CULTURAL QA 12-2022-05 BEING A COMPILATIONTHERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 What is the most exposed part of thenervous system (closest to air)? A1 Ken Saladin, Former professor ofhistology (microscopic anatomy)22h The olfactory neurons of the nose come within a fewmicrometers of the air we breathe, separated from itonly by a coating of mucus. It’s presumably for this reason that they are among the body’s few neurons that have shortlives and are easily replaced. Wehave 10 to 20 million of them and they live only 60 days. They’re continually replaced bydifferentiation of basal stem cells in the mucous membrane. Here’s a scanningelectron micrograph of that surface with the mucus removed and the neuronsexposed. These unusualneurons have a radiating array of sensory cilia (“olfactory hairs”) arisingfrom a clublike, bulbous head on the dendrite. In living tissue, thecilia are much longer; they’rebroken off in the process of removing the mucus for a preparation likethis, so we’re just seeing the stumps of them. They remind me a bit of the faceof a star-nosed mole…. Q2 What is the most overrated thing? A2 Shaunak Bhattacharjeee, SoftwareEngineer | Traveller | Foodie Fri Eating ata roadside dhaba. It may look quite cool in this ageof five-star hotels and glamorous restaurants which shows a desi-touch to yourcharacter, but ifyou consider the hygiene factor, it is a strict No-No! I am on a road triptoday and I decided to have breakfast on my way. I left town early in themorning to avoid the office rush and soon found myself on the highway. Butsince it was a bit too early in the morning, restaurants by the highway were all closed and after anhour of frantically searching on both sides of the road, we decided to stop bya roadside dhaba. Eating at a dhababeside the highway is good for clicking pictures and posting them on Instagramand fetching likes, butthe moment you tear the hot kachori, you will see dust on it; dust from thenearby vehicles that are constantly passing by. Then you take that dusty pieceof kachori and dip it in some curry, you will see something has fallen in yourcurry already. Not to mention, the incoming smoke from the vehicles andheavy trucks that caused an irritation to our eyes. Wesomehow finished our food because we were super hungry,compromising with hygiene and hoping our body's immunity would take care of it.But I learnt one thing the hard way and that is, eating at any roadside dhaba is quiteoverrated; it is definitely not as cool as it seems. Q3 What do I do when RO water is notcoming out? A3 Gopala Krishnan, Former AssistantGeneral Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966–2004)Just now I am writing answerfrom Chennai, India. Myanswer is to call for a technician.If you search there are a lot of small units doing RO service in Chennai. Their charges vary from Rs.150–00 to 500–00. 99% the possibilityis external paper filter would have contaminated. Carry out quarterly servicedeploying a service unit charging medium charges and quick service. AMC ispreferable if one can spend more on the spot. My note- About 5 days back I had my overheadtank and sump got cleaned after 3 three months. I called the nearby RO officeyesterday, having only two technicians one arrived in night 7 PM after askingmy option to come in night. As I expected the outer paper filter had become dark brown.It was replaced, and the technician charged me just 300-00 including the cost offilter. He was thinking I was on AMC. I said No and paid him by cash. The TDS value was just 23. I asked him to check another RO system oldtype. It had earlierTDS value about 130 and was used for washing rice, dhals, cutvegetables. To mywonder the TDS was just 70, quite suitable for drinking. It had come down because of the tank and sump cleaning. Q4 What is the difference between RO(reverse osmosis) water and distilled water as far as quality fordrinking/human consumption is concerned? A4 Mark Snare, Busy dad and investorUpdated 3y in theory completely pure distilled water in lab conditionswould just be H20, whereas RO water willalways have trace amounts of minerals and other contaminants, ultimately makingit more suitable for human consumption as completely pureh20 would have a tendency to leech salts and other nutrients from your body. Q5 What is the news item- World’s OldestWater lіeѕ At The bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old A5 Amazing Science & Technology, Postedby Richard Strachan Nov 25 In 2016, deeр dowп withina Canadian mine researchers made an ancient discovery: the world’s oldest pool of water. At a depth ofroughly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), the water dates to an іmргeѕѕіⱱe2 billion years old. The discovery рᴜѕһedback the date for the oldest known water by at least 500 million years. The previous record was һeɩdby water found in the same mine by the same team back in 2013, and саme from adepth of around 2.5 kilometers. The mine is infact the deepest basal metal mine in the world, as the search for copper, zinc,and silver is taking the miners deeper and deeper into the eагtһ’s crust. When the miners dug deeper, the researchers took theopportunity to exрɩoгe further into the mine.They analyzed the water discovered by studying the gases trapped inside. Gases like helium and xenon can get trapped in water ѕtᴜсkin rock cracks, and measuring these can tell how old the water is. “When people think about this water theyassume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock,” ProfessorBarbara Sherwood Lollar, who presented the discovery, told BBC News. “But infact, it’s very much bubbling right up oᴜtat you. These things are flowing at rates of liters per minute –the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.” What is more, thevast age of the water is not the only important discovery. When the researchers analyzed the liquid, they found traces of lifewithin it. While they are yet to find actual living bacteria, what they did discoverwas, in effect, the fingerprint of life. From this, they are able to infer thatthere has been some form of microbiology living within the water and over avery long time period. The factthat something has been able to survive, and indeed flourish, in water that isso old and so deeр within the eагtһhas some important implications. Not only can it tell us aboutlife on eагtһbillions of years ago, but it may also help in the search for life off-world. While rivers no longer flow onthe surface of Mars, there are still pockets of water and ice under thesurface. These are nowhere near as deeр as the water discovered in Canada,and it is possible that these pockets could provide the conditions necessaryfor microorganisms to live. Q6 What is the reason that normal ironmetal items get rusty but railways tracks can't? A6 Balasubramanian Kailasam, IndianRailways enthusiast, craze to Railways. Hi, I am Rly 22h Generally, rust occurs in iron things when any materialprepared from it reacts with oxygen in the air.After this reaction, a brown layer gets deposited on that thing. It isiron oxide. It accumulates in the form of layers. As the layer increases, thescope of the rust increases. Contray to thisthere is no rust on the track. Railway tracks are made from specialtypes of steel. It is called manganese steel. This particular type of steelcontains 12 percent manganese and 0.8 percent carbon. Due to the presence ofthese metals in the track, iron oxide is not formed and thus the tracks do notrust. If railway trackswere made of iron, moisture would have remained in them due to rain. They wouldget rusted. After this, the tracks would start getting weak and there would bea need to change them frequently. Due to the weakening of the track, the risk of accidents alsoincreases. Therefore, the tracks have been made from such metal, which does notrust in it. My note- I can agree to this only partially. Byfrequent movement of trains the rust is removed it shines. Probably new tracks may be with manganese steel. There are manytracks least used and appears rusty in the railway station yards. Further, after wearand tear, the tracks become not usable and in olden days the telecom department acquired it. The telegraph, block and pulleywires, control lines, later telephone trunk wires were erected on it along sideof the railway track. They were used because they were strength and rust didnot match much to telecom department. The used rails are used also in the local telephonelines,especially in river crossing along cause way either cut to half and bottomrails and top GI tube or fully rails. I have maintained block and pulley and control lines ofthe railway as junior engineer in 1967 between Ranipet-Wallaja road and Wallaja road andArkonam. I had 2nd class railway pass and I was eligible to travelin guards wan in goods trains also for restoring the faults in their lines. Q7 What is the difference between an ionexchange and reverse osmosis system when treating hard tap/well water fordrinking purposes? A7 Benjamin Klein, Deals with waterquality issues as part of my job. Wed The primarydifference is that ion exchange leaves more solute ions in the water aftertreatment than there were originally, while reverse osmosis (RO) removes 80–95%of all soluble solids, charged or not. The purpose ofion exchange is to remove hardness ions from the water (the most common ofwhich is Ca++).Itaccomplishes this task by using a negatively charged media that attracts thepositively charged cations that are dissolved in the water. The Ca++ binds to the media anddisplaces the (typically) Na+ cations used to regenerate the media. BecauseCa++ has a double positive charge it is more strongly attracted by the media'snegative charge and one Ca++ physically displaces two Na+ ions. As a result, ifyou use a TDS meter to measure the Total Dissolved Solids before and after theion exchange process, the reading will be higher afterwards (approximatelydouble the pre-treatment value). Also, ion exchange only works on charged ions. Reverse Osmosis,on the other hand, has a membrane filter with pores that are so small that onlymolecules no larger than water (H2O) can fit through. Pressure is used to forcethe water to pass through the semipermeable membrane from an area of highersolute concentration to one with a lower concentration. Consequently, if you test the permeate with a TDS meter,it will show an 80-95% reduction in the solute burden of the water.If there is not that much of a reduction, it means that the membrane is nolonger working correctly and needs to be replaced. RO is very water and energy intensive, and takes a longtime to process water. This is why a common strategy is to use an ion exchangesystem to treat all the water in the house to protect the plumbing and fixturesfrom hard water build-up, then use RO to treat just the water used fordrinking. My note- A very informative answer Q8 When an electric rail engine runs ata speed, why does the power wire above the rail line not break throughfriction? A8 Subhasis Dutta Roy, 20 years inIndian railways (including15 yrs as Loco Pilot) Updated 1y Take a long metal ware.Suppose you have to cut the wire through friction with another metal piece. What you will do? You should rub the metal piece at a particular point ofthat metal wire. If you continuously rub at a particular point then metalwarewill cut through friction. If you rub that piece ofmetal throughout the wire it will not cut. This is a pantograph used in locomotives of Indianrailways. The upper portionof pantograph touches the overhead wire. When the train runs it continuously rubs throughout theoverhead wire, not in a particular point. So overhead wire don’t break through friction. It is obvious thereis friction between pantograph and overhead wire. Andwhere there is continuousl friction there must be erosion. So both the pantograph and overhead wirehas an erosion with time. For pantograph,there is a system adopted to minimize the effect, as pantograph is a very costly item. Ametal strip ( mostly carbon) attach at the top of the pantograph. Shown in theabove picture. The metalstrip touches the overhead metal wire. When that metal strip worn itreplaced by a new one. Thus reducing the cost. Overhead wireis continuous inspected by the overhead department. When they find somethingwrong during the inspection, that portion of overhead wire is changed. My note- A number of trains while using the wire andtouching, due to friction there is wear and tear.Sometimes we get aburning smell while pantograph touching overhead wires, probably more friction.Though periodically the overhead wire is replaced, there could be over sights causing breaking of Overheadwires and trains stopping. One reason is running more number of trains andperiodical replacement is delayed. Q9 Have pregnant women ever becomepregnant a second time within pregnancy? A9 Luise, Worked at Own Business Nov 25 The question soundsreally scary and so is the answer.Yes, it is possible. It is called superfoetation (double pregnancy) andis more common in animals, but it is extremely rare in humans. It occurs when a woman is already pregnant and still has anovulation. It is thought thatthe woman to whom this happens resents her own body's pregnancy so much thatshe continues to produce eggs that can be fertilized. The case thatjumped out at me when I was researching is interesting. An Americansurrogate mother of a Chinese couple was pregnant with the "ordered"child. A short time later, she became pregnant again by her own husband. Two children were born who were not twins and had differentethnicities. This is how the superfoetation condition was also ended. Usually this condition is discovered because one child ismuch smaller than the other. The surrogatemother has bought a house from her surrogacy wages.Maybe she was anything buthappy to do it.And one more little piece of knowledge:Basically, it is quite similar withfraternal twins. But it happens veryshortly after each other, when the first egg is still on its way into theuterus. Then it is called superfecundatio and not superfetation. Q10 Though ‘Sambar’ is popular across SouthIndia, which state is most famous for ‘Sambar’? A) Tamil Nadu b) Kerala c)Andhra Pradesh A10 Rajesh Sathya, Designer(2017–present)Updated Fri Actually Sambar is like Coca Cola for Tamilnadu.The sambar formula is kept as secret in Hotels like Ratna cafe or Rayar messfor 200 years in Chennai. Andhra is the birth place for Sambar, like Cauvery isbirthplace for Karnataka. But the Sambar river flowsinto Tamilnadu only ultimately, like Cauvery. Thanjavur peopledrink both Sambar and Cauvery water. Without Drinking Coffee, gossiping about others or TastingSambar Idlis a Thanjavur guy cannot live or go to sleep! Sambar is likeKingfisher beer for some people here. In Andhra it is Hot and in Karnataka it is sweet (Theyadd Jaggery ) but in Tamilnadu it is Hot and Sweet.Kerala Sambar is different like Andhra, but Karnataka is king of South Indiandishes. But it is Popular only in Tamilnadu, with lot of flavorsadded and lot of experiments done only in kitchens of Tamil people. It evolvedin Tamilnadu! For example,Drumstick, Brinjal combination is best, but Carrot is more ideal for Dosa andIdlis. A Sambar made with Lady ‘s Finger by Tamil Ladies Finger, will make youpull her finger while eating Sambar rice and taste those Ladies fingers directlyand Feel that Sambar will send your Mind into Raptures. So we can say itenhance your Mood too! It was not Marathas who introduced Sambar in Tamilnadu,maybe Andhra or Karnataka, but that do not change the craze for that Tamil Dish.All other recipies got a individual Places as Brand name in Tamilnadu exceptSambar. Some of few Tamilnadu Brand names are, Tirunelveli forHalwa and Dindugul for Murukku, Srivilliputur for Milk Goa, but Sambar iseverywhere! Some peoplewill make their Idlis Swimming in a Sambar lake! All the above QA are from Quora website on 04-12-2022 Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala Krishnan,former ITS, 79 years, on 05-12-2022 -- 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/979724486.868955.1670226980425%40mail.yahoo.com.
