ground but later bowlers started tossing the ball up and came with variations to the movement of the ball in the air or after pitching and the arts of swing and seam and spin bowling were born. The overarm bowling action was formally legalized only as late as 1864.Initially the bats were shaped like hockey sticks which were effective when the ball was rolled along the ground, were totally useless against swing bowling and the first straight edged bat was born.
Probably the Greatest of England cricketers, Sir W.G.Grace, made his debut in first class cricket 1865. His skills were exemplary and he brought numerous technical changes which was widely acclaimed. He, incidentally was the only ever victim of Sherlock Holme’s creator Arthur Conan Doyle in a county match.
In 1877, and English side went over to and played two matches against the Australian national side. These were the first Test matches ever played. In reply the Australians toured England in the following year for the first time. But the most famous tour came about in 1882 and the legendary match at The Oval gave rise to The Ashes, which to this day remains the most famous cricket trophy in the World. South Africa became the third Test playing nation in the year 1889. The rest of the major Test playing nations started playing much later.