HUMAN PLAY-NET

CALL IT fiction paving the way for fact, or the vice-versa…it turns out to be the same. The likely future shape of things, as depicted on celluloid by the acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker Roland Emmerich in his movie The Day After Tomorrow , sent shivers down my spine. It has the potential to kick up a global debate on whether the mankind would actually witness the natural catastrophe that the movie talks about — the Ice Age , a fall-out of man-made environmental pollution . With the Green House fast turning into a “red” phenomenon for the concerned lot, the movie has virtually stirred the hornet’s nest: will the Ice Age be a reality one day? Well, the filmmaker asserts that the depiction of the catastrophe is more than mere fiction, and so do the scientists. An Ice Age occurs when the Conveyor — the massive system of water flow from North to South — shuts down. Besides, it’s is also said to be a fallout of a complicated interaction between various natural elements/celestial events suc...

“WHERE there’s will, there’s a way” will perhaps be the best way to say it all. It was a wonder of sorts as investor and philanthropist  Paul G. Allen , in association with  Scaled Composites , flew in the first-ever private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s orbit. Apart from being an individual rare achievement, this historic event is sure to throw open a whole new world of opportunities for private  space tourism , a term virtually unheard of until a few years ago. The spacecraft— SpaceShipOne —test-piloted by Mike Melvill on the 21st June 2004, reached a record-breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), thereby making him the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere as also the first private pilot to earn an astronaut’s wings. On the successful completion of the mission, Scaled Composites founder and CEO  Burt Rutan  said: “Today’s flight marks a critical turning point in the history of aerospace,” adding that “we have redefined space travel...