A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. In some languages though, such as Russian, a double negative is still a negative."
"However," he pointed out, "there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah. Right."
First balloon flight in BritainIn 1784, the first successful balloon ascent to be made in England was demonstrated by an Italian, Vincenzo Lunardi before a crowd of onlookers in London that included the Prince of Wales and other eminent statesmen. He lifted off from the Artillery Ground in a brightly decorated, hydrogen balloon accompanied by a dog, a cat and a pigeon. Because of the impatience of the crowd, he left before the balloon was fully inflated, thus needing to leave behind his friend George Biggin who had planned to travel with him. Lunardi's flight covered a distance of 24 miles, and he descended at Ware. It was only in the previous year that the Montgolfier brothers made the first hot-air balloon ascent on 5 Jun 1783.« |
