CULTURAL QA 05-2022-14 BEING A COMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Whatare the main differences between living in the UK and living in the USA? A1 Ken Saladin I know nothing about thissubject Apr 29 My guess—although Idon’t know if it’s correct—is that one of the biggest differences between life in the twocountries has to do with the amount of space available in proportion to thepopulation. In the U.S., Ithink the average home size and personal land area around the house aresignificantly larger, and Americans outside of major cities are more likely tohave detached houses. My source[1]says the average home in England and Wales is about one-third of the averagesized house in the United States. The average UK home is reportedthere as 49 m.sq., and the average US home 90 m.sq. Home in the U.S. also aresignificantly less expensive relative to household income. Car ownership is another difference. The average U.K.household owned 1.21 cars in 2019, and 1.88 in the U.S. Outside of big cities,the U.S. has a pretty poor system of public transportation (buses, trains,subways). A husband and wife (or other couple) will usually each have their owncar, and not uncommonly their live-in teenage children will also have theirown. I think Americans are accustomed to keeping a much biggerpercentage of their earned income than Brits, anddeciding for themselves how to spend it. Brits are taxed more heavily but get more prepaidgovernment services, most notably in healthcare. These are muchbigger, more pervasive differences, making a bigger impact on people’s everydaylives and attitudes, than the gun issue flogged so far in this thread. Q2 Howdoes aging affect your life? A2 John Fenn, BDSc, Dip American Academyof Pain ManagementUpdated Wed I turned 70 about 6months ago.I have noticed, I hurt more by afternoon and tend to use more Advil andPanadol than before. I forgetappointments more, and I write a lot of stuff down to remind me.I find filling out forms and dealingwith bureaucratic pissants to be very confusing and frustrating. I awake very early, but need a nap by early afternoon.I have lost interest in owning things, fixing thingsand building things. I have lost interest in listening to peopletalk. on and on they go. I abhorviolence and drama, so I no longer have a TV. I got rid of theKombi and the 4 wheel drive, and it was a relief not to have to worry aboutthem or maintain them any more. I take more pleasure in nature, birds, plants and animals. I am heading off toFrance for 5 weeks, no agenda, no bookings, just a backpack, a tent and a boxof pills. I know that I shall die at some point, but it no longerbothers me. I amconcentrating on getting as much pleasure as I can out of life these days. I worry about thestate of the earth. We boomers did mess up some stuff, but we built the lifeyou all lead. I do hope I get tosee the cessation of fossil fuels, that would be neat to see. I am thankful that I am an atheist. I haveexperienced hell on earth, I would not want to risk that again. I finally understand myself, how I tried my best but howinsignificant I truly was and I am OKwith that. My note- I liked the answer very much since I am 78. Manythings told are very true. Laziness and tiredness havecome to me, and my postings to groups, I do as if it is a compelled duty by me.The old interest has gone, especially because of a member behaviour abusing inTamil and using uncultured language. Q3 Whatis the evidence that humans only started practicing agriculture a few thousandyears ago? A3 Matt Riggsby BA Anthropology, U.C.Berkeley Mon We don’t see positive evidence of agriculture appear untilabout 12,000 years ago in the Middle East andsomewhat after that elsewhere. We start to see archaeological remains ofdomesticated plants (the selective breeding implicit in the domesticationprocess makes certain detectable changes in cultivated species), remains oftools suitable for agriculture and processing harvests, remains of architecturesuitable for storing agricultural produce, and the like. Before that, we don’t have such evidence. Now, there areindications of a sort of slow run up to agriculture. Hunter gatherers did interact with theirenvironment without going into full-blown agriculture. For example,it’s generally believed that late Paleolithic gathering techniques primedcereals for domestication, that people in the Middle East deliberatelydisturbed the ground in ways which would encourage the growth of grasses, andthat some eastern woodlands Native American groups used controlled burns toclear underbrush from their forests, which was useful in a number of ways(better sight lines for hunting, returning nutrients to the soil, etc.). Butthese techniques aren’t generally regarded as agriculture itself. A lot of native Californianssubsisted largely on acorns, for example, but there’s no indication that theyplanted and tended oak trees. Rather, they largely just enjoyed theproducts of existing oak forests. That said, havingread the extensive comment by the OP, I need to address the fundamentalargument from incredulity. While it might be difficult for someone who knowsnothing about hunter-gatherers to imagine how they could survive in a temperatewinter, it is very clearly possible and more than possible. Something elsearchaeologists use is what’s called ethnographic analogy. If we findtechnologies parallel to documented, observed societies, we take that asplausible evidence of similar lifestyles and strategies. And there’s asubstantial body of documentation on living, directly observed hunter-gatherergroups who get along—or rather, got along; like most other hunter-gatherers,they’ve been wiped out—in places as far north as the Arctic without needingagriculture. While I don’t have the relevant research at my fingertips on thespecifics of their lifestyles, I can point out that the existence ofhunter-gatherer groups in a range stretching from what’s now Oregon to thenorth coat of Alaska, to say nothing of similar groups who once inhabitedSiberia, amply demonstrates that survival as a hunter-gatherer in the mostpunishing climates is not prohibitively difficult. Hunter-gatherers knew theirenvironment well and had strategies for surviving in it. There was nothingrandom or haphazard about the way they lived. Just what they ate and whendepends on the specifics of their environment, but they clearly could do justfine without deliberately cultivating food, and in the absence of directevidence of anything to the contrary, that appears to be what they did. Q4 Whydon’t Indian Railways increase coaches for waiting list passengers? They arealso paying the same as others, but why is the demand of travellers notutilised by Indian railways? A4 TruthSeeker May 8 I think (not sure) but if they add an extra 23rd coach(22 are already there) then additional coach would stop outside station limits.Engine cannot cross signal line hence engine cannotadjust either to accommodate that extra coach. Coach outsidestation is an additional trouble as well as risk for people as they cannot getdown properly specially elders. If they try to stop that train twice at thesame station to accommodate that extra coach it will be waste of time forrailways and passengers. MumbaiAhmedabad Gujarat Express halts at Dadar twice but it only does it for Dadardue to the crowd and due to last few coaches are linked to pass through fromanother coach. Imagine a trainlike Lokshakti Exp from Mumbai to Ahmedabad halting multiple at all 17 stations(17x2=34times) how frustrating it can be. OR imagine trouble to get down fromthat extra coach which halts outside all 17 stations. Having said this, they do increase coaches for trainslike double decker as it runs with only 11 coaches. So wherever possible IndianRailways does its best to add more people. For Example: NewSleeper Coaches have capacity of 80 passengers instead of 72 earlier. My note- One more train in the direction is a goodsolution. The ex- prestigious Brindavan express now goeswith Non AC chair car and unreserved coaches just after Double decker from Chennaito Bangalore and Bangalore to Chennai, on account of which Double decker reservation is possible even 3 hours before the startingof train. Q5 Inlong-distance trains, how do drivers and guards ensure that all the railwayemployees (security, TT, drivers, etc.) have changed the shifts in the shiftchange railway station? A5 Ramesh S BA degree in Economics fromMaharaj's College, University of Mysore. (Graduated 1982) Mon Railway hasallocated duties to department in such a way that each of them work as perworking jurisdiction. Theyare responsible for duties work as per rosted hours. That's railway, they don't sleep when other have nice sleep.It's runsall 24hours×365 days Each departmentwill be functional as on shifts. Q6 Why isliquid methane the preferred fuel in rockets instead of liquid hydrogen? A6 C Stuart Hardwick. Has been known tocut open a rocket or two. Fri Hydrogen is the most efficient possible chemical rocketfuel by weight, but is extremely voluminous, requiringtanks so large, they offset the efficiency of the fuel.Hydrogen isexpensive to procure, store, and transport in large cryogenic quantities. Liquid hydrogenboils off too fast. This is a problem in the ground and also in space. On theground, it means waste. In space, it means tight orbital transfer windows orcarrying extra fuel to widen the windows, further eroding the efficiencyadvantage of the fuel. Methane isalmost as weight-efficient as hydrogen and almost as clean as hydrogen but ismuch denser than hydrogen, and can be made even denser by chilling below itsliquefication temperature, something not possible with hydrogen. It’s muchcheaper to procure, store, and handle, and the smaller tanks are needed to holdit offset its lower fuel efficiency. Q7 How dosnakes not suffocate themselves when they constrict? A7 Alex Cooper Animal enthusiast May 4 That’s a good question, and one that had scientistsscratching their heads. Yet these (snakes)increase oxygen consumption by almost 7 times while subduing their victimscompared to resting rates, and up to 17 times to digest prey a quarter of theirown body weight. How boaconstrictors manage to squeeze the life out of another animal for up to 45minutes, yet still are able to breathe, has been a long-standing mystery.[1] The answer is linked to the fact thatsnakes have no diaphragm, and rely completely on their rib muscles to breathe. Scientists recentlytested how constricting snakes (specifically boa constrictors) could stillbreathe while squeezing the life out of their prey. (Incidentally, they don’tkill via suffocation, they kill by cutting off the blood circulation, causingcirculatory arrest. This is a quicker way to kill.) The scientists carried out the test by strapping bloodpressure cuffs to a boa constrictor’s body, restricting motion in certain areasto simulate the snake squeezing its prey. Theyimplanted electrodes in the snakes’ lungs to track muscle movements, and usedx-ray video to monitor how the ribs moved. Here’s what they found: As the researchersmoved the cuff up and down their bodies, the boasshifted their breathing to use the ribs that weren’t gripped by the cuff,the team reports today in the Journal of Experimental Biology. When the cuff was tightenedcloser to the snake’s tail—as might happen in some constriction positions—theanimal used the ribs closer to its head to suck air into the blood vessel-richsections at the top of the lungs. But when the cuffwas tightened on the ribs close to the animal’s head—as might happen duringother constriction postures—the snake used its lower lung section to pull airthrough the front lungs where oxygen is absorbed like a fireplace bellows, theteam says.[2] All the above QA are from Quora website on 14-05- 2022. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 14-05-2022 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. 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