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Brunelleschi and his visual experiment

     H e was drilling a small hole in the panel. For the past few weeks he had painted the panel with utmost concentration. The painting was of the Florence Baptistry and its surrounding, as it looked when seen from the Cathedral. There was something special in this painting when compared to all other paintings of that time.  Once done, he set the panel to face the view that inspired it. Now he stood behind the panel and leaned forward to peep through the hole. For an onlooker, all this might have looked crazy, or even worse he or she would have accused this painter of plotting something shady. As he was peeping through the hole, Brunelleschi picks up a mirror and holds the mirror at arm's length, in front of the panel. Now he was able to see the reflection of the painting in the mirror. As he continued to view through the hole, he moved the mirror in and out of his line of sight. It was now clear that he was trying to compare his painting to the real Baptistery. But, can't one

A ride across Sahara desert

     E ight days and not a soul in sight. But it wasn't unusual. A young driver was catching some sleep in his broken down truck, stranded in the middle of the Sahara desert. Luckily, eight days ago another vehicle had passed by, in which his companion had hitched a ride back to Algiers to get spare parts for the truck. Now all he could do was to somehow push the days, eagerly waiting, and eagerly hoping, for the return of his companion. For several days, a sandstorm was raging outside. So, he was forced to snug in his truck's cabin. Even if there was no sandstorm, all he could have done is to take a walk in a sea of sand, laid out in all directions. One would wish only to keep his sanity amidst such gigantic silence and boredom. As a Land Rover pulls up in front of him, he rubs the sleep from his eyes and climbs out of his truck. He was happy to see a human being after that long wait. In fact there were two people. He went up to them and briefed them of his situation. They ask