FOOTPRINTS

The first known mention of Trick-or-Treating occurred in 1927.  

Nearly 600 Million pounds of candy is purchased for Halloween each year in the United States.

Halloween has its roots in the Gaelic festival, Samhain which when translated means "End of Summer".

Halloween is the second largest commercial holiday in the United States. It ranks second after Christmas  

New York City throws the biggest Halloween parade in the United States.  

The fear of Halloween is called Samhainophobia.  

For a mere $125,000, you, too, can purchase a trip to ascend some 20 miles into Earth's upper atmosphere onboard a luxury space balloon.   Space Perspective, a human space flight company in Florida, on Wednesday began selling tickets for its inaugural voyage way high into the sky at $125,000 a pop. The trip is scheduled for late 2024 aboard the Spaceship Neptune, a hot air balloon-style craft lifted by hydrogen. Anyone interested in the trip must pay a $1,000 deposit.     The company said it plans to send eight passengers on a "leisurely" ascension into space from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, an excursion in which they will reportedly travel up to 20 miles above the Earth's surface for a "profoundly life-changing" experience.  

As of 24/10/2021, 1 Bitcoin equals ₹45.50 lakh.  

Petrol price in India. Petrol for two wheelers and four wheelers in India is now 33% more expensive than jet fuel. ATF (Jet Fuel) in Delhi costs ₹79,020.16 per kilolitre (i.e., ₹79 per litre) whereas petrol in Delhi costs ₹105.84 per litre.  

Morning saliva is rich in healing and has anti-inflamatory & anti-bacterial properties and can help treat stye, pimples, acne, etc.  

D o Ghosts really exist? According to Science, Ghosts cannot exist. This is because, if they exist they will be made up of pure energy as by definition they do not have any matter. To stay forever they would need some continuous supply of energy. Even if they exist, they won't disturb you as they will be spending their own energy which will reduce their lifespan. It's all thermodynamics.  

If Jeff Bezos spend ₹7.31 crore per day, it will take him about 485 years to spend his entire wealth. His total networth is approximately $190.8 Billion (₹14.31 lakh crore).  

Birds have developed an ability that let half their brain sleep while keeping the other half awake. Researchers report that ducks manage this trick to stay alert for predators while still getting some shut-eye. The findings suggest that different parts of the vertebrate brain can sleep independently of each other.    Although researchers have known about this so-called "unihemispheric" sleep for 3 decades, they could only guess why this particular kind of shut-eye evolved in birds. But when filming mallards for a different experiment, sleep researcher Niels Rattenborg of Indiana State University noticed a remarkable pattern.    The sleep pattern is as important as the amount, says Jerome Siegel, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. Each animal has evolved its way to balance the need for sleep with the need for safety.  

They looked identical and even shared the same name, but the two prisoners pictured were actually different people and their remarkable case helped bring in the era of fingerprint identification. The man on the left was called Will West, the man on the right William West, and they were both sentenced to jail at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas over 100 years ago. The arrival of Will West in 1903 caused the records clerk at the prison considerable confusion because he was convinced he'd processed him two years previously. The clerk, M.W. McClaughry, asked Will West if he'd ever been to the prison before. West said he hadn't. McClaughry then set about taking his Bertillon measurements – named after the French policeman Alphonse Bertillon – which was the usual method of identifying people and involved recording the dimensions of key physical features. McClaughry, still convinced the man before he had already been to the prison, looked up his name in his filing system and fou...

To avoid being heard by sharks, marine iguanas can stop their own hearts for up to 45 minutes.  

Californian company the Gateway Foundation released plans for a cruise ship-style hotel that could one day float above the Earth's atmosphere. Then called the Von Braun Station, this futuristic concept, comprised of 24 modules connected by elevator shafts that make up a rotating wheel orbiting the Earth, was scheduled to be fully operational by 2027.    Fast forward a couple of years and the hotel has a new name, Voyager Station, and it's set to be built by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company run by former pilot John Blincow, who also heads up the Gateway Foundation. In a recent interview with CNN Travel, Blincow explained there had been some Covid-related delays, but construction on the space hotel is expected to begin in 2026, and a sojourn in space could be a reality by 2027.    "We're trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It's coming. It's coming fast," said Blincow.  

Facebook shares fall by 5% after Facebook, Instagram and whatsapp services crash down which resulted a loss of $6 Billion for Mark Zuckerberg. The crash down began around 08:45 pm IST and continued for 6 long hours until the services were restored. This was one of the longest failures of recent times. Mark Zuckerberg issued a personal apology regarding this issue.  

TITAN was formed as a joint venture between TATA Group and Government of Tamilnadu. The company was named after the initials of TATA Industries (TI) and Tamil Nadu (TAN). TITAN is the 5th largest integrated own brand watch manufacturer in the world.  

  CHONGQING, A  TRAIN SUBWAY PASSING THROUGH A BUILDING In the city of Chongqing, south-east of China, every two minutes a subway passes through a 19-storey building where hundreds of people live. Public transport Line 2 passes right between the building, and there is even a train stop called Liziba between the sixth and eighth floor! Chongqing is a city with over 32 million inhabitants and is considered one of the largest urban areas in the world. The idea of the architects who designed the subway route allowed for the city to utilize space without having to demolish the existing neighborhood. Residents gave their consent because, in addition to the convenience of having a stop literally inside their home, they also saw a sharp increase in the value of their homes. Liziba is the station located between the sixth and eighth floors of the same building and is one of the 25 stops on Line 2, connecting the three districts of the city center. The construction was completed in 2005...

A scorpion can hold it's breath upto 6 days, can survive a whole year without food and can climb almost any surface.

  ROLLS-ROYCE In 1906, Rolls-Royce introduced its first car, the Silver Ghost. After a record-breaking 24,000 kilometer non-stop endurance run, it earned the reputation as the best car in the world. Just over 7,000 Silver Ghosts were built. Approximately 75 percent of all Rolls-Royce motorcars ever built are still on the road today. Rolls-Royce was acquired by the British Conglomerate Vickers in 1980 and then purchased by BMW in 1998. BMW built a new, dedicated Rolls-Royce factory in Goodwood, England. The plant itself was designed to be energy efficient, eco-friendly and benefit manufacturing at the same time. The Phantom was introduced in 2003 as the first incarnation of the new generation of Rolls-Royce motorcars. It comes in 44,000 colours. Every Rolls-Royce Phantom begins in Unterhallerau, Germany where over 200 sections of extruded aluminium and 300 alloy parts are welded together by hand.  The Phantom has the largest all-aluminium space-frame car chassis ever made. In o...