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🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[The Seeker @TheSeeker268]

It's a shame no major film has been made about Biju Patnaik. He lived a life that sounds almost fictional:

In 1938, he flew his entire wedding procession by aircraft to Rawalpindi for his marriage to Gyanwati Sethi (who became the first Indian woman to hold a commercial pilot’s license, and the couple later flew daring missions together.)

While serving in the Royal Indian Air Force (including as head of Air Transport Command), he secretly ferried freedom fighters like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, and Aruna Asaf Ali to their hideouts. He also airdropped 'Quit India' leaflets to Indian troops while evacuating British families.

The British once jailed him for transporting nationalist leaders and distributing anti-British literature but also honored him for bravery in evacuating civilians from Japanese-occupied Burma.

During WWII, he flew daring missions delivering arms and supplies to Soviet forces in Stalingrad, and over the treacherous 'Hump' route to China in
support of Chinese Nationalist forces against the Japanese.

In July 1947, he and his wife flew a Dakota into Indonesia, landed on an improvised airstrip while evading Dutch anti-aircraft fire, rescued Prime Minister Sutan Sjahrir, refuelled using abandoned Japanese fuel, and flew him safely to India via Singapore.

A couple of months later, during the Pakistani invasion of Kashmir, he airlifted one of the first Indian troops into Srinagar.

The same year he founded Kalinga Airlines, one of India's earliest private airlines.

As Odisha CM post-1962 India-China war, he secretly visited CIA headquarters at Langley to forge a covert India-US partnership against China, which led to the Aviation Research Centre (ARC) at Charbatia, which supported U-2 recon missions over Tibet.

He was also a legendary administrator and statesman, laying much of the foundation of Odisha's industrial empire (mines, ports, heavy industries etc).

When he passed away, Indonesia observed 7 days of state mourning. Russia observed 1 day. He remains the only person in Indian history whose body was draped in the national flags of 3 nations - India, Indonesia, and Russia.

Few public figures have left such a footprint.

His extraordinary life needs to be brought to the big screen.

[Fermat's Library @fermatslibrary]

In 1962, Los Alamos physicist Darol Froman proposed using fusion engines (or perhaps an antimatter engine) to fly Earth itself out of the solar system before the Sun becomes a red giant

The plan called for grinding up the Moon as propellant, giving us a range of 1,300 light years

[Badger @Bertrom]

Lars Tunbjörk.

Swedish.

“Lars made you feel like you weren’t alone and that someone else understood the great abyss that stands before us”.

Sadly he suddenly passed away in 2015 at the age of 59.

[Iain Cameron @theiaincameron]

Well, once-upon-a-time, Marble Hill was indeed connected to Manhattan. The Kings Bridge spanned the Spuyten Duyvil creek to The Bronx. However, in the 1890s, it was decided that a wide canal was needed for a shipping route between the Hudson and Harlem rivers.

2/n

[ネコの時間 @neko2time]

猫を飼っている方へ。
あなたはきっと、「この子を私が選んだんだ」と思っているかもしれませんね。
でも、優しく見てみると、実は逆なのです。
あの子が、ずっとずっと前から、あなたを選んでくれていたんですよ。
どんな出会い方だったとしても、
あの子があなたの前に現れたのは、決して偶然ではありません。
猫がやってきた家には、いつも優しく起こること。
それは、合わない縁がそっと離れていくことです。
無理に離れたわけでも、喧嘩をしたわけでもないのに、
なんだか自然と連絡が減り、
気づけば心が少し軽くなっていた。
それは、あの子の温かい力なのです。
あの子たちは毎日、そっとあなたの家を守るように、
優しい波動を整えてくれています。
合わないものは自然に流れていき、
代わりに、心からつながる大切なご縁が、
静かに訪れてくれるのです。
あなたがまだ気づいていないだけで、
あの子がいてくれたからこそ出会えた、
温かい縁が、すでにたくさんあるはずです。
今夜、そっとあの子を撫でてあげてくださいね。
それが、あの子への一番優しい感謝の気持ちになります。

[𐌁𐌉Ᏽ 𐌕𐌉𐌌𐌉 @OrevaZSN]

The extinction of the dinosaurs is technically the highest ratio of birds killed with one stone.

[h @han0z]

@sidin Jagjit Singh - Ahista Ahista
https://t.co/8mFybmusLv

[BURKOV @burkov]

When social networks became popular in the 2000s, everyone started commenting on everything. The ratio of smart or useful comments was extremely low, and everyone saw how dumb the average internet user was.

Now we have millions of "apps" built by millions of internet users who write prompts. The conclusion about the intellectual and creative capability of these people will be the same, just learned from apps instead of comments.

Smart and creative people are rare, and in the 21st century, most of them have already found a way to realize their creativity. Everyone else wouldn't build anything meaningful, no matter how advanced the tools you give them.

[h @han0z]

@burkov After one poor experience in summer, the conclusion is to minimize European travel below London during certain months 🥵 🇪🇺

[Amy Mantravadi @AmyMantravadi]

Bought a used book. The previous owner had opinions.

[Ben Rothenberg @BenRothenberg]

Even if you’re only in the UK for three weeks each year for tennis, you’ve seen more than your fair share of British PMs quitting.

Four of the last six—and the last four men—all called it quits during Wimbledon.

[h @han0z]

@hogster @LWalksLondon We need an episode on the history of this for something the scale of London please 🙏 🫣

[TeD @tdubey]

The King will get his 4th Prime Minister before his reign reaches four years.
It took Queen Elizabeth II more than 11.5 years to get to her fourth Prime Minister.

[h @han0z]

“The proletariat got uniformity, and uniformity meant scarcity dressed up as fairness“

And apt description of pre-90’s India

[Velina Tchakarova @vtchakarova]

https://t.co/Hu51mptltt

[Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru]

On the longest day of the year, the sun sets in eastern Brazil before Ireland or Scotland.

[h @han0z]

@SustainableOz @ReemAmirIbrahim @renewablesmiffy Meanwhile friends in USA just turn the switch on - and enjoy lower cost electricity without the fancy paraphernalia 🤷‍♂️

[h @han0z]

@tdubey Isn’t the goalkeeper’s team being penalized?

[Fermat's Library @fermatslibrary]

In 1902 Bertrand Russell sent a short letter to Gottlob Frege. Frege had spent his life building all of arithmetic out of logic alone and his second volume was already at the printer. Russell had found one problem. Consider the set of all sets that do not contain themselves. Does it contain itself? If it does, then it does not. If it does not, then it does. The whole structure rested on an idea that contradicted itself.

Frege wrote back: your discovery of the contradiction has caused me the greatest surprise and, I would almost say, consternation, since it has shaken the basis on which I intended to build arithmetic. One paragraph brought down a life's work.

[h @han0z]

@SketchesbyBoze All? Kids are expected to know these so adults surely should as well 🤔

[Emanuel Derman @emanuelderman.bsky @EmanuelDerman]

When I watch basketball or football or baseball, I am always struck by the fact that cricket is the only sport I know in which there’s no way to foul intentionally and gain an advantage