CULTURAL QA 11-2021-19

Being a compilation there may  be errors 

Q1            Doesa coaxial cable degrade over time?

A1            Douglas Butler , Staff Engineer,Owner at Sherpa Engineering 
(2005-present)Answered 3m ago

Most anything madeof plastic degrades with time. Mechanically it will get stiff 
or brittle.Chemically the wires, especially the braid, will corrode and not 
conduct aswell. Electrically it will become lossy.

My note- Before the appearance of optical fibre telecomdepartment was using co 
axial cable for medium andlong distance communication. Number of circuits it 
could carry is limited to 60 or so. But it required repeatersperiodically at a 
distance of 8 KMs or so. 

Q2            Isit advisable to drive the car on the 1st gear for the longer 
distance whiledriving up the hill?

A2            Rick BouwmanBeen driving cars since1998 Nov 11

Do you mean if itis advisable to stay in first gear a little longer when 
pulling away from astand still on a hill? Thenyes, it is a good idea to stay in 
first gear (and every other gear aswell) a little longer and let the RPM go up 
a bit higher (250–400 RPM) than younormally would.

You see when youshift gears the car will be unpowered for a short while and 
gravity will slowit down faster going up a hill. By shifting gears a little 
later the car won’thave slowed down as much so you’re less likely to have the 
engine stutter oreven stall because the speed was too low for the gear.

If you mean is it advisable to drive up the entire hillin first gear, then no. 
If the hill is so steep youneed to stay in first gear, you should not be going 
up that hill at all. I’vedriven up some very steep inclines and on highways 
I’ve always been able to goup to 4th or 5th gear and even on very steep very 
narrow mountain roads I’vealways been in 2nd gear at least, usually third if 
the road allowed for a speedof at least 50 km/h (30 MPH). I seriously doubt if 
anyone in their right mindwould dare drive up a hill that is so steep you can’t 
at least shift to 2nd gear.

There is a reason why they don’t build roads straight upa steep mountain but 
build them winding up the mountain. You wouldn’t be ableto drive up otherwise.

Q3            Inwhich places in Delhi can you drive your car at a speed above 
120 kmph?

A3            Siva Kumar Bachoti Updated Tue

If you REALLY carefor my tuppenny advice, don’t drive at that speed anywhere in 
India, even onour so-called express ways. Reason? Just any cyclist, any 
pedestrian, any bullock-cart, any tonga,any tractor driven by a farmer, any 
truck can SUDDENLY cross your path.

Our highways arepeppered with breaks in median, any asshole driver coming from 
the other sidecan take a SUDDEN U turn, cutting your car.

Just anyone cancome on to the highway from the service road or any of the many 
ways becauseour highways are not guarded at all.

If you findyourself in such an unfortunate situation, your 120 KMPH will take 
you just oneway, to the heavens.

Pedestrians jumpover median barricades

How safe is thatleft side road joining the highway?

Deadly gaps inmedian

Slowest movingtruck on the fastest i.e. rightmost lane, you are overtaking from 
left. Notonly a violation, it is a dangerous thing to do.

This is what youshould watch for, particularly at night

They walk straightinto your car!

Deadly shadows atnight!

A road user’snightmare!

Another danger I could mention - no bays or standing areason sides! Vehicles 
(mostly trucks) park right on the edge of the road, no taillights on! An idiot 
comes from behind,overtaking a middle vehicle from left. Obviously he could not 
have seen thatparked truck. He never ever thinks if that vehicle he is trying 
to overtakecould be blocking his view of another in the front.

He overtakes (athigh speed because he is overtaking something) the middle 
vehicle from its leftand lo, he is right there banging into that parked truck.

Yet another in the long list of hazards is,lanes do not have fixed speeds for 
each. I always feel therisk when I take the long flyover to Bangalore airport. 
There is just the 80KMPH limit board all along. I just can't know which lane I 
should stick to.Vehicles zoom past my car on both sides, at speeds as they 
please. The left most lane is occupiedby slower 2 wheelers but all the other 3 
lanes are free for all, each at itsown speed. Weaving becomes necessary but a 
high risk what with otherscoming from behind at deadly speeds.

Q4            Whycan't zebras be domesticated but horses can? What accounts for 
the difference?

A4            Claire Jordan Tue 

Zebra tend to be more aggressive and less strongthan even primitive horses, so 
the profit andloss equation is different - you’re less likely to get a lot of 
work out ofthem, and more likely to get your teeth kicked in. And areas where 
zebras liveoften have, or used to have, onagers - wild asses - who were much 
more suited to domestication and are theprobable ancestors of our domestic 
donkeys. The ancient Sumerians usedteams of onagers to pull their chariots.

Q5            Isyour heart the source of all that is you or just to pump blood?

A5            Ken Saladin Former professor ofhistology (microscopic 
anatomy)Updated Nov 7

Forthe most part, it’s jump a blood pump. However, it does secrete some 
hormonescalled atrial natriuretic peptides that regulate kidney function and 
bloodpressure bystimulating sodium and water output, but that’s the only 
function I know ofother than pumping blood.

In no way can it beaccurately described as “the source of all that is you.” It 
has nothing to dowith thinking, perception, memory, emotion, decision making, 
or the many otherthings that give one a sense of self-identity—other than the 
fact that it can reactto emotions, just as our digestive tract does. If the 
heart housed the sense ofself-identity, then patients who received heart 
transplants would be changedinto totally different persons by the experience.

Q6            Howlong were dinosaurs on Earth compared to humans?

A6            Claire JordanTue

Dinosaurs, including birds, have been around for 243million years. The line 
leading to humans partedcompany from the chimps 7 million years ago, genus 
Homohas been around for 2.5 million years, and modern humans came along 
about200,000 years ago.

But it’s ameaningless comparison. It’s like comparing the number of boats of 
all kinds inthe world with the number of Honda Civics. You shouldn’t be 
comparing dinosaurswith humans, but with mammals. Dinosaurs have been around 
for about 243 millionyears, mammals about 213 million years.

Q7            Whichare the methods for rainwater harvesting?

A7            UltraTech Cement Updated Sep 9

Rain waterharvesting can be done in the following ways. a) Recharge pit: This 
method is usually adopted tomake use of surface run-off water.

On a flat andcompacted land, a pit of size 1/2m in breadth and 2-3m in depth 
should be dug.Now fill it with stones as the first layer, coarse aggregate as 
the second andfinally with sand. This is for filtration purpose. In order to 
protect the pit,cover it with a metallic mesh and regularly clean the upper 
surface of thesand. This helps in easy seepage of water into the ground. In 
areas where therain water gets collected, pipes should be used to direct this 
water into therecharge pits. This water can be used for domestic or gardening 
purposes.

b) Roof top rainwater harvesting:It is a system of catching rainwater where it 
falls. In rooftop harvesting, theroof becomes the catchments, and the rainwater 
is collected from the roof ofthe house/building. It can either be stored in a 
tank or diverted to artificialrecharge system. This methodis less expensive and 
very effective and if implemented properly helpsin augmenting the ground water 
level of the area.

Q8            Whichbanks in India have tie-ups with GOI for crediting salaries 
of civil servantsafter they crack UPSC exams? Can a officer trainee choose a 
bank of his/herchoice or is it limited to a few PSU banks?

A8            Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam11h

Theoretically Yes.Youcan choose any Bank.

However in practise, your payroll department would bewith one bank and salary 
accounts would be with that bank for ease andconvenience

If the Payroll A/cwas in SBI & you had an A/c in ICICI Bank, salary will still 
be credited onthe same day but if ICICI Server was down at that time, it could 
be complicatedand you could get credit only late evening or even the following 
day. You wouldhave to call the CAS Dept & request a resend.

But if you had a Salary A/c in SBI, then you would haveno issues with glitches 
and you would be withall employees and server issues would result only in minor 
delays for all staff& department can take immediate action.

So most staff keepA/c in the same Bank as the Dept Payroll.

For Central Govt - 61% Departments have A/c in SBI,24% in PNB, 9% in other PSBs 
and 6% in Axis Bank & other Private Banks.

TN State Gov Departments have 59% in SBI,20%+ in Indian Bank and 10%+ in IOB

If u move from onedept to another then you may have to open a new salary a/c in 
a different bankfor convenience if that dept payroll bank is different

In the old days aGOI employee had 6–7 Salary A/cs in his lifetime but today its 
mostly 1–2.

My note- While in Trivandrum I had salary credited to Centurian Bankclose to 
office, on their canvassing. Choosing was optional. Now it has become HDFC and 
myaccount continues with them, though Pension is received from SBI. SBI credit 
pension by 27/28thitself to Pension account. Most keep parallel joint account 
for moreflexibility. 

Q9            Cana bathroom fan be attached to the ceiling?

A9            Jane Tierney, Over 40 years as ahomeowner Answered Wed

Anything can beattached to the ceiling. That’s not quite the point.

If your efforts areintended to get rid of moisture, say in the bath or shower 
area, then you need to vent the fan to the outdoors.That is usually done 
through the use of a venting mechanism, say a channel orduct system which is 
above the ceiling and vents outward to the exterior wallwith a vent flap or 
other barrier to prevent rain from coming back inward.

Attaching a fan tothe ceiling will help evaporate the moisture, to an extent, 
but ultimately, themoisture will collect, as bathrooms are used with the door 
closed and the moisture will create mildew and mold, something thatshould be 
avoided at all cost!

Q10          Whatis the secret to cooking basmati rice that falls off easily 
and is not lumpy?

A10          Aishwarya Kher Most viewed writer inIndian Cuisine and FoodTue

The Real Secret toachieve that perfect texture of Basmati rice, and to keep the 
grains fromsticking to each other lies in the use of some Cooking Oil.

Fry the dry rice in some oil before you soak andcook.

If you want to makePulao, fry other ingredients in the oil before you add dry 
rice.

Amount of water required to cook must be justright - too much might make it 
lumpy and too less willlead to uncooked rice, pretty bad for your stomach!

I would recommend agood brand Rice Cooker for making Basmati rice, or any rice 
for that matter,because these appliances come with specific markings to 
indicate optimum waterlevels and detect cook time as well.

Approximation neverworked for me when it came to rice.

Q11          Whatis the reason Chennai is sinking in the rain?

A11          Naveen Subramanian Lived in Chennai,Tamil Nadu, India6h

I clicked this picafter the 2015 floods have drained out. It’s KOOVAM(Not 
attached)

As you can see, thewater is clean and clear since the flood water haswiped off 
garbage and sewage water. Perks - you get a romantic click :).. But when you 
look closer - the ones hanging on 15 ft tall branches are garbage - plastic 
bags,clothes, and solid wastes. This means the water level has risen up to 15ft 
height when flooded in koovam.

Whydoes this happen              To beprecise, the areas nearby stormwater 
canals sink when tonnes of cusecs of waterget released from prime lake 
reservoirs. This waterflows through the Koovam to get drained in the sea. The 
rate of inflow andoutflow decides which areas sink and which area survives.

Until 20 yearsbefore, Chennai’s average rainfall is 25mm. The storm water 
canals are built tohandle “double the capacity” predicting future climate 
change - ie, to handleup to 50–70mm rainfall. But predictions failed, now 
Chennai receives min 80 to120 mm rainfall, sometimes above 160mm, rarely above 
220 mm - ALL IN ONE GO… Sothe stormwater canals become nothing. The monsoon 
patterns have changed, weexperience cloud bust ie, what we get in 1 full year, 
we get in one go.

These are officialfigures released by Chennai Metro Water as on 11/11/2021

Take Poondi for instance, the amount of rainfall is86mm, however, the rate of 
inflow is almost 8000 cmsecs while the rate ofoutflow is 5195 cmsecs. So a 
stormwater canal built to handle a capacity ofroughly 1000 cmsecs gets flooded 
with 5x more capacity - EVERY SECOND. This iswhy the areas around Poondi get 
flooded/sunk rapidly even for a 2 hr rain.

Next, take Cholavaram - it’s a big lake so canhandle an inflow of 6737 cmsecs 
but releases just 2015 cmsecs, that’s becausethe quantity of rainfall is 
abnormal - 220 mm.

So areas in andaround Poondi get flooded because the outflow from the lake is 
huge whereasareas in and around Cholavaram get flooded because the amount of 
rainfallitself is huge.

Like this, everyarea has a reason to get flooded. It's unique and specific to 
those areas.

Universal solutionswon’t fetch results. We need to work on nitche solutions 
based on geography andmetrological analysis.

My note- Efforts were there to clean Coovum riverduring last DMK Period. 
Certain areas were cleanedand initiative taken to move boats for sight seeing. 
Present DMK Period may dosomething, atleast to remove bad smell. All garbages 
and waste waters, especiallyfrom slums are dumped in Coovum river.

I have opted for not sending questions tomy mail box and answerfrom website 
itself. So I am selecting questions from websiteinstead of from  digests ). 
This is moreeasier. 

Quora answers need not be 100%correct answers 

Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan ,78, former  AGM Telecom Trivandrum 
on 19-11-2021

 

 

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