Myth has it that Lord Shiva created for her a place in the bosom of the mighty Brahmaputra to please his wife Goddess Parvati. The island came to be known as Umananda (Uma is another name of Parvati, and ananda in Sanskrit means ‘happiness’). Once, while meditating here, he was interrupted by Kamadeva, the Hindu god of…
Cartoonist Stan Lee’s creation Hulk made his maiden appearance in the year 1962, in a comic series named after him – The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk is the alter ego of a timid and aloof physicist named Bruce Banner. His accidental exposure to gamma rays lead to mutation in him. He physically transforms into a…
Majuli (pronounced as mazuli) in Assam is a river island on the Brahmaputra. Spread in around 400 sq. km, Majuli stands as the world’s largest river island. Somewhere during the 17th century, a devastating flood that lasted for 15 long days split the rivers in two – the Brahmaputra on the north and Burhidihing on the…
At a busy crossroads of Enterprise in Alabama State in the US stands the world’s first monument in honour of a pest. The Boll Weevil Monument recognizes the contribution of the boll weevil beetles in the State’s agriculture. Alabama once served as a leading producer of cotton in the US. In the early 20th century, it…
If someone has a habit of rolling while sleeping, even a night’s stay at Hotel Arbez might buy them a memory for life! Also known as Hotel Arbez Franco-Suisse, Hotel Arbez lies bang on the border between France and Switzerland. The around-a-century old hotel belongs in a tiny village called La Cure, which, too, is…
Mersenne primes – prime numbers of the order of 2n–1 – are considered significant in decoding encrypted data. Currently, there are 49 such numbers (the square of, again, a Mersenne prime). The most recently discovered number equals to 274,207,281–1, which also holds the record for the longest prime number, with nearly 24,000,000 digits! The Mersenne…
