CULTURAL QA 08-2022-04 BEING A COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Why do birds have white poop? A1 KenSaladin, Former Premedical Mentor (1977–2017)3y The whitematter in bird poop is uric acid, their urinary waste. Birds don’t have urinary bladders because stored urine would weigh them down,interfering with flight. Instead of excreting urea as we do, they process theirnitrogenous waste a step further to uric acid, which is less soluble and can beconcentrated into a paste form. (We secrete a bit of uric acid too, coming fromthe digestion of DNA and RNA in our food.) Birds have onlyone opening, a vent, rather than separate urethral and anal openings as mammalsdo. Thus,their urinary and digestive waste mix and are excreted together. Thedigestive waste, such as seed hulls and insect chitin, is the more brown, blackor green matter in their feces.Trust me on this. I’m a biologist—I know myshit. Q2 How often should windows and doors bereplaced? A2 GopalaKrishnan, Former Assistant General Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom(1966–2004)Just now It depends on the location, quality of wood, qualityof painting and much more. White ants may damage doors and frames if notattended to. Instead of interior of wood, exterior is also used for frame workor doors it may damage them. Present day’s doors and frames made of quality wood ifwell protected, canremain intact more than 50 years Q3 Why would a doctor ask for a CT insteadof an MRI? A3 DavidChan, MD from UCLA, Stanford Oncology Fellowship Sun In general, CTscan is much faster to perform and better in terms of imaging of the chest. Most individuals cannot breath hold long enough foraccurate MRI scans of the lung so motion artifact will obscure smaller lungnodules and lymph nodes in the mediastinum (center of chest). MRI is muchbetter in imaging brain and spine (discs and nerve roots) but CT can be used insome cases. CT brain without contrast is typically used in the ERto rule out a major bleed and also is good for bone structure in the spine butdoesn’t image discs or nerves well. CT with contrast and MRI are probably equally good atimaging abdomen and pelvis but MRI is better for prostate and pelvic lymph nodes. Q4 What are sleeper trains like in reallife? A4 NicholasStone, Life long interest in trains. Sun In real life,sleeper trains are an overnight adventure offering comfort, the convenience ofsleeping while travelling and the novelty of waking up in a new place. I have travelled on sleeper trains across Japan,India, Russia, Europe and the USA. My most sleeper train journey was fromCornwall to London Paddington (UK). My longest was a 66 hour sleeper trainjourney from Vladivostok to Ulan Ude across eastern Russia - a continuousjourney of two nights and most of three days. In July 2016, Nicholas Stone prepares to board RZDstate railways train no 1 Rossiya from Vladivostok across eastern Russiaand alighting at Ulan Ude 66 hour later. This sleeper train operates all theway to Moscow, acontinuous journey of six nights and seven days. There’s often anticipation before a sleeper trainjourney. The companyyou’ll keep, the scenery, the food and quality of your accommodation.You won’t get all the sleep you’d like, but you are spared the cramped anddisorientating experience of airline travel. Sleeper train accommodation varies greatly and this isreflected in the pricing structure. Basic sleeper travel is seated - coach class style. Nextup are six or eight berth couchettes or a private roomette. Thenthere’s two or four berth compartments. Where available, you can treat yourselfto a private berth with en-suite shower. Food and drink is often include in theglobal price. Most likely you will be sharing a bathroom with other passengersin your carriage. Nicholas Stone arrives into Reno, Nevada, USA - onAmtrak’s California Zephyr sleeper train which had departed from Chicago Unionstation 36 hours previously. Among thesleeper train treats is the novelty of sleeping (or trying to sleep) in a bedas your travel through the night. Taking dinner or breakfast in the dining car at sunset or sunrise isrewarding. As well as waking up in a new place several hundred miles furtherdown the line. My note- Irecollect of having chair car when Trivandrum- New Delhi Rajadhani wasintroduced and removed later. Q5 Whathave you learned very early in life? A5 RatnamalaKamath, M'com from Karnatak University, Dharwad (Graduated 1988)2y The life lesson that I learnt when I was young wasthat if you didn't have vitamin M- money, then people includingyour own relations don't care a jot for you. Compared to our other relations we were poor. Once wewere invited to the daughter's marriage of a close relation in another city.They had arranged for our stay in a hotel. All the other kids would play antakshari and othergames, but we were never invited or asked to participate. All women wereinvited to see the bride's trousseau, but my mom was not invited inspite ofbeing a close relation. This was the second time when I saw tears in my mother's eyes. Thatday my mom decided that henceforth she would never attend any other marriage ofthose relations. Whileeating food we were the only ones who were told that each thali cost…… and weshould be careful about not eating too much. My father was alsoupset and asked why they had invited us then. We kids and our mom neverattended any of their marriage or other functions after this, nor did theyforce us to. I then realisedthat money and position were the most important things for some people. But I would never be like them. I would treat thoseless fortunate than me with the same or more respect than the well off people. Though I realised the importance of money, I don't runafter it or after the people who are rich. I have no respect for people whogive more importance to money and status than to relationships. Unfortunatelythe world today is filled 90% with such people. Q6 Why does cooking a potato in boilingoil produce a different result from cooking it in boiling water? Is it achemical thing? A6 ScottWelch, Canada has a lot of water. Updated Jul 26 Re: Is it a chemical thing? It sure is. It’s entirelydriven by chemistry. Potatoes aremade mostly of starch. Heat converts starches to sugars. Ifthe heat is high enough, those sugars are then converted to caramels, which are(a) brown (b) crunchy and (c) tasty! However, thisneeds heat of about 300F. Boiling water is only 212F. So, no sugars and nocaramelization. This is alsowhy old fries are limp and tasteless, because the water in the potatoes dissolves thecaramels and turns them into sugary water. By the way,it’s not just potatoes. Many of the starches we eat are cooked at hightemperature to createcaramels. This is why we toast bread, for example. Q7 Why didn’t the Great Wall of Chinawork? A7 MattRiggsby, MA Archaeology, Boston University Jul 29 It worked OK for its intended purpose, but Ithink a lot of people don’t know what that purpose was. A number ofempires maintained “long wall” systems, like the Great Wall or the Roman limes system which included things like Hadrian’s Wall acrossBritain and less sophisticated fortifications along the Danube. These werenot constructed to be absolute barriers like castle and city walls, keepingout armies. Rather, they were there to limit casual infiltration and provide anearly warning system against larger incursions. For the former,long walls are substantial enough that individuals or small groups of peoplewould have a hardtime getting over. It’s far from impossible, but they have watchtowers alongthe way, and anyone trying to get past the wall is likely to be spotted andstopped by nearby guards. This is less a defensive measure and more one foradministration and taxation. Foreigners can’t sneak across the border tosmuggle in goods or otherwise go observed. Rather, they’re funneled throughofficial border crossings so they can be noted and taxed.For the latter, not only arelong walls not really big enough to hold off large armies (building muchtaller, thicker walls would be prohibitively expensive), the individual towergarrisons are too small to put up much resistance. But they’re not meant to stop approachingarmies, just notice them. The watch towers are watch towers. In caseof a larger incursion, they alert larger centralized garrisons well behind thewall to mount a more serious defense. Of course, if the invading army is bigenough or the defending garrisons too small, the defense is going to beineffective, but that’s hardly the wall’s fault. So, then, theGreat Wall does appear to have done at least part of its job reasonably well.It didn’t stop majorinvasions, but it was never meant to. Q8 Why do people have different airtemperature preferences? A8 GopalaKrishnan, Former Assistant General Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom(1966–2004)Just now Question is about atmospheric temperature, I think. Iam born in Kerala in a place with is normally having temperature between 28 and32 degrees. At the age of 20, after coming to Tamilnadu, where temperature ismore at most of the year, I got adjusted to it. After about 30 years, again Iwent back to Kerala to a Trivandrum where the temperature changes were more. I lived almost 10 years there and againsettled in Chennai, Tamilnadu. Here the temperature normally is hot or veryhot. Occasionally the atmosphere become chill like yesterday with lot of rain, which I feel notcomfortable. So like other things people get accustomed to atmospherictemperature. Night we normally switch on air-conditioner and temperaturesetting about 24 degree centigrade. While in day time adjusting to highertemperature, night we require less temperature for comfort. It is a mind setting. Mild or good wind is preferred by all at all times.Within home the wife and husband may like slightly different temperature, mostly it can be from the background they were brought up till married Q9 Why do humans fear death, when manybelieve in an afterlife? A9 ClaireJordan, Degree in biology and folklore; programmer, shop owner, secretary onnewspaper22h Even if you believe in an afterlife, few people have100% confidence in it, and even if you do, it still means being separated fromyour loved ones for a long time, not completing your life’s goals etc. It’slike asking why people would fear being suddenly relocated to another planetwithout the ability to phone home. Q10 What are some mind-blowing factsin the medical field? A10 PallabRoy Chowdhury (GENERAL non Ews),Lives in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sat Have you ever felt that you feel extremely sleepy whenlying on your sofa, or mattress, or even in some other bed, but as soon as youlay down on your own bed, you can't sleep any more. Have you? Well don'tworry, it's a psychological condition that you have nurtured yourself over theyears.It is knownas “ LEARNED SLEEP BEHAVIOR “ Just rewind your clock a few years, and try toremember all those days where you have used your phone just before sleeping, orate snacks on your bed yourself, worked on your laptop or even did anythingother than sleeping on your bed. Throughout theyears, you have trained your mind to actually NOT TO FEEL TIRED in your bed.This is why you can't sleep (not insomnia). This is why it is said that, never to use phone for atleast 30 mins or to avoid any snacks after laying to bed. Edit : Don'task me for it's solution.. I'm among the few who always feels sleepy, ALWAYS. All the above QA are from Quora website on 03-08- 2022. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 04-08-2022 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1629447332.442635.1659577040929%40mail.yahoo.com.
