CULTURAL QA03-2022-19

BEING  A COMPILATION THERE MAY  BE ERRORS 

Q1            Do horses bite you on your shoulder? Is that somethingthat most 
people don't know?

A1            Claire Jordan Degreein biology and folklore; programmer, shop 
owner, secretary on newspaper Thu

I believe it’s a sign ofaffection, since they groomeach other by nibbling each 
other’s withers. If it’s too painful, wear a jacket with padded shoulders.This 
issue came up in the pet-advice column of the Daily Telegraph years ago,and 
that was the advice - it’s a sign of affection so don’t try to stop him,but 
wear a really thick jacket.

Q2            What is the reason why American houses have wood on thefloor 
instead of tiles or cement?

A2            Steven Haddock Livesin Toronto, ON (1959–present)Mar 3

A lot of the United States is in areas where it gets cold in the winter.Tile 
and cement conduct heatfreely. On cold days, they are cold when you walk on 
them, even in socks.Woodconducts heat less quickly. As such, your feet remain 
warmer when you walk onit barefoot or even in socks.

Carpet would be nice, but it’s hard to clean. Wood is a little harder toclean 
than tile, but not much more so.

Q3            In trains running on two engines, how is the operation ofthe 
second engine controlled by the first engine?

A3            Swagata Sarkar Knowsabout Machines20h

 I will try to explain it to thebest of my abilities.

Steam locomotives, even though powerful were slowly succumbing to therising 
demands of power to haul freight and passengers. Engineers made thelocomotives 
bigger but the size of the Locomotive was restrained by Railwaytracks and 
curves. Soon we reached the limits of size and needed something thatwould 
increase the hauling capacity without hampering the existing equipment.

Since the advent of electronicequipment in locomotives, the engineers came up 
with “Multiple Unit"operation or MU for short. MUallowed locomotives (Diesel 
and Electric) to operate sismilar models oflocomotives to operate as pairs, 
triples or 4 units.

In multiple Unit operation, theleading locomotive that has the Locopilot and 
ALP is called master Locomotivewhile the trailing Locomotives are called slave 
Locomotives.

The master and slave Locomotives are connected via cables (called B C Djumpers) 
that carry the necessary electrical signals to transfer operation commands from 
master toslave, these cables are called MU cables. Master and slaveLocomotives 
are also connected via the Brake pipes for braking purposes. Theinbuilt 
computer in locomotive recieves the signals from master Locomotive 
andaccordingly increases/decreases throttle, changes Taps in transformer 
orapplies brakes in the slave loco. The transfer of commands is instantaneous 
and has no delay (increasingthrottle in Master will instantaneously 
electronically order the slave toincrease its throttle too). Similar process 
happens in diesel locomotives.

The signals transferred are purely electrical and do not make any changesin the 
manual controls of the slave loco. For example moving the throttle ortap 
changer in master will only signal the slave to increase its 
throttle/tapchanger but will not mechanically move the control in the slave 
loco.

 Triple cables on left are used forMU operation and right side are used for 
power transmission to coaches.

Q4            What causes mouth ulcers?

A4            Apollo HospitalsEnterprise Limited  Lived in Hyderabad,Telangana, 
India Mar 12

A mouth ulcer occurs when thereis a break in this mucous membrane lining.

While the exact cause of mouth ulcers is still not yet known and may varyfrom 
person-to-person, themost common cause of mouth ulcers world over is 
accidentally biting your innercheek.

Citrus fruits and other foods high in acidity or spice (Consuming hotspicy 
foods or hot soups may burn the delicate mucous membrane leading toulcers)

A deficient filling of thetooth.   Poor-fitting dentures, bracesincluding other 
apparatus that may rub against the gums and mouth

While brushing, the toothbrush may slip accidentally causing a traumaticulcer. 
Stress or anxiety

Medications, such as pain killers and beta-blockers

Hormonal changes during menopause, puberty and pregnancy

A common fungal infection called oral thrush can also lead to ulcers inthe 
mouth.    Genetic factors

Q5            What do you think about the IRS? It is my first preferencein the 
UPSC.

A5            D D Rishi Former IRS |Advocate | LL. M.,Ph.D. (Law) | Tue

IRS is a great civil service but making it your first preference is notvery 
wise. If it so happensthat you get a rank where you could have gone to IAS or 
IFS but have to joinIRS due to its being your preference, you are going to 
regret it later, may beevery day of your career.

Whether it is IAS, IPS, IFS or IRS, you join it for higher social statusand 
powers. Therefore, if you have to choose, you must choose the one withhighest 
social acceptability. If you have any other goal behing joining civil service, 
you have betternot join it at all. There are more decent jobs outside the 
civilservice.

Q6            Can tsunamis be prevented?

A6            Steven Haddock LL.B.degree, 25 years in litigation, 
administrative law, collections, bankrupty andprofessional regulation Wed

No, but during the IndianOcean tsunami of 2004 they did find one thing that 
slowed it down.

Mangrove swamps

Mangrove is one of the few large plants that doesn’t mind growing in saltwater 
and sticking its head above it. In addition, they don’t mind it whentheir roots 
are constantly underwater - beavers build dams because the waterwill help them 
fell trees behind the dam for food and building material.

The problem, is, of course, they don’t look pretty like beaches so humanstear 
them up to improve navigation and waterfront views. However, during thetsunami, 
the height of the incoming tide was about two-thirds lower when theyhad to 
travel through mangrove swamps as opposed to when they hit open beaches.

Q7            Why is chicken meat not as tasty as other meat?

A7            Abraham Sukumar Studiedat Madras Medical College, Chennai Mar 10

A couple of years ago I had written in Quora on why chicken meat is notas tasty 
as it used to be. I have nothing to add but I reckon that chicken meat is never 
unwelcome.

In the 1960s and before thatthe superiority of chicken meat over mutton was 
unquestioned. Nowevery time mutton scores over chicken meat. What happened for 
such aprofound change to occur? There is no mystery. In the 60s we ate the meat 
offree ranging chicken. Now we eat a different meat, the meat of mass-produced 
broiler chicken.

Free ranging chicken eat what is natural to them, grain, grass, andinsects. 
They are ready for slaughter when they are 120 days old. Hens arepreferred over 
cocks. At that point they have not laid yet but are ready forit. When the 
abdomen is slit the yellows of future egg yolks are seen inclusters of varying 
sizes the biggest of them close to the size of the yolk ofthe egg. Th muscles 
are what are natural for the bird of that size. The meatand the gravy of such 
birds would be delicious.

The story of broiler meat ismore convoluted. The broiler is derived from 
variousbreeds of chicken designed to meets the needs of mass 
production.Scientists have succeeded in getting what they were looking for.

1.The birds are fast growing.They reach a marketable weight in40 days as 
against the free ranging chicken’s 120 days. Broiler meat is themeat from birds 
that are 40 day old chicks, not adult birds.

2.Feed conversion rate is high.It can be as high as 1.38pounds of feed 
converted to 1 pound weight of the bird.

3.The birds do not run about like normal chicken thereby wasting energy.They 
are lazy birds.

4.The birds are highlymotivated to feed. If the feed pensare lighted up as they 
always are they feed non-stop night and day.

The birds are not fed their natural food. They are fed on artificial 
foodconsisting of a mix of fish meal, residues left after oil is pressed out 
ofpeanuts, bran, and we know not what else.

Is it at all surprising that the meat of these birds is so different intaste 
from that of the natural bird?

The birds are unhealthy. The muscular development is so unbalanced thatthe 
birds can hardly walk. Fractures are common and many birds die of heartfailure. 
They grow so fast that their hearts are not able to keep up to theneeds of 
their bodies and death from heart failure is common. To cap it all tosave space 
the birds are packed 12 to 24 birds per square metre. In short it isa sorry 
tale of systematic torture.

Why then is this torture continuing. It is the only way chicken meat canbe sold 
at affordable rates. Even in the 60s chicken was expensive. Now thanksto the 
mass production chicken meat is within the reach of all. It may benowhere close 
to the meat of the natural bird, but it is still meat. Taste canbe improved by 
seasoning. As for nutrition the meat is as nutritious as themeat of free 
ranging birds.

The good news is there are outlets in most towns and cities for the meatof free 
ranging chicken. They are expensive but good for occasional treats.

Update: In her comments Barbara Reed speaks of the hardship caused to thebirds. 
Our barnyard fowls are indeed sensitive birds. The cock does not gobbleit up 
when he comes across a juicy morsel. He calls, and his hens come andshare while 
he watches. The hens brood the eggs for 21 days and then cares forthe chicks as 
tenderly as any human mother her baby. It is a pity that is usingthe birds in 
assembly line conversion of feed to meat no thought is given tothe birds.

My note- Ihave added the QA for general information and thatha Patti group has 
membersfrom all religions and many are NV.

Q8            What is the kind of force exerted by a scissor blade on apaper 
that it cuts right through it?

A8            Puja Jaiswal, learningto write!Answered Apr 21, 2015

Shear force: shearing often occurs when two forces act on a thin objectvery 
closely together in opposite directions perpendicular to the longest partof an 
object. So whenyou cut paper, the scissors puts a force on the paper from two 
differentdirections perpendicular to the length of the paper.

Q9            Why are crocodiles not found in the oceans or seas?

A9            Peter Kaye Former ExCrocodile Hunter, Deep Sea Diver, Oilfield 
Work at Ocean Systems (1966–1996) Mon

They are, the salty, or saltwater crocodile, ( crocodilus porosis ) isfound all 
the way from Australia to India, which means it must have crossed theoceans at 
one time or another, and not just one for it needs males and femalesto breed, 
so there must have been quite a few that made the trip. The thing isthe oceans 
are huge, and to spot a croc in the middle of the ocean is veryremote, the 
thing is though they may have crossed thousands of years ago. Whenthe whole 
world was different, we can only guess how they did it. Even though Ihave seen 
crocs in the ocean off beaches, they mostly frequent tidal riverswhere there is 
much more food, like these fellows,

Q10         Why does lactic acid produced in red blood cells not causefatigue?

A10          Ken Saladin Author,Anatomy & Physiology—The Unity of Form and 
Function13h

First of all, it diffuses outand gets washed away as fast as it’s produced; it 
doesn’t accumulate in bloodcells or anywhere in the blood.

Secondly, the fatigue people think is related to lactic acid refers onlyto 
muscle; red blood cells are obviously not muscle cells. Fatigue isirrelevant to 
blood cells.

Third, lactic acid doesn’t evencause fatigue in muscle. That idea has been 
disproven and discarded for quite a long time now, but persistsin some 
textbooks and teaching that are long out of date on this subject. (EvenI 
believed it and had it in my book until 6 or 8 years ago.)

Q11         What appliances need the most repairs?

A11          Gopala Krishnan, formerAssistant General Manager 1996-2004 at 
Department of Telecom(1966-2004)Answered just now

In my understanding mostof the instruments launched first may require repairs. 
In theirsubsequent products they are improved. It is the case with most of 
theelectrical and electronic equipment. Earliest versions of irons with 
thermostatwere not stable. The present products are stable. Earliest versions 
of TV unitswith transisters and resistances had many draw backs. PCB with ICs 
improvedmuch the performance of TV receiver. Terestrial transmission had 
limitations.Now with satalite transmission many problems are eliminated. Still 
there isproblem- during beginning of rain signals are interrupted.

Q12         Is quicksand a legitimate danger anywhere in the USA?

A12          Richard Greco FormerScience and Foreign Language Teacher for 40 
Years at Secondary High School inNorth Central South Dakota (1964–2004)Mar 6

No, not if the person trapped uses a little common sense. Quicksand is 
wherewater flowing up from below is keeping sand particles suspended. You step 
in itand start sinking BUT you will onlysink in part way as the quicksand is 
denser than you are. Just lean to the sideof forward and you willend to rise 
and float horizontally. Once you have extricatedyourself that way you can 
slowly and carefully swim as it were to safety. The idea that you will sink out 
ofsight is a convention of the movies to increase the drama and is notfactual. 

All the above QA are from  Quora website  on    18-03- 2022. Quoraanswers need 
not be 100% correct answers 

Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on19-03-2022 


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