  Since black holes are `black', methods of their identification must
necessarily be indirect. Due to very special boundary condition on the horizon,
the advective flow behaves in a particular way, which includes formation of
centrifugal pressure dominated boundary layer or CENBOL where much of the
infall energy is released and outflows are generated. The observational aspects
of black holes must depend on the steady and time-dependent properties of this
boundary layer. Several observational results are written down in this review
which seem to support the predictions of thought experiments based on this
advective accretion/outflow model. In future, when gravitational waves are
detected, some other predictions of this model could be tested as well.
