Calder says despite all the dissatisfaction, it is important to bear in mind this is the "golden age of flying".

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"Seeing these fun, silly things takes your mind off what is normally a very tedious or uncomfortable situation, " Barish said of flying.

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Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir then gave India a flying start, rattling up 73 in barely nine overs before Sehwag changed his mind about a second run while Gambhir was in mid-pitch, leading to him being run-out.

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But the researchers who have been flying a balloon-borne telescope in Antarctica seem to have saved us from any mind-bending alternatives.

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