CULTURAL QA 01-2022-29 BEING A COMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Whatis so special about the Atacama Desert? A1 Steven Haddock Livesin Toronto, ON (1959–present)Tue There’s a definition of“desert”. It’s anywhere that gets fewer than five inches of rain (or equivalentsnow) a year. The Atacama has the distinction of meeting that criteria by about fiveinches per year. To contrast that, Phoenix, Arizona averages just over seveninches of precipitation a year. Most of the Atacama gets that much precipitationin a millennium. It sits in a double rain shadow at a place that doesn’t get muchprecipitation in the surrounding area in any event. That means that several places of the Atacama getno precipitation of any kind for stretches of hundreds of years at a time.It’s so desolate that even regular microbes can’t survive, making the Atacamavirtually sterile. The fewmicrobes that do survive are specially adapted and, when it did have a heavyrain a couple of years ago, six distinct species were wiped out when theyliterally exploded from absorbing water. Q2 Isit true that our brains remember absolutely everything we ever experience? A2 Franklin Veaux part-timemad scientist Mon Oh goodness no. Far from it. Huge amounts of sensory information get discardedsimply because our brains are incredibly slow—compared to an electroniccircuit, neurons are slower than frozen molasses in zero G—which means we have to discard a lot ofirrelevant information (and we have very complicated heuristics about what’s“relevant”) just to keep up. On top of that, remembering something is a destructive process. Everytime you recall a memory, you rewrite it. That’s why human memory is sounreliable, and why three witnesses to a crime can give three radicallydifferent reports of it. No, we don’t remembereverything. Not even close. Q3 Whyis olive oil stored in a green container? A3 Martin Bayer Chef(1994–present)Wed It doesn’t occur to many people that high quality cooking oils, likeextra virgin olive oil, are raw products. Cooking oil will degrade overtime and eventually become rancid. Heat and light accelerate that process, soit is sold in dark colored containers, which protect it from white light and UVrays. A bottle of good olive oil usually lasts good while in most homekitchens. There’s also no telling how long it has been hanging out on a store’sshelf. The dark coloredbottles help to ensure its quality lasts until the last drop is used.If it habitually went rancid before people used all of it, they’d buy anotherproduct. Q4 Isit true lithium will run out by 2025? Will lithium-ion batteries be replaced bysodium-ion batteries? Are sodium-ion batteries good enough to be used forelectric vehicles? What will happen when materials for sodium-ion batteries runout, too? A4 Andrew McGregor PerformanceMeasurement Lead at Fastly (company) (2019–present)Jan 21 We’re not going to run out oflithium. Still less will we ever run out of sodium. Both are pretty significant constituents of seawater, and extraction iseconomically feasible. We tend to use concentrated brines from a few salt lakes around the worldinstead of seawater, because it’s cheaper since natural processes already dealtwith a lot of the water (and brine rather than salt because it’s easier tohandle as liquid). But we can just use seawater, it’s the same process. So if we run out of concentrated brine, no big deal. The price goes upslightly for a while. Q5 Whyis a jellyfish immortal but not human beings? How did God see jellyfish morebeneficial over humans? A5 Ken Saladin Formerprofessor of histology (microscopic anatomy)Jan 8 There is no immortal jellyfish.That was media hype thatmisrepresented the work of the scientists who did the research. The scientiststhemselves never claimed it was immortal. Q6 Howwas smallpox eradicated, but COVID-19 will likely become endemic instead? A6 Alice Twain PeritaLinguistica from ITSOS via Pace 10Jan 19 Smallpox had three characteristics that are completely different fromCovid. Smallpox was a human-only disease. Covidhas an animal reservoir. Smallpox caused permanentimmunity, so smallpox vaccinescause permanent immunity. Covid and Covid vaccines don’t cause permanentimmunity. The smallpox vaccine issterilizing (with a fewexception, you can’t have smallpox anymore). Covid vaccines are not (they substantially reduce therisk of infection and they basically eliminate the risk of having asevere case, but you can still get infected). Q7 Whatwas the coldest temperature to which you were exposed? Were you prepared forit? A7 Mats Andersson M Sc.in Physics & Computer Science, Uppsala University (Graduated 1991) Mon -25C. I actually went out only in my shirt, just to feel what it feltlike. It’s like havingevery single point of your skin being pinched, rather gently but unrelentingly,like your skin actually contracting. And you feel the moisture at the front ofyour nose freeze, and your back of the nose and throat dry out—airthat cold is extremely dry, much drier than the air in Sahara. It was interesting; it rarely gets colder than -20 where I live, and thedifference was noticeable. More in degree than in kind, of course. Q8 Isthe Red Sea in the Bible the same as the Dead Sea? A8 Claire Jordan Degreein biology and folklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper Thu No. The Red Sea is the long narrow sea thatseparates Africa from the Arab Penninsula. However, the description of Moses crossing the “RedSea” is probably a mistranslation, as the rest of the description suggests thatit’s a slightly garbled memory of the Santorini eruption, with a tsunamidrawing water out of an area between Egypt and Sinai and then sending itcrashing back. Youcouldn’t cross the Red Sea on foot in less than a couple of days, even if thewater were withdrawn, because it’s about 20 miles wide anywhere nearEgypt and it’s very deep, so you’d need to abseil down a high cliff into acanyon, walk about 20 miles and then climb a cliff on the other side. Q9 How doespower generation work? A9 Ammu Murugan Answered48m ago The most common way to generate electricity is through the transformationof kinetic energy into electricity by large Electric generators. The vast majority ofelectrical generation is produced through electromagnetic induction, wheremechanical energy through a turbine drives a generator rotate to produceelectricity. Q10 Isit better to have one child and focus all of your attention and resources onthem? A10 Gopalkrishna VishwanathLived 69 years so far. No regrets. Look forward to the best years now.4h It is difficult to say. What is okay for one family may not be okay foranother. China is now regretting itscompulsory one-child policy and is now encouraging its citizens to have threechildren. In my family, my wife was one of four daughters and had observed howdifficult life was for her parents bringing them all up on just one salary. I was one of three sons to my parents and was also witness to theirstruggles living in a middle-class family. Both my mother and mother-in-lawwere homemakers who did not have an income of their own.My mother-in-law wasone among nine children. My father-in-law was one of six. My mother was one offive and my father was one of four. In spite of being educated, they never progressed beyond middle-classstatus as all their time, energy, and money was spent on raising theirchildren. They never had quality time to spend on themselves. Their personalinterests and desires were all sacrificed for the sake of their children. After we got married, my wife and I had decided that we would make up forthe excesses of the previous generations and have only one child and give itour best. “Family planning” (a euphemism for contraception) was a fashion then. My daughter was initially an only child. We pampered her for the nextnine years. One day we saw her sitting and brooding over something. We asked her whatthe matter was. She hesitated. It was obvious something had happened at schoolto make a normally bubbly and talkative kid behave like that. When we coaxed her to tell us. She broke out into tears and told usbetween sobs “Why don’t I have a brother or a sister? All my classmates haveat least one and they all have so much fun at home.” Those words pierced our hearts. Nothing had made us sadder than thatstatement. We consoled her. My wife and I then looked at each other and wordlesslyshared our thoughts. Yes, in that one instant, we both changed our minds. Itwas not even necessary to discuss it. We both read each other's minds and werein silent agreement. Circumstances had changed. We were better off financiallythan our parents had been. It was still not too late (biologically) for my wifeto become pregnant again. That day we decided there would be no more “family planning” (the populareuphemism for contraception those days). In nine months and 10 days, our daughter had a littlebrother. No one was happier than she was when we announced it to hera few months after my wife became pregnant again. The age difference did not matter. She dotes over him even now when theyare both adults. He adores her and confides more in her than in us. It was one of the most important decisions we had taken in our marriedlife. If we hadn’t decided that day, I don’t know how my daughter would haveturned out as a teenager and as an adult. There would also have been no Rhodes Scholar in our family. My son turnedout to be absolutely brilliant in his studies. He did so well that we didn’thave to spend on his higher studies at Oxford University. He funded his entirehigher education (BA, MA, and Ph.D. at Oxford) by always being eligible forother scholarships apart from the Rhodes scholarship. Today he teaches at CambridgeUniversity in the UK. Q11 Whyis India leaning towards SUVs (sport utility vehicle) nowadays? A11 Himanshu Gupta Enthusiasticabout cars and bikes Jan 23 Because of following reasons: High ground clearance of more than 180mm is perfect for India. Take alook at the condition of Indian roads in monsoon. Strong petrol and dieselengines. That gives higher fuel economy and comfortable ride. More bootspace which equates tomore luggage space, perfect forweekend trips with loads of luggage. Q12 Whyare printers often cheaper to purchase than the price of ink cartridgesreplacements? A12 Alexander Finnegan J.D.Law, Marxist-Leninist Jan 7 Why did they give away coupons for free cigarettes? It is bait on afishhook. Or on a mousetrap. They give you the printer to reel you in. The ink cartridge is half full.So you think “I need more ink,” and you go buy the world’s most expensiveliquid. Few people dothe math, toss the printer into the garbage, and buy another printer. I do. I buy refurbished printers for $99 and toss them out when I am done. Or Ibuy refilled ink cartridges on ebay. Those work, too. Q13 Doyou get more of your mother's genes or father's genes? A13 Claire Jordan Degree inbiology and folklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary on newspaper Dec 30 Mother’s. If you are a genetically normal man you get more genes on the X you gotfrom your mother than on the Y you got from your father, but in addition, weall get our mitochondrial genes from our mother, only. All the above QA are from Quora website on 28-01- 2022. Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on29-01-2022 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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