Missing in Venice

“Smack!” the sound Bobby-Joe made when he hit Nathan on the cheek. “Why did you do that” Nat retorted. “I am very excited”, Bobby-Joe defended. They are best friends. Bobby-Joe Washington, the tanned native Floridian was good at sports. In contrast Nathan Clarke was a Brit, who was great with computers and a bit geeky. They just won a cruise trip. And that was a reason BJ was excited. They were going to board the ship in twenty minutes.

The ship was luxurious. The ship’s name was “Wolfgang of the sea”, some people thought it was named after Mozart. But the truth was somewhat different, that we will discover at the end of this story.

The ship was on its way. BJ and Nat were headed towards the deck. Nat took his laptop with him to work on a project on the lounge chairs. Meanwhile, BJ was in his swim trunks and in the pool, enjoying the twisting and fast water-slides. While in the pool something or someone punched him on the back. He was down in the water. He couldn’t see the assailants face. All he saw were a pair of bright red eyes and a big moustache. He nearly drowned, but the life guard saved him. A week later, he was back on his feet. The mystery was still unsolved. But BJ was behaving as if nothing has happened. When they got to their room, the announcement for dinner was made. Just then… the ship went haywire…it was swaying back and forth. And because of its speed it was getting worse. Bobby-Joe looked at the window and he saw a bunch of buildings on the water. Literally on the water. There was no coast in site. In other words Venice!!! The place the ship was about to crash into.

“Holy cow, we are about to crash” screamed Nathan. Right before the series of cracking, crashing and splashing sounds. The ship wasn’t big enough to fit in the canals. So it was smashing into the houses (and people). Near or on the canal. Water was gushing in and the ship was starting to tilt to the left. The halls were filled with evacuating people. Two deaths had occurred on the ship (more on land). They heard an excruciatingly loud roar and scream of people.

BJ and Nat tried to evacuate. “That way!” BJ directs to the main hall. When they got there the first thing they noticed was massive wolf that looked like a zombie, had red eyes, and the captain’s moustache. He made the ship crash. And there pools of blood on the ground and walls. BJ and Nat ran to the first lifeboat. But right then the lifeboat took off, they were stranded. They had one last savior. BJ was a life guard and champion swimmer. So with Nathan at hand he jumped off and swam to safety.

There was no place flat next to the canals. So they had to climb the buildings to get on the roof. “Man what a rush” Nathan said, exhausted. “My first cruise ruined!” Bobby-Joe cried. A few minutes of planning out of nowhere came the werewolf captain. He attacked Nathan. Nathan tried to hit back, but the werewolf bit Nathan’s head off. And Nathan was down. BJ got so mad (and a mix of other feelings) that he ripped off a plank from the building and hit the werewolf until he died. He cried himself to sleep that night. BJ thought he would never go to a cruise again. Hungry and tired BJ woke up in search of people and food, in the rubble. All he found was a bottle of muddied spring water. Everything was covered in salty water and rocks. A few days of searching later he died of starvation and exhaustion.

Epilogue:

The MI6 and the FBI with EU tried to cover up the remarkable story. Nobody lived and that part of Venice was destroyed. The files of the incident weren’t found until 2011 in the Brentwood Public Library, while I was looking at the archived section, not publicly open to the public though.  The other find was a shabby little diary titled ‘Bobby-Joe’s Diary’. I didn’t have the guts to tell this ghastly story till today.

By : Farzaan, Noveber 2012

The Treasure At Hilltop

One Saturday, a very humid afternoon at 3' O clock my friend Shmit called me up and said "Why don't we go up to the Sacred Hills and search for Captain Dharak's (da rack) treasure. "We would be pioneers in history". So I shook on it. And he told me to meet him at 4:30 at Tricett Rd.

When I got there he handed me a backpack. And my reply was "Oh it is such a baggage, what is it?". Shmit snapped "A sleeping bag, cookies and some food". Then we set off. "I hope we see something sensible, I said. Later after a miles walk we stopped for food. Then Shmit said we should not move in haste.

As we walked we heard a howl. "I think it was the wind", Shmit said. "But wind cant be that loud". We heard a growl. Then something came to sight at once...A wolf.

"Get out your shotgun". I quickly reached in my backpack and got out the gun. I shakingly aimed at the wolf...and Bang !!! I have shot the wolf.

And then we ran. Ran till we could not see the place where all this happened. Of course we ran out of breath as well. After running away from the wolf, something hard hit my foot. "I think we should start digging" I proposed. And after that came to view a four-feet-ten chest. "Where is the key?" Shmit cried out. "Here, it was laying on the ground." I said as I gave him the key.

We opened the chest. We could not believe our eyes. It was filled with antiques. For instance a ten inch gold vase and a diamond ring and lot many small trinkets. I think we found something...amazing. This just made our day.

Epilogue: We gave the chest and the antiques to the museum. In return they gave us a lifetime pass for the museum.

Who invented the automobile?

Karl (Carl) Benz.

This question does not have a straightforward answer. The history of the automobile is very rich and dates back to the 15th century when Leonardo da Vinci was creating designs and models for transport vehicles.

There are many different types of automobiles - steam, electric, and gasoline - as well as countless styles. Exactly who invented the automobile is a matter of opinion. If we had to give credit to one inventor, it would probably be Karl Benz from Germany. Many suggest that he created the first true automobile in 1885/1886.

Nobody knows who invented spectacles

Roman tragedian Seneca (4 BC–AD 65) is said to have read "all the books in Rome" by peering through a glass globe of water. A thousand years later, presbyopic monks used segments of glass spheres that could be laid against reading material to magnify the letters, basically a magnifying glass, called a "reading stone." They based their invention on the theories of the Arabic mathematician Alhazen (roughly 1000 AD). Yet, Greek philosopher Aristophanes (c. 448 BC-380 BC) knew that glass could be used as a magnifying glass. Nevertheless it was not until roughly 150 AD that Ptolemy discovered the basic rules of light diffraction and wrote extensively on the subject. (The laws of diffraction was formulated much later by Snellius, between 1600 and 1620.)

Venetian glass blowers, who had learned how to produce glass for reading stones, later constructed lenses that could be held in a frame in front of the eye instead of directly on the reading material. It was intended for use by one eye; the idea to frame two ground glasses using wood or horn, making them into a single unit was born in the 13th century.

In 1268 Roger Bacon made the first known scientific commentary on lenses for vision correction. Salvino D’Armate of Pisa and Alessandro Spina of Florence are often credited with the invention of spectacles around 1284 but there is no evidence to conclude this. The first mention of actual glasses is found in a 1289 manuscript when a member of the Popozo family wrote: "I am so debilitated by age that without the glasses known as spectacles, I would no longer be able to read or write." In 1306, a monk of Pisa mentioned in a sermon: "It is not yet 20 years since the art of making spectacles, one of the most useful arts on earth, was discovered." But nobody mentioned the inventor.

In the Middle Ages wearing spectacles signified knowledge and learning. Painters of the time often included spectacles when portraying famous persons even when depicting people who lived before the known invention of spectacles. On numerous paintings the religious teacher Sofronius Eusebius Hieronymus (340 - 420 AD) is portrayed with a lion, a skull and a pair of reading glasses. He is the patron saint of spectacle makers.

It actually is true that eating carrots can help you see better. Carrots contain Vitamin A, which feeds the chemicals that the eye shafts and cones are made of. The shafts capture black and white vision. The cones capture colour images.
The oldest known lens was found in the ruins of ancient Nineveh and was made of polished rock crystal.

In 1718, Edward Scarlett, a London optician, put arms on eyeglasses to hold them on the ears.
About one person in 30 is colour blind. More men than women are affected by colour blindness.
Healthy eyes are so sensitive to light that a candle burning in the dark can be detected 1,6km (1 mile) away. The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colours. There currently is no machine that can achieve this remarkable feat