CULTURAL QA 01-2023-30 BEING A COMPILATION THERE MAY BE ERRORS
Q1 Should you install a new airconditioner if the old one is still functioning well? A1 Gopala Krishnan, Former AssistantGeneral Manager 1996-2004 at Department of Telecom (1966–2004)Just now About 20 years backwhile split AC was getting popular, because of the safety with split AC (thieves could not enter removing window AC) inIndia, many replaced working/ only 2–3 years old window AC with split AC. At present windowAC is almost obsolete. Even split AC as age increase many dispose for technical safety when the maintenance staff intimate so. Q2 Why do agricultural societies aroundthe world plant grain as their main crop? Why not other more nutritious fruits,vegetables, and nuts? A2 Matt Riggsby, MA ArchaeologicalStudies, Boston University Fri Because they don’t want to die. And fruits/nuts/ vegetablesare not “more nutritious.” There’s a reallycritical bit of history which large numbers of modern people don’t understand:for most of our species existence, we were on the brink of starvation. Justgetting enough to hold body and soul together was a significant challenge. The first order of business wasto produce food which would provide enough energy to survive and keep going. Calories.the fuel our bodies run on, are nutrition, and in the broad sweep of historythey’re the most important nutrition. If you don’t get enough, you die quickly,and up until the last century or so, getting enough on a regular basis was atremendous struggle. Getting too many calories, with attendant issues of beingoverweight, just wasn’t on the menu, so to speak. Cereal grains, then, were, in most places, the mostreadily available domesticable crop which could produce dense calorieson relatively compact areas of land (potatoes produce more calories per acre,but those were limited to South America until the Colombian Exchange). People grew those because atypical Neolithic farmer could, fairly reliably, grow enough of them over thecourse of a growing season to support a family (modulo periodicfamines). As time went by and agricultural technology slowly improved, thosefarmers could produce a small surplus which could be sold elsewhere, leading tothe growth of towns and cities with professional craftsmen, priests,bureaucrats, rulers, and other non-farmers as opposed to villages whereeverybody was a farmer. But the ratios were still pretty punishing, withsomething like 90% of society into the Middle Ages being made up of peasantfarmers. Oh, and these farmersdid also grow fruit, nuts, and vegetables as the climate allowed, but as supplements totheir diet. If they had to live oncabbages and berries and such…well, they wouldn’t live. Over the pastcentury or two, the industrialization of agriculture has turned that age-oldequation on its head. Instead of huge numbers of farmers feeding a small numberof non-farmers, the farmers have become few and the non-farmers many. In thedeveloped world, at least, we’re also a long, long way from the famines whichplagued humanity in the past.We now have to worry about getting too many calories, not too few. But that’snot because grains aren’t nutritious. It’s because we get too much of them.And we really haven’t figured out how we can deal with this brand new problemof dangerous abundance. Q3 What do cruise ships do with unsoldcabins? A3 Dansbooks, Former Corporate Finance atVarious, Consultant Jan 22 They sometimes give great deals to people who are able tomake last minute plans…or game the system A few years ago, mywife and I decided to take a week long cruise to Alaska. The cost was listed at$1,499/person for a nice cabin. In doing my research, I saw that there werethree large cruise ships (Princess, Norwegian, and Carnival) leaving fromSeattle on the same day (September 1). That meant at least 10,000 passengerswould be needed to fill all those slots. I called all threecruise lines, plus a number of agencies that negotiated cruises, about sixmonths before the cruises left and told them that Iwanted a nice, outside cabin with a balcony and would pay no more than $500 perperson. They literally laughed at me. I left my name and number. About three monthsbefore the cruises, I started getting calls. The price was down to $1,249 perperson. They assured me this was the best price they had seen. I told them whenthey got down to $500/person, let me know. About that time, Ibooked round trip flights for my wife and I to Seattle. I didn’t have a cruise,but I was sure we would get one. A month before thecruises left, I was receiving more calls. Now I could book a cruise for the absolutely unbelievableprice of just $999 per person. Again I explained that my price was $500 perperson. About a week beforethe cruises left, I was still receiving calls. Now they were offering us spotsfor $799/person. I politely told them no, but to let me know when the price was$500/person. Two days beforethe cruise, I was offered $649/person. I thanked them. The evening beforethe cruise, I received the call I was waiting for. Wewere offered our nice cabins for $489/person. I accepted. We flewto Seattle the next morning, did some brief sightseeing, then left on ourcruise…at a third of the price many others paid. Our cruise cost less than$1,000 total, and because I had booked flights well in advance, the airfare was$158/person—a total of $1,300 for two airfare and a week long cruise to Alaskaon Princess. Q4 What are the worst urban planningmistakes in history around the world? A4 Violetta Calvino, Fri In ancient China, the city of Kaifeng was the capitalof the Northern Song dynasty, but it was located on flood-prone land and hadpoor drainage system, causing it to be repeatedly devastated byfloods, leading to thedecline of the city as a political and economic center.[1] Footnotes[1]Kaifeng:Old Kaifeng government headquarters Q5 Who are Nadars? Why are they successfulfinancially in Tamil Nadu, India? A5 Thangiah Kannan, Interested in daytoday happenings (2020–present)Jan 21 This question isadded by quora prompt generator. Ki. Aa. Pe.Viswanathan noted social activist once commented, “Nadar is the community which uplift theirfinancial as well as social status by providing higher education totheir women folk and equal status for them in their home affairs and decisionmaking “. That is the gistfor the emergence of Nadar community as the financial power horse in Tamilnadu. Major grocery retail business is covered by them havingtheir family members as workers and partners inthe initial stages and then chain of stores then super markets. That is how Saravana stores, VGPand numerous chain stores emerged. In every family of Nadars you will findpost graduate girls as wife, sister, mother and in almost every family theywill be the finance minister. And almost atleast aperson from every family has working in a foreign soil in a better position assoftware engineer, salesexecutive or businessman who always lend financial help to the other membersfrom his family to start a business. Sivakasi, one of the highest percapita income city owedit’s status purely because of the hard work of Nadars there.Offset presses, Fire cracker units are the major industries there. Every ownerknew the running of the machinary there and can attend any repair them selves. Most of the Nadars prefer businesses over jobs and forjobs they usually opt for higher end foreign jobs. In fine Nadars originated from theerstwhile travancore Samasthanam propelled themselves to thisposition through education. You can find an educational institution run bytheir sangam almost every city, semi urban and rural areas of south catering tothe needs of lakhs of students. My note- Sivakasi is the production centre of matchboxes and famous for chilli cultivationin an area distant from town at Vembakottai. I was juniour Engineer at Sivaasifrom 1972- 1974. Q6 Why in all local trains of Chennai,light goes off before Tambram station? A6 Avadhutta...B.,Customer ServiceSpecialist at Telecommunications (2008–present)Jan 22 The reason whylights go off before Tambaram station in local trains of Chennai is because Tambaram is the terminal stationfor some of the local train services in Chennai. When the train reachesTambaram station, the lights are turned off as a signal to passengers that thetrain has reached the end of the line and is about to terminate. It is also possiblethat the lights are turned off for energy conservation or safety reasons as thetrain is approaching the end of the line and entering the train yard. It's worthmentioning that this might be a practice of Chennai suburban railway and othercities may have different practice. Q7 Would an unpainted plane be moreefficient? A7 Michael Jarosz,· 2y Airlines careabout the weight of a plane. Paint is heavy, therefore anunpainted plane will weigh less than a painted plane. Most people think of paint as athin film over a substrate. How much could a thin film like that weigh? A lot,actually. Think of it thisway. Forget the thin film and think about the liquid paint while it’s still inthe can. You’ve painted your living room haven’t you? Pick up that gallon can of BenMoore. Heavy isn’t it? Now pick up the two or three cans you’relikely to need for the two-coat paint job you’ve planned. Most of that weight, minus thecans, is going up on your walls. Same thing with anairplane. Except they use paint by the barrel, not the gallon cans from HomeDepot the way you do. If an owner choosesnot to paint their planes, the aluminum will need some sort of protection. The aluminum outer skin of aplane must be protected, because aluminum exposed to the elementsdevelops a coating of aluminum oxide over time, similar to the way irondevelops rust (ferric oxide Fe2O3). Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is an interestingcompound. Ever notice how the aluminum storm windows on your house are a dullgray and rough to the touch, like fine sandpaper? That’s aluminum oxide. Infact, it is incredibly hard and is sold commercially by chemical firms as anabrasive. But a rough coating of aluminum oxide on the surface of a plane willinduce drag, an undesirable effect. So the owner is faced with a choice: protect the surfacewith paint or some other substance, or else keep the aluminum polished, amaintenance chore that has to be repeated often over the life of the aircraft. Q8 How on earth did people in the UK copebefore we had central heating? A8 Michael Anderson,Lives in London Dec26 I didn’t liveanywhere with central heating until I left home to go to university. Winterswere awful. Whoever gotup first had to clean out and light the fire, which had a back boiler that wasthe only source of hot water. My mum used to turn on the oven in thekitchen so we could dress for school in front of it. As my father was a miner we got a cheap coalallowance but many of our neighbours couldn’t afford enough for the whole weekand would burn anythingthey could lay their hands on. It was horrible and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Q9 Do you Know why IRCTC does not allowyou to choose seats? A9 Ram Kushwah, · 7mo Would you believethat the technical reason behind this is PHYSICS. Booking a seat in a train is far more different thanbooking a seat in a theater. Theater is a hall, whereas train is amoving object. So safety concern is very high in trains. Indian railways ticketbooking software is designed in… So safety concern is very high in trains. Indian railwaysticket booking software is designed in such a way that it will book tickets in a mannerthat will distribute the load evenly in a train. Let me take anexample to make things more clear : Imagine there are sleeper class coaches ina train numbered S1, S2 S3... S10, and in every coach there are 72 seats. So when some one first books a ticket, software willassign a seat in the middle coach like S5, middle seat numbered between 30-40,and preferably lower berths (Railways firstfills the lower berths than upper one so as to achieve low centre of gravity.) And the softwarebooks seats in such a way that all coaches have uniform passenger distributionand seats are filled starting from the middle seats (36) to seats near the gatesi.e 1-2 or 71-72 in order from lower berth to upper. Railways just wantto ensure a proper balance that each coach should have for equal loaddistribution. That iswhy when you book a ticket at the last, you are always allotted an upper berthand a seat numbered around 2-3 or 70, except when youare not taking a seat of someone who has cancelled his/her seat. What if therailways book tickets randomly ? A train is a moving object which moves aroundat a speed of around 100km/hr on rails. So there are a lot of forces andmechanics acting on the train. Just imagine if S1,S2, S3 are completely full and S5, S6 are completely empty and others arepartially full. Whenthe train takes a turn, some coaches face maximum centrifugal force and someminimum, and this creates a high chance of derailment of the train. This is a verytechnical aspect, and when brakes are applied there will be different brakingforces acting at each of the coaches because of the huge differences in weightof coach, so stability of train becomes an issue again. I felt that this is a good information worth sharing,as often passengers blame the Railways citing inconvenient seats/ berthsallotted to them. Footnotes[1]Do youKnow why IRCTC does not allow you to choose seats? My note- The facts told are not 100% correct arguments. As a physics person, I have the following to say, 1. Comparing to the weight of the coachthe weight of 72 passengers x60 Kg is not a high figure. If there are only 3-4 passengers in a coach did they feel any differencefrom fully filled other than little suffocation? 2. Somecoaches are allotted to reservation from certain stations. They go vacant tillthe station 3. Passengers may get down at Random. Need not be uniform. 4. There are lower berth kept in reserve for pregnantwomen etc. 5. Whereas many youngsters prefer upper berth only elders desire low berths Q10 What civilisations did the Romansconsider to be ancient? A10 Steven Haddock,Studied at YorkUniversity (Canada)Sat Egypt of course! By the time the Roman empire was at its height, Egyptian civilization hadbeen around for 3,000 years. Romans were literally awestruck by Egyptianpalaces, temples, the Sphinx and, of course, the pyramids. They also realizedthat by the time they arrived in the 1st century B.C.E. to exert theirinfluence that the pyramids were already several centuries old. In fact, Cleopatra lived closerto the opening of the first Pizza Hut than she did to the completion of theGreat Pyramid of Egypt. By the time of the30th dynasty and the Roman arrival under Julius Caesar, the ruling elite inEgypt were Greek, and they had been there hundreds of years. Caesar and Cleopatra would havebeen able to converse in Greek, although the Egyptians also had their ownlanguage, including two forms of written language All the above QA are from Quora website on 29-01- 2023. Quora answers need not be 100% correct answers . Compiled and posted by R. Gopala krishnan on 30-01-2023 -- 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/1074525708.690032.1675045805634%40mail.yahoo.com.
