So you want to fly, but can’t afford the cost of getting a full Private Pilot’s Licence, let alone the price of your own light aircraft? Don’t despair. For a fraction of the cost you could still get yourself airborne – in a microlight plane.

Let’s clear up one common misunderstanding right at the start. [...]

Many ancient civilizations believed light were a gift from the Sun god. If he wasn’t worshipped daily, they believed he would show his wrath by disappearing. Then the Earth’s temperature would drop, rivers and lakes would freeze, and plants and animals would die.
The ancients knew many things about what light is. They realized that it [...]

A shaggy, marmalade ape of Sumatra and Borneo, the orangutan is the only excellent ape found in Asia. Known as the man of the woods in the Malay language, this bulky tree dweller has extra-long arms to assist it get around in the trees. The orangutan is not a fast swinger but moves slowly via [...]

Gorillas are the largest from the primates and also the most terrestrial from the apes. Females and young spend the night inside a nest of leaves up in a tree whilst the much heavier male sleeps at its base. There is only one species of gorilla but three subspecies. The western lowland gorilla lives in [...]

The earliest evidence of occupation within the region that makes up Belarus goes back towards the Stone Age, and the Slavs arrived between the 6th and 8th centuries AD. The region fell under the control of Kievan Rus in the 9th century, and this state brought Orthodox Christianity. Following a spell as Tartar vassals within [...]

As soon as part of the Soviet Union, Belarus is finding its feet as one of the new nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the headquarters of this organization is in Minsk.
Belarus covers an area slightly smaller than the UK, and has no coastline. It borders Russia within the north and east, Latvia and [...]

People are such meddlers. They turn sensible games into ludicrous carry-ons – volleyball on beaches, tennis on tables and hockey on roller skates. Some fool even thought that it was a great idea to play hockey on ice!
Ice skating is already a nightmare, without worrying about balls and goals and stuff. But surprisingly, everyone wants [...]

Assignment in Africa
If Bennett changed the way news was reported, his son and successor, James Gordon Bennett Jr, changed the nature of news itself. Rather than waiting for stories to arrive, he made them happen. His debut came in 1869 when he heard that a Scottish missionary was missing in Africa. He known as in [...]

Despite the new technology, most newspapers in Britain had been really dull. On 28 January 1855, for instance, the most prestigious from the British papers, The Times, printed a parliamentary report that ran to 30 columns – 61,500 worthy but turgid words. Things had been much much more exciting in the United States, where newspapers [...]

The first newspaper appeared as early as 59 BC, when Julius Caesar ordered the publication of a handwritten report detailing the Roman Senate’s proceedings. It had been not until the late 15th century, however, when the printing press was invented, that journalism got into its stride.
The very first printed news sheet appeared in Venice in [...]